Queer Paranormal (an exhibition concerning Shirley Jackson and The Haunting of Hill House)
Queer Paranormal (an exhibition concerning Shirley Jackson and The Haunting of Hill House), a project I co-curated with the curatorial collective Two Chairs and Anne Thompson, Director of the Usdan Gallery at Bennington opens October 31st!
Photo: Peggy Ahwesh, still image from “Nocturne” (1998)
Queer Paranormal (an exhibition concerning Shirley Jackson and The Haunting of Hill House)
Curated by Jillian Brodie, Cindy Smith and Rachel Stevens of Two Chairs; and Anne Thompson, director of Usdan Gallery, with special thanks to Two Chairs collective members Yinan Cheng, E.H. Dalton, Tony Do and George Wichelns
October 29-December 7, 2019
Halloween Opening Party | October 31, 6:00 pm
Screening of The Haunting | October 31, 8:00 pm
Lecture by Patricia White | November 5, 7:00 pm
Artist Talk and Screening | November 19, 7:00 pm
Participating Artists
Peggy Ahwesh, APRIORI (techno-botanical coven), Anna Campbell, Tony Do, Lana Lin, Susan MacWilliam, Senem Pirler, Macon Reed, Zoe Walsh, and Sasha Wortzel.
Queer Paranormal (an exhibition concerning Shirley Jackson and The Haunting of Hill House) presents a range of artistic practices “haunted” by historical, political, and sexual difference. Taking Jackson’s gothic horror classic and its 1963 film version as jumping-off points, the exhibition identifies queerness in themes including witchcraft, the uncanny, the stranger, and the haunted house as undiscovered country and object of desire. Site-specifically located in North Bennington, where Jackson wrote The Haunting of Hill House, Queer Paranormal installs artworks in locations across the Bennington campus, including the Jennings music building—a former mansion believed to be haunted and said to have partly influenced Jackson’s portrait of Hill House. Works in mediums including painting, sculpture, film, video, and sound are spectral in their subject matter and occasionally positioned to otherworldly effect, such as pieces by Senem Pirler and Sasha Wortzel that perform sonic hauntings of everyday spaces.
…more info on the Queer Paranormal PRESS RELEASE
Puffin Foundation grant
So honored to receive funding from the Puffin Foundation for the research and film project I am working on. It the first grant we applied for! The working title is Place of the Big River (Kaniatarowanénhne) or On the Rough Waters (Kahnewake) and the project explores ecological, infrastructural and territorial entanglement at the St. Lawrence River. Artist and filmmaker Pawel Wojtasik is a primary collaborator and cinematographer. We still have way to go with funding, but this is an auspicious start. Thank you Puffin Foundation!
Borderland Rivers Watercolor Bibliography
One of the magical synchronicities of the Works on Water / Underwater New York residency was that my studio was across the hall from Nicole Antebi’s. We were both on the top floor with our doors facing one another. It wasn’t long before we discovered that both our research and projects were focused on a river that articulates an international border of the United States—hers, the Rio Grande bordering Mexico, and mine the St. Lawrence River, bordering Canada. We are both interested in complexities, social and ecological justice issues, ideas around belonging… We shared our bibliographies and Nicole initiated a collaboration in which we each made watercolor images of our books. We hung our north and south oriented watercolor book spines in the library in the public area of the residency house on the first floor.
Nicole makes wonderful animations and recently published a great interview with historian David Dorado Romo about the fight to preserve the oldest barrio in El Paso. It is featured here on Longreads: The City I Love Is Destroying Itself.
A Field Guide to iLANDing
So pleased to have played a small role in the generation of scores for this wonderful book: A Field Guide to iLANDing: scores for researching urban ecologies. As part of the Urban Backstage Research Group, one of the year-long research residencies focusing on the East River waterfront area, we generated a few scores that you can try out yourself if you get this book.
What a treat to spend quality time exploring space, land, movement and ideas with these co-conspirators in the Urban Backstage iLAB Residency group: Julie Kline (Theater Actor/ Director), Clarinda Mac Low (Interdisciplinary Artist), Elliott Maltby (Urban Designer/ Landscape Architect), Jeremy Pickard (Eco-Theater Artist) and Shawn Shafner (Artist / Educator / Activist).
And a special thanks to the inspiring Jennifer Monson, the visionary behind the whole iLAND organization.
Fish Stories at Bluestockings
Fish Stories Community Cookbook is now available at Bluestockings, a volunteer-powered and collectively-owned radical bookstore, fair trade cafe, and activist center in the Lower East Side, NYC! We are honored to be in the company of so many fantastic independent publications.
