Flux Factory

October Flux Saturday & Halloween Sunday on Governors Island
2021-10-30 11:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Governors Island, Colonels Row House 404A
Join Flux for our last hurrah weekend on Governors Island. This truck only drives one speed…full speed! Below is our schedule of events for the weekend.
Flux Saturday, October 30

“Day Job” exhibition opening
2-3pm, “Sympoietica: A Grounding and Automatic Drawing Experience“, performance by Maureen Catbagan and soundscape

Halloween Sunday, October 31
11-5pm, “Jevi From 9 to 11” preview screening, film by Carlos David TC
10-6pm, Flying Solar Balloons with Anika Todd
“Day Job”, Worst Case Scenario Costume Karaoke

To find general information about all our activities on Governors Island, visit the Welcome to Flux Island webpage.

Day Job Pop-up Group Exhibition
2021-10-30 13:00 - 17:00 | Governors Island, Colonels Row House 404A
A group exhibition on Governors Island featuring day job related pieces by 17 artists who daylight as teachers, security guards, construction and retail workers, market researchers and more.
Open to the public Saturday and Sunday October 30 and 31 11-5pm
on Governors Island, Nolan Park, house #404A

Special “Day Job”, Worst Case Scenario Costume Karaoke closing party on Sunday October 30 from 1pm-5pm

How many of us entered (or even left) art school with the dream of making a living from one’s art? Maybe one would be ‘discovered’ and get a dealer, or a curator who liked you and would put you into shows with stipends, maybe you would work for a while, apply for the odd grant, and build one’s reputation until one could quit the job. Maybe you’re happy to never quit the day job and keep making whatever you want, apart from any market or art world expectations. Maybe you’ve figured it all out, in which case, congratulations!
Featuring work ranging from painting, photography, video, sculpture and performance from artist who daylight as teachers, security guards, construction and retail workers, market researchers and more. Join us at 1pm on Sunday afternoon for “Day Job”, Worst Case Scenario Costume Karaoke!
Featuring work by: Angeliki Chaido Tsoli, Catie Rutledge, Cayla Lockwood, Chris Corrente, Cody Umans, Daniel Vasquez, Daphne Simons, Genie Hong, Isabella Dampney, Jevijoe Vitug, Joseph Wilcox, Li-Ming Hu, Maureen Catbagan, Sarah Dahlinger, Theo MacDonald, Trasonia Abbott, Zachary Sun

Sympoietica: A Grounding and Automatic Drawing Experience
2021-10-30 14:00 - 15:00 | Governors Island, Colonels Row House 404A
Sympoietica, by Maureen Catbagan and Sholeh Asgary, is a participatory performance that creates a space of solace, recuperation, and creative expression through our relationship to the earth and its multi-species inhabitants. The audience is invited to participate in a guided soundscape, movement, and reflection exercise that connects Governors Island biodiversity and history while expressing their associations through automatic drawing. The performance combines the connective practice of earthing, the Surrealist technique of automatic drawing, and feminist theorist Donna Haraway’s concept of sympoiesis or “making- with.” The January 2012 Journal of Environmental Public Health states “reconnection with the Earth’s electrons has been found to promote intriguing physiological changes and subjective reports of well-being. Earthing (or grounding) refers to the discovery of benefits—including better sleep and reduced pain—from walking barefoot outside or sitting…transferring the Earth’s electrons from the ground into the body. Sympoiesis or “making-with” is the concept that things do not create themselves but develop through dynamic interrelations. Through sound, movement, and reflection, the performance generates a collaboration between bodies, place, and other living things that center systems of care, embodied knowledge, and collective well-being.

Sympoietica is made possible by the New York Foundation for the Arts’ #CityArtistCorps Grants. Special thanks to @nyfacurrent, @NYCulture, @madein_ny, and @queenstheatre.

Maureen Catbagan is a Filipinx American, multi-media artist based in New York whose work engages social collectivity, examines relations between identity and experience, and explores new forms of empowerment. Collaborative projects include Object II Body (with artist IV Castellanos), Abang-guard Duo (with artist Jevijoe Vitug), Flux Factory, and HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN?. They have also written critical essays with Dr. Amber Jamilla Musser. Catbagan has exhibited in venues such as ARoS Museum in Denmark, Witte de Withe Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and The Contemporary Museum of Honolulu.

Sholeh Asgary is an Iranian-born interdisciplinary sound artist who creates immersive works, performances and audience participatory scores with interest in liminal spaces experienced by the viewer-participant. Asgary’s current and recent residencies as of 2020 include Real Time & Space, Headlands Center for the Arts, Mass MoCA, ARoS Art Museum, Wassaic Project, and Arab.AMP. Her work has been exhibited and screened at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Minnesota Street Project, Gray Area Center for the Arts, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Charlotte Street Foundation, Soundwave Biennial, Wassaic Project, and Krowswork, amongst others. She has also performed as a solo artist, collaborated, or created compositions for many of these institutions, including CounterPulse, Center for Cultural Studies at University of Santa Cruz, Kulturmødet Mors, Mødet Mors, Aggregate Space Gallery, and SOMArts. Asgary is a 2020/21 California Arts Council grantee for her workshop series “Majles” created in partnership with with Arab.AMP, a 2019 Kenneth Rainin Foundation New Project Grant recipient through Dance Elixir, and recipient of a 2014 Alternative Exposure Grant for curatorial initiatives as Curator and Director of Education and Public Programs at Incline Gallery, where she founded The Project Room. Asgary received her MFA from Mills College and BA from San Francisco State University, and is a Lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Department of Art Practice.

https://www.instagram.com/moofro/

https://www.instagram.com/sholehasgary/

Jevi From 9 to 11 Preview Screening
2021-10-31 12:00 - 17:00 | Governors Island, Colonels Row House 404A
A fictionalized short documentary about an artist who works at a museum during the pandemic. Starring Flux Factory artist Jevijoe Vitug and featuring music by Ben Seretan. The short was directed by Carlos David TC in 2021 and its production was made possible (in part) by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Carlos David TC is a Venezuelan born artist based in NY. His work explores identity in the digital space by experimenting with film, performance, video, site specific installations and self-documentation. He has participated in residencies in Denmark (ARoS Arts Museum) Hungary (Art Quarter Budapest) and New York (Flux Factory). This year, Carlos David TC is a recipient of the Queens Arts Fund New Works Grant and New York Foundation for the Arts’ City Artist Corps Grants.

www.carlosdavidtc.com

Instagram: @carlosdavidtc

Opening Reception for Survival Tools for the Age of Ultra Anxiety
2021-11-06 18:00 - 21:00 | Culture Lab LIC at The Plaxall Gallery, 5-25 46th Ave, Queens, NY, 11101
Join us for the opening reception for the group exhibition Survival Tools for the Age of Ultra Anxiety hosted by Culture Lab LIC at Plaxall Gallery. View full exhibition information at this website. RSVP on Facebook.

The exhibition “Survival Tools for the Age of Ultra Anxiety” takes as its premise the state of ultra-anxiety our culture is functioning within due to the pandemic and worldwide social and economic upheaval. It questions whether our endlessly competitive society, which rewards selfish behavior over altruism, has given us the tools needed to survive or whether artists are needed to lead us away from the brink of extinction.

Participating Artists:

Amy Fung-yi Lee, Birgit Rathmann, Case Jernigan, Claire Chambless, Daniel Mantilla, Demarco Mosby, Dongjun Kim, Esteban Agosin, J. Triangular, Jee Park, Jess Blaustein, Joseph Morris, Keun-Young Park, Kimberly Lyle, Kim Sandra Lazaro Juan & Jordon Schranz, Mark Rice, Matthew Garrison, Nicki Cherry, Noa Yekutieli, Pauline Galiana, Sana Musasama, Silliam Bims, SiSi Chen, Stacy Bogdonoff, Travis Childers, Wieteke Heldens, Will Kaplan

Curated by Jeju Island Artist Collective: Eunsun Choi / Kyung-jin Kim / Yeon jin Kim

Spatial Politics of Control workshop with Claire Chambless
2021-11-13 15:00 - 17:00 | Culture Lab LIC at The Plaxall Gallery, 5-25 46th Ave, Queens, NY, 11101
This workshop by Claire Chambless is part of the Group Exhibition Survival Tools for the Age of Ultra Anxiety held at Culture Lab LIC at Plaxall Gallery. Share on Facebook.
How do the spatial politics of urban environments and institutional spaces within and outside art contexts reinforce systems of oppression? Do the spaces we inhabit influence our sense of self? Can architecture and object placement impact how comfortable we feel? This workshop will use communal movement-based practices to explore the way bodies can work together to shift power relations in public spaces. We will begin with a guided meditation and group consciousness exercise to share diverse perceptions of architectural devices and crowd control objects. We will then move into a movement practice where we collectively use our bodies to explore strategies of anti-authoritarian space making. This workshop is a continuation of work begun in 2019 where the artist borrowed then reconfigured, NYPD crowd control barriers in Brooklyn.
Claire Chambless (b.1989, Houston, TX) is a sculptor whose practice encompasses object-making, photography, video and installation. She received her MFA in Art from the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA in 2020 and completed her undergraduate studies in 2012 at Davidson College, Davidson, NC. Her work has been shown in museums, galleries and public spaces, including the the MAK Center Mackey Apartments; Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta; California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA; Serious Projects, Los Angeles; TZ Projects, Los Angeles; La MaMa Gallery, New York, NY; Michael David & Co., New York; UCLA’s New Wight Biennial, Los Angeles; among others. She was a 2017-2018 Walthall Fellow, and is the founder of commons, a Los Angeles-based space and knowledge sharing project that organizes exhibitions, performances, screenings and reading groups. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

Artist Talk with Claire Chambless, Matthew Garrison, and Nicki Cherry
2021-11-13 17:30 - 19:30 | Culture Lab LIC at The Plaxall Gallery, 5-25 46th Ave, Queens, NY, 11101
This artist talk is part of the Group Exhibition Survival Tools for the Age of Ultra Anxiety held at Culture Lab LIC at Plaxall Gallery. RSVP on Facebook.
Claire Chambless (b.1989, Houston, TX) is a sculptor whose practice encompasses object-making, photography, video and installation. She received her MFA in Art from the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA in 2020 and completed her undergraduate studies in 2012 at Davidson College, Davidson, NC. Her work has been shown in museums, galleries and public spaces, including the the MAK Center Mackey Apartments; Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta; California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA; Serious Projects, Los Angeles; TZ Projects, Los Angeles; La MaMa Gallery, New York, NY; Michael David & Co., New York; UCLA’s New Wight Biennial, Los Angeles; among others. She was a 2017-2018 Walthall Fellow, and is the founder of commons, a Los Angeles-based space and knowledge sharing project that organizes exhibitions, performances, screenings and reading groups. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

