Nr.59 Leitu Bonnici | Indigenous Autonomy in Type Design | 16 July 19:30

While letterspace celebrates type and its creative possibilities, we also strive to engage critically with its histories and present-day implications. Typography reflects and reinforces cultural narratives, power structures, and systems of dominance. That’s why we’re especially excited to welcome Leitu Bonnici, who will be giving a lecture that interrogates the pervasive dominance of the Latin alphabet and the Western ideologies embedded within it.Leitu’s talk will offer a powerful critique of typographic hegemony while also presenting her own work, which challenges these structures through experimental, decolonial approaches to type design. She will also give us a glimpse into the legacy of her grand uncle, Joseph Churchward, a prolific Sāmoan type designer whose influence was pivotal in her own journey into the world of typography.

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Leitu Bonnici is a graphic designer, filmmaker and artist of Sāmoan (Faleasi’u), Italian, Maltese, Irish, English and Swedish ancestry (among others). She has lived and worked across Bunurong Boonwurrung, Wurundjeri Woiwurrung, Guringai, Dhurag and Kaurna Countries (across so-called Australia), and is currently based between Naarm and the Netherlands. She runs Le Phem Era, an interdisciplinary and anti-disciplinary practice that critically examines ephemera through experimental forms of archiving and publishing.—‘Indigenous Autonomy and Latin Characters’ is a body of research in progress that advocates for Indigenous self-determination in dominant systems of written communication. Conventional typographic histories acknowledge European Enlightenment origins with deference, without acknowledging its inseparable ties to imperialism and the ongoing repercussions for the global majority. The reverence for the written word and the subconscious effects of typography contribute to cultural erasure and subordination, especially for the many Indigenous languages that have had Latin characters imposed through colonisation. This project comprises critical writing alongside the creation of typefaces and artworks, including the analysis and revival of designs by Joseph Churchward and a collaboration with artist Peter Lemalu. Examining the cultural, social and political conditions of type design, alternative approaches that centre Indigenous autonomy are speculated through a Sāmoan diasporic lens.

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Hosted at:De Lange AdemRuyschstraat 295,1091 DX Amsterdam

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Supported by:

Bold Monday & PICTORIGHT Fonds

Also check out other Arts events in Amsterdam.