"Acting Out" Exhibition

BRAC @ Bronx Music Heritage Center

poster for "Acting Out" Exhibition

This event has ended.

Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) presents Acting Out, a group exhibition guest curated by Erin Riley-Lopez, opening on December 3rd, 2010. The exhibition is the second in a series hosted in our temporary location "On the Block" at 305 E 140 St. #1A, Bronx, NY while we undergo a 7 million dollar renovation to our West Farms facility.

There is an extensive history of museum, not-for-profit, and gallery exhibitions devoted to video and performance by women artists especially in recent years when feminist art is once again at the forefront of contemporary art discussion. Acting Out is positioned within this history to further the discussion of feminist art.

Acting Out features: Danielle Abrams, Shana Moulton, Jill Pangallo, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, Karina Skvirsky, and Maya Suess. The exhibition focuses on these women artists, all based on the east coast, working in video and performance since the 1990s. Each of the artists embodies characters in order to discuss personal or collective histories. This work finds its historical precedents in much of the performance and video art produced in the US during the 1970s, including consciousness-raising methods used by Judy Chicago at CalArts and Fresno State as well as the work of Eleanor Antin, Lynn Hershman, Martha Wilson and Jacki Apple, Linda Montano, and Adrian Piper. Utilizing techniques such as role-playing and dress-up, the artists in this exhibition construct personas and narrative, in some cases creating elaborate lives for their characters in order to comment on race, gender, identity, and representation.

The artists deliberately perform—in front of a camera, before an audience, or both— acting out their narratives and characters. Costuming, location, props, among other elements, play an especially important role in these videos as they provide the foundation for the entire scenario that is performed by the artists. Regardless of their strategies—which range from quiet interior reflection without monologue or dialogue to more assertive questioning and discussion—they all share a keen interest in tackling normative societal structures, traditional hierarchical roles, and what it means to be a woman. Using strategies of monologue and comedy in her performances, Danielle Abrams often channels relatives, such as her grandparents, or versions of herself, as a way to discuss her gender and bi-racial heritage. In the episodic Whispering Pines, Shana Moulton’s character Cynthia negotiates the domestic sphere. Jill Pangallo interacts with an identical My Twinn doll commenting on the commidification of identity. Chuleta is Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz’s stereotypical Puerto Rican character who explains art historical terms and movements. Reciting a poem that her mother read her as a child warning of the issues of miscegenation, Karina Skvirsky embodies a 1960s female persona. Maya Suess—evoking classic 1960s Motown girl groups in her music video—uses the power of a spell to question the male gaze.

Media

Schedule

from December 03, 2010 to January 08, 2011

Opening Reception on 2010-12-03 from 18:00 to 21:00
Opening night performances by Shana Moulton, Danielle Abrams, and Karina Aquilera Skvirsky

  • Facebook

    Reviews

    All content on this site is © their respective owner(s).
    New York Art Beat (2008) - About - Contact - Privacy - Terms of Use