Matthew Garrison was born in Albany, NY, and grew up in Chicago. After living and working in New York City for eleven years, he moved to Pennsylvania to teach art and technology at Albright College. His work explores a dialog among intimate space, landscape and the environment. Humor and irony collide with issues of online privacy and our impact on the planet. Selected exhibitions and screenings include A Horse Walks Into a Bar, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; International New York Film Festival, NYC; Sound in Art/Art in Sound, Minnesota Museum of American Art, Saint Paul; Bridges and Portals, St. Paul the Apostle Church, NYC; Polymorphous, Cluster Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Be Right Back, solo exhibition, Hunter College, NYC; Based On a True Story, traveling three person exhibition, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Marshall Arts, Memphis, TN; Certain Conditions, the Waterfront Center for the Arts, Belfast, Ireland; International Video Festival, Alternative Space Bandee, Busan, Korea; Dusk, Video_DIVA, Miami; SUPERvision (1st place award), the University of Wisconsin’s Foster Gallery; and Memorial Exhibition, International Arts Center, Higashi Hiroshima City, Japan. He received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from Hunter College.
Nicki Cherry is a visual artist based in Queens, New York. Cherry received their MFA from Yale School of Art in 2019 and their BA from The University of Chicago in 2014. In 2014, they completed a residency at Tyler School of Art. They are a recent scholarship recipient at Urban Glass in Brooklyn, NY. They have exhibited their work nationally, including at the ELM Foundation and Shin Gallery in New York; Icebox Project Space in Philadelphia; Archer Beach Haus, the Reva David Logan Center for the Arts, and Slate Arts and Performance in Chicago; and Green Hall Gallery in New Haven. Their work has been written about in publications including Arte Fuse, Coastal Post, Art of Choice, and Floorr Magazine. This past summer, they presented their first solo exhibition at the Border Project Space in Brooklyn, NY.

Artist Talk with Esteban Agosin, J. Triangular, Kimberly Lyle, Mark Rice, and Noa Yekutieli
2021-11-14 17:30 - 19:30
This online artist talk is part of the Group Exhibition Survival Tools for the Age of Ultra Anxiety held at Culture Lab LIC at Plaxall Gallery
RSVP via WithFriends to receive Zoom information.
Esteban Agosin Otero is a sound artist and electronic media artist. Agosin got a degree in music from the University of Valparaíso, Chile, and a Master in Electronic Arts from the National University of Tres de Febrero, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in Digital Arts and Experimental Media, University of Washington, Seattle, United States (DXARTS).
His main interest is the research and development of artistic and experimental practices about the human interpretation of the sound environment and the perspectives that technology provides to understand the world through technological systems and devices. It is motivated by how technologies have extended the human limits, providing tools to reach other layers of information of our physical environment, which were out of reach of our human biology. His particular research is regarding the relationship between the human and the machine, and how technologies and devices act as an interface that extends our human abilities, allowing the amplification of our perception, therefore transforming, changing, or even degrading the information that comes from the environment, providing new interpretations or meanings of the world, and also creating new scenarios, symbols, and realities mediated by the technology itself. This artistic research is expressed in experimental processes and creations related to robotic, electronic objects, installations and performances.
J. Triangular is a visual artist, multimedia poet, and social activist. Colombia Born, Taiwan Based. J Triangular is interested in resistance devices from the heart of the community, ghosts, and memory; belonging in collectivity and reparative gestures; art actions. Providing platforms of solidarity to marginalized cultural groups such as LGTBQI+, Women, and people of color, to give voice and visibility. J’s work reflects on queer spaces, mental health, identity and consciousness, and HIV activism. Cinema as a social practice. Her work has been shown widely in Asia, Europe, Oceania as well as North and Latin America.

Kimberly Lyle is an interdisciplinary artist and educator utilizing sound, sculpture, new media, and public participation. Grounded in research, her current practice questions our relationship to systems of language, learning, and technology. Many of her projects aim to blur divisions between human and machine, past and present, and each other. She holds an MFA in Intermedia from Arizona State University and is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor at Pennsylvania State University.

Mark Rice is an artist and musician living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Working in many different modes and mediums, Mark creates 2D and 3D works of painting, drawing, installation, and sculpture. Professionally trained as a printmaker, Rice also employs screen-printing and relief printing to create visual narratives, garments, and unusual products, packaging, and appliances. Rice received his MFA in Printmaking from Rhode Island School of Design and his BFA from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He has exhibited his work recently at the International Printmaking Center of New York, the Contemporary Center for Printmaking, the Mainline Art Center, and the Woodmere Art Museum. He recently had his work collected by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Free Library of Philadelphia. Rice has taught drawing, printmaking, and art history at several colleges, some including RISD, University of South Carolina, and Tyler School of Art at Temple University. Rice currently works in Philadelphia as an Onsite Studio Educator for the Fabric Workshop and Museum, a Senior Art Studio Director at Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School, and as a freelance designer and contract printer.With his partner, Rice founded Pressure Club in 2017, a small artist print shop and gallery in Philadelphia, PA where they create print editions and hold exhibitions of work by local and regional artists.
Noa Yekutieli (b. 1989, California, US) is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist working between Tel Aviv, Israel, and Los Angeles, California. Her signature manual paper-cutting technique is often combined with images and objects, addressing the tensions between shared human experiences complicated through cross-cultural perspectives that often accompany immigration and multicultural families.
Over the past decade, Yekutieli has exhibited her work in both local and global leading arts institutions and spaces, including the Shanghai Himalayas Museum, China; Augsburg Kunstverien, Germany; The Israel Museum, Israel; Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art, China; Eretz Israel Museum, Israel; The Israeli-Palestinian Pavilion, Nakanojo Biennale, Japan; Open Contemporary Art Center, Taiwan; Janco Dada Museum, Israel; Artist House, Israel; and at the Wilfrid Museum, Israel. Yekutieli held solo exhibitions in various galleries such as Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel; Track 16 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Gisela Clement, Bonn, Germany; Marina Gisich Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia, and Galerie Sabine Knust, Munich, Germany. Her works are included in multiple collections, including the Tel Aviv Museum of Modern Art, the Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts, and the Serge Toricohe Collection. Forthcoming in 2021 are exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum, Ahlen, Germany; Bienalsur, Contemporary Art Museum of Rosario, Argentina; Huanghezi Museum, Qingdao, China; and Inga Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel.

Artist Talk with Amy Fung-yi Lee, Keun-Young Park, Sana Musasama, Stacy Bogdonoff, SiSi Chen and Pauline Galiana
2021-11-19 17:30 - 19:30 | Culture Lab LIC at The Plaxall Gallery, 5-25 46th Ave, Queens, NY, 11101
This artist talk is part of the Group Exhibition Survival Tools for the Age of Ultra Anxiety held at Culture Lab LIC at Plaxall Gallery. Share on Facebook.

Amy Fung-yi Lee makes work to stitch her experience between the personal, historical, and social. She is interested in abstracting her experience through the body, materiality, and visual scale, often working on paper. Lee was born in New Jersey and grew up between the US and Taiwan, China, and Saudi Arabia. She completed her MFA at Hunter College and BA at Stanford University, and has exhibited her work in New York and California. She is currently living in New York.

Keun-Young Park was born in Seoul, South Korea, where she received her BFA and MFA Degrees in Sculpture at Seoul National University. Since 2005, Park has lived in New York and has developed her unique photo-collage work reflecting upon the astatic character of existence in the flow of time and attempting to capture the tremor of unstable presence. She had twelveth solo exhibition in 2019 and has had numerous group shows in the United states, Europe and Asia. Park received awards from A.I.R. Gallery, Artist Talk on Art, and the New Jersey State Council of the Arts, as well as residencies with Vermont Studio Residency Program and Triangle Arts Workshop.

Sana Musasama received her BA from City College of New York in 1973 and her MFA from Alfred University, New York in 1988. Sana received the 2018 Achievement Award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts for her years of teaching and her humanitarian work with victims of sex trafficking in Cambodia. Sana is the coordinator of the Apron Project, a sustainable entrepreneurial project for girls and young women reintegrated back into society after being forced into sex trafficking. In 2016, she was a guest speaker on “Activism through Art” at ROCA. A recently published article by Cliff Hocker, “If I can Help Somebody: Sana Musasama’s Art of Healing” appears in the International Review of African American Art. In 2015, the Museum of Art and Design in New York selected four works from The Unspeakable Series for their private collection; Sana was awarded the ACLU of Michigan Art Prize 7 and Art Prize 8. In 2002, she was awarded Anonymous Was a Women and in 2001, Sana was featured in the 2001 Florence Biennial. Her work is in multiple collections such as The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina; The Museum of Art and Design in New York, New York; the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, New York; the Hood Museum of Art in Hanover, New Hampshire; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York; Bluffton University in Bluffton, Ohio; and in numerous private collections. Sana lives and works in New York.

Stacy Bogdonoff is a NYC and CT. based, mixed media artist. She creates two- and three-dimensional art using a wide range of materials and techniques: used craft and 100% rag paper, industrial and vintage textiles, wire, flax, rust, and digital printing. She works with single strands of embroidery silk, and foot long steel upholstery needles. Her tools include a wooden table loom, a commercial clothes rack, and a 96 lb. metal rolling mill. She divides her time between her small tabletop studio in NYC and a larger ‘mess’ of a studio in northwest Connecticut. She is an active member of TSGNY (Textile Study Group of New York) and the SDA (Surface Design Association) and exhibits regularly in New England, NYC, Westchester, and Hudson Valley galleries. Bogdonoff’s art explores concepts of loss, vulnerability, illness, aging, and downsizing. Her current work explores the theme of “Home and Shelter” and, she says, “I am struck by how both fragile and resilient our homes are; how we are born into one and how our definition of it changes as we age, lose people, and alter relationships.” She says, “I’ve never wondered about my identity. I am an artist and I live to make art. This certainty has always been with me and, except for family and friends, the most constant and rewarding part of my being.”

