Spring 2023: Rain, Clouds, Unicorns, and Rainbows
“My hunch is that joy is an ember for or precursor to wild and unpredictable and transgressive and unboundaried solidarity. And that that solidarity might incite further joy. Which might incite further solidarity. And on and onn. . . It’s why I think of joy, which gets us to love, as being a practice of survival.” - Excerpt From: Ross Gay. “Inciting Joy.”
Particles of water or ice are suspended in the air, become submerged into one another until they are too big to float, and fall to the ground as rain, snow, sleet, hail drizzle, cats and dogs, and liquid sunshine until all of life depends on the resulting fresh water. Rain is changing too and, like clouds, is in abundance or scarce.
Then there is a rainbow! Sometimes even two! Suddenly there is magic in the air as the full spectrum of light shines back down on us. Rainbows seem invisible, like to magic of unicorns, until we find them, and when we see them, they see us.
Spring 2023 at Grace Exhibition Space: We are expressing the multitude of rain and clouds and unicorns and rainbows that allow us to find the resulting joy.
PERFORMANCES
LABOR - Maira Duarte/Dance To the People
'Mold Sessions : It's in the Air' - Alex Romania ft. Stacy lynn smith and shane jones
Welcome to
your vacation
apocalypse
come get some
So like
belief
a fog
a syllable
a murmur
not quite dominating
and pleasantly apathetic
it blinks
Staying small
Not rushing at all
Knife dancing
in the static of the TV light
exploding frogs
and handstands to the moon
The dead flowers
are actually the next
TRANCE ARCHETYPE - STORM HARTLEY
“Through the chaos of consumption form is ingested and regurgitated in cycles. In times of such contradicting harmony, a synthesis occurs between rationality and irrationality. If one can see that existence is a simulation - a portal opens to access a realm of sacred emancipation. Pierce through the veil and witness an unhindered emotional nature. The potential of the human subconscious is a hypnotic projection. Through mobilizing our bones we dismantle constructions, shuddering foundations with cataclysmic surges of emotion. I perceive movement as a mechanism to seek liberation from the bondage of flesh, entranced within the art of dissolving with sacred sound and breath.“
Heart 2 Heart - Deeppond kim
“…Dissecting social structure and re-building environments which reference my own character is the underlying theme of my work. I use clay sculptures to create disembodied fragments of ourselves which delicately provoke eerie emotions, where the familiar is presented in an abstract and unfamiliar way. My mission is to transform the body in a disorienting manner and to build awareness about how we see ourselves and others, and provide a thinking space to reimagine humanity and re-evaluate our own place in the world.” - DeepPond Kim
PERFORMERS
MAIRA DUARTE
is a Mexican artist, educator, and organizer. Maira makes work through Dance to the People, an evolving collective whose mission is to generate opportunities for artistic exchange and foster projects that value process over product. DTTP holds the principles of collaboration, autonomy, horizontality, intersectional feminism, collective care, and proposing over imposing. DTTP uses dance, ritual, environmental education and costume making to investigate issues of abuse and exploitation of peoples and natural environments. By transforming discarded objects through performance and dance forms rooted in indigenous traditions, we illustrate value in materials, and draw a parallel to the value of life in the face of the extractive, invasive, and destructive hegemony of global capitalism.
ALEX ROMANIA
is a multidisciplinary artist who has held residencies with Movement Research, MacDowell, and Djerassi. He has upcoming projects premiering in spaces including Chocolate Factory Theater (CF), CPR, and the Performance Mix Festival .
In addition to creating their own original work, Romania has performed in the work of Kathy Westwater since 2013 and has been featured in the work of Antonio Ramos, Simone Forti, Éva Mag and Eddie Peake. Romania has worked in various collaborative filmmaking roles such as designer of live video for their live works as well as works by Christopher Unpezverde Nuñez, Antonio Ramos, Martita Abril, Maira Duarte, contributing editor on ‘Star No Star’ by Sarah White-Ayòn, assistant editor for ‘My So-Called Selfish Life’ by Trixie Films, and cinematographer and editor on multiple shorts by TAAMAS.
STORM HARTLEY
Introducing Storm Willow Hartley, known in the otherworld as KĀ. Shifting betwixt an extensive array of Interdisciplinary archetypes, Storm summons presence with a force that beckons to be reckoned with. Globally engaged in visionary experiments caressing the corners of Johannesburg to Berlin and New York City, Storm’s roots are embedded within cathartic underground crevices, entangled within the finer institutions, consistently rising to unite with the crown of the higher dimensions. As an avid activator in electronic music and radical gathering, adjacent with facilitating in the healing arts, a recent BFA degree under the belt ignites an undeniably enticing immersion into this next cycle of creation. The channel is open, trusting resonance even more than ever.
Notable showcases in institutions such as LaMaMa, Judson Memorial Church, Grace Exhibition Space (NYC), And Club.(ZA) Storm is the co-founder of the creative arts incubator UN/ @un.biome .
DEEPPOND KIM
Recently selected as one of the top 8 finalists in the world for the MTV RE: DEFINE Award, DeepPond’s work has an eerie disturbing quality which blurs the lines between fiction and reality, between humor and horror. Originally from South Korea, DeepPond graduated from Incheon Art High School and obtained a BFA at Sungshin Women’s University in 2014 where she studied a broad range of creative mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance. All of her work provokes a new sense of awareness and questions the authenticity and the limitations of established social structures. Her work reflects a subtle sense of anxiety, where she turns the world upside down twisting what’s familiar into a web of ironic, disturbing, and amusing emotions, inviting people into her world.