 Today is a historical marker for the New York City based performance art venue, Grace Exhibition Space [NYC] as it celebrates 15 years of performance actions, happenings, lectures, workshops, festivals and so much more. Grace Exhibition space has focused primarily on contemporary performance art over its 15 year tenure but it has also provided a Space for experimental theatre and unconventional dance. Performance art luminaries such as Martha Wilson, Ron Athey, Linda Mary Montano and La Pocha Nostra have performed at Grace along with an incredibly diverse array of international and emerging artists. Co-Directors Jill McDermid and "Hoke" Hokanson have devoted their lives to not only creating space for performance art to happen but they have also cultivated a community. Even throughout the dreaded pandemic they continued presenting performance from artists across the world. Notably last spring nearly 100 artists contributed live, virtual performances from across 11 different countries. WILD & ALIVE opens today as a kick-off to their 15th year anniversary program. The exhibition will feature artifacts of past performances from both their Brooklyn and Lower East Side (NYC) locations. Expect an eclectic array of energized objects, piercingly captivating images and raw, hand held video documentation. The true essence of Grace and performance art as it has evolved in New York City will be on view and this is a must see. The exhibition is scheduled to continue through May 2022 with ongoing performance programming interspersed throughout the fall and spring seasons Visit the exhibition: Friday, September 17th 2021 9pm EST Grace Exhibition Space 182 Avenue C, New York, NY 10009 DONATE to help keep the space alive. The pandemic has made it extraordinarily challenging for performance spaces and Grace needs financial support now more than ever. A BRIEF HISTORY OF GRACEOpened in 2006 by friends and performance artists Jill McDermid and Melissa Lockwood, Grace Exhibition Space is devoted exclusively to Performance Art. We offer an opportunity to experience visceral and challenging works by the current generation of international performance artists whether emerging, mid-career or established. Our events are presented on the floor, not on a stage, dissolving the boundary between artist and viewer. This is how performance art is meant to be experienced and our mission is the glorification of performance art.
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 Give2Grace, As Grace has given to so many of us September 2020 By Quinn Dukes To say that the live performance community has been struck, traumatized and forced to reconstruct itself may be an understatement. The past 6 months have been enormously challenging for performance artists, curators and producers of live events. Throughout it all, several organizations have maintained momentum with online programming and Grace Exhibition Space led by Jill McDermid and Hoke Hokanson is one space that continues to persist. Grace Exhibition Space is dear to me. It was the catalyst of many personal and professional performance and curatorial projects. Grace provided an access point into an art world that otherwise seemed expensive and elusive. I am forever indebted to this organization and have spent the last 3 years serving on its Board of Directors. Next week, Grace launches an ambitious, week-long program devoted to celebrating the work presented at the new Lower East Side location while candidly calling for financial support. Next week, show up for the virtual events. Share the announcements and help ensure that one of the few remaining spaces committed to artists, maintains a presence within New York City. Donate Today.  #Give2Grace is a seven-day virtual event for Grace Exhibition Space about witnessing and giving to sustain a vital resource for local and international Performance Artists and secure the future of our organization. Streamed on our website and Facebook (@grace.exhibition.space), #Give2Grace begins Tuesday, September 22nd and concludes Monday, September 28th and will feature video premieres, updates from current artists-in-residence, interviews, and a culminating panel discussion. Featured Grace Space performance alums include: Miao Jiaxin, Martin O'Brien, Arantxa Araujo, Nicole Goodwin, Kris Grey, Alex Romania, Nicola Fornoni, and resident artists, Dee Dee Maucher and Dragonfly (Robin Laverne Wilson).