SiSi Chen (b. 1987) is based in Brooklyn, NY. She received a BFA from Laguna College of Art and Design (CA, 2012) and an MFA from Hunter College (NY, 2021) where she presented her thesis exhibition Some Greater Sum in March, 2021. She was an Artist-in-Residence at Ox-Bow (MI, 2014), The League Residency at Vytlacil (NY, 2016), and currently in the ceramics department at Hunter College. She is the Director of Trestle Gallery where she most recently curated Choreography for an Unfamiliar Here and Not Just Another Anthropocenic Love Story. She was awarded the inaugural Eva Hesse Prize for Excellence at Hunter College in 2021.

Pauline Galiana was born in Algiers and grew up in Switzerland and then France. She received her MFA at ESAG in Paris in 1984, and has a Christie’s Art Business Certificate. Her work has been exhibited at the New York Public Library; Memorial Sloan Kettering Gallery Brooklyn; Kentler International Drawing Space in Brooklyn; the Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA; Drawing Rooms Art Center, NJ; Durham Arts Council, NC; Islip Art Museum, NY; New York Institute of Technology; Chashama Gallery, NYC; Robert Henry Contemporary Gallery, Bushwick; Baron Boisanté Gallery, NYC; and the Ramis Barquet Gallery, Mexico among others. Pauline Galiana works simultaneously on distinct bodies of work, from collages to paintings and drawings, from ephemeral installations to small-scale sculptures. The work often addresses the broad theme of deconstruction versus reconstruction and of hybridization. It combines noble and mundane materials; it expresses instinctive states of mind with formal compositions, using obsessive and meditative processes, meticulous planning, and patient execution, sometimes with rigorous grids.

Finding Poetry Workshop by Will Kaplan
2021-11-20 15:00 - 17:00 | Culture Lab LIC at The Plaxall Gallery, 5-25 46th Ave, Queens, NY, 11101
This workshop is part of the Group Exhibition Survival Tools for the Age of Ultra Anxiety held at Culture Lab LIC at Plaxall Gallery. Share on Facebook.
In this workshop, writing artist Will Kaplan will lead participants in creating found poems from different printed materials. With textbook, instruction manual, and art-book pages at our disposal, we will color over or cut out words and phrases to create unique poems both visually and lyrically engaging. This dada-ist practice nettles our notions of ownership and authority, favoring instead whimsy, collaboration, and chance. A limited supply of frames will be available for participants to mount and display their new poems.
Will Kaplan combines different mediums, techniques, and text to probe boundaries. This New Jersey native grew up exploring highway hemmed nature preserves; tensions between the organic and the human-made manifest in his work. His practice incorporates silkscreen and woodcut printmaking, paper and found object collage, watercolor and acrylic painting, and artist’s books and writing. After graduating Skidmore College in 2017, Kaplan has made a new home in Queens, a rich setting in which to explore these themes. His work has appeared in Vellum Magazine, on the walls of Local Project, and with ABC No Rio. In addition to organizing shows in alternative spaces, he currently serves as a board member at the Manhattan Graphics Center, and works as a carpenter and art-handler.

Artist Talk with Joseph Morris, Kim Sandra, Wieteke Heldens, Will Kaplan and Daniel Mantilla
2021-11-20 17:30 - 19:30 | Culture Lab LIC at The Plaxall Gallery, 5-25 46th Ave, Queens, NY, 11101
This artist talk is part of the Group Exhibition Survival Tools for the Age of Ultra Anxiety held at Culture Lab LIC at Plaxall Gallery. Share on Facebook.
Joseph Morris is an artist based in Brooklyn. He is an expert craftsman and coder who believes in the possibilities enabled by integrating technology in the arts. His emotive machines have been exhibited in New York, Chicago, Brazil, New Haven, New Mexico, and Arizona by galleries and organizations such as Chazan Family Gallery, Creative Arts Workshop, Gibney Dance Center, 4heads, ACRE Projects, Oi Futuro, and more. Joseph Morris has been working with electronics in his art since 2006. He began by taking things apart and putting them back together to make sculptural collages with gears, motors, and moving parts. He started experimenting with software and coding in 2007 and has been integrating technology into his craft ever since. Joseph is a self-taught programmer, technologist, and prototyper through the online, open-source community. He is a recipient of the 2021 Downtown Brooklyn Public Art + Placemaking Fund for his upcoming installation, Anchorage | Babel in Reverse, Nov 2021, a 2017 NYFA Fellow in Electronic/Digital Media, 2017 NYSCA Electronic Media grantee, and resident artist at Harvestworks Digital Media Art Center in 2015. He holds an MFA in Art and Technology from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in Sculpture from SUNY Purchase. He is a tenure-track instructor of 3D Design and Sculpture at SUNY Westchester Community College.
Kim Sandra (She/They) is a queer, Laotian/Vietnamese, artist from Northern Virginia and nowbased in Brooklyn, NY. In 2016, they graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art, with a BFA in General Fine Arts. In 2019, the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ gift shop collaborated with her to create an event “Being” showcasing her work and guiding visitors to draw music. She has been featured in Visart’s Gen 5 exhibition, the Torpedo Factory’s 2019 Emerging Artists exhibition and the Washington Project for the Arts’ 2019 Auction Gala. In her Torpedo Factory summer 2019 Post-Grad Residency, she created a stop motion animation about her parent’s immigration story intersecting her coming out story. She used the studio space as a shop to fundraise for local and national LGBTQ+ non profits empowering queer youth. In her 2020 Bresler Residency at VisArts, she focused more on Lao identity work. She’s currently working on her graphic novel “Origins of Kin and Kang” about her coming out story and collaborating with Legacies of War to help fund removing the bombs left over from the Secret and Vietnam Wars from Laos.
Wieteke Heldens (b. 1982, Ottersum, The Netherlands) lives and works in New York and graduated from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, in 2007. Heldens’ work has been shown internationally, including the Kunstmuseum Den Haag in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Ireland, Denmark, South Korea, Japan, and the United States. She has also worked as an artist-in-residence in Chongqing, China and Turin, Italy. In 2013 Heldens won the Royal Award for Modern Painting in the Netherlands. She is a recipient of a Stipend for Established Artists of the Mondriaan Fund. Currently she is an Artist-in-Residence of the Ground Floor Program at ISCP, New York.

Writing artist Will Kaplan combines different mediums, techniques, and text to probe boundaries. This New Jersey native grew up exploring highway hemmed nature preserves; tensions between the organic and the human-made manifest in his work. His practice incorporates silkscreen and woodcut printmaking, paper and found object collage, watercolor and acrylic painting, and artist’s books and writing. After graduating Skidmore College in 2017, Kaplan has made a new home in Queens, a rich setting in which to explore these themes. His work has appeared in Vellum Magazine, on the walls of Local Project, and with ABC No Rio. In addition to organizing shows in alternative spaces, he currently serves as a board member at the Manhattan Graphics Center, and works as a carpenter and art-handler.
Daniel Mantilla is a Colombian-born, New York based artist who approaches pictorial space in terms of enclosure and accumulation. His practice consists of paintings, printed matter, drawing/collages, and cut-outs motivated by ideas of transition and instability. His work has been exhibited in Colombia, Spain, and the US including the Museo de Arte del Tolima and Bank of the Republic in the city of Ibagué, the United Nations in Bogotá, Auditorio Enrique Granados in Lleida Spain, The Tampa Museum of Art, USF Contemporary Art Museum, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Hunter College, Instituto Cervantes New York, and was part of the 2015 AIM Bronx Biennial at the Bronx Museum in NYC. He was the recipient of a Kossak Travel Grant and Recognition Painting Award Julio Fajardo from Museo del Tolima. He recently completed a residency at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center made possible through Residency Unlimited’s ongoing partnership with Artists Alliance Inc. He is the first artist to be selected for the Liquitex Cadmium-Free Research Residency at Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, NY.

Breathed Poems for the Camera Workshop
2021-11-21 10:00 - 12:00 | Via Zoom
This online Zoom workshop by J Triangular is part of the Group Exhibition Survival Tools for the Age of Ultra Anxiety held at Culture Lab LIC at Plaxall Gallery
RSVP via WithFriends to receive Zoom information.
“Breathing better, breathing directly not only air but also light” – Gaston Bachelard
Breathe in, hold still, and breathe out. Breathing is what keeps us living and keeps us connected to ourselves and others. Breathing is all about collective liberation, togetherness, and care. Words are formed through the act of breathing. Poetry, breathing patterns, and the sensory world, are the supreme powers, the navigational tools through this laboratory is conceived. Through breathing exercises, and simple video tools to create your videos about the relationship between the breath and poetry, this workshop allows us to build the capacity to trust each other, experiencing collective trauma, and the final breathed poems make with all the participants are the expressive release that we need. The synthesis of poetry and video with social engagement. A new pathway towards connection and mutual aid, and encourages our nervous system to downshift towards a more balanced state. Join up! and let’s use video and poetry as a tool to experiment and empower yourself
J. Triangular is a visual artist, multimedia poet, and social activist. Colombia Born, Taiwan Based. J Triangular is interested in resistance devices from the heart of the community, ghosts, and memory; belonging in collectivity and reparative gestures; art actions. Providing platforms of solidarity to marginalized cultural groups such as LGTBQI+, Women, and people of color, to give voice and visibility. J’s work reflects on queer spaces, mental health, identity and consciousness, and HIV activism. Cinema as a social practice. Her work has been shown widely in Asia, Europe, Oceania as well as North and Latin America.

