Thursday, February 4 * 7pm * RSVP/Donate
Watch: youtu.be/hdgWYnw-ciQ
A huge thank you to Jeff Hazelden for curating this program.
Blaise Nettles | blaisenettles.myportfolio.com/work
Audio Exploration of the Stages of Life (2020)
Video, 1:34 minutes
A collage of found footage that elaborates on an audio environment that accelerates through the stages of life.
Virtual Reality (2020)
Video, 1:38 minutes
A video description of a year that has felt majorly attached to a computer screen, blurring the lines of school, life, and work. Emphasis brought to the sort of chaos that has resulted for me personally during the pandemic.
Esteban Locoma | www.locoma7.com
Ancestral Sounds (2018)
Video, 3:07 minutes
Ancestral Sounds is a digital/audiovisual self-portrait.
All is one, the universe is one.
A process that begins by knowing where I come from,
about my culture and my roots.
It begins to understand the situations of the earth.
You know that you are part of this culture, as you are part of the Universe.
It is a process of expansion that goes from the micro to the macro.
Tiffanie Arias | IG @tiffanie.png
Is it beauty on Earth so Blue (2020)
Video, 1:22 minutes
Some of us are seen while the vast majority of us slip into the background, our being completely undetected by those we may even cross paths with. That is the beauty and bane of existing on this Earth.
The visuals I took most inspiration from was Susan Phillipsz Turner's Lowlands while the verbal reading I take from is poet Wo Chan's June 8, the smiley barista remembers my name. The title of the poem itself reveals the way in which such a simple interaction gives acknowledgement to one's existence. Even through his observations of self we get the understanding of our own interactions and patterns. We make up the larger communities, cities, and populations and each have our own unique routines that run parallel, even adjacent to others’. We are passively seen by those we share spaces and interactions with, maybe even actively seen as those we care most about will think of us without having to have tangible reminders. Overall, visually, I wanted to keep a uniform series of images/ video to place emphasis on the words being spoken. I wanted to highlight all the different spaces we could find ourselves in and how even still, in the busiest bustling cities, night or day, we can still feel unseen.
2bFReE (2020)
Video, 1:35 minutes
Inspired by Hannah Black's "My Bodies" (2014), this project was an experimentation with found videos and ones from my personal library. I wanted to emulate the different elements she had in that particular piece by overlaying and juxtaposing different visual and audio clips. I wanted to underscore and convey the most notable parts of our society. Capitalism and political disparity, amongst other points of severance like race, etc. hinder our feeling of freedom or mobility. We are stuck in this ruthless cycle of having to work to support ourselves, and by extension for some, fight to sustain their livelihood. Money and greed are the biggest corruptors and enforcers of the conditions of Capitalism. We are more motivated by the promise of material wealth and financial prosperity than anything else. Ultimately, so much precious time, energy, and efforts can be wasted in our vain attempts to attain it. And though we can acknowledge and abhor such, we are never fully free from these desires.
Kevin Patterson | ppl—prsn.com | IG @ppl.prsn
Flowers of Evil (2020)
Video, 1:22 minutes
How I would like you, night!
Whose light speaks a language I know
But the darkness is itself a canvas
Upon which live, beings with understanding looks
Who have vanished!
Filming for this project was done in late February, prior to COVID's tirade in the United States. I intended for a close friend and collaborator to assist me in the storyboarding and production, but as with all of us, life was running its course and in his particular situation the course was a bumpy one. I strongly dislike being pestered, especially while deep in the throes of life, so why enact that nuisance upon him? Nonetheless, I completed the project sans collaboration, and it was something I could be proud of. Upon completion the only critique I cared for was that of my close friend, yet life had not finished its business with him. I never got to share this project with him.
Sierra Koker | www.altakoer.com | IG @altakoer
Sights (2020)
Video, 1:57 minutes
Police brutality has a devastating effect on people’s lives, only bringing destruction, sorrow, and disappointment. This can be heard in the ally’s shout for change, a partner’s wail for mercy, and a mother’s cry for justice. The tranquil sights of DC are consumed by the fire of unrest. Where does the responsibility fall? The Capital can be taken under siege with open arms, yet summer 2020 showed exactly what police were capable of. A problem no one individual can solve on their own, but the answer is simple: unite. Listen, learn, live with compassion and understanding. Everyone is going down the same road called life, give people the freedom to live it without fear.
Desmond Jervis | www.desmondjervis.com
malaise_forever_iii (2020)
Video, 10:06 minutes
My preoccupation with history, and the factors that drive historicizing, inspire my proclivity for art. History is the vehicle I use to understand the nature of being. My work asks questions regarding hallmarks of human society such as violence, tyranny, race relations and material culture. Using video and ceramics allows me to discuss the converging, narrowing concept between time and space. As the information age weaves singularity with speed and standardized concepts, I create scenarios that examine our relation to our information structures, as well as one’s own art practice.
Video allows me to manipulate light in spaces and animate images that discuss identity and power. My sculptures deal with the precariousness between objects and their relation to our semiotic pathways. By using the two, my work presents a hybrid of not yet antiquated mediums that attempt to disrupt permeable spaces, rather than creating definite ideas around truth and vanity.
Studying and tackling the banal, intermediary objects that separate, or join, viewer and subject interest me. The perceived intimacy of television screens and canonized concerns of studio ceramics motivate my art and critical perspective.
By disrupting semiotic pathways associated with perception and memory, I treat them as quotations of potential, or in fact, existing artifacts not yet determined for posterity, that can be translated, decoded and reinterpreted.