Grace Exhibition Space is evolving. Relocating to Manhattan renewed our energy and doubled down on our dedication to champion Performance Art in all its forms. A silver lining around the pandemic is that we have been given an opportunity to breathe, reflect, and identify ways to remain a continued resource for artists and audiences around the world. We need support in order to make this happen. The artists in this program are alums of Grace Exhibition Space who have presented work at the new Manhattan venue. This micro-retrospective of selected artists from the past two years embraces a multitude of styles, from body-based work to social or relational practices, embodying a wide range of approaches to the limitless medium of Performance Art. There are several ways that you can #Give2Grace: Paypal, Venmo or ActBlue. ActBlue Charities is a registered charitable organization formed to democratize charitable giving by being a flexible & free fundraising platform to harness grassroots power. Your support goes toward 2020/21 performance art commissions and securing a development coordinator to aid in our quest for sustainability. Grace Exhibition Space is a 501c3 organization and donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed under law. PROGRAM of EVENTS | Full Details Tuesday, Sept 22 - Day 1 @ 7pm EST | Facebook Video Premiere featuring Director of Grace Exhibition Space, Jill McDermid, interviewed by Jana Astanov. In an opening video, we look back at a select number of performances presented at Grace Exhibition Space spanning our past two years in the Lower East Side. Wed, Sept 23 - Day 2 @ 7pm EST | Facebook Video Premiere of documentation from the inaugural event at our new Manhattan location: 182 Avenue C. Featuring performance documentation of works by Miao Jiaxin (NYC/China) and Martin O'Brien (London, UK). Thurs, Sept 24 - Day 3 @ 7pm EST | Facebook Video Premiere highlighting performance documentation from international artists, Arantxa Araujo (Mexico) and Nicola Fornoni (Italy). Friday, Sept 25 - Day 4 @ 7pm EST | Facebook Video Premiere highlighting past performances from New York City Based artists Nicole Goodwin (NYC) and Kris Grey (NYC). Goodwin comes to performance through a career in writing and poetry. Grey, a gender-queer artist, also presents curatorial projects, writing, and studio production. Saturday, Sept 26 - Day 5 @ 7pm EST | Facebook Video Premiere highlights summer 2020 artists-in-residence, Dee Dee Maucher (NYC) and Dragonfly aka Robin Laverne Wilson (NYC). Throughout the residency, Maucher grew immune boosting foods while engaging with the local community to create 30k Seedlings & Bokashi Balls. The seedlings and bioremediating Bokashi balls distributed as a tribute to those who succumbed to Covid-19. Dragonfly presented a sociopoetic and orthographic exploration on the multiple definitions of FUGITIVE and how they each relate to the heightened understanding of Blackness and its endurance in the midst of never ending viral harms of casual, structural, systemic, epidemic and state-sponsored white supremacy. Sunday. Sept 27 - Day 6 @ 7pm EST | Facebook Video Premiere highlights past performers that are also fellow NYC performance community organizers with Alex Romania (The Woods Performance Space). Monday, Sept 28 - Day 7 Live Zoom Panel Discussion @ 7pm EST | #Give2Grace culminates in a conversation with all the featured artists along with co-directors of Grace Exhibition Space, Jill McDermid and Hoke Hokanson, moderated by Quinn Dukes.  We are so excited to invite you to the first of many Performance Is Alive events this fall! On Saturday, September 7th, we will present an encore screening of our video program originally presented at Satellite Art Show during SXSW. This screening program will be followed by a pre-fair party celebrating the upcoming Satellite Art Show NYC. Among the 15 video projects, our screening program features the work of award winning filmmakers, Tif Robinette + Ian Deleón (aka PULSAR) for their film, Velvet Cry, a story inspired by the 18th century hoax of Mary Toft. An unexpected character is positioned to execute karaoke in Ryan Hawk’s video, Sweet Surrender. Jessica Yatrofsky and NY FEM FACTORY’s video stars Lil’ Touches performing the story of a scorned woman “calling out” a former lover in Cunt Keeper. Award winning artist, Chun Hua Catherine Dong’s, The Sign, explores the visual culture of shame in relation to the body.  video still from Jessica Yatrofsky and NY Fem Factory's "C*nt Keeper" | Image courtesy of the artist. FEATURED VIDEOS
Scarlett by Christie Blizard (San Antonio, TX) • Mattress Power by Charles Chace and Ginger Wagg (Carrboro, NC) • The Sign by Chun Hua Catherine Dong (Montreal, Canada) • Velvet Cry by Tif Robinette + Ian Deleón (Gainesville, FL) • Un muro que parte el cuerpo en dos by Kiyo Gutiérrez (Guadalajara, Mexico) • Sweet Surrender by Ryan Hawk (Houston, TX) • The Little Hand of Love by Pei-Ling Ho (New York, NY) • Contingencia by Manuel López (Daimús, Spain) • Mountains, Joshua Tree by Jenna Maurice (Denver, CO) • Men Do Not Nourish by Maryam Nazari (London) • The Pelvic Theatre Presents the History of Hysteria by Alison Pirie (Brooklyn, NY) • Hábito by Rocha & Polse (Barcelona, Spain) • WE ARE ALL WHORES by Natacha Voliakovsky (Buenos Aires, Argentina) • Cunt Keeper by Jessica Yatrofsky and NY FEM FACTORY (New York, NY) EVENT DETAILS Location: Grace Exhibition Space, 182 Avenue C., New York, NY 11206 6pm Screening program followed by a discussion from Satellite Art Show team 7:30pm-11pm Drinks and Dancing Cost: $10 donation (proceeds go to fund the performance program at the fair) Can't make the pre-fair party? Please consider sending us a tax-deductible donation here. We hope to see you soon! 
Ayana Evans, Panoply Performance Laboratory, 2018, photo credit Brian McCorkle
"Sing out loud, in ESTHER’S HONOR!"