Rethinking Residencies Online Symposium
2021-12-08 - 2021-12-10 | Online
December 8–10, 2021
Three days of conversations, lectures, and videos on visual art residencies.
Online
Free with registration
The Rethinking Residencies Symposium invites artists, curators, scholars, and residency organizations worldwide to come together to address residency programs as critical sites of production within the field of visual arts. The symposium will consider existing scholarship and cultivate new thinking about the history, institutional structures, and conditions of visual art residencies.
Founded in 2014, Rethinking Residencies is the first network of New York-based artist and curator residency programs, and the symposium will be its most extensive event to date. The 16 member institutions of Rethinking Residencies generate knowledge and resources, anchored together in cooperation and collaboration.
PROGRAM
Wednesday, December 8, 2021, 3:00–4:30 pm (ET)
Welcome remarks
Introduction to Rethinking Residencies
Kari Conte
Keynote Conversation
Mierle Laderman Ukeles and Tania Candiani, moderated by Christina Daniels
This conversation between artists Mierle Laderman Ukeles and Tania Candiani will reflect on both artists’ respective residency experiences. Since 1977, Ukeles has been the official, unsalaried artist-in-residence at New York City’s Department of Sanitation. Candiani has participated in numerous residency programs throughout North America, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Europe.
Thursday, December 9, 2021, 2:00–3:00pm and 3:30–5:00pm (ET)
The History of Artist Residencies, 2:00pm
Irmeli Kokko
The term artist-in-residence appeared in the early twentieth century as a temporary position within academies. Artist-led communities such as Black Mountain College prefigured many norms of today’s residencies. However, Irmeli Kokko writes that artist residencies as stand-alone institutions emerged only in the 1990s, and since then, have quickly grown to become one of the most critical and widespread support institutions for contemporary artists. While the term is ubiquitous today, little awareness of the historical currents or divergent practices brought us to today’s status quo. Kokko has written one of the most comprehensive histories on the subject in a dissertation that shaped what is perhaps the most comprehensive publication on residencies to date, 2019’s Contemporary Artist Residencies: Reclaiming Time and Space, published by Valiz. Kokko will address how residencies came about and the complex programs they currently offer so that by understanding where we came from, we can better understand where to go in the future.
The Environment and Residencies, video proposition
Eileen Jeng Lynch and Gabriel de Guzman
Representation, Accountability and Solidarity in Institutions and the Artists they Serve, 3:30pm
M. Carmen Lane, Laila Hida and Francesca Masoero, and Emily Pethick, moderated by Stephanye Watts
As residency programs grapple with complex geopolitical and affective realities, how do the values of their residents and the institutions’ locations inform their practices? Residency programs are impacted by the personal, social, and global circumstances of the artists they serve. Determining which of these issues deserve or demand an organizational response and how to transform topics that could be divisive into conditions for support is the responsibility of an effective organization. How do the roles of host and guest play into these dynamics most productively? This panel will also address questions such as: What lessons can organizations draw from social and political movements to better support artists? How do institutions create the most conducive environments for artists to explore complex ideas and practices?
Curatorial Residencies, video proposition
Susan Hapgood
Friday, December 10, 2021, 2:00–3:30pm and 5:00–6:30pm (ET)
New Models for Communing: Residency Programming and Strategies, 2:00pm
Robin Everett and Sanna Ritvanen, Catherine Lee, and Sally Mizrachi, moderated by Nick Weist
Residencies are increasingly looking outwards and developing new programmatic and structural models centered on community engagement, local embeddedness, ecology, and civic partnerships. How has the pandemic reoriented residencies towards their local communities? Can online residencies still be situated within their host communities? How have new digital realities impacted ideas of community? Presentations by residency directors will be followed by a conversation.
Residency Decolonization, video proposition
Lizania Cruz
Structures of Support for the Whole Artist, 5:00pm
Eve Biddle, Jamie Blosser and Howardena Pindell, moderated by Dylan Gauthier
How can residencies support intersectional artists’ identities, needs, and expectations, beyond their professional practices? From parent artists to artists of color to disabled artists and more, how can residencies be more accessible to the “whole artist”? This panel will be a conversation between artists and residencies.
The Future of Residencies, video proposition
Christina Daniels

