FROM THE BELLY OF THE BEAST:
a night of performance art on Intersectionality, Feminisms and Indigeneity from across turtle island.
Co-Curated by Maria Hupfield and Katya Grokhovsky
Charlene Vickers
Damali Abrams
Emilie Monnet and Danya Danger
Emily Oliverira
Natalie Ball
unfortunatly Ayana Evans will not be able to perform this evening
FROM THE BELLY OF THE BEAST
Co-Curated by Maria Hupfield and Ktya Grokhovsky
From The Belly of The Beast is a night of performance art on Intersectionality, Feminisms and Indigeneity from across turtle island.
This long over-due evening of unruly rumblings, vicious hunger pains, un-mothering and eventual birthing of the revolution, is a shout-out to the performance artist as anti-hero. Working from the zone of danger with a "no going back" mentality these artists aim to disrupt the status-quo and cross the threshold using sound, mixed media performances and installations, vocalization and live action. The evening promises to be a lively exchange that speaks out from the depths of humanity's underbelly at the center of the American empire. Maria Hupfield and Katya Grokhovsky, Co-curators.
This event is being cross promoted by The Feminist Art Project NY at The College Art Association (TFAP@CAA) and Crossroads: Art + Native Feminisms, a day of Indigenous Feminisms.
Feminist Art Project, RutgersNATALIE BALL [OREGON/NEW HAVEN, CT, USA]
Waqlisi, gao’sassas Natalie Ball. I am an indigenous artist who examines internal and external discourses that shape Indian identity through contemporary art. I pursued my Bachelor’s degree with a double major in Art & Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon. I continued my studies to explore indigenous visual arts at Massey University in New Zealand. I now have three children, and I returned home to live and work on my ancestral homelands of the Klamath and Modoc Tribes. Presently I relocated to Connecticut to attend Yale School of Art to pursue my M.F.A. degree.
“Natalie Ball: War Hoop Mob” A War Hoop calls out not from nothing and not silence, but it has meaning and intent. It is heard and fades again. It is responsive. The call exists in memory. Black intellectual and poet Fred Moten writes, “The history of blackness is testament to the fact that objects can and do resist”, resistance is woven into our existence. Black and Indian, are never wholly civil and acceptable because our existence is resistance. The War Hoop Flash Mob is a celebration of resistance, of art and life that calls out and claims the space to exist, to breathe and make sound. This performance includes a tribute to the artist's ancestor Fannie Mae the the sister of Captain Jack, a woman who carries a story of resistance and survival in response to war and colonial violence.
Please click the link for past War Hoop Flash Mob images and videosCHARLENE VICKERS [VANCOUVER, CANADA]
Charlene Vickers is an Anishnabe interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, B.C. Her work explores memory, healing and embodied connections to ancestral lands. A graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design and Critical Studies/MFA at Simon Fraser University. Her work has been exhibited across Canada and the USA, and is currently in the group exhibition If We Never Met at the PÄtaka Art + Museum in Porirua, NZ. You can also view her work in the Vancouver Special Ambivalent Pleasures (curated by Daina Augaitis and Jesse McKee) at the Vancouver Art Gallery and in the permanent collection at MOA at the University of British Columbia. Upcoming performances include a collaborative performance with Maria Hupfield at Western Front in March 2017, and a solo exhibition of paintings at Ace Art in Winnipeg and a group show at MOCnA in Santa Fe, Connective Tissue: New Approaches to Fiber in Contemporary Native American Art with accompanying performance work.
"Occupy Anishinabe Park 1974" is a performance/video/noise amplification work referencing an armed occupation of Anicinabe Park in the artist's birthplace of Kenora Ontario. In the summer of 1974 a group of Ojibway men and women calling themselves the Ojibway Warriors Society took over Anicinabe Park to protest poor housing conditions, mercury poisoning of watersheds and the federal governments illegal selling of their tribal territories to the city if Kenora. The occupation gained international attention with members of the American Indian Movement joining their cause. In 2012 Vickers made a large sign on faux birch bark panel with red block font that read as OCCUPY ANISHINABE PARK 1974, performing the object in various recognizable urban parks throughout Vancouver. By instigating her own personal occupation as a solitary figure Vickers' body and presence amplifies this event, making the work a nexus of self-awareness in understanding how her Anishinabe identity and connection to territorial lands and history of her community has been shaped and informed. Vickers has performed this work in Vancouver (2012) and Saskatoon, Canada.(2016)"
photo credit Zenja Ivkovic
Charlene Vickers videoDAMALI ABRAMS [BROOKLYN, NYC]
Damali Abrams the Glitter Priestess constructs spaces and experiences of fantasy and myth, using video installation and performance, that explore Black Utopia through the lenses of Afrofuturism and Afro-Caribbean syncretic religions. She examines folklore and contemporary popular culture, placing them in dialogue with one another to create a site of liberation for the Black imagination, rejecting tragedy as the sole, dominant narrative of the Black experience. Based in New York City, Abrams holds an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, as well as a BA from New York University. Her work has been exhibited at The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA), A.I.R. Gallery, JCAL, Rush Arts Gallery, The Point, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, BRIC Rotunda Gallery, and the 2013 bienal at El Museo del Barrio. She has been an artist-in-residence at Fresh Milk (Barbados), Groundation Grenada, JCAL, The Center for Book Arts, and LMCC on Governors Island, and was also a participant in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program.
