Flux Factory hosts Flux Saturdays, a monthly public program, on the last Saturday each month through October. August Flux Saturday’s program features the exhibition opening of Julio José Austria, open studios with Amelia Marzec and Itala Aguilera, and outdoor performances by Jemila MacEwan, Jack Helfrich, Erica Mancini, Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir, Jevijoe Vitug, and Maureen Catbagan.

Schedule:

12-6 pm Julio José Austria “Woodside Story” exhibition opening

12-5 pm Open studios “All That is Seen is Unseen” by Amelia Marzec

12-5 pm   “Mama’s Augmented Reality” installation open studios with Itala Aguilera

2-3 pm “Metamorphic Meditation” performance by Jemila MacEwan, Erica Mancini, Jack Helfrich

3-4 pm Performance by Reverend Billy of the Stop Shopping Choir

4-5 pm Abang-guard: Life Drawing, Working Class

Project Descriptions:

Julio José Austria’s “Woodside Story” is a storytelling visual project that celebrates the love and relationships of Filipino immigrant couples in their changing neighborhood in Woodside, Queens. Comprised of paintings, sound installation, and videos. Woodside Story is a multi-disciplinary project that focuses on the lives of Filipino immigrant couples in Woodside. Woodside Story is inspired by West Side Story, an American musical romantic drama that talks about love and the determination to strive above racial prejudice and discrimination. Austria’s work is about the story of immigrants who found love in Woodside, Queens. Love speaks of romantic relationships and also love as a passionate endeavor for cultural heritage and community in the big city. Designed to support exhibition opportunities for art workers, this project is part of a curatorial initiative by La Guardia Agency and has been made possible through the New Work Grant from the Queens Council of the Arts.

“Metamorphic Meditation” builds mythological language into our planet’s rich geological history, guiding participants into a multi-sensorial soundscape experience as geologically-transformable bodies. ‘Ecomorphic Meditations’ are an ongoing series of performances created by a network of collaborators directed by artist Jemila MacEwan. These meditations facilitate a process of ‘species ego-death’ to release participants from the habits of monospecies thinking extending their experiences of self into that of mollusk, mushroom, mineral, and beyond. 

Open Studios: “All That Is Seen And Unseen” by Amelia Marzec examines the relationship of queerness and Catholicism within the social structures of the Polish American diaspora. It considers the history of migrations and occupations in Eastern Europe, family stories that have gone untold, and transgressions embedded in pre-Christian cultural practices. The project uses computer generated imagery based on traditional paper cutting techniques for projections, and includes roadside shrines which contain a functional communication system, allowing people who are excluded to communicate through the symbolic objects. 

In collaboration with itinerant research institute, The Institute for Diasporic Yearning and Longing (IDYL), Mama’s Augmented Reality is a series of installations created by three artists reflecting on their mother’s kitchens. Works will be installed in the first floor kitchen of Flux Factory’s house on Governors Island from August-October. Curated by Eleni Zaharopoulos with participating artists Itala Aguilera, Abby Cheney, and Li-Ming Hu.

The unstoppable theatricality of Reverend Billy & the Stop Shopping Choir of singing-activists bring audiences of all ages and backgrounds together. A church service with a roof-shaking cry meets a call to action in an ever-evolving survey of personal awareness and responsibility, rededicating ourselves to the politicizing of survival, pitting our freedom against the financiers of climate change. 

Abang-guard duo Maureen Catbagan and Jevijoe Vitug invite Governors Island visitors to drop-in for a life drawing class with museum guards as models. Participants will have an opportunity to develop their drawing and observation skills through examining Abang-guard’s form and uniform, highlighting the visibility of essential workers. Other workers are welcome to drop by to sit and model. All drawings will be shown at the Flux Factory gallery space and all skill levels are appreciated. Blankets and drawing materials will be provided and the event is free and open to the public.  

Artist Bios:

Julio José Austria is a Filipino-American visual artist who lives and works in New York City. His works mainly focused on migration and urbanization which provides a visual portrayal of his profound life experiences and narratives based on his observations and absorption of the environment he is in. His practice includes painting, mixed media, video, and installation. For Governors Island, Austria conducted interviews of Filipino couples to capture a sense of intimacy and focus on the storytelling part.

Amelia Marzec is a Brooklyn-based artist focused on rebuilding and engaging with local communications infrastructure to prepare for an uncertain future. Her work has been exhibited at SIGGRAPH, MIT, ISEA (Canada), University of the Arts Helsinki (Finland), ONCE Foundation Contemporary Art Biennial (Spain), NODE Forum for Digital Arts Biennial (Germany), and is part of the Rhizome ArtBase. She has been a resident at Eyebeam, Ox-Bow, and Harvestworks, a fellow at NYSCA/NYFA, A.I.R. Gallery, and Columbia University, a visiting artist at CalArts, a grantee of the Research Foundation of CUNY, and a nominee for the World Technology Awards for Art.

Jack, Jemila, and Erica have existed in human form for some time, playing in the realms of visual art, music, and multi-media experimentation. Prior to becoming the mortal human bodies they now inhabit the artists existed as mineral particles disperced through geological and atmospheric bodies across the cosmos. 

Reverend Billy and The Stop Shopping Choir have performed all over the world, on stages and in the streets. Their work lies at the unique intersection between art, activism and spirit. They are committed environmental activists and have campaigned for 20 years against militarism, pesticides, extractive industry and the overwhelming threat of consumerism to the life systems of Earth. In 2016 they opened for Neil Young on his Rebel Content tour and recently attended the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow. Their highly original content is prescient and moving, addressing the complexities we all carry with us during this time of climate crisis.

Jevijoe Vitug and Maureen Catbagan met as museum guards and have been collaborating since 2017. As Abang-guard, they explore the intersections of immigration, labor, and visibility. Reflecting on the artistic strategies of the avant-garde, they infuse personal history and art practice to convey with theoretical humor the complexity and nuances between cultural production, institutional structures, and the role of labor. Performance venues include ARoS Museum in Denmark, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Abrons Art Center Amphitheater, PS 122 Gallery, Socrates Park, and Flux Factory. 

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