Rethinking Residencies members are Abrons Art Center, Eyebeam, Fire Island Artist Residency, Flux Factory, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), Queens Museum, Pioneer Works, Recess, Shandaken Projects, EFA Project Space’s SHIFT Residency, Triangle, Wave Farm, Wave Hill and W.O.W. Project. The Rethinking Residencies Symposium is organized in partnership with the Vera List Center For Art and Politics at The New School and is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
The Rethinking Residencies Symposium will result in a digital publication that will launch in Spring 2022. Recorded videos of the symposium will also be permanently available online in January 2022.
Rethinking Residencies Symposium Biographies
Speaker Biographies
Eve Biddle, Executive Co-Director, Wassaic Project
Eve Biddle is an artist, co-founder of the Wassaic Project, culture maker and collaborator from a family of artists. Her culture making practice is an outgrowth of the Wassaic Project and her collaboration with Bowie Zunino, Jeff Barnett-Winsby, and Elan Bogarin. The Wassaic Project has hosted 38,000+ visitors, 680+ artists in residence, 1,000+ exhibiting artists through over 30 exhibitions, hosted 50+ dance companies, 150+ bands, 50+ film makers, and served 6,000+ students. They have curated performance at MASS MoCA, and spoken on panels at Open Engagement, Storm King, The Aldrich Museum, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture and Planning, Tyler School of Art, School of Visual Arts in NYC, and Preservation’s Studio-X.
Jamie Blosser, Executive Director, Santa Fe Art Institute
Jamie Blosser is the Executive Director of Santa Fe Art Institute, working to creatively address equity in the arts and built environment through cohort building and participatory processes. A licensed architect, Blosser believes in housing as a right. She was an AIA United Nations delegate for the 2016 Habitat III convening and serves on the Ohkay Owingeh Housing Authority and National Development Council boards. Blosser was awarded a Harvard Loeb Fellowship, was Executive Producer of a PBS Natural Heroes documentary, and her community design work and writings have been published in several magazines and books. Blosser received her Masters in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.
Tania Candiani, artist
Tania Candiani has developed her work in various media and practices that maintain an interest in the complex intersection between language systems—phonic, graphic, linguistic, symbolic, and technological. She has worked with different narratives of association, taking as a starting point a proposal to invent from reordering, remixing, and playing with correspondences between technologies, knowledge, and thought using the idea of organization and reorganization as discourse, as a structure of creative and critical thinking, and as material for actual production. Since 2012, she is a fellow of the National System of Art Creators from Mexico and has received the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2018); Guggenheim Fellowship Award (2011) and an Award of Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica (2013), among others. She represented Mexico at the 56th Venice Biennale. Her work has been exhibited widely around the globe and is part of important public and private collections.
M. Carmen Lane, founder and director, ATNSC/Center for Healing & Creative Leadership
M. Carmen Lane is a two:spirit African-American and Haudenosaunee (Mohawk/Tuscarora) artist, writer and facilitator living in Cleveland, Ohio. Lane’s work ranges from experiential educator to diversity practitioner to organizational systems consultant to experimental artist—all of it integrates ancestry, legacy, and spirituality. Lane is founder and director of ATNSC: Center for Healing & Creative Leadership, a socially engaged artist-run urban retreat, residency, research and exhibition space located in the historic Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood.
Lizania Cruz, artist
Lizania Cruz is a Dominican participatory artist and designer interested in how migration affects ways of being & belonging. Through research, oral history, and audience participation, she creates projects highlighting a pluralistic migration narrative. Cruz has been an artist-in-residence and fellow at the Laundromat Project Create Change (2017-2019), Agora Collective Berlin (2018), Design Trust for Public Space (2018), Recess Session (2019), IdeasCity:New Museum (2019), Stoneleaf Retreat (2019), Robert Blackburn Workshop Studio Immersion Project (2019), A.I.R. Gallery (2020-2021), BRIClab: Contemporary Art (2020-2021), Center for Books Arts (2020-2021), and Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Visual Arts (2021-2022).
Laila Hida, Founder and Francesca Masoero, Assistant Director and Curator, LE 18
LE 18 is a multidisciplinary cultural and residency space established in 2013 and located in the medina of Marrakech. It aims to provide time and space for research, creation, encounter, mutual learning, and knowledge cross-pollination. The space has developed organically and through a collaborative, open ethos, (un)learning from and in dialogue with the various communities it works with, in an institutional practice based on horizontality and collaboration. Engaging with a fluid network of collaborators and a variety of formats including exhibitions, residencies, conversations, workshops, and publications, LE 18 has become a collective learning platform. One which permits it to listen to, and critically tackle the multiple dynamics, processes, and infrastructures which shape the cultural, political, and economic lives of our local ecosystem and its place in a global dynamic.
Irmeli Kokko, curator
Irmeli Kokko has worked within the field of contemporary art locally and internationally, both in managerial and creative tasks since 1988. She was (2006-2018 ) a lecturer at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. There she initiated and directed the residency fellowship program and postgraduate residency programs for the Academy of Fine Arts (2007-2018) and before that for Frame – Finnish Fund for Art Exchange (2003-2007). Formerly she founded the Helsinki International Artist Programme – HIAP where she worked as director between 1999-2003. Since 1996 she has written articles about European artists’ residencies. In 2008 she wrote her MA thesis for the University of Eastern Finland MA in Cultural Politics and Art Education on residencies with the title The Role of Residencies in Cultural Production. She has initiated, conceived, and organized several seminars and symposiums about artists’ residencies in the Nordic and Baltic countries and Finland between the years 1995-2018. She was the member of the division of the Arts Council of Finland to support artists’ residencies (1995-2010); member of the Res Artis advisory board (1999-2001) and member of the expert group of Cultural Programme of the Nordic Council of Ministers/Module to support Artists’ residencies (2007-2011).
Catherine Lee, General Director, Taipei Artist Village
Catherine Lee works at Taipei Artist Village/Treasure Hill Artist Village as the General Director since 2017. After receiving her MA in Museum Science at Texas Tech University, she started her career in museums as a collection manager (1997-2002, Texas). After returning to Taiwan, she served in a consultant group to set up a development plan for local community museums (2003-2004, Taipei). Later, she received professional training in artist-in-residency programs while working at the Bamboo Curtain Studio, considered the most remarkable artist residency in Taiwan (2011-2017, Taipei). Currently, Lee also serves as the chairperson of Taiwan Art Space Alliance, the national platform to foster communication and collaboration among domestic and international arts residency programs.
Sally Mizrachi, Executive Director and General Coordinator, Lugar a Dudas
In 2003, Mizrachi created, with the artist Oscar Muñoz, Lugar a Dudas, a space in Cali, Colombia that strengthens the local artistic scene by fomenting knowledge of contemporary art, facilitating the development of production, and engaging different publics in artistic practices. She has taken part in the Artistic Pacific Zone Regional Committee in Colombia, and as an Advisor for the National Council for Arts at the Colombian Ministry of Culture. She has participated on juries of national and international awards; and attended talks in various international seminars, workshops and conferences focused on the relationship of Arts and Education and artist-run initiatives. She is an active member of la Red de Centros Culturales de Cali, a network of the local cultural centers in Cali, and also of Arts Collaboratory, a translocal ecosystem that brings together 25 diverse organizations around the world focused on art practices, processes of change, and working with broader communities beyond the field of art.
Emily Pethick, Director, Rijksakademie
Emily Pethick is the director of the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Until 2018, she was the director The Showroom, London for ten years; she was also the director of Casco, Office for Art, Design and Theory, in Utrecht, The Netherlands (2005-2008) and was a curator at Cubitt, London (2003-2004). She co-led the program Curating Positions (2016-2018) at the Dutch Art Institute. She has contributed to publications, including Artforum, Frieze, Afterall, and The Exhibitionist, and co-edited numerous books. Pethick was a member of the jury of the 2017 Turner Prize.
Howardena Pindell, artist
Born in Philadelphia in 1943, Howardena Pindell studied painting at Boston University and Yale University. After graduating, she accepted a job at the Museum of Modern Art, where she remained for 12 years (1967–1979). In 1979, she began teaching at the State University of New York, Stony Brook where she is now a Distinguished Professor. Pindell often employs lengthy, metaphorical processes of destruction/reconstruction. She cuts canvases in strips and sews them back together, building up surfaces in elaborate stages. She paints or draws on sheets of paper, punches out dots from the paper using a paper hole punch, drops the dots onto her canvas, and finally, squeegees paint through the “stencil” left in the paper from which she had punched the dots.
Sanna Ritvanen and Robin Everett, 2021-2022 Chairs, Mustarinda Association
The Mustarinda Association (founded 2010) is a group of artists and researchers, whose goal is to promote the ecological rebuilding of society, the diversity of culture and nature, and the connection between art and science. At the center of their activity lies contemporary art, boundary-crossing research, practical experimentation, communication, education and events. The Mustarinda Association reaches towards a post-fossil culture by combining scientific knowledge and experiential artistic activity. Their activities are rooted at the Mustarinda house at the edge of the Paljakka nature reserve in Kainuu, Finland. The house is a versatile space for artist and researcher residencies, hosting 30–40 individuals and groups annually, as well as exhibitions and events. Sanna Ritvanen is a freelancer artist-curator-producer and an active member of Mustarinda since 2018. In the past years they have worked in Mustarinda e.g. as a residency coordinator, renovator, cook, and artist. Robin Everett is an artist, writer, and producer based in Bergen, Norway, and has been an active member of the Mustarinda Association since 2018. Since first participating in the residency program in 2016 he has been residency coordinator, board member, artist, writer, gardener, and renovator.
Mierle Laderman Ukeles, artist
Since 1977, Mierle Laderman Ukeles continues as the official, unsalaried artist-in-residence of the City of New York Department of Sanitation [DSNY]. She is also the DSNY Percent for Art Artist of Fresh Kills, once the largest municipal landfill in the world. Her multidisciplinary artwork, crashing boundaries between labor and performance, system and spirit, unveils connections between feminism, work and workers, the city, and the environment. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum; Guggenheim Museum; the Art Institute of Chicago (promised gift); Kunstsammlung, Dusseldorf; Migros Museum, Zurich; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford; Smith College Museum, Northampton; and the Jewish Museum, New York City. She is represented by Ronald Feldman Gallery, NYC. She holds honorary doctorates from Rhode Island School of Design, Maine College of Art, and in May, 2019, from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she gave the Commencement Address. Two books have been published about her work: MIERLE LADERMAN UKELES: MAINTENANCE ART, Prestel, 2016 and SEVEN WORK BALLETS, Sternberg, 2015.
Rethinking Residency Member Biographies
Kari Conte, curator and writer
Kari Conte is a curator and writer of contemporary art and co-founder of Rethinking Residencies. She is a 2020–2021 Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Istanbul, researching feminist artistic practices. From 2010–2020, she worked as the Director of Programs and Exhibitions at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York, where she is currently Senior Advisor. She has curated 40 group and solo exhibitions and her interests lie in the intersection of art, politics, ecology, and feminism, as well as institutional and exhibition histories. She has published artist monographs, and contributed to numerous other books and exhibition catalogues, including Seven Work Ballets, the first monograph on artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles (Sternberg Press, 2016). Born and raised in New York City, she was based in London for several years, where she worked at Whitechapel Gallery and received an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art.
Christina Daniels, Head of Residencies and Classes, Pioneer Works
Prior to Pioneer Works, Daniels worked at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Kasmin Gallery, Culture Corps, and Black Frame. She has a BA in Art History from the University of Michigan and a MA in Arts Administration from Teachers College at Columbia University.
Gabriel de Guzman, Director of Arts & Chief Curator, Wave Hill
Gabriel de Guzman is Director of Arts & Chief Curator at Wave Hill, where he oversees the visual and performing arts program at this public garden and cultural center in the Bronx. From 2017 to 2021, he was Curator & Director of Exhibitions at Smack Mellon, where he organized group and solo exhibitions that feature emerging and under-recognized mid-career artists whose work explores critical, socially relevant issues. Before joining Smack Mellon, de Guzman held a previous position at Wave Hill as Curator of Visual Arts, organizing solo projects and thematic group exhibitions that explored human connections to the natural world. As a guest curator, he has also presented shows at Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, BronxArtSpace, Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, Rush Arts Gallery, En Foco at Andrew Freedman Home, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, and the Bronx Museum’s 2013 AIM Biennial.
Dylan Gauthier, Director, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space Program
Dylan Gauthier is an artist and curator and Director of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space Program, a 501c3 non-profit gallery devoted to experimental practices in the visual arts located in Times Square, NYC, including the SHIFT Residency for Arts Workers. Working in a range of media including sound, performance, video, sculpture, architecture, and photography, Gauthier’s research-based and collaborative projects explore the intersections between ecology, architecture, landscape, and environmental justice. Gauthier’s individual and collective projects have been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, the Parrish Art Museum, CCVA at Harvard University, the 2016 Biennial de Paris (Beirut), the Center for Architecture, The International Studio & Curatorial Program, the Chimney, the Neuberger Museum at SUNY Purchase, Columbus College of Art and Design, the Walker Art Center, EFA Project Space, and other venues in the US and abroad.
Susan Hapgood, Executive Director, International Studio & Curatorial Program
Susan Hapgood is a curator and the executive director of the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York, a visual arts residency program for artists and curators from around the world. Hapgood received her initial professional training at the Guggenheim Museum and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. She has curated exhibitions including A Fantastic Legacy: Early Bombay Photography, Energy Plus, FluxAttitudes (co-curator), Neo-Dada: Redefining Art 1058-62, Slightly Unbalanced, and In Deed: Certificates of Authenticity in Contemporary Art (co-curator). Author/editor of eight books and numerous articles on modern and contemporary art, Hapgood has a MA in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and BA in Philosophy and Studio Art from the University of Rochester. She is a board member of the Vera List Center for Art and Politics of the New School, and is founding director and board member of the Mumbai Art Room in India.
Eileen Jeng Lynch, Curator of Visual Arts, Wave Hill
Eileen Jeng Lynch is the Curator of Visual Arts at Wave Hill, where she creates exhibitions and programming that explore the intersections of nature, culture, and place, including commissioning artists on site-specific projects. Committed to broadening access to the arts and garden, Jeng Lynch organizes the Sunroom Project Space exhibitions for emerging artists, thematic shows in Glyndor Gallery, and the Winter Workspace program. Guest curatorial positions include The Bronx Museum of the Arts (forthcoming), the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz, The Yard: City Hall Park, Trestle Gallery, Sperone Westwater, Lesley Heller Workspace, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, and Radiator Gallery, among others. As the founder of Neumeraki, Jeng Lynch has worked on national and global curatorial initiatives and consulting projects. She has contributed to various publications and catalogues. Previously, she worked at RxArt, Sperone Westwater, and the Art Institute of Chicago in the Department of Contemporary Art.
Stephanye Watts, Program Manager, Recess
A graduate of Clark Atlanta University, Watts is the Program Manager at Recess, an artist-led alternative to incarceration empowering court-involved young people to take charge of their own life story and imagine a positive future through art. Watts served her community in her previous post as Community Engagement Manager at Weeksville Heritage Center and continues to do so as a member of The HBCU Hub, Association of African-American Museums, CAU’s alumni association, and UNCF’s Inter-Alumni Council. Watts is also the founder of Be Reel Black Cinema Club, a group dedicated to amplifying independent, rare + previously inaccessible Black films.
Nicholas Weist, Director, Shandaken Projects
Nicholas Weist is the current chair of Rethinking Residencies and is the founding director of Shandaken Projects, which has offered free artist services and public programs since 2012. The organization produces a residency program in collaboration with Storm King Art Center, presents billboards by artists throughout New York City, and recently opened a 3,000-square-foot multi-use cultural center on Governors Island. A veteran arts administrator, he has also held senior positions at Creative Time and powerHouse Books, and has organized exhibitions internationally. He has written about art and visual culture for Frieze, Art in America, Whitewall, Interview, Document Journal, and several other publications. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Artforum, The Brooklyn Rail, Bomb, and many more.

Zania Cummings' “Black Bodies” Spoken Word Performance & Workshop
2022-02-03 17:00 - 19:00 | Local Project, 11-27 44th Rd, Long Island City, 11101
Join us for a performance as part of the For The Public group exhibition at Local Project. Black Bodies is a Poetic dive into the Black experience, and an exploration of our most vulnerable parts. The work includes portraits with written poems, as well as a performance of “Slave Black” a spoken word piece. See full details about the For The Public exhibition.RSVP to this event.

Biography

Website
Born and raised in Charleston SC, Zania Cummings is an Actor, Poet and Creative based in NYC. She received her classical training at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts where she received the James Fisher award. After living in NYC she rediscovered her love of poetry and used spoken word as another medium of expression. She wrote and produced her first poetic short “Alchemy” in 2019 which has received praise and Best Poetic Film at the Detroit Black Film Festival. She prides herself on making art that is intentional and simply unapologetic! She is a proud believer in activism through art often reflecting on her own journey through black femininity as a catalyst of expression. My objective is to offer a level of vulnerability within each performance, making the audience feel safe in the space. I want to bathe the audience in poetic realism, with an emphasis on expressing that poetic realism on black bodies.

Sherese Francis “Natural An/Dems” Workshop and Reading
2022-02-10 17:00 - 19:00 | Local Project, 11-27 44th Rd, Long Island City, 11101
Join us for a performance as part of the For The Public group exhibition at Local Project. See full details about the For The Public exhibition.
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Showcasing the “Griot Sé/Mwen’s Beyonsense (National An/dem in Kwenglish)” Banner and “Henry Brown’s Speakerboxxxez (Blue(s)Prints Series)” Banner, the artist will lead an iteration of my Natural An/Dems Workshop, inviting attendees to partake in a collaborative writing exchange and reading performance, treating poetry as a form of currency, a “meant” instead of a “mint,” where we exchange meaning. The end of the workshop will result in a collective “poetry bank” piece.