The final command from Ayana Evans during Panoply Performance Laboratory’s (Brooklyn, NY) closing festival, Metamorphosis (Nov 16-18) on Saturday, November 17th. Evans’ is holding her signature sparklers as neon blue & green wrist bracelets sway in the dark to the beat in nearly every hand and the room erupts in song, “Your love is my love and my love is your love,” all faces turned towards Esther Neff. We are two thirds of the way through performances on the second evening of the festival and so it’s time for tears, time for joy, seeing soft light in the dark, yes. Co-founded by Esther Neff and Brian McCorkle, Panoply Performance Laboratory (or PPL) has served as a site of experimentation in performance art for nearly 7 years at it’s Meserole St. location in Bushwick. Before that, PPL's PERFORMANCY FORUM has been hosted by other sites, among them the infamous Grace Exhibition Space (which recently relocated from Brooklyn to Manhattan due to the rising price of rent). Metamorphosis marks the transition of a decade-worth of organizing and collaborative community work that has, both out of necessity and choice, resisted the gate-keeping capitalistic model of the art world, providing integral support to the performance scene in Brooklyn and beyond. NYC’s East Village is "graced" with performance art by prominent Brooklyn performance space9/7/2018 
Grace Exhibition Space visit and plan within the new location days after receiving the keys. Pictured from l-r: Hoke Hokanson, Miles Pflanz, Daniella Lagaccia, Preach R. Sun, Quinn Dukes, Jill McDermid. Photo by Coco Dolle
Tonight, one of Brooklyn’s prominent performance art spaces, Grace Exhibition Space initiates their fall programming within the walls of their new home on Avenue C (and 11th St.) This move marks a historic transition for the nonprofit gallery space that has fostered the growth and community of Brooklyn-based performance artists and organizations since 2006. Co-Directors, Jill McDermid and Erik “Hoke” Hokanson continue charging forward with the promotion of and “glorification of performance art.”
The news of a Brooklyn space moving to Manhattan is quite rare, especially for a nonprofit organization focused on performance art. But one Bushwick rent increase demand after another led to a clear need for an address change. McDermid hopes to forge relationships between the Brooklyn performance community and the East Village through regular performance programming paired with exhibitions and workshops. Tonight, Grace at 182 Avenue C features performance work from 5 artists hailing internationally and locally: Martin O'Brien, Miao Jiaxin, Jaguar Mary, Esther Neff and Oya Damla. Location: 182 Avenue C, New York, NY 10009 Performances begin at 6pm. We look forward to this event kick off and hope to see you there!
 Chloë Bass situation at the School at the Museum of Fine Arts (Petrichor/Panoply exchange) | Photo by Tiara Jenkins Performance art organizer-extraordinaires, Leili Huzaibah, Esther Neff and Kaia Gilje have taken on yet another enormously ambitious series of performance events which promise to "host artists and active citizens who are working in performative ways, moving beyond the trending commercialization of art “about” politics." Under the title of "JUST SITUATIONS," over 50 artists are slated to participate/perform/activate the nebulous web of un/convention. The “political science fair” (as it is also referred to by the organizers) begins this evening, Thursday, July 13th at Panoply Performance Lab, Brooklyn, NYC. JUST SITUATIONS opens their programming with specific invitations. Chloë Bass invites viewers to consider how our lives have changed since the election of the 45th president while J. COATL/KEVIN LENNY invites guests to consider how to "make space for engagement."
All events during JUST SITUATIONS are "pay-what-you can" with a sliding scale recommended donation of $5-$20. You can also support this incredible project and the participating artists on the festival's Generosity page. Full festival details are available here.
 MY DINNER WITH ANDREA: THE PIECE FORMERLY KNOWN AS TORTURE PLAYLIST premiers at New York Live Arts this week (February 9-11) We are back to the business of sharing our top performance event pics with you! Get ready... the artists presenting performances this month are the type of thoughtful and inquisitive artists that we love to support. See you in the live performance realm... - Quinn Dukes
 NYUGEN SMITH | Fringe Arts Theater: Philadelphia, PA | 2016 Over the past 6 years, I've witnessed the ebb and flow New York's performance art community. Many performance artists who presented work in 2010 have left the discipline entirely due to high living costs and low (to no) performance honorariums. Fortunately, several performance artists have evolved their practice and successfully developed their careers through exhibitions, grants and awards. Multi-media artist, NYUGEN SMITH (NJ), is one such example and has established himself as a staple within the New York performance community. Smith was the first performance artist to cross my invisible "this-is-a-safe-distance-from-a-messy-performer" boundary. Adorned in a white wig and blue petticoat, Smith gnawed on sugar cane inches away from my face. Cane juice dripped freely while puffs of white baby powder flew around Vaudeville Park (Brooklyn, NY). The layered scent of cane juice and baby powder paired with Smith's unwavering gaze diluted the performer/viewer "stage." This experience changed my approach toward viewing. I'll never forget it! In our latest Artist Feature, Smith discusses intercepting boundaries while exploring the role of performer and viewer as director. Enjoy! - Quinn Dukes QUINN DUKES: Can you talk about your practice as a multimedia artist? Does one medium influence the other? NYUGEN SMITH: For me, working with various media allows for more opportunities to play. As ideas are generated, I go to the medium that I feel will allow me to communicate most effectively at that moment, for that particular project. I often speak about this fluidity in terms of spoken language-sometimes one needs to use another language to get closest to saying what needs to be said. It also comes from the the need to be able to make at any moment. One medium does influence the other in my practice. On a subconscious level, choices