Spring 2023

Artistic Activism and the Power of Collective Resistance Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 Program, curated by Selene Wendt

Building on our work in 2022, the EADJ Program will present a set of vibrant discussions that examine the consequences of social and historical inequities on the southern imaginary, as seen in art from Africa, Latin America, South Europe, South Asia, and the American South. The Spring Program continues to explore the potential for radical collaboration and togetherness across these disparate geographies.

Spring 2023:

Episode 8: Mending the Social Fabric of Our Time

Episode 8: Wednesday, February 1, 10:00 AM CST

This panel highlights the work of three contemporary artists who implement needle and thread to address sociopolitical issues. Artworks that will be discussed include large-scale installations, collaborative works, stitched works on paper, and embroidered textile-based works. If these artists share a mutual interest in exposing the fractures and ruptures of contemporary society, their approaches can also be understood as artistic strategies that have the potential to mend the social fabric of our time by raising societal consciousness and awareness.

Speakers:

1. Sonya Clark, Artist
2. Suchitra Mattai, Artist
3. Aurora Molina, Artist
4. Selene Wendt, (Moderator)  2022/23 EADJ Curator, Founder, The Global Art Project

Episode 9: A Collective Chorus

Episode 9: Wednesday, February, 10:00 AM CST

This panel explores the political, social, and cultural implications of music in relation to contemporary art, highlighting the significance of music as an expression of cultural experience and history. Taking a distinctly interdisciplinary approach, emphasis is placed on the importance of sonic politics as conveyed in the overlap between art and music. Building on the importance of music in relation to what Paul Gilroy refers to as “the Atlantic as a system of cultural exchanges”, this panel addresses the importance of music as a collective language of resistance and solidarity.  

Recording unavailable.

Speakers:

1. Rahelah Filsoofi
2. Neo Muyanga
3. Matthew Ritchie
4. Valerie Cassel-Oliver, (Moderator)

Episode 10: Bodies in Motion as a Call to Freedom

Episode 10: Wednesday, March 2, 10:00 AM CST LIVE PANEL

This panel pays homage to Saidiya Hartman and her ongoing research into what she refers to as “the afterlife of slavery”. More specifically, this panel draws direct inspiration from her observation in Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments (2019) that “choreography, in its broadest sense – this practice of bodies in motion – was a call to freedom.” Pinpointing the sociopolitical significance of “the dance floor itself as a movement against racism and an instrument in the reconstruction of American democracy” her observations are of utmost relevance in relation to the interdisciplinary performances by the artists featured in this panel.   

Speakers:

1. Oceana James
2. Helina Metaferia
3. Michelle Eistrup
4. Selene Wendt, (Moderator)  2022/23 EADJ Curator, Founder, The Global Art Project

Episode 11: Through the Lens of Social Justice

Episode 11: Wednesday, March 22, 10:00 AM CST

This panel focuses specifically on photography as a medium and brings together contemporary artists whose photographs signal a very conscious approach to the sociopolitical potential of photography.  The panel will address both formal and conceptual aspects of photography, including Mark Sealy’s direct confrontation with the racist underpinnings of photography, Hew Locke’s and Ayana Jackson’s re-imaginings of history and historical figures, and Lee Jaffe’s and Basquiat’s collaborative works, many of which were photographs.  

Speakers:

1. Mark Sealy
2. Lee Jaffe
3. Tahila Mintz
4. Ayana Jackson
5. Makeda Best, (Moderator)