Biography

Website | Instagram
Sherese Francis is an Alkymist of the I-Magination and expresses her(e)self through poetry, interdisciplinary arts, workshop facilitation, editing, and literary curation. Her(e) work takes inspiration from her(e) Afro-Caribbean heritage (Barbados and Dominica), and studies in Afrofuturism and Black Speculative Arts, mythology and etymology. Some of her(e) work has been published in Furious Flower, Obsidian Lit, Rootwork Journal, Spoken Black Girl, The Operating System, Cosmonauts Avenue, No Dear, Apex Magazine, Bone Bouquet, African Voices, Newtown Literary, and Free Verse. Additionally, Sherese has published three chapbooks, Lucy’s Bone Scrolls (Three Legged Elephant), Variations on Sett/ling Seed/ling (Harlequin Creature), and Recycling a Why That Rules Over My Sacred Sight (DoubleCross Press). Besides publications, Sherese has had her(e) work featured in various exhibitions and showcases from The Lit Exhibit, NY Live Arts, Queens Public Library, York College Arts Gallery, King Manor Museum, WorksOnWater, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, Jamaica Flux, Baxter St Camera Club, Bliss On Bliss, Maleza Proyectos, The Rubenstein Art Center and Ely Center for Contemporary Art.

Robert Wallace “The Next Event” Performance
2022-02-17 17:00 - 19:00 | Local Project, 11-27 44th Rd, Long Island City, 11101
Join us for a performance as part of the For The Public group exhibition at Local Project. See full details about the For The Public exhibition.
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The Next Event is about James Lee Mass, a failed author living in Long Island, New York during the year 1985. Mass lost his nine-year-old daughter, Ava, due to pneumonia. Unable to cope with this loss, James’ personal and professional life deteriorates. He passively watches the dissolution of his marriage as he is incapable of picking up the pieces. With slowing book sales, and the lack of will to create anything new, he quickly finds himself spiraling into a deep depression with thoughts of suicide. James Lee Mass is a dark and deeply complex character, and throughout the play he addresses the emotional battles that some people fight within themselves everyday. What makes this play so innovative is the breaking of the fourth wall in which the audience is asked to transition from a passive viewer to an active participant. The audience members play the role of the concerned neighbor and are taken through a journey addressing topics such as family, religion, politics, love and death. I am a Brooklyn native, who was classically trained in Theatre at North Carolina Central University; committed to developing an aesthetic, as a writer, that sits in a liminal space between Theatre and Film. I am not only a thespian, but a playwright, screenwriter, director, producer, auteur, and poet. I intend to redefine the way in which pain is consumed and understood. My approach is through a mode of writing that reconfigures rules that have historically repressed the artist; to challenge the conditions of the fourth wall through a radical re-imagining of monologues, utilizing the platform of a one-man show. My writing practice is informed by performative disciplines; interrogating the conventions of theatre and film. Borrowing from the directional effects of storytelling and narration – live and on screen – I write fictional prose, often taking the form of a One-man show, a solo performance, or a durational monologue. My approach to writing comes from a desire to stage and script the intimacies of life’s rituals, often marrying the fantastical world of theatre and film with quotidian reality. I lean into experimental forms of playwriting and screenwriting by intermixing past and present; writing from a confluence of the spiritual and lyrical. I am concerned with utilizing my viewpoints and experiences in a way that will transcend the minds of the world, in order to reconfigure how to better be of service for mental and interpersonal concerns. Many have ignored these matters out of ignorance and defeat. As artists, we have the license to tell stories in an ethical manner. I believe writing can position the reader within a context that brings awareness to mental wellbeing; which is most commonly mishandled by the nature of psychology; as well as ironically overlooked by the very resources designed to address these conditions. My writing solidifies my position as an artist; attacking stigmas often tethered historically to those who are disenfranchised. I aim to not only destigmatize these issues, but to present them in a manner in which they have yet to be conveyed, in order to engrace them. We, as artists, are somewhat politicians, using our platform to address the many challenges of our lives. My writing expands on concerns within mental health, propelling us as a community in a direction of true liberation from the constructs of ignorance. The purpose of my writing is to impact the ideology of people in society in regards to mental wellness.

Biography Website | Youtube Robert Wallace is a Brooklyn native, who was classically trained in Theatre at North Carolina Central University. He is committed to developing an aesthetic that sits in a liminal space between Theatre and Film. Robert has starred in four independent films, and has borrowed from his academic experiences to propel himself in the world of picture-making. “I am of those that came before all of us.” His practice focuses on the format of a One-Man Show as an apparatus to explore the politics of black masculinity. His most recent experimental theatre work “The First Lefty,” was presented as part of Art In Odd Places (2021). He is also the auteur of a sold-out one-man play entitled “The Next Event” that was presented independently in 2017 at the historic Gene Frankel Theatre in New York City. Robert is not only a thespian, but a playwright, screenwriter, director, producer, and poet.

For the Public Closing Reception with Rebecca KellyG Performance
2022-02-19 13:00 - 15:00 | Local Project, 11-27 44th Rd, Long Island City, 11101
Join us for a closing reception and performance as part of the For The Public group exhibition. See full details about the For The Public exhibition.
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Rebecca KellyG will perform “Closing Cycles” at the closing. Closing Cycles is an immersive sound experience that uplifts the necessity of self-care/accountability for collective justice. Rebecca creates multi-layered vocal soundscapes and offers reflections on her soul journey while inviting those in the audience to engage and reflect on their own. In this performance-workshop, we will start to disentangle from the ideas of “self” given to us by the oppressive systems we live within, begin to tap into our own gold, and joyfully step into the sun.

Biography
Website | Instagram

Rebecca KellyG (she/her) is a Healing Sound Artist and Facilitator rooted in anti-racist practices. Her passion for both sound and social change has been with her since youth, evolving from a love for theater and performance into work as a civil rights attorney and flourishing in her current expression as a facilitator and sound artist. Rebecca supports individuals and groups in challenging oppressive conditioned beliefs, embracing accountability, and cultivating self-care for our personal and collective liberation. She engages in this work through workshops, immersive sound experiences, equity and justice consulting, and retreats. A selection of Rebecca’s previous partnerships include Artists Space, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Yale University Art Gallery. Her work has been included in spaces such as The Everywoman Biennial, Black Girl Magik, Infinite Possibilities Art Festival, and for The United State of Women.

Celebration of Black Life Cypher
2022-02-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Online
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Flux Factory presents the second of edition of the Black Life Cypher. A night of Black joy and artistry hosted by Trasonia Abbott and Natasha Lynne with tech support from Dawud Brown.
This cypher is open to Black artists of all creative backgrounds, once signed up the artist will be given up to 5 minutes to show off the art of their choosing. All are welcome to attend, however the mic will be open only to Black creatives.
Natasha’s talk will focus on the struggles for resources that most POC artists often face while in school (or home). We dive a little into her childhood to discuss how she gained the discipline to be skilled in various art forms. Through that, we discuss how the subject matter of her projects has shifted and how the change affects her work today.
Natasha Lynne is a multimedia artist with a degree in Fashion from Pratt Institute. Currently a professional painter, her business focuses on garment construction, crochet, and lifestyle products. A goal of hers has always been to find a way to blend all of her many mediums together through fashion and art.
Trasonia Abbott is a multi-disciplinary, non-binary artist from Richmond, Virginia. They graduated from Pratt Institute in 2020 with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Writing and a minor in Film. Trasonia is passionate about community building through arts and education. In the summer of 2020, they came together with some neighbors to found Queens Liberation Project, a mutual aid group mostly involved in resource redistribution events.

Virtual Drink + Draw Fundraiser for Astoria Food Pantry
2022-03-15 19:00 - 21:30 | Via Zoom
Virtual Drink and Draw Fundraiser for Astoria Food Pantry

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Join us for an experimental, welcoming and community-filled live figure drawing event! All ticket proceeds will go towards Astoria Food Pantry – a community space in Astoria shared with local mutual aid projects to engage in direct aid, activism, and social services, such as providing free, nutritious food to neighbours. Everybody is welcome to the event! No previous figure drawing experience is necessary.During this two-hour event, we will have four amaaaazing models posing in a variety of ways

The event will take place on Zoom, with the link being sent upon registration. Bring your favourite drawing materials and drinks! Suggested ticket prices are $5-20.

100% of ticket sales will be donated to Astoria Food Pantry (AFP). AFP is entirely funded through individual donations: “We don’t receive support from the government, and we don’t receive any money from grants or food from any major food banks. This independence allows us to not require anyone to show an ID or answer questions about their household, allowing us to serve everyone in our community, even if we don’t speak their language or if they want to keep their information private.” You can find out more about the necessary mutual aid and food justice work they do at www.astoriafoodpantry.com.

Let’s make marks together and support one another through local mutual aid initiatives!

If you have any access needs or questions, feel free to email organizers Lexy and Cody at lexyhotai@gmail.com and/ or seeyewnewyork@gmail.com.

Spread the word + hope to see you there!

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FAQQ: Where does it take place?A: Good ole’ Zoom! Links will be sent upon registration.

Q: Is it okay if I come late for the Drink + Draw?A: Yes! The event is ‘drop-in’ style, so come through any time between 7-9:30pm. Stay for as long as you can!

Q: Do we have to share our drawingsA: Not at all! In between sets, we spent about 5 minutes sharing our drawings (i.e. holding them up to the screen and being spotlit). It’s a very supportive environment, as folks often say encouraging words about the drawings. However, this is totally optional – if you’d prefer not to share, that is absolutely okay!

