Since its inception in 2001, the acclaimed VCS Forum has featured thought leaders from a wide range of creative and scholarly fields. Open to the entire CCA community, these public-facing talks aim to foster dialogues across disciplines on contemporary issues in the visual arena.

This spring, each Forum speaker comes from our own CCA community. Each brings a unique perspective on visual and critical methodologies grounded in their respective discipline(s). Collectively they speak to how visual culture operates as both a tool of critique and transformation. Their work embodies a hybridized, inclusive, and engaged approach to examining the visual and cultural systems that define—and can redefine—how we see ourselves and the world.

This semester’s particular focus is on methods that:

1. Unpack dominant narratives of race, gender, and power.

2. Explore the intersections of representation with personal and collective memory.

3. Reimagine the role of visual culture in building a more inclusive future.

About the Speaker:

Astria Suparak is an artist and curator based in Oakland, California. Her cross-disciplinary projects address complex and urgent issues (like institutionalized racism, feminisms, and colonialism) made accessible through a popular culture lens, such as science fiction movies, rock music, and sports. Straddling creative and scholarly work, the projects often take the form of publicly available tools and databases, chronicling subcultures and omitted perspectives.

Suparak’s art projects have been exhibited and performed at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and ArtScience Museum, Singapore. She has curated exhibitions, screenings, and performances for the Liverpool Biennial; Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City; The Kitchen, New York; and Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; as well as for unconventional spaces, such as roller-skating rinks, sports bars, and rock clubs. Suparak is the winner of the 2022 San Francisco Artadia Award.