Damali Abrams websiteODAYA [QUEBEC PROVINCE + MORE]
ODAYA is a political Indigenous women's music collective formed in 2007. Revitalizing traditional hand drumming as cultural resistance for contemporary living its members are recognized by their communities for solidarity work focusing on Indigenous feminisms and urban community-building initiatives. Active on the arts scene and at street demonstrations, ODAYA consists of four women of diverse Indigenous heritage: Émilie Monnet (Anishinabe, French Canadian), Dayna Danger (Métis, Ojibway, Polish Canadian), Nahka Bertrand (Dene, Québecoise), and Anik Sioui (Wendat, Anishinabe, and Franco-Canadienne). They perform a kick ass cover of Revolutionary Spy from Noh Mercy, a 70's punk rock feminist band from California.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpkBd-scJzo
ODAYA Interview link
EMILY OLIVEIRA [BROOKLYN, NYC]
Emily Oliveira is a Brooklyn-based performance artist, sculptor, textile artist, and costume designer. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and studied performance at Brown University. Her performance works include a transcription-based adaptation of ABC's 'The Bachelor' [Everything Happens for a Reason (Panoply Performance Lab and Judson Memorial Church)], a live re-enactment of an episode of the radio show Delilah [DELILAH (What Is Love? Baby Don't Hurt Me) (Hot! Festival of Queer Theater at Dixon Place)], a disco meditation on the wedding and funeral of Princess Diana [Kings and Queens of Love (Ars Nova)], and Do You Ever Long for True Love From Me, a musical seance to summon the soul of Buddy Holly into the Judson Memorial Church so that he could be her boyfriend. Her work uses transcribed and original text, original and popular music, dance, and full-body costumes to subvert the despotism of white femininity and examine narratives about love, sex, gender, and race in American popular culture. Her costumes have been shown at The Judson Memorial Church, Invisible Dog, CATCH, The Center for Performance Research, and Theatre for the New City. She is a teaching artist at the Children's Museum of the Arts and a freelance design assistant at Todd Oldham studios. She is a 2017 Ars Nova Makers Lab resident artist.
ABOUT GRACE EXHIBITION SPACE
Grace Exhibition Space opened in 2006 and is devoted exclusively to Performance Art. We offer an opportunity to experience visceral and challenging performance works by the current generation of international performance artists, whether emerging, mid career or established. Being a Brooklyn loft, our events are presented on the floor, not on a stage, dissolving the boundary between artist and viewer. Grace Exhibition Space is run by Jill & Erik, Jamie is our bartender and Valerie will be at the the door (until Leah returns)
"I have found Grace Space to be a breath of fresh air, and a new way to see and experience feelings you may have not faced in a long time. It’s a place to let yourself be exposed, amused, delighted, and terrified all at the same time, and I can say I haven’t experienced this combination of emotions at any gallery or theater I have ever stepped into, and that’s a wonderful thing. The space provides a refreshing perspective on an art scene that has been somewhat shackled and restrained for quite a bit of time now. Grace Exhibition Space is a brave pioneer as it puts Bushwick, as well as New York City, on the forefront of exploration and exposure into the minds and bodies of artists who are truly gifted, fearless, and unique."
- Terri Ciccone. Bushwick Daily January, 2013
"On each night, and in each performance, the human body is redeemed from the mundane and made anew."
- David Lagaccia, Williamsburg Greenpoint News+Art (June, 2012)
Please also support PANOPLY PERFORMANCE LAB [Brooklyn] GLASSHOUSE GALLERY [Brooklyn], MOBIUS [Boston] DFBRL8R GALLERY [Chicago] and EAMES ARMSTRONG [Washington, DC] - when you want to see more Performance Art!
ABOUT GRACE EXHIBITION SPACE
182 AVENUE C NEW YORK, NY 10009
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GRACE:
Grace, n. - simple elegance or refinement of movement
Grace Period - an extended period granted as a special favor
The Three Graces (Greek Mythology) - charm, grace, and beauty
Opened in 2006, Grace Exhibition Space is devoted exclusively to Performance Art. We offer an opportunity to experience visceral and challenging works by the current generation of international performance artists whether emerging, mid-career or established. Our events are presented on the floor, not on a stage, dissolving the boundary between artist and viewer. This is how performance art is meant to be experienced and our mission is the glorification of performance art.
Grace Exhibition Space presents over 30 curated live performance art exhibitions each year, showcasing new work by more than 400 performance artists from across the United States and the world since 2006.
Grace Exhibition Space for International Performance Art Space IRS tax-exempt 501(c)3 status in 2015.
Grace Exhibition Space follows the We Have a Voice Collectives Code of Conduct to Promote Safe(r) Workplaces in the Performing Arts For more information and resources, visit: www.wehavevoice.org