“As Far as the Heart Can See” Exhibition

“As Far as the Heart Can See” Exhibition

EFA Project Space

This event has ended.

Nao Bustamante, Billy X. Curmano, Irina Danilova & Project 59, Beatrice Glow, Ivan Monforte, Linda Mary Montano, Praxis (Delia & Brainard Carey), Elizabeth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle, and Martha Wilson & Franklin Furnace Archive

Curated by: Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful
Curatorial Fellow: JP-Anne Giera

EFA Project Space presents As Far as the Heart Can See, an exhibition that brings together art and everyday life through performative acts of care, transgression, and multigenerational collaboration. The exhibition marks the start of EFA Project Space’s 10th anniversary season.

Curated by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful—whose elusive creative path embodies intimacy, healing, empathy, and radical generosity—As Far as the Heart Can See focuses on figures who parry institutional canons and over-professionalization to pursue art as a call to the heart. In the words of Linda Mary Montano, this is art that “gives one permission to…”

Artists fatigued by pressure to both make and “be” objects, take note – As Far as the Heart Can See assembles those who have shifted gear, broken away, found shelter in the wilderness, or ventured astray from art-historical validation in order to speak truth. Many of those in As Far as the Heart Can See refer to what they do as a ‘vocation,’ suggesting bold acts and a readiness to trade normative success for something more. These artists have expanded their own fields and have pushed one to rethink disciplines such as ecology, thanatology, gender studies, anthropology, and social work.

Nao Bustamante’s sculptures and photographs mixes the beautiful with the grotesque: duct tape, shadow-play, and boxed wine provide a material basis for an existential exploration of human desire – natural and contrived. Martha Wilson embodies a prophetic discourse, from her body transformations of the 1970s to her ongoing series of impersonations of U.S. dignitaries, including Michelle Obama, Barbara Bush, and Bill Clinton. Wilson’s lifework, Franklin Furnace, is an iconoclastic arts organization whose mission “to make the world safe for avant-garde art” has propelled the practices of hundreds of artists since 1976. Billy X. Curmano’s performances are at once modest and extreme: for instance, a ten-year-long performance in which he swam, lap by lap, the length of the Mississippi River, or the three days spent buried alive in order to perform for the dead. Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle meld sexuality and ecology into SexEcology (or Ecosexuality), such as in their Ecosex Weddings series, in which the duo weds soil, snow, the mountains and sea in environmental ardour.

Linda Mary Montano serves as a central figure in the exhibition: over her career she has cared for her elder father as art, performed blessings as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, and declared her body to be a living sculpture, chiseled by time. Montano’s performance video, NURSE! NURSE! (2016) leads us through a rehearsal of being cared for, and compels us to shout aloud the work’s title. Likewise, Ivan Monforte encourages affect within the gallery’s controlled emotional context with There But For The Grace Of God Go I, in which he partners with Gay Men’s Health Crisis to facilitate free and confidential HIV screenings and referrals to gallery-goers. Beatrice Glow traverses anthropology, ethnography, botany, and archeology to awaken latent imaginaries. Her film, Taparaco Myth (2009), unfolds as a journey through urban and rural South America to trace the migratory route of an Asian immigrant, El Chino. Ukrainian-born Irina Danilova’s move to New York in 1994 led to the creation of a random number-based project, Project 59, which manifests as a compilation of poems from page 59 of popular poetry collections, dinners prepared from recipes found on page 59 of different cookbooks, and a climbing plant that proclaims “59” on the gallery’s wall. Praxis’ (Delia & Brainard Carey) interventions comprise an unusual inventory of strategies, substances, and rituals, such as a long-distance prayer through the Internet and Band-Aids for invisible wounds. The exhibition features documentation of Forget Me Not (2004), which tells the story of Brainard Carey’s mother’s death and burial in two parts: “Tools for the Living” and “Tools for the Dying.”

Highlighting ongoing and durational work, the exhibition also features performance documentation, ephemera, manifestos, interviews, and artist proposals culled from nearly 20 years of the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art serving as a testament to the transient and intransigent lifework of cultural producers.

Launched in September 2008, EFA Project Space was founded on the belief that art is intrinsically tied to the individuals who produce it, the communities that arise because of it, and to everyday life. For our 10-year anniversary, we have assembled an exhibition of artists who give permission to operate astride genres, enact manifestos, rethink disciplines, initiate mentorship, nurture community, and redefine civic engagement. As Far as the Heart Can See asks us to roll up our sleeves and pursue our calling.

