This is a Transmission
With Levi Bentley, Eppchez, Marie Hinson, Marion Horowitz, Malachi Lily, Wit López and Lane Speidel
Presented as part of Just In Time: 30 Years of Collective Practice
Friday, April 26 – Sunday, June 23, 2019
Closing Reception: Artist Talk + Catalogue Release: Sunday, June 23, 2019 | 3-6pm
Presented on-loop as a single-channel audio installation in Black Box, This is a Transmission features the voices of trans and non-binary artists from the Vox Populi community that also creates a site for conversation around the metaphysical and spiritual dimensions of non-cis experience. The audio-only approach in a gallery space moves away from the familiarity of visual representation of trans and non-binary selves. The immediacy of the form also opens up a direct and necessary conversation around an often under-talked about part of trans and non-binary lives. The work is a collective action to include and share personal experiences, tools, practices, language, concepts, and aspirations as an urgent and fundamental part of trans and non-binary wellness, wholeness, and creative life.
This is a Transmission features current members Levi Bentley, Marie Hinson, Marion Horowitz and Lane Speidel, as well as Vox Populi’s 2019 Black Box Curatorial Fellow Malachi Lily and guest artists Eppchez and Wit López, with more contributions to come. This is a Transmission is an iteration of a project conceived and originated by former Vox member Catherine ‘Chet’ Pancake with current member Marie Hinson.
About the Artists
Levi Bentley is a poet living in Philadelphia. They organize the reading series Housework, edit the journal Boneless Skinless, write for Artblog, and are an artist member Vox Populi. “Bucolic Eclogue” was released from Lamehouse Press in July 2016. Their chapbooks (“Obstacle, Particle, Spectacle”, “&parts”, and “Stub Wilderness”) were released from 89plus/LUMA Foundation, Damask Press, and Well Greased Press, respectively. Vitrine released their tape “Red Green Blue”. Poems have appeared through 491, Apiary, Bedfellows, BlazeVOX, Boog City, Elective Affinities, Fact-Simile, Gigantic Sequins, No Infinite, Madhouse, Maestra Vida, Magic Pictures, Painted Bride Quarterly, Small Po[r]tions, Stillwater Review, The Wanderer, Tinge and Truck.
More Info: levibentley.com
Eppchez is a classically trained and jazz influenced vocal improvisor, lyricist, and innovative self-producing playwright. Eir work makes space for liminal bodies and big scary questions. Eppchez performs in Philly’s drag and burlesque scene as Topsy Pendejo.
More Info: almasengine.com
A cinematographer and artist originally from the mountains of Appalachia, Marie Hinson moved to Philadelphia for an MFA in Temple University’s Film program. In addition to freelance work for film, commercial and corporate clients, she is an instructor at Scribe Video Center and a member of the Vox Populi artist collective. Her solo and collaborative work has shown at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Crane Arts, RAIR, Pilot Projects, as well as Frameline, Montreal Underground, BlackStar, Athens International, and Hollyshorts festivals.
More Info: mariehinson.com
Marion Horowitz is an artist based in Philadelphia. Following various cycles as a midwest zinester, traveling folk-punk musician and drag queen, she has formed a practice as a student of Pochinko clown and multidisciplinary performer. They aspire to create eclectic and unique performances that investigate themes of identity, anti-futurity, apocalypse, etc. while upholding the #1 values of JOY and FUN. Recently, Marion debuted her original one-clown show Minnow Future: the Opera at Washington Project for the Arts in Washington DC. They also appeared in the Feast of Fools, a Halloween clown extravaganza at the Open Kitchen Sculpture Garden. Marion studied Directing at Oberlin College, from which she holds a BA in Russian Language and Literature.
More Info: voxpopuligallery.org/artists/marion-horowitz
Malachi Lily is a shapeshifting, non-binary, black poet, artist, curator, and moth. They connect to the collective unconscious via energy work, active imagination, mysticism, myth, magick, folklore, and fairy tales. This channeling often takes the form of poetry and illustration, but at Vox Populi that work becomes curation as they connect to another artist’s energy and work beyond simply aesthetics. Malachi connects artists who are unconsciously vibrating together and uses their organizational skills to give them all a space to sing. Malachi’s curation forms a tangible permeation of a culture of Oneness – living in the reality that we all are manifestations of the same source energy and we all create our realities together. It is Malachi’s purpose to create space to uplift fellow black artists as gods, to bring balance and truth to their experiences. Malachi is a liminal being of race, gender, artistic practice, and existence reclaiming the spiritual body of black and brown people who experience generational trauma and colonization. Their work offers methods to break these individual barriers and reveals the symbols, archetypes, emotions, and lessons that exist in everyone as a collective consciousness, to heal, awake, and empower.
More Info: maggielily.com
Wit López is a disabled, gender non-conforming/nonbinary trans performer, visual artist, scholar, and independent curator of African American and Boricua descent. Their visual work and performance art uses their background in Anthropology and Africana Studies as a lens to examine, decolonize, and reconstruct aspects of their own identity. Through fiber, performance, and imagery, López explores hairiness, accessibility, queerness, gender identity, Blackness, and Latinidad, while also fully embracing absurdity and the macabre. Just kidding! Maybe… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
More Info: witlopez.com
Lane Speidel was born in New York City and now they live in Philadelphia. They are a preschool teacher, a Scorpio, a trans non-binary person, an anxious pooper, a member of Vox Populi, a graduate of Tyler School of Art, queer, 2nd runner up for “Smartest” in the Renaissance Middle School Yearbook, the oldest child of three, and a very emotional individual.
I like to walk sometimes, I like to collect trash, I like to feel my friend’s hair, I like to put my body upside down, I just decided that I love myself.
More Info: ihopeilikethis.com