The White House, and Other Counter-Narratives from the Lockdown
Abstract:
Identity,
as
described
by
the
postcolonial
writer
Édouard
Glissant,
is
positioned
fundamentally
in
relation
to
change
and
contact
with
others.
Contemporary
emplacement
thus
consists
of
movement,
whether
through
migration,
travel,
or
transcultural
exchange.
The
loss
that
these
forms
of
movement
necessarily
demand
begs
the
question
of
what
(if
anything)—in
the
most
ancestral
depths
of
our
being—still
remains.
The
White
House
is
my
father’s
colonial-hybrid
ancestral
house
(bahay
na
bato)
in
Baliuag,
Philippines.
It
serves
as
a
counterpoint
to
national
official
history,
and
becomes
the
subject
of
multiple
forms
of
exchange.
By
being
disseminated
in
the
representational
forms
of
drawing,
writing,
and
digital
space,
the
architecture
and
the
histories
it
embodies
take
on
new
lives
across
time
and
geographic
location,
inviting
readers
to
locate
the
aspects
of
cultural
identity
that
might
be
resistant
to
hypercultural
de-siting
and
boundlessness.
The
White
House
tells
a
story,
imbricated
within
stories,
seen
through
the
lenses
of
domestic
space,
public
graffiti,
and
fine
art.
In
tandem,
the
topology
of
a
palimpsest
offers
a
framework
for
thinking
about
history.
The
interactions
between
the
layers
of
a
palimpsest
inspire
a
drawing
series
of
the
White
House,
extending
the
tradition
of
architectural
drawing,
and
culminating
with
a
large-scale
canvas
panel
mounted
and
installed
for
public
view
in
Toronto.
Just
as
Glissant
left
terms
such
as
creolization,
archipelago,
trembling,
and
tout-monde
as
terms
to
inherit,
without
presenting
them
“as
a
bible
for
faithful
or
unfaithful
disciplines”,
this
thesis
presents
drawings,
writings,
and
their
avenues
of
dissemination
not
as
answers
to
the
question
of
contemporary
identity,
but
as
methods
of
contemplation
towards
the
past
and
the
future.
The examining committee is as follows:
Co-supervisor:
Philip
Beesley
Co-supervisor:
Anne
Bordeleau
Committee
member:
Eric
Haldenby
Internal-external
reader:
Robert
Jan
van
Pelt
External:
Yanyun
Chen
Defence
date:
Monday,
May
2,
2022
Defence
time:
3PM
EST
In-person:
Arch
2026
Remote:
Contact the
grad
office for
the
Teams
link
The
committee
has
been
approved
as
authorized
by
the
Graduate
Studies
Committee.
A
copy
of
the
thesis
is
available
for
perusal
in
ARC
2106A.