PARK EPHEMERA AT NEWHOUSE CENTER
After a dozen years of gestation, pause, and recontextualization my collaboration on the performance work PARK directed by the brilliant choreographer Kathy Westwater with design by Seung Jae Lee is being reintroduced to the world through installations and performances at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Fresh Kills, and Gibney Dance between August and December of this year. More details are forthcoming. For now, here are the specs for the opening party for the exhibition of ephemera from PARK performances, which will include one of my trash sestets—to be performed from live in September in dialogue with Celina Su:
Celebrate the opening of three new art exhibitions at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art:
Kathy Westwater: PARK Ephemera
Julia Forrest: Transcendence
Here We Are: Young, Black, and Indigenous Women in the Art World
WHEN: August 20 | 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM
WHERE: Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor (Buildings C&G) and Shinbone Alley
ADMISSION: Pay what you wish ($5-$10 suggested) | Register here
Opening day performance of The Collapsing Duets by Kathy Westwater
with dancers Ilona Bito, Marisa Clementi, Thomas F. DeFrantz, Glenn Potter-Takata, Rakia Seaborn, Nathalia Trogden, Alexander Romania, and Lu Yim
With live music by Sean Meehan
at 2:00 PM in the Main Hall Gallery rotunda (Building C)
With PARK Ephemera, choreographer Kathy Westwater presents a collection of work emerging from PARK, her nearly fifteen-year choreographic inquiry into the site of the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island, New York. Once the largest landfill in the world, the site is currently being transformed into a public park, a transition that Westwater has closely witnessed through her dance, somatic, and material practice.
Using film photography and no digital manipulation, Julia Forrest poses nymph-like women in landscapes. Through mirrors, reflections, and forced perspective, Forrest creates an illusion in front of the lens. In Transcendence, a solo exhibition featuring new work by Forrest, seemingly docile subjects possess a mysterious power to move the landscape at will. Changing shape and scale, they pick up parts of the landscape while transforming it completely.
Here We Are: Young, Black, and Indigenous Women in the Art World is a showcase of five New York-based woman artists who share their art as an extension of themselves. Featuring work by Jaclyn Burke, Ify Chiejina, Jodi Dareal, Debbie Roxx, and Arrianna Santiago, Here We Are explores aspects of culture and identity, while centering the experiences of young, Black, and Indigenous artists working in a field where they rarely see themselves reflected.
On view: August 20 – December 31, 2022
Friday – Saturday: 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM | Sunday: 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art (Buildings C & G)
These exhibitions are made possible through generous support from the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
PARK is created with the support of a 2020-21 PASS/CUNY Dance Initiative residency at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden and the College of Staten Island made possible through generous lead support from the Howard Gilman Foundation, with additional support from the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Snug Harbor is a proud partner with the CUNY Dance Initiative.
PARK is supported by Dance/NYC’s Coronavirus Dance Relief Fund in 2020 & 2022; and, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant and the FCA Emergency Grants COVID-19 Fund.
It is developed as part of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Arts Center Residency program.
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by The Freshkills Park Alliance.
Theatrical performances of PARK are commissioned by Gibney and curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa as part of the organization’s Gibney Presents series for the 2022-23 Season. This commission includes financial, residency, administrative, and production support.
Image credit: Julia Forrest, Anja Hitzenberger, Ify Chiejina