RELATED EVENTS
Friday, September 21, 5 - 6 PM — Curatorial walkthrough with Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful
6:30 PM — We like Death and Death likes Us and Threat Level 3
Presented during the opening reception, Praxis (Delia & Brainard Carey) will premiere We like Death and Death likes Us (2018). Additionally, Threat Level 3 (Billy X. Curmano, John Pendergast and Steve Smith) will perform through the opening.

Saturday, October 20, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM — In Honor Of …
A performance series hosted during EFA Open Studios. Mentees, students, assistants, and collaborators with the artists in the exhibition perform In Honor Of… their inspiration. With performances by: Nina Isabelle, Sindy Butz, Elena Bajo, Xinan (Helen) Ran, and Larissa Gilbert.

Thursday, November 1, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM — Screening: Elizabeth Stephens’ and Annie Sprinkle’s Good Bye Gauley Mountain: An Eco-Sexual Love Story (2013)
Post-screening Q&A with Lillian Ball & Brooke Singer.

Saturday, November 3, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM — AGING AS ART and Performing for the Dead
An evening with seminal performance artists Linda Mary Montano and Billy X. Curmano.

Saturday, November 10, 2018, 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM — The Non-Professional Development Workshop
In partnership with the Artist Alliance Inc. (AAI), conceived by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful and Mary Ting, with: Bill Carroll, Mary Ting, Jodi Waynberg, and Martha Wilson.

Wednesday, November 14, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM — Project 59 Hosts Dinner 59 #40
A performative dinner hosted by Irina Danilova & Project 59. Limited seating is available

Saturday, November 17, 2018, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM — The Angry Heart: AIDS, Art, Activism
A panel discussion organized by Ivan Monforte and Gay Men’s Health Crisis, followed by exhibition closing reception from 5:30 - 6:30 pm.

Ongoing — Ivan Monforte’s There But For the Grace of God Go I
Saturdays: September 29, October 13, October 27, November 17, 12:00 PM - 6:00 PM.
A social sculpture in which the artist invites the public to participate in free and confidential HIV testing in partnership with Gay Men’s Health Crisis.
Entry to the above events is free and on a first come, first served basis. RSVPs appreciated via EventBrite.

Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful’s treads an elusive path that manifests itself performatively or through experienceswhere the quotidian and art overlap. He has exhibited and performed extensively in the U.S. as well as internationally. Residencies attended include P.S. 1/MoMA, Yaddo, Center for Book Arts, and the MacDowell Colony. Estévez Raful Holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, where he studied with Coco Fusco; and an MA from Union Theological Seminary. He has received mentorship in art in everyday life from Linda Mary Montano, a historic figure in the performance art field. Montano and Estévez Raful have also collaborated on several performances. Publications include Pleased to Meet You, One Person at a Time, Life as Material for Art and Vice Versa (editor), and For Art’s Sake. He has curated exhibitions and programs for El Museo del Barrio; the Institute for Art, Religion and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary; Art in Odd Places; Cuchifritos; the Center for Book Arts; and Longwood Art Gallery/Bronx Council on the Arts, New York; and for the Filmoteca de Andalucía, Córdoba, Spain. Estévez Raful is the founding director of The Mangú Museum (pronounced man-goo). He was born in Santiago de los Treinta Caballeros, Dominican Republic. In 2011, he was baptized as a Bronxite; a citizen of the Bronx.

JP-Anne Judy Giera is an interdisciplinary artist and curator. Classically trained as an actor, they hold an MFA in Theatre from the prestigious Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University, however their work began to move towards visual art during the year they spent studying at Pratt Institute. JP-Anne’s art interest exists at the praxis of painting and performance. Their work output includes, but isn’t limited to, painting, drawing, performance, video, zines, printmaking and installation, but seemingly exists betwixt and between all of these media, much as their identity as a transgender non-binary identified person exists betwixt and between common cultural norms regarding gender, sexuality, and appearance. As an artist, their work has been exhibited throughout the New York City area. As a curator, JP-Anne has curated projects for the LGBT Community Center and SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders). They served as the 2017 Curatorial Intern at White Columns and are the current Curatorial Fellow at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space. JP-Anne is pursuing an MFA in Art at Lehman College/CUNY. Her studio is in the Bronx and she resides in Crown Heights, Brooklyn with her two cats.

Media

• Installation
• Performance Art

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