and actions are primarily made and cannot be separated from the sum of my experiences. On a conscious level, what is learned from, experienced, through one medium is intentionally utilized during the creative process. I ask myself, for example, how does what I know about lighting for on camera video performance inform lighting choices for live action? What have I learned from collage that can be useful in drawing and performance? QD: Do you often use your sculptural and/or collage objects within your performances? NS: Yes, I often include and use some of my sculptural objects in my performances. I often find that they reveal new meaning when activated in thin this way. QD: You are in the final stages of your MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, how has your work evolved from this experience? NS: So much can be said about the impact of my MFA studies at SAIC on the evolution of my practice. I definitely read a whole lot more. Assigned readings have led me to writers, thinkers, artists and others who have interesting things to say and ask important questions. QD: Who are some of these authors? NS: Authors such as Fred Moten, Malidoma Patrice Somé, André Schwarz-Bart, Robert Farris Thompson, Claudia Rankine, and Walter Benjamin, have been impactful. I read slowly, so teaching full-time in a high school and maintaining an active studio practice often left me with little time to read a lot. Since I began grad school, I slowed down on the amount of objects I have produced. The amount of reading and writing required for my courses naturally shifted me to spending more time with my head in the books than in the studio. The amount of performance work I have done has increased significantly during this period. It was a welcomed transition and I truly enjoyed it. Certain texts caused me to think about my work on other levels and also strengthened my ability to speak about my work within other contexts. My professors, studio mentors and classmates have also been inspirational and influential to my practice through their formal and informal critiques, suggested readings, art practices, and their writings. QD: What led to an increase in performance? NS: Being a part of Social Health Performance Club has played a significant role in increasing the visibility of my Performance work and has subsequently led to more requests and opportunities. During this time of study- being in my head more, has definitely strengthened the way I have developed in this art form. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago nominated me for the 2016 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship and I was one of nine artists to receive this national award. The fellowship will provide me with support to make my transition to working on my art full-time. QD: So, this is why you decided to leave your teaching position? NS: Yes. It was my dream, as with many artists, to be able to rise each day and tend to the business of their art practice. So, to honor this gift, to give it all that it requires of me, to make the most of this opportunity, stepping out of the classroom was necessary. QD: Your performance at Gallery Sensei (NYC) in May 2016, relied heavily on audience participation and audience member as performer. Can you discuss your intentions for participation in this particular work? NS: I'm glad to know that "audience member as performer" was evident. I am interested in developing some ideas where I am not a participant, but the director. The work at Gallery Sensei, was the second work where I experimented with "directing" as performance. The first was a work titled, iambic pentameter, made during an edition of Tif Robinette and Ian Deleón's PULSAR in Brooklyn, NY. That work was developed after reading Fred Moten's Resistance of the Object: Aunt Hester's Scream and reflecting on "(b)etween looking, being looked at, spectacle and spectatorship, enjoyment and being enjoyed..." This Moten text was shared with my by my studio mentor, Steffani Jemison after conversation and review of a previous performance. So, with this Moten text and directing - all swirling in my head, I developed the work presented at PULSAR and Gallery Sensei. My intentions for the participation were manifold. I am interested in what happens when an audience member - who volunteers to participate - is given a task to perform without any verbal or written instructions. I am directing the action involved in the task, however, essentially the volunteer cum performer can essentially take it in another direction if she/he chooses and. This can potentially shift the work dramatically and that becomes part of the permanent record of the piece. It's also about memory. How does the audience participation affect how I remember the work and how it is remembered by the audience? In the beginning of the performance I had them place a rope around themselves in the back room and drew everyone in very close- with me in the center before I blew the conch shell and drank a glass of wine. How did this action of bringing the group together in the beginning so closely affect their willingness to participate and empathize with those who volunteered during the rest of the performance? QD: Your last performance was void of any verbal communication yet incredibly directive. Has this method of guidance ever led to audience misinterpretation? NS: I'm not sure if there was any misinterpretation by the audience. I don't know how to measure this. There have been times when the participant did not understand my direction in the performance and did something other than what I intended for them to do. One thing that I have always stressed with my students is that there is always a way to use whatever it is that doesn't go as planned. Sometimes they can be used immediately and other times, just save them because they can be useful later. So, as these moments occur during the performance, I allow them to inform how the works develop. For example, during the performance at Gallery Sensei, the artist Ayana Evans volunteered to participate. I gave her the task of twirling an umbrella while holding it over her head. I intended to have three volunteers seated on the bench, but when I signaled to her (by licking my finger and drawing an invisible X) to sit on the bench, she stood on it. It immediately reminded me of