Founded in New York City in 1989, REPOhistory was a multi-ethnic group of writers, visual and performance artists, filmmakers, and historians. The organization's name means "repossessing history" and was modeled after the movie title Repo Man. REPOhistory's goal was to "relocate, retrieve, and document missing or absent historical narratives from specific sites in New York City."[1] In order to accomplish this goal, the group created public installations, performances, educational activities, printed matter and other visual media, though REPOhistory is best known for erecting temporary historical markers on city streets that focused on issues of slavery, colonialism, race, gender, and class.[2] Through this process of inserting into public spaces the absent stories of omitted people and events, the group sought to question the manner in which history is constructed and represented. REPOhistory brought together artists and scholars for six major public projects and several other smaller events.[3] The group believed that the arts were essential to shaping a collective cultural identity and their work instigated a questioning of the cultural practices of the 1980s and the early 1990s.[4][5]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Guide to the REPOhistory Archive MSS.113: Box: 5, Folder: 18".
  2. ↑ "Revisiting a 1992 Sign Project that Acknowledged NYC's Lost Histories". Hyperallergic. 2015-09-05. Retrieved 2019-01-15.
  3. ↑ "REPOhistory projects page". Retrieved 2019-01-15.
  4. ↑ The Fales Library Guide to the REPOhistory Archive
  5. ↑ Constanzo, Jim. "REPOhistory's Circulation: The Migration of Public Art to the Internet" Art Journal, Vol. 59, No. 4, pp. 32-37.


Member Gregory Sholette Member Tom Klem

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