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Flux Saturday: Aleatoric Audio for an Infinite Island
2022-05-28 13:00 - 16:30 | Governors Island, Colonels Row House 404A
Aleatoric Audio for an Infinite Island is an experimental sound art event featuring performances and sound installations by artists and musicians from the NYC area working in sound art, generative art-making practices, livecoding, homemade instruments, art and code, experimental voice, modular synth and more. Presented as part of Flux Saturdays by Flux Factory, building 404 on Governor’s Island. This event is held in conjunction with Drone Day, an annual celebration of drone, community, and experimental sounds. Performances will be held outside. Sound installations will be presented indoors and outdoors. In conjunction with artwork presented as part of Parade of the Species, curated by Sally Beauty Twin.
InstallationsAmelia Marzec – All That Is Seen And Unseen – An installation with projected wycinanki, the Slavic form of papercutting, and sound performance using salvaged technology, objects, and the human voice.
Chirag Davé – Words generated using a markov chain trained on artist’s poetry spoken on a tape loop, accompanied by meandering ambient sounds.
Emily Saltz – Droning Bog: A floating bog that drones as it floats.
ExquisiteCorp – Drone Collector is a playable experimental drone-strument created as part of Drone Jam, presented at A MAZE Berlin/Festival of Games and Playable Media. This procedurally-generated post-apocalyptic environment is made up of terrain and characters generated via machine learning. Each run of the drone-strument produces different terrain levels and audio. Collisions between the player (controlled with arrow keys) and objects change the course of the unfolding drone audio environment.
Sabrina Sims – Interactive mixed media poem and ribbon hanging. Participants will collectively contribute to a contemplative poem installation.
Performances: casualsalad, Easterner, ele-khle-kha, ExquisiteCorp, Emily Saltz, Martha Skou with Performances in Flux, Messica Arson, Patrick Topitschnig and Julian Palacz, Sabrina Sims, windy 500
Flux Saturday, our monthly public program and potluck picnic on Governors Island, is on the last Saturday each month on May 28, June 25, July 30, August 27, September 24, and October 29. Flux Saturdays are organized by different artists each month and will take many forms including pop-up exhibitions, performances, screenings, artist presentations and more.

Parade of the Species
2022-06-04 14:00 - 16:00 | Governors Island, Colonels Row House 404A
Parade of the Species is an art show and parade celebrating the ecology of Governor’s Island. The parade will proceed in a loop starting and ending at Soisson’s Landing.

Puppeteers, visual artists, musical performers and more will make a brilliantly colorful procession in costumes and displaying art depicting the island’s species (oysters, hawks, squirrels, lichen, etc).

The art show will take place at Colonel’s Row House 404, the Flux Factory residency. Paintings, installations and costumes from more than 30 New York artists and many Governor’s Island artists in residence will be on display. The 174 species observed by island goers and confirmed on the iNaturalist website will make an appearance in the art.

The parade and show were conceptualized by Sally Beauti Twin at her LMCC Governer’s Island residency and will be realized via Flux Factory. The theme of all the associated events will be celebration, inclusiveness, ecological conservation, environmental protection and sustainability.

Participatory events associated with the parade include:

May 21, 12-5pm, Soft opening for art exhibition related to the species of the island May 22, 2-4pm Paper mache costume making class (parade prep) May 28 (Flux Saturday), 12-5pm opening party with musical performancesMay 29, 2-4pm, Open house for costume making for the parade June 4, 2-4pm, Parade on Governors Island June 11th, 4-6pm, Costume Ball June 12th, 4-6pm, Show Closing

Bio of Organizer: Sally Beauty Twin is a trans-woman artist living in New York City. Her practice includes creation and curation of visual art, music, and theater. In October 2021, she curated a three day performance art festival on Governor’s Island with Flux Factory at House 404, which included theater, poetry, dance, music, puppetry and more. Included was a three weekend fine arts show which she curated. Hundreds of events she has curated can be seen at www.amphoranewyork.com. Her art has recently been shown at Tomato Mouse Gallery, Spring/Break Art Fair, and in July at Mizuma and Kips. She received her arts education at Tulane University.

The canvases Sally paints are frequently small and packed with detail and jewel-toned hues, reflecting her generous spirit. Sometimes they are on the scale of theatrical backdrops and are sometimes used that way in the hundreds of performative events she curates. Curation at the intersection of quality and diversity is very important to Sally. A fifteen year New York resident, she is from New Orleans, where her family started Mardi Gras parades. Her artwork and curation pairs New York City’s high standards with New Orleans’s festiveness and surprise.

Creekworthy Opening: Films, Puppetry & Tattoos
2022-06-10 20:00 - 23:00 | Hunters Point South Kayak Ramp, P2QQ+9W Long Island City, Queens, NY
Rain delay date will be June 11 @ 8:00pm – 11:00 pm

Creekworthy is an event series taking place through the warm-weather months of 2022 on the Newtown Creek and in Hunters Point South Park. Creekworthy’s first installation will feature a selection of looped films related to this location, boat tours to U-Thant Island with on-boat puppet show, and temporary tattoos measuring the Creek’s filthiness.

RSVPs are now full for boat rides to U-Thant Island & puppet show by Raine Trainor. The entire outdoor space is wheelchair accessible, and please inquire to nat@fluxfactory.org with accessibility questions for boat rides. Be advised that the nearest subways are quite a walk from the kayak launch.

Participating Artists include Nate Dorr, Cody Ann Herrmann, Nathan Kensinger, Sindhu Thirumalaisamy, Raine Trainor, and Virginia Wagner.

About the artists and their artworks:

Virginia Wagner’s The Mothers is a new 2-D animation projected onto a floating screen, reflecting onto the creek as an imperfect double. The video follows an old woman who holes herself up in a large house on the water. She grows into the architecture as nature reclaims the house. Wagner’s work examines the tension between humans and the natural world. Raised in a family of biologists and trained as a scientific illustrator, she has a unique perspective from which to observe the psychological and physical effects of our quickly changing planet. She has recently been commissioned by National Geographic to create a series of paintings about climate change for a polar passenger ship and by the Guggenheim Works & Process.

Raine Trainor’s Tour Guide is run by unhinged puppets who consume the black mayo at the bottom of Newtown Creek for lunch daily. Inspired by that sustenance, the journey will take fellow seamen around U Thant/Belmont Island—Manhattan’s tiniest artificial island nestled in the shadow of the UN. Blending fact and fiction of the ever-changing physicality of the space, the guides will provide a filtered history of the past and present. The tour adrift, just an ear shot from the FDR, will range from the fluid ontology of the waterways to the layered existence of the micronation island. Native cormorants will look on as striped bass munch below, giving an alternate experience of this precious jewel of landmass. Raine Trainor has been sailing the New York waterways for 9 years, creating experiences and work within and without the East River.

Sindhu Thirumalaisamy’s Afterlife, an excerpt of The Lake and The Lake dwells in the peripheries of Bellandur lake in Bangalore, where the act of observation is interrupted by flying foam, noxious gases, daydreams, and questions from passers-by. The 2019 film won the jury award for Best Documentary at the 58th Ann Arbor Film Festival. Sindhu Thirumalaisamy is an artist and filmmaker whose work centres (un)common spaces and the possibilities for speech and action with/in them. Sindhu has worked in relation to hospitals, parks, streets, kitchens, temples, mosques, lakes and roadsides—spaces that hold potential for collective resistance and care.

Nathan Kensinger and Nate Dorr’s Reclaimed Ground is a 2016 documentary film documenting the wild landscape of Hunter’s Point South, which was completely demolished in 2016. At our event, the artists will project selections from this video onto surfaces within Hunter’s Point South Park, highlighting the species and green spaces that existed here before the park was built. Nate Dorr and Nathan Kensinger have been collaboratively documenting the waterfront of New York City for the past 16 years. Nathan is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores forgotten waterways, environmental disasters, and coastal communities endangered by sea level rise and climate change. Nate Dorr is a filmmaker and photographer working in the margins of the urban landscape, where deep interactions between architecture, ecology, history, and socioeconomic systems become more visible.

Cody Ann Herrmann’s Citizens Water Quality Testing Temporary Tattoos measure levels of enterococcus in the Creek. High concentrations of enterococcus typically indicate the presence of combined sewage overflows (CSO), and that people should avoid touching the water. Cody Ann Herrmann is a New York City based artist and community organizer with an interest in participatory design methods, public space, and urban resilience. Since 2014 Cody’s work has revolved around her hometown of Flushing, Queens, creating a series of projects critiquing policy related to land use and environmental planning in areas surrounding Flushing Bay and Flushing Creek.

Solstice Pop-Up Group Exhibition
2022-06-18 00:00 - 2022-06-26 23:59 | Governors Island, Colonels Row House 404A
Exhibition open hours are on Saturdays (June 18 & 25) 12pm-8pm, Sundays (June 19 & 26) 11am-5pm

Learn more about Flux Factory’s projects on Governors Island.

Solstice is a convening of eleven artists in celebration of the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, and the first day of summer. Each of these artists engages with light as a central component of their work, and this exhibition celebrates the sun and the energy that makes all life possible on Earth. Artists in this show use a multitude of light sources, which are then reflected, refracted, gathered, captured, directed, shattered, lensed, and bent into new form.

Participating artists include: Valeria Divinorum – @valeriadivinorum | Magali Duzant – @magaliduzant | Rita Jimenez – @iritadescent | Night Shining – @_nightshining | Camilla Padgitt-Coles – @ivymeadows | Steven Pestana – @stevenpestana | Sophia Sobers – @sobers__ | Jonathan Sims – @chromadetic | George Stadnik – @geostadnik | Testu Collecathantive – @testucollective | Anika Todd – @anikatodd

Solstice is curated by Jonathan Sims, a New York City based visual artist. ​​His visual arts practice is characterized by geometric abstractions and light. A consistent premise underlying his work is that a modern human’s relationship with the very ancient past is mirrored in their relationship with the distant future.

Place People at Spectacle Theater
2022-06-30 19:30 - 20:30 | Spectacle Theater, 124 S 3rd St, Brooklyn
Fluxers filmmakers Patrick Topitschnig and Catalina Alvarez will present a selection of films at Williamsburg’s cooperatively led Spectacle Theater.Purchase tickets at this link.

PLACEwherethereisawill, 2005, Video, 2:42, Austria, Patrick TopitschnigCarusel, 2017, Video, 5:47, Romania, Patrick TopitschnigKRIPPE/CRIB, 2012, Video, 6:06, Austria, Patrick TopitschnigMark&Garry, 2013, Video, 7:20, Australia, Patrick TopitschnigFELD, 2019, Video, 5:21, Mexico, Patrick Topitschnig

PEOPLESound Spring Seq. #3, 2020, Video, 10:50, USA, Catalina AlvarezSound Spring Seq. #6, 2020, Video, 11:03, USA, Catalina AlvarezPaco 2016, 16mm film transferred to Video, 12 min, USA, Catalina AlvarezRUMOR MACCHINA, 2009, Video, 2:44, Austria, Patrick Topitschnigschnitzl, 2006, 15sec, Video, Austria, Patrick Topitschnig

Approximate runtime: 65 minutes.