something else I wanted to experiment with, a choir as part of a performance. So I signaled to the other volunteer to stand on the bench also and I began to conduct the two person choir. It was totally unexpected and was a beautiful transition to the part of the performance that followed. QD: Where does your interest in a performative choir stem from? NS: I just love the way the voice can move the mind, body and spirit. In my life I have spent a significant amount of time in Spiritual Baptist Churches in Trinidad, Catholic and Black and churches of different faiths the U. S. So I have experienced the performative act of using the voice for most of my life. I am interested in what voices working together can produce. QD: Your recent writings are like stream of consciousness word mappings tying together tangents of learned and lived histories. What is your intent with the performance writings? NS: In relation to my writings about my performances, then yes, I do look at these writings as a poetic written extension of the performances. In regards to my writing related to my photographs, social media posts, I see this writing as poetry. This is another way that my Grad program has had an impact on my work. Writing is central to our program. The poetics not only of language but in all that I make as an artist is important to me. I have had the honor and privilege of studying with, learning from, reading and collaborating with some brilliant artists/writers such as Sandrine Schaefer, Cheryl Pope, Julian Gato, Alissa Chanin in the last two years and this has had a huge impact on my writing style. For the majority of visiting artists in my MFA program including Glenn Ligon, Eileen Myles, Yvonne Rainer, Allejandro Sesarco, Lynn Tillman, writing is their medium or included as an important part of their practice. From 1994-2001, I wrote, recorded and performed spoken word poetry and rap music. So even before I devoted myself to the visual arts, writing poetry was a part of me. So much can be said by not saying much at all. When writing creatively, I think about using words sparingly. Language can be used to include and exclude. To open and to close. I think about opening my writing. Leaving room for breathing in what is being said, what is being implied, and what can be derived from the sum of absence and presence in my writing.  NYUGEN SMITH | iambic pentameter: PULSAR: Brooklyn, NY | 2016 QD: Do you have performance art mentors? NS: I don't have any performance art mentors per se. However, some people and institutions that have had an impact on my performance work recently are, Grace Exhibition Space (I've learned so much from the extensive list of brilliant artists who have made and continue to make performances here and are part of GES' projects), Hector Canonge, Sandrine Schaefer, Ian Deleón and Tif Robinette, Cheryl Pope, Clifford Owens, yon Tande, Steffani Jemison, Denenge Akpem, and Marilyn Arsem. There are others who I don't know personally and have never had a conversation with, but research their work to learn. QD: What do you think about the contemporary performance art community in Brooklyn versus Chicago? NS: I don't know the performance art community in Chicago. Since I have only spent a relatively short time there, I have not had the opportunity to truly become a part of that community there. There are some wonderful artists there that I know who are making great performance work. I've been in exhibitions with and have begun having conversations about working with performance artists from Chicago in the future. The community in Brooklyn is one that has encouraged and supported my growth as an artist who also works in performance. I have found that the community is thriving, growing and despite lack of critical reviews, limited inclusion in the programming and conversation surrounding performance at major institutions in NYC, the work continues. Thanks to platforms such as Performance is Alive, Incident magazine, PULSAR's Trouble Performing Podcast, Grace Exhibition Space, LiVEART.US (at the Queens Museum), artists who make performances in Brooklyn and surround area have spaces for to make work, have conversation, critical dialog, and build community. QD: What is next for you? Any upcoming exhibitions or performances to note? NS: A couple upcoming projects are confirmed: School of the Art Institute of Chicago MFA Thesis exhibition thru July 31st Sullivan Galleries, 33 S. State St., 7th floor Chicago, IL Yet to be titled Solo exhibition at Walsh Gallery at Seton Hall University Tuesday, September 6th – Friday, October 14th 400 S. Orange Ave South Orange NJ. October, Art in Odd Places 2016: RACE. Think High a Collaborative work with Thomas Powers More info to come: http://www.artinoddplaces.org/ Updates can be accessed on my website: http://www.nyugensmith.com/#!exhibits/yxir1 NYUGEN SMITH |
ABOUT nyugen smith | Drawing heavily on his West Indian heritage, Nyugen is committed to raising the consciousness of past and present political struggles through his practice which consists of sculpture, installation, video and performance. He is influenced by the conflation of African cultural practices and the residue of European colonial rule in the region. Responding to the legacy of this particular environment, Nyugen’s work considers imperialist practices of oppression, violence and ideological misnomers. While exposing audiences to concealed narratives that distort reality, he destabilizes constructed frameworks from which this conversation is often held. |
ARAHMAIANI in performance at Grace Exhibition Space | April 2016 | photo courtesy of Miao Jiaxin
What will we do, and how will we survive doing it?
Arahmaiani and Ayana Evans in performance during 21st Century Suffragettes at Grace Exhibition Space.
The term “suffragette” was coined in 1903 by London journalist Charles Hands to mock and ridicule members of the Women’s Social and Political Union in the UK. Long since reified, curator Jill McDermid uses the term to conceptualize a contemporary “suffragette” in her Spring performance art series at Grace Exhibition Space and Rosekill Farm, 21st Century Suffragettes. The right to vote is analogized here by a right to perform, to speak, to present viewpoints and personal histories, to effect change regarding the positions and situations of women around the world.
