Program
Grokhovsky curated a night of live performance and video works from a stunning range of international talent from Philadelphia and New York, including the work of Maria Hupfield a member of the Wasauksing First Nation, Ontario as well as videos by Australian artist Cassandra Tytler.
Artist Statements
“Born to be Wild”
Maria Hupfield will activate a selection of her handmade objects. Characteristic of her live interdisciplinary performances, she aims to craft a visually rich and multi-sensory atmosphere across cultures, disciplines and borders.
“Clone of my Own”
Scattered medical journals with ulcers and mutations, the sentimental mother’s anxiety disorder, a suspicious grandfather with sexual curiosity– at age 16, she decided to make a trip to the vast land of America. Broken Knee Wisdom – Aloe Vera Freedom – Nothing and Nobody’s Country – Nadja Verena Marcin leaves her home to the land of hope and promise, in which she invents a second version of herself. Ritualistic jumps and neologism enhance the reciprocal drama as oblique technique of self-discovery.
Cassandra Tytler
Applause, 7 mins, 2014
Applause is a video performance work that explores the menace of group power dynamics, the ridiculousness of drunkenness, and the strangeness that exists between the two. Pushing her body to the limits, Tytler weaves an inebriated dance amongst the bottle – waving men, stumbling, falling, laughing and never halting gulp after gulp of alcohol, simultaneously being a passive receptacle of peer and sexual pressure, wanting to please.
Vanessa, 3:31 min, 2015
Tytler uses the archetypes of the battered woman, drug whore and zombie to?express our culpability as individuals within the society we are a part of. It is unclear what has happened, and also why we are implicated.
Untitled, 3:22 min, 2015
Part of a series, this work plays with the performative technique of identity play and the performance of language.Tytler uses readily recognizable social characters to explore notions of guilt, shame, anger, and celebration, all seen reflected at us through the culture at large.
Ignacio Tejedor
Untitled (Liquid Manhood) , 2012-2015, 6:28 mins
These series of videos aim to consider oppression felt by men who struggle with the common cultural manhood values as well as their own identity. Whilst using breathing as the metaphor for their efforts, these actions for video utilize familiar situations in order to speak about daily male conflicts.
Diedra Krieger
Spinning with Foucault, 36 sec, 5 min loop, 2012
Using video performance to facilitate her understanding of difficult theoretical texts is integral to Diedra’s self-referential video practice. In this episode, as part of her video series for Fun-A-Day 2012, she is determined to learn the foundation of biopolitics. She reads excerpts aloud from Michel Foucault’s The Birth of Biopolitics while spinning in circles on one leg.
Bios
Based in Brooklyn, New York, Maria Hupfield is from Canada, and a member of Wasauksing First Nation, Ontario. She is a 2015 recipient of a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Opportunity Grant, the 2014 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painting and Sculpture Grant and the AIM residency at the Bronx Museum. Recent shows include SBC Gallery, The Blackwood Gallery, Panoply Performance Lab, FiveMyles, and 7a*11d International Performance Festival Toronto. Her work has traveled to the Museum of Arts and Design New York with the exhibition Changing Hands III and The Power Plant Toronto for Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture. Her performance, Artist Tour Guide, was commissioned by The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in New York for the exhibition Before and After the Horizon : Anishnaabe Artists of the Great Lakes Region with iterations at the McCord Museum Montreal. Maria Hupfield performs with the collective Social Health Performance Art Club and is represented by Galerie Hugues Charbonneau, Montreal Canada.
Of German-Slovakian descent, Nadja Verena Marcin works and lives in New York. She graduated from the Kunstakademie Münster in 2007, as well as the School of the Arts, Columbia University in 2010. As conceptual performance artist she focuses on human behavior, elemental emotions, and psychological responses linked to role-playing through video, performance and photography. Selected solo shows and performances: Esther Donatz Gallery, Munich, Germany (2015); FLEX, Berlin, Germany (2015); GOETHE Center, Santa Cruz, Bolivia (2014); 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, New York (2013); Kulturstiftung Sparkasse UnnaKamen, Unna, Germany (2014); Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund, Germany (2012); Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten, Marl, Germany (2012); Momentum, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin (2012); The-Solo-Project, Basel, Switzterland (2011). Select group exhibitions and screenings: Galerie du Beffroi, Namur, Belgium (2015); Museum für Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte, Dortmund, Germany (2014); BORG Biennale, Antwerp, Belgium (2014); Middle Gate Geel, Geel, Belgium (2013); Human Resources, Los Angeles (2011); Abrons Art Center, New York (2011); Garage Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow (2010); ICA Philadelphia (2010); Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York (2010). Marcin received numerous prizes, including: Stiftung Kunstfonds, Germany (2014); Culture Ministry of Nordrhine Westphalia, Germany (2013/ 2011/ 2010); DAAD, Germany (2011); Int. Artist Career Development Grant, USA (2010); Fulbright, USA (2007) amongst others.
Cassandra Tytler is an Australian artist working within single-channel?video, performance, and installation. She is focused upon the history of gender and identity as a constructed, multiple and mutable entity. She has received support and fellowships from numerous organizations such as NARS Foundation, NYC, Druskininkai Artists’ Residence, Lithuania, Sumu Artist in Residence program, Turku, Finland, The Camargo Foundation, Cassis, France, The Cité des Internationales, Paris, The Australia Council, The Ian Potter Cultural Trust and the Dame Joan Sutherland Fund, American Australian Association, NYC.Tytler has exhibited work in galleries such as A.R.A.C., Paris, Gallery, Titanik, Turku, Finland, Harold Golen Gallery, Miami, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, Australia, Plimsol Gallery, Tasmania, Australia, Metro Arts, Brisbane, Australia, Kings Artist Run, Melbourne, and West Space, Melbourne. Her films have screened in numerous festivals internationally. Tytler completed her MFA at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia in 2003.
In his work, Ignacio Tejedor challenges the viewer’s perception by blurring the borders between real life and art. Through installation, live-art and happenings, he invites us to ponder the influence that our culture has on the way we manage our relationships. Tejedor is a current PhD candidate at Academy of Fine Arts UCM, Madrid, Spain and has an MFA from Academy of Fine Arts Brera, Milan and a BFA from Academy of Fine Arts UCM, Madrid. He has participated in group exhibitions at Atelier Sala de Arte Joven Comunidad de Madrid, # NoDrama in No Studio Space (Madrid). News, Events and Friends at The New Gallery (Madrid), Home at Central Saint Martins curated by Jeremy Akerham, (London) Elogio all’Arte, Fundazione Luciana Matalon (Milan). His work has been featured in solo exhibition “En casa” Indisciplinadas (Madrid) as well as “The heroes sleep well” in Arbeitstitel (Stuttgart).
Diedra Krieger is a Philadelphia based artist who focuses on play in video performance art, public art installations, and occasional curating. She has traveled her project Plastic Fantastic to the Gyre Exhibition at the Anchorage Museum in Alaska this past summer. In 2012-2013 she participated in a residency at 40th Street AirSpace in West Philadelphia. Krieger received her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Art in 2008. Her work has been reviewed in The Art Blog, Philadelphia Inquirer, Hyperallergic and Salisbury’s The Daily Times. She supports a robotics lab, sits on Philadelphia’s Art in City Hall committee and has a strong developing interest in STEAM.
