Blog

The Lure of the Local

“WELCOME TO THE DREGS OF THE YEAR, when all we want—or need, given the chaos of 2018—is something socially nourishing. And no, I’m not talking about Art Basel Miami Beach.

On Saturday December 8, an afternoon of overlapping talks, workshops, film screenings, and performances was brought together under the banner of “Access and Agency” at the Queens Museum in conjunction with “Queens International 2018,” the eighth edition of the truly local group show that spotlights a set of artists working in the most royal borough. This year, a lively intergenerational dialogue on abstraction, chance operations, and found objects emerges among luminaries such as Milford Graves, Jack Whitten, Liz Phillips, and newcomers such as KT Pe Benito, Emilio Martinez Poppe, and Ani Liu, while a new partnership with the Queens Library, entailing installations in select branches and programming, gives the exhibition more breathing room. Hence its title: “Volumes,” a nod to publications and capabilities.

The programming on Saturday began with a “Censorpedia edit-a-thon,” presented by Christina Freeman as part of her UltraViolet Archive, 2018, an installation that gathers partially censored and banned works. In the museum’s theater, Freeman also screened two films from the archive by Oscar Micheaux. Simultaneously, there were conversations about cultural erasure, including Aruna D’Souza speaking with QI 2018 artist Janet Henry and Linda Goode Bryant. And did I mention that Eileen Myles, Tracie Morris, and Thurston Moore, among others, were giving readings of their works? [. . .]”

FULL ARTICLE

— Lauren O’Neill-Butler

 

Access and Agency at Queens Museum December 8

Join us for the second in a series of dynamic public programs presented on the occasion of Queens International 2018: Volumes to delve deeper into the themes, contexts, and aesthetics that have informed the exhibition.

Programming on Saturday, December 8th will include talks, readings, performances, and film screenings that reflect on issues of access, censorship, surveillance, translation, and circulation regarding cultural narratives.

Schedule of Events:

12:00-3:00pm: Censorpedia Edit-a-thon
Censorpedia is a crowdsourced online database of censorship cases within the arts and in culture generated by the National Coalition Against Censorship. This edit-a-thon is presented alongside Christina Freeman’s UltraViolet Archive, a collection of endangered creative works including films, graphic novels, music, literature, visual and performing arts that were formerly banned, challenged, or partially censored. For Queens International 2018, the interactive collection and installation focuses on works on loan from the Queens Library that are set in or challenged in New York, or authored by New Yorkers.
Freeman will be facilitating a Censorpedia Edit-a-thon in the QM Galleries focused on editing entries for works inside the Ultra-Violet Archive installation.

12:00-4:30pm: Oscar Micheaux Screenings from the UltraViolet Archive
Join us for looping screenings of two Oscar Micheaux films, The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920) and Within Our Gates (1920) previously not on view as part of the UltraViolet Archive, being shown in the Queens Museum theater, 2nd Floor.

1:00-2:30pm: Rewriting the Narrative: Conversations on Exclusion, Censorship, and Space Making
Join us for a series of three conversations focusing on structural forces of omission, erasure, and negation in culture, literature, and on digital platforms.
Featuring:
Christopher Myers in conversation with Abena Hutchful and Nora Pelizzari of the National Coalition Against Censorship
Aruna D’Souza in conversation with QI 2018 artist Janet Henry and Linda Goode Bryant
Nora Khan in conversation with Ryan Kuo
CART Services (text transcription) in English will be provided for this series of conversations. Transcription services also provided in Spanish using Google Translate.

3:00-4:30pm: The People’s Guide to the Queens International Writing Workshop
The People’s Guide to the Queens International is a collaborative art project organized by Brian Droitcour and Christine Wong Yap. The People’s Guide invites the public to write reviews of artworks in the Queens International 2018 exhibition on the premise that anyone can be an art critic.

3:00-4:45pm: Queenzenglish Int’l 2018 @ Queens Museum
A series of readings and performances including:
Carla Harryman
Paolo Javier
Kyoo Lee
Maria Lisella
Thurston Moore
Tracie Morris
Eileen Myles
The Urban Mythfits – A Corona Group (Omar Montana, Elijah Kuan Wong, Yeong Ran Kim, Elizabeth Polanco, Jansiel Polanco, Una Chung, Mac Morris, and Patricia Clough)

Image: Christina Freeman, UltraViolet Archive, 2018. Photo: Hai Zhang

I’m excited to announce that I was selected as the first Culture Push Associated Artist

As an Associated Artist I am receiving support to guest edit the Culture Push Journal, PUSH / PULL.

Culture Push Associated Artists receive support for mid-process and established projects that are aligned with the mission and experimental vision of Culture Push. Associated Artists are individuals and projects that have established themselves within New York City, but can still benefit from collaboration with and assistance from our organization. Unlike the seedling-stage ideas of our Fellowship for Utopian Practice, our Associated Artists and their projects have already run through their first logistical stages and idea-testing, and are ready to be bolstered through fiscal, institutional, and creative support.

Join us at Terraza 7 in Jackson Heights for an evening reception celebrating the launch of the Queens International 2018: Volumes catalogue and closing out the opening day of Queens Library branch installations with a reception and music performances.

Details