Performing on Friday, April 29 at Grace’s famed second-floor loft on Broadway, neither Arahmaiani Feisal (who goes only by Arahmaiani) and Ayana Evans claim to represent all women, or put forward any specific changes to legislature. Instead, their feminist activism is personal, social, and rooted in the political contexts of their embodied lives.
Arahmaiani appears initially without costume, without need for a signifying white dress favored by late Edwardian-era European suffragettes and previous performance artists in this series alike. She wears jeans and clogs and walks into the center of the performance space carrying a white candle and meditation bells. Matter-of-factly, she describes her history of persecution and political censorship in and forced expatriation from her home country of Indonesia.
She begins by stating simply that she will ask audience members to perform. Because, she says, “in 1983 I was forced to leave my home after being arrested by the military…”
As a woman with mixed religious background and as a columnist, artist, and human rights activist, criticism and challenge to fundamentalist Islamist military regimes in Indonesia and Malaysia have left Arahmaiani under attack throughout most of her adult life. She has received death threats (to “drink her blood”) due to her art works "Ëtalase" and "Lingga-Yoni" and her columns and writing about LGBT issues and Buddhism in the newspapers Suara Merdeka ("Voice of Independence") and Kompas have endangered herself and other members of all-women artist groups. Arahmaini has escaped to Sydney, Perth, and Singapore, each time she is attacked refusing to stop criticizing the politicians and corporations that, Arahmaini writes, are usually supporting radical Islamists, using fear and terror to distract people attention from the “real serious problems politically and economically.”
Arahmaiani references “morality police” (shariah law enforcers) near the end of her speech and we are reminded of the 2013 proclamation in Lhokseumawe that women must sit side-saddle on motorbikes, since straddling is “sexually suggestive,” “unfeminine” and “un-Islamic.” In this light, Arahmaiani’s casual and “masculine” performance garb make sense and appears to be far more political than it may seem to Western women; instead of bloomers and short-brim round late Edwardian hat, Arahmaiani presents herself partially through her lack of a headscarf, her bare forearms, her powerful gaze coolly pouring into the eyes of the audience members sitting, crouching, and standing in a semi-circle around her.
Arahmaiani and Ayana Evans in performance during 21st Century Suffragettes at Grace Exhibition Space.
The term “suffragette” was coined in 1903 by London journalist Charles Hands to mock and ridicule members of the Women’s Social and Political Union in the UK. Long since reified, curator Jill McDermid uses the term to conceptualize a contemporary “suffragette” in her Spring performance art series at Grace Exhibition Space and Rosekill Farm, 21st Century Suffragettes. The right to vote is analogized here by a right to perform, to speak, to present viewpoints and personal histories, to effect change regarding the positions and situations of women around the world.
Performing on Friday, April 29 at Grace’s famed second-floor loft on Broadway, neither Arahmaiani Feisal (who goes only by Arahmaiani) and Ayana Evans claim to represent all women, or put forward any specific changes to legislature. Instead, their feminist activism is personal, social, and rooted in the political contexts of their embodied lives.
Arahmaiani appears initially without costume, without need for a signifying white dress favored by late Edwardian-era European suffragettes and previous performance artists in this series alike. She wears jeans and clogs and walks into the center of the performance space carrying a white candle and meditation bells. Matter-of-factly, she describes her history of persecution and political censorship in and forced expatriation from her home country of Indonesia.
She begins by stating simply that she will ask audience members to perform. Because, she says, “in 1983 I was forced to leave my home after being arrested by the military…”
As a woman with mixed religious background and as a columnist, artist, and human rights activist, criticism and challenge to fundamentalist Islamist military regimes in Indonesia and Malaysia have left Arahmaiani under attack throughout most of her adult life. She has received death threats (to “drink her blood”) due to her art works "Ëtalase" and "Lingga-Yoni" and her columns and writing about LGBT issues and Buddhism in the newspapers Suara Merdeka ("Voice of Independence") and Kompas have endangered herself and other members of all-women artist groups. Arahmaini has escaped to Sydney, Perth, and Singapore, each time she is attacked refusing to stop criticizing the politicians and corporations that, Arahmaini writes, are usually supporting radical Islamists, using fear and terror to distract people attention from the “real serious problems politically and economically.”
Arahmaiani references “morality police” (shariah law enforcers) near the end of her speech and we are reminded of the 2013 proclamation in Lhokseumawe that women must sit side-saddle on motorbikes, since straddling is “sexually suggestive,” “unfeminine” and “un-Islamic.” In this light, Arahmaiani’s casual and “masculine” performance garb make sense and appears to be far more political than it may seem to Western women; instead of bloomers and short-brim round late Edwardian hat, Arahmaiani presents herself partially through her lack of a headscarf, her bare forearms, her powerful gaze coolly pouring into the eyes of the audience members sitting, crouching, and standing in a semi-circle around her.