Co-Presented by Flux Factory

Catalina Alvarez makes choreographed films and experimental musicals. In her anthology documentary, Sound Spring, residents of Yellow Springs, Ohio become actors lip-syncing to their own interviews, narrating their village’s role in American history over hundreds of years. Her 16mm shorts include Paco, the story of a man who wants you to bounce on his lap. With this film and all her others, Catalina Alvarez gets to know her neighbors.

Patrick Topitschnig is an Austrian filmmaker and audio artist whose works also include collaborations with theatre projects.

“A kind of black humor pervades Patrick Topitschnig’s videos. Like in the horror-movie genre he works with audiovisual situations which affect the bodies of the spectators, provoking an uncertainty, sometimes a slight restlessness. Precisely composed images expose their own constructedness and testify to the artist’s interest in cinematic duration. Occasionally, this duration becomes a metaphor for the literal “lifetime” of protagonists, objects, and buildings. All aspects of cinematic sound – a composed score, music, spoken language – are used to reflect the connections between image and narration creating a very specific atmosphere, whereas the “real“ backstory of a work is often revealed much later, be it the history of an abandoned salt mine in Romania or a portrait of a high-tech funeral home in Australia.“ – Claudia Slanar

Remember Last Night? Archiving 50 Years of NYC Club History
2022-07-06 20:00 - 22:00 | Nowadays, 56-06 Cooper Ave. Ridgewood, NY
Find visiting and accessibility information for Nowadays.

Our community has been around for five decades, but little of our history has been preserved. Curator, researcher and NYC-based DJ PlayPlay will lead an intergenerational, multimedia panel discussion of this collective memory, before opening the floor to a conversation on nostalgia, shared knowledge, and the importance of documenting the legacy of our short-lived spaces. Guests are encouraged to bring memories and ephemera from their personal archives (flyers, records, objects, etc) to share.This event also serves as a preview of “Pink Flamingo: Clubs In Flux,” a series of three temporary nightclub installations with archival components, presented July 25-August 14 by PlayPlay (Jess Dilday) and Anton Lapov at Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre by Flux Factory.

Art During War: Fundraiser for Ukraine
2022-07-09 16:00 - 20:00 | Governors Island, Colonels Row House 404A
Flux Factory together with BIRUCHIY contemporary art project and SPILKA NGO is hosting a fundraising event in support of the people of Ukraine affected by the full-scale Russian invasion. We invite you to learn about the Ukrainian art and music scene and how they are finding new meaning and urgency for their work in the face of genocide and war atrocities. Together, we will discuss how the international art community can work in solidarity with anti oppressive and anti colonial resistance. This is a special opportunity to engage with representatives of Ukrainian culture, learn about recent artworks of Ukrainian artists, listen and dance to electronic music by Ukrainian producers, and purchase some merch to support Ukraine.

All proceeds from the event will go to the Charity foundation “East-SOS” and other Ukrainian charities.

Program:Presentation (and sale) from SPILKA

SPILKA NGO is a mutual aid organization founded by Ukrainian creatives and allies that has been organizing fundraising efforts for the people of Ukraine since February 2022, the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. SPILKA co-founder Betty Roytburd and other representatives from Spilka will talk about how their organization came together and about some of the work they have been doing.

“BIRUCHIY Transcarpathia 022. War time”: presentation by Olena Speranska

In her presentation Olena will introduce BIRUCHIY – the largest and longest-running international contemporary art residency in Ukraine. She will talk about the history, and development of BIRUCHIY which is an institutional partner of Flux Factory. In particular Olena will focus on the presentation of artworks created this summer during the residency in Transcarpathia, Ukraine. There Ukrainian artists and artists from the other countries were participating in mutual projects reflecting times of war.

“Intro to Ukrainian Electronic Music”: presentation and DJ set by Anton Lapov

Anton Lapov will give a brief introduction to the history and harsh contemporary reality of Ukrainian electronic music scene. During the presentation you will learn more about key moments in the development of the freedom-loving and powerful Ukrainian electronic music, sound-art, and listen to the best music videos. After the presentation Lapov will play a DJ set exclusively consisting of tracks by Ukrainian producers.

About participants:

SPILKA

Spilka NGO is a rapid response coalition consisting of over thirty volunteers, founded by artists and creatives in NYC, during the first days of Russian invasion of Ukraine. Together we function as an inclusive mutual aid relief network, redistributing resources to those most impacted in times of crisis. Spilka has cumulatively raised and redistributed over $120k having organized and participated in fundraising events such as film screenings, music shows and dinners in support of Ukraine.

Olena Speranska

Olena Speranska is an art manager, curator, Vice-President of nonprofit organization CONTEMPORARY ART RESEARCHES UNION, and Director of BIRUCHIY contemporary art project – the international art residency founded in 2006 and for 17 years of its existence united more than 300 artists and 14 art groups from 19 countries worldwide.

Anton Lapov

Anton Lapov is an artist, musician and curator from Ukraine. His practice combines methodologies of humanities with computational aesthetics. Recently Lapov develops interactive sound environments.

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Also, in continuation of a Flux Factory Ukrainian weekend we invite you to join a fundraiser party at Home Sweet Home July 10, 9pm-late. DJ PlayPlay and Anton Lapov behind the decks!

Creekworthy: Unfiltered
2022-07-23 18:00 - 21:00 | Hunters Point South Park Extension, https://goo.gl/maps/QmuDfLjeQLbDRskm9
Find our group at this pin!

For the second installment of Flux Factory’s Creekworthy series, which takes place on the water/waterfront near Hunters Point South park, Flux presents artists who educate and reflect on water contamination.

Jocelyn Beausire‘s “SLOW/DEEP a project in unbuilding” is a solo performance taking place from 6:30-8:30pm along the waters edge. In the artist’s words, “(Re)introducing intimacy between the site’s human inhabitants and the now long-distrusted waterways of the East River and Newtown Creek, I initiate a reparation. As a form of embodied archival practice, I unearth the site’s history – from Lenape territory to Dutch cornfields to industrial wasteland, to parkland surrounded by high-rise developments. Dragging bricks from my waist by white cloth lines and casting them into the water, I trace the edge path. Corn-based and completely biodegradable, their materiality presents an offering, a generative irony which undermines the brick’s symbolic violence and rewrites the relationships between builder, building, and place.”

Meanwhile, NYseaweed (Shanjana Mahmud and Luke Eddins) and Cody Herrmann will lead educational tabling.

Mahmud and Eddins are producing “an array of habitat panels for ribbed mussels that will be mounted along the bulkheads of Newtown Creek. The panels will be made of fiber reinforced cement with a coating of crushed oyster shells. As part of the fabrication process, on the 23rd the artists will invite the public “to put their fingers and hands in the wet and hardening cement surface to make the little recesses and grooves that give the mussel spat sheltered spots to settle in.”

Herrmann will set up a temporary tattoo station offering passer-bys free temporary tattoos, adhered with water from the Creek. The tattoos depict Citizens Water Quality Testing data, measuring levels of enterococcus bacteria, which reflect the presence of combined sewage overflows and times when people should avoid touching the water.

Pink Flamingo: Clubs in Flux Grand Opening
2022-07-29 21:30 - 2022-07-30 02:00 | Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre, 338 W 23rd St, New York, New York, United States
Join us for the grand opening of our group show on temporary nightclub spaces, Pink Flamingo: Clubs in Flux! After a talk with the curators, warm up the dancefloor with DJs Yo! Vinyl Richie, Kamari Carter and PlayPlay. Also, get a sneak peak of what’s in store for the first exhibition, Algoclub: Light Mode/Dark Mode, with live visuals by schwaz and more!

This event is part of the Pink Flamingo: Clubs In Flux Group Exhibition at the cell theatre.

A note on accessibility: Unfortunately, the cell is not wheelchair-accessible and visitors must go up a flight of stairs to access the space on the second floor.

Algoclub Workshops
2022-07-30 11:00 - 19:00 | Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre, 338 W 23rd St, New York, New York, United States
Join us for the following coding workshops from LiveCode.NYC:

-Sound as Collage: Mixed Media Zine Making by Sabrina Sims

-Intro to Digital Video Synthesis with Hydra by Cameron Alexander

-Beatmaking w/ Sonic Pi by Roxanne Harris

-Enough Music Theory For Live Coding by Azhad Syed

-Intro to Shaders for Programers by Char Stiles

**(suggested donation of $15/20, with no one turned away for lack of funds):

This event is part of the Pink Flamingo: Clubs In Flux Group Exhibition at the cell theatre.

A note on accessibility: Unfortunately, the cell is not wheelchair-accessible and visitors must go up a flight of stairs to access the space on the second floor.

July Flux Saturday: Dirty Time on Governors Island
2022-07-30 13:00 - 20:00 | Governors Island, Colonels Row House 404A
Join Dirty Time for a day full of activities celebrating dirt and dirtyness!We’ll start with a dirt collecting session from 1-3pm: Bring soil from somewhere in your life that isimportant to you or that has a good story behind it. We’ll accession your dirt into our travelingDirty Library and you can tell its story on our Dirty Library Hotline. You can also listen to otherpeople’s Dirty Stories.

At 3pm we’ll begin meandering. Join Dirty Time on a guided meditation/Dirty Walk where we’llget up close and personal with Governors Island’s dirt, and eventually make our way to theGovernors Island Dirtball Court and play a little Dirtball (bring a ball–any ball–if you’ve got one)together to warm up/get our juices flowing for….

Dirty Karaoke at 5:30pm! This is when we sing our hearts out, railing against the impendingdoom of climate change. Bring your favorite song about dirt, death or destruction and we’ll helpeach other keep our spirits up.

Dirty Time is Walker Tufts (@jw4lker) & Heather Kapplow (@heather_kapplow).Dirt is a time capsule – it holds a record of everything that’s ever happened. And it’s a timemachine – it breaks you down and shoots you into the future. But it’s here right now too. It feedsyou and it eats you.

Dirty Time is here to guide you on a journey. You have been taught that dirty is bad, but it’s nottrue. Dirty is good. It’s very, very good. Dirt is your companion, your portal to the past and thefuture. And here’s a dirty little secret: there is no clean that’s not dirty. Not the cloud, not theMetaverse, and definitely not the screen. Dirty Time is here to help you recognize your glorious,delicious dirtiness – your connection to all time through dirt. To help you feel your rootedness andto get you sprouting. Join us on the journey!
