MATRILINEAGE SYMPOSIUM 2010: February 26–March 25
The Committee on Women and Art announces the 19th Annual Matrilineage Symposium, which will take place on the Syracuse University campus and throughout the surrounding community. All events are free and open to the public. This year’s symposium features transmedia artist Amy Alexander, performance artists Jibz Cameron and Kristina Wong, fiber artist Olek, Handmade Nation creator Faythe Levine, painter Betty Tompkins, and an art exhibition, Sensational Remix. The symposium is a series of events traditionally held over three weeks each spring, honoring activism and feminism in the arts. It brings a diverse group of artists to Syracuse to share their work with the community through innovative and interactive programming. Previous guests have included the Guerrilla Girls, bell hooks, Sadie Benning, Judy Chicago, among many others. An internet archive of past programs can be found at matrilineage.org. Matrilineage was first organized in 1991 by SU students, and since the mid-90’s has been stewarded by the Committee on Women and Art, an organization of local artists, graduate and undergraduate students, and faculty of Syracuse University. Though the program has varied a great deal over the years, the efforts are united by at least one common goal: to achieve a more vital, accessible, and diverse art community than the one we inherited. We seek a community in which artists – whether marginalized by the homogeny of history, or by their experiences in the present – can claim creative freedom, gather momentum, and join in concert to begin actively re-forming their discipline. FULL EVENT/ARTIST LISTING:
JIBZ CAMERON (DYNASTY HANDBAG)
Performance: Friday, February 26, 8pm @ Spark Art Space, 1005 E. Fayette St. Artist talk to follow. Jibz Cameron is a performance and video artist who lives and works in New York. In 2002 she began performing as Dynasty Handbag, in a one-woman show combining music, audio, video and live performance. She has been heralded a “crackpot genius” by The Village Voice, and the NY Times has said that it’s “the funniest and most pitch perfect performance seen in years.” Her performance and video work has been seen at Dance Theater Workshop, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY, The Kitchen, and OUTFest Los Angeles. KRISTINA WONG
Talk: Tuesday, March 2, 3pm @ Shemin Auditorium, Shaffer Art Building, SU Campus
Workshop 1: Wednesday, March 3, 10:00 AM-noon. “Writing Off the Page”
Workshop 2: Wednesday, March 3, 2:00-4:00 PM. “Performance on our Feet”
Performance: Thursday, March 4, 4:00 PM, Rm 121, Shaffer Art Building
Kristina Wong is a solo performer, writer, actor, educator, culture jammer, and filmmaker. Described by the East Bay Express as “brutal but hilarious… a woman who takes life’s absurdities very seriously,” her body of performance work includes short and full-length solo performance works, outrageous street theater, internet installations, plays and sketch comedy, and have been shown at the Public Theater, the Painted Bride (Philadelphia, PA), the Comedy Central Workspace, and dozens of others. To attend her innovative performance and writing workouts for artists, presented March 3, contact CWA at [email protected]. AMY ALEXANDER
Artist Talk: Thursday, March 4, 7:00 PM,Rm 121 Shaffer Art Building (SU Campus)
VJ performance: Friday, March 5, 8:00-10:00 PM, COLAB, The Warehouse, 350 W. Fayette St. Also, Syracuse’s own DJ BIG MOUTH. Refreshments. Amy Alexander is a new media, audiovisual, and performance artist who has worked in film, video, music, programming and information technology, and digital media art. Her work focuses largely on popular culture and has been presented on the Internet, in clubs and on the street as well as in festivals and museums. Alexander — who has also worked under the names Cue P. Doll and VJ bergeek — was a pioneer in the development of software-based net art. Amy’s projects have been exhibited at venues ranging from Prix Ars Electronica, SIGGRAPH, and the New Museum, to club performances at Sonar and many others, and in publications including Wired, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and Washington Post. BETTY TOMPKINS
Talk: Wednesday, March 3rd, 6:30 PM, Rm 500 Hall of Languages (SU Campus)
The large-scale photorealistic paintings of heterosexual intercourse which Betty Tompkins made between 1969 and 1974 were practically unknown when they were exhibited together for the first time in New York in 2002. Knowledge of Tompkins’ paintings immediately broadened the repertoire of first generation feminist-identified imagery, and garnered extraordinary attention–the first Fuck painting even acquired for the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. And though her work is not included in LA MOCA’s iconic exhibition, “Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution,” it figures prominently in the show’s catalog, “Hard Targets.” Richard Meyer notes “the essentialist bent of much early feminist-associated art, and outlines the marginalization of heterosexual women artists. Given the context, Tompkins’ straightforwardness and refusal to moralize is bracing. This, coupled with a ferociously deadpan humor, makes the artist’s images iconic.” (Mitchell Algus Gallery 2007) FAYTHE LEVINE
Screening: March 8, 5:15 PM, Watson Auditorium, Waverly Avenue. “Handmade Nation.” Artist talk to follow. Faythe Levine is a photographer, businesswoman, and prominent figure in the D.I.Y. Ethic indie craft movement. She co-owned Flying Fish Gallery with artist, filmmaker, and musician Brent Goodsell, and founded a popular Midwest craft fair called Art vs. Craft. This led to her producing and directing a documentary called “Handmade Nation: The Rise of D.I.Y. Art, Craft, and Design” (2008). For “Handmade Nation,” Levine traveled 19,000 miles to document what has emerged as a marriage between historical technique, punk culture, and the D.I.Y. ethos. The film (and book of the same name) explore a community of crafters who work within different media and have different methodologies to provide a microcosm of the crafting community. OLEK (AGATA OLEKSIAK)
(Sponsored by the Fiber and Textile Arts Program)
Talk: Thursday, March 11, 7:00 PM, Rm 004, ComArt Building (SU Campus). Potluck to follow in F&TA Studio, Rm 130. Olek, or Agata Oleksiak, rediscovered her ability to crochet during her move from Poland to New York, and since then has started her “crocheted journey/madness.” She describes it this way: “The SPLAT! of colors hits you in the face, often clashing so ostentatiously that it instantly tunes you into the presence of severely cheeky humor. A moment later the fatigue of labor creeps into your fingers as a coal miner’s work ethic becomes apparent. Hundreds of miles of crocheted, weaved, and often recycled materials are the fabric from which the wild and occasionally wearable structures of her fantasylands are born.” Olek’s work has been presented in galleries from Brooklyn to Istanbul, Venice and Brazil, featured in The New York Times, Fiberarts Magazine, The Village Voice, and Washington Post. Olek received the Ruth Mellon Award for Sculpture, a residency at Instituto Sacatar in Brazil, is a winner of apex art gallery commercial competition, and was featured in the 49th Venice Biennale and the 9th International Istanbul Biennale. “SENSATIONAL REMIX”
The Matrilineage Community Art Show
Opening: Thursday, March 25, 6:00-9:00 PM,Spark Contemporary Art Space, 1005 E. Fayette St.
An exhibition of artwork, drawn from an open call and curated by Jen Prather. Refreshments. To submit work, contact Jen Prather at [email protected]. DEADLINE: March 1. MATRILINEAGE IS SPONSORED BY:
The School of Information Studies, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, the Chancellor’s Feinstone Grant for Multicultural Initiatives, and by the College of Visual and Performing Arts (School of Art and Design, Department of Transmedia, Department of Design, School of Music, COLAB, and the programs in Fiber and Textile Arts, Painting, Transmedia Core, Computer Art, and others). The Committee on Women and Art is supported by the Student Association and the Graduate Student Organization.