Estonian group NonGrata ignites the NYC Anarchist Art Festival, feminist porn artist, Madison Young, presents a new performance at Grace Exhibition Space, previously featured artist PREACH R. SUN premieres a new performance video AND MORE! An incredible weekend for performance art. - QUINN DUKES
FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2016
| MADISON YOUNG | 21st Suffragettes at Grace Exhibition Space 840 Broadway, Brooklyn, New York 9pm Door, 9:30 Performance $10 Donation Madison Young (CA) is an author, filmmaker, and body based performance artist dedicated to creating space for radical love. Young’s work spans from documenting our sexual culture in her 44 Internationally screened and award-winning feminist erotic films to curating over 500 performance art and visual art exhibitions through out the country in the past decade including exhibitions at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Highways Theater in Santa Monica, and The Body Archive in New York City. | AnarkoArtLab, NYC Anarchist Art Festival Judson Memorial Church | 55 Washington Sq S, New York, New York 10012 7pm-3am AnarkoArtLab in celebrating the 10th year of the NYC Anarchist Art Festival, to be held in conjunction with the 10th NYC Anarchist Book Fair and Film Festival, at the Judson Memorial Church, in Manhattan, NYC. This year’s Anarchist Arts Festival concept is OUTLAW ART. |
SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016
| LIVEART.US Queens Museum | New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, New York 4:30pm-7:30pm LiVEART.US features works where the body, as main instrument for artistic creation and expression, is the catalyst for sensorial experiences, cultural interpretation, and critical reflection. This month’s artists have been invited to participate in the program with new works that explore Corporeal Boundaries in their relation with circumscribed familiar and remote geographies. Participating Artists: Lital Dotan (Israel), Joseph Ravens (United States), Kuldeep Singh (India), Alejandro Chêllet (Mexico), Nao Nishihara (Japan), and Kledia Spiro (Albania). Organized and curated by Hector Canonge. | PREACH R. SUN THE WAKE: Reclamation of the Black Fist | VIDEO PREMIERE 1:30pm On February 19th in Detroit at the site of the Joe Louis fist Preach R. Sun performed my latest guerrilla action. The action, entitled THE WAKE: Reclamation of the Black Fist, is the first action in the current phase/series of the ONE-MAN project, Amerikkkan Spirits [Minor Acts]. This Saturday he will be posting the video of this action on this Facebook event page. |
SUNDAY, APRIL 17, 2016
| PULSAR & INCIDENT MAGAZINE PRESENT: Trouble Performing A performance art podcast & potluck 1717 Broadway, 2nd floor, Brooklyn, NY 4pm-7pm Join PULSAR & INCIDENT MAGAZINE for their 3rd monthly podcast discussion of performance art followed by a potluck. |
METTE LOULOU VON KOHL | Returning through soil. Beginning through stone" | 2014
I had the great pleasure of meeting and working with our next featured artist, Mette Loulou von Kohl, through the performance series The Sphinx Returns at Grace Exhibition Space. von Kohl presented an emotionally charged performance fusing her personal and political relationship with the historic figure Leila Khaled. Within the feature below, von Kohl reveals elements of her performance practice, thoughts on "gender politics" and the integration of choreography and performance art. - Quinn Dukes
// Performed by: Preach R Sun w/ Whitney V. Hunter // Filmed and edited by: David Ian Griess
I am truly pleased to premiere the performance video, "I Have A Dream: The Invasion of The Boom-Bap." A video collaboration between Preach R. Sun and David Ian Griess. The original work was performed by Preach R. Sun with Whitney V. Hunter on the streets of Brooklyn, NY in May 2015. In an interview with Preach and David, we discuss their collaboration and the driving force of this work toward revolution. As we enter a holiday weekend symbolizing freedom, it is critical that we reflect on the disproportionate freedoms across the United States. We have a lot of work to do. In the words of Preach R. Sun, now is the time to "RISE UP." - Quinn Dukes
Grace Exhibition Space Directors, Erik "Hoke" Hokanson and Jill McDermid-Hokanson | photo by Miao Jiaxin
Grace Exhibition Space launched the Great American Performance Art Festival (GAPAF) in February 2015. The festival runs thru June 2015 and is the long-term vision of Jill McDermid-Hokanson, (chief curator, director and co-founder of Grace Exhibition Space). Thus far the festival has offered performance workshops, lectures and of course- live performances from both local and international artists.
I was astonished to receive an invitation announcing live performances by seminal performance artists, Linda Mary Montano and Martha Wilson in conjunction with GAPAF. Both Montano and Wilson have presented performances around the world since the 1970's. They shared the roster with both seasoned and new performance art practitioners. As the evening grew closer, the artist roster grew. Ultimately, I witnessed nearly 5 hours of performance art from 9 performers! The following day Preach R. Sun led a street action as a continuation of the festival. Overall the programming was truly inspiring.
After a weekend of viewing historic performances, I was reminded of the incredible significance and influence of the curator. The Great American Performance Art Festival is a wonderful example of artists curating artists. It provides an audience and space for performance art- a medium that scarcely receives funding. Of course, GAPAF is not the only festival of its kind (thank goodness!). Rapid Pulse in Chicago is currently in its final days of an equally compelling group of performers and events.
