Containers of Diasporic Memory

Abstract This article examines interventions by Asian Canadian artists Derya Akay, Cindy Mochizuki, and Alize Zorlutana in the exhibitions Fugitive Rituals (2021) and Artwork Becomes Dinner Party (2023) at Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. These exhibitions undermined the colonial underpinnings of the university museum and nourished community and collectivity but also revealed deep disparities in the institution. They underscored how democratic outcomes are rarely untroubled by buried museal histories. Structural change currently underway at the museum presents a critical opportunity to imagine new possibilities. Diasporic collections like the Migratory Collection, which point to the museum’s colonial legacies, require the care and knowledge of diasporic artists to make their place at the museum meaningful. There is also an urgent need for Queen’s University to recognize the colonial legacy of Agnes’s Migratory Collection and to fund appropriate museum experts, in permanent positions, to undertake the decolonial work necessary to facilitate lasting change.