THE SNAKE & THE ARCHIVE, 2022

The Snake & The Archive is a collaborative research and installation project by Stephanie Misa and queer feminist, zine-producing duo Multiple Spirits. Following Stuart Hall’s writing, The Snake & The Archive encounters archives as a ‘living’ institution that is by definition incomplete and open to the future and connects fragmented archival histories and memories– dealing with gaps and absences– and exploring their potential to allow for creative becomings. As the snake that molts and sheds its skin, archival material here has been returned to a cycle of creation, reborn, to evoke different subjectivities, knowledge, agencies, and imaginaries and to propose visions of the past, the present, and the future.

The Snake & The Archive was shown at the Koda/ RU House on Governor’s Island, New York in August 2022 as part of Misa’s engagement with Residency Unlimited and the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York , a parallel show in Helsinki at the Pengerkatu 7 – Työhuone exhibited in September 2022.