For this week's post, Jill McDermid-Hokanson provides further insight into curating performance art in America. All too often the efforts of curators are overlooked, so I am pleased to share our conversation with you. Enjoy! -Quinn
I was astonished to receive an invitation announcing live performances by seminal performance artists, Linda Mary Montano and Martha Wilson in conjunction with GAPAF. Both Montano and Wilson have presented performances around the world since the 1970's. They shared the roster with both seasoned and new performance art practitioners. As the evening grew closer, the artist roster grew. Ultimately, I witnessed nearly 5 hours of performance art from 9 performers! The following day Preach R. Sun led a street action as a continuation of the festival. Overall the programming was truly inspiring.
After a weekend of viewing historic performances, I was reminded of the incredible significance and influence of the curator. The Great American Performance Art Festival is a wonderful example of artists curating artists. It provides an audience and space for performance art- a medium that scarcely receives funding. Of course, GAPAF is not the only festival of its kind (thank goodness!). Rapid Pulse in Chicago is currently in its final days of an equally compelling group of performers and events.
For this week's post, Jill McDermid-Hokanson provides further insight into curating performance art in America. All too often the efforts of curators are overlooked, so I am pleased to share our conversation with you. Enjoy! -Quinn
Jill McDermid has curated an ambitious schedule of performances over the next 2 months on the occasion of the Great American Performance Art Festival at Grace Exhibition Space. Don't be misled by the title- this programming presents artists from around the world.
Tomorrow, March 27th, the space presents live performances by Ivy Castellanos, Kledia Spiro, Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Rudi Salpietra, Fritz Donnelly and Uniska Wahala Kano.
Performances commence at 9:30pm.
Grace Exhibition Space, 840 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY 11206.
grace-exhibition-space.com
Tomorrow, March 27th, the space presents live performances by Ivy Castellanos, Kledia Spiro, Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Rudi Salpietra, Fritz Donnelly and Uniska Wahala Kano.
Performances commence at 9:30pm.
Grace Exhibition Space, 840 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY 11206.
grace-exhibition-space.com
VestAndPage | Andrea Pagnes and Verena Stenke in A Morphologic Journey (On the Boarders of our Bodies) II, KARST Gallery, Plymouth, UK, 2014. Photograph by Dom Moore.
For our next Artist Feature, we present the work and words of a provocative and ambitious performance art duo, VestAndPage, Verena Stenke (DE) and Andrea Pagnes (IT). Not only does the collaborative present performances and workshops across the globe, but they also curate the Venice International Performance Art Week. I was lucky enough to meet the pair at Grace Exhibition Space in Brooklyn, NY for their MayDay workshop (2010). During the workshop, VestAndPage reconnected us (the participants) to our bodies, to our breath, our heart rhythms, our physical agility and emotional fragility. It is through these same physical and emotional connections that the pair explores their own work.
For this feature, I asked Verena and Andrea to discuss their approach toward live performance versus film, their evolution toward performance art and inspirational/influential artists - questions that I deem integral to this site. They provided wonderfully elaborate and insightful responses of which you can find in full below. I hope you enjoy - Quinn Dukes
For this feature, I asked Verena and Andrea to discuss their approach toward live performance versus film, their evolution toward performance art and inspirational/influential artists - questions that I deem integral to this site. They provided wonderfully elaborate and insightful responses of which you can find in full below. I hope you enjoy - Quinn Dukes
Well hello world!
Today embarks the beginning of a new venture in performance art. My name is Quinn Dukes. I am a New York based performance artist, activist and curator. I have viewed powerful performances from artists based around the world. My viewing experiences are largely due to the incredible curatorial efforts of Jill McDermid at Grace Exhibition Space, Brookyln, NY.
The performance art community emerged in the 1960's during a radical time in art history. These performances are heavily documented and readily available for emerging artists and academic scholars. During my time in academia, I have come to realize that institutions struggle to keep up with performance artists working TODAY. This site is intended to share the names and work of influential performance artists working today, around the world. Performance is Alive.
Today embarks the beginning of a new venture in performance art. My name is Quinn Dukes. I am a New York based performance artist, activist and curator. I have viewed powerful performances from artists based around the world. My viewing experiences are largely due to the incredible curatorial efforts of Jill McDermid at Grace Exhibition Space, Brookyln, NY.
The performance art community emerged in the 1960's during a radical time in art history. These performances are heavily documented and readily available for emerging artists and academic scholars. During my time in academia, I have come to realize that institutions struggle to keep up with performance artists working TODAY. This site is intended to share the names and work of influential performance artists working today, around the world. Performance is Alive.
If you find yourself in New York, make sure to check the calendar for Grace Exhibition Space!
CONTRIBUTORS
Ian Deleón
Quinn Dukes
Alexandra Hammond
Luke Mannarino
Polina Riabova
Sarah G. Sharp
Alex Sullivan
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