Myth Marks is series of animations by Pansee Atta, which considers the ways that the ethnographic display of Muslims and Islam in Canadian cultural institutions contributes to ongoing projects of colonization. By thinking through ethnography from an affective, bodily perspective, these works critique the Orientalizing gaze of the cultural institution, suggesting instead a way of thining through representation that prioritizes racialized, gendered voices. By using text as well as still and animated images, these works reveal the ways that art and politics work together to create fearful myths under the seductive guise of ornate decoration.

Pansee Atta is an emerging Ottawa-based Egyptian-Canadian artist, whose practice is often collaborative and community-driven. Her work considers themes of colonization, feminism, and Islam, as well as the role of the cultural institution in legacies of epistemic violence. She is a recent graduate of the MA program in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University, in which her project investigated the decolonization of museums.