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Hey Neigh­bor! New Zoom con­ver­sa­tion series with cur­rent Artists-in-Res­i­dence on Gov­er­nors Island launches

Sep 29, 2020 1:20 pm

Four arts orga­ni­za­tions cur­rent­ly host­ing artist res­i­den­cies on Gov­er­nors Island – 4heads, Beam Cen­ter, Har­vest­works, and the NARS Foun­da­tion – have announced the launch of a new Zoom con­ver­sa­tion series in which artists from their dif­fer­ent res­i­den­cy pro­grams will be part­nered togeth­er for one-on-one con­ver­sa­tions about their stu­dio prac­tices, res­i­den­cies, and top­ics such as how the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has impact­ed their work. Launch­ing on Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 3^rd, and tak­ing place every Sat­ur­day for four weeks, the Hey Neigh­bor! Artists’ Talk Series brings togeth­er artists who are cur­rent­ly work­ing in close prox­im­i­ty but might oth­er­wise nev­er inter­act because of the nature of their stu­dio prac­tices or the social dis­tanc­ing required by the pan­dem­ic. 4heads ini­ti­at­ed the col­lab­o­ra­tion to con­tin­ue their mis­sion of sup­port­ing their res­i­den­cy artists and help­ing them build net­works in a year in which they could not host their annu­al art fair on Gov­er­nors Island. 

Par­tic­i­pat­ing orga­ni­za­tions are host­ing res­i­den­cies on Gov­er­nors Island as part of the Gov­er­nors Island Res­i­den­cy Ini­tia­tive, a part­ner­ship between the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island and 19 cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions to host free res­i­den­cy pro­grams for artists and cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers that have been affect­ed by the COVID-19 cri­sis. Near­ly 100 artists are cur­rent­ly work­ing on Gov­er­nors Island in stu­dios as part of this initiative. 

Each con­ver­sa­tion will begin with a short video intro about each artists’ work. The artists will then speak with each oth­er for around 30 min­utes before open­ing the con­ver­sa­tion up to a Q&A with the audi­ence. All of the con­ver­sa­tions will be mod­er­at­ed by Jack Robin­son, one of the co-founders of 4heads.

All of the con­ver­sa­tions, which are free and open to the pub­lic, will take place on Zoom. Learn more here.

The full pro­gram fol­lows below.

Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 3, 2020

3 – 4 PM: CHi­KA (NARS Foun­da­tion) and Kather­ine Freer (Beam Center)

ChI­KA is a Japan­ese-born New York-based artist who works in light sculp­tures, audio­vi­su­al per­for­mances, and tech­nol­o­gy. Kather­ine Freer is a mul­ti­me­dia design­er work­ing in the­ater, instal­la­tion, and film.

4 – 5 PM: Joseph Bak­er (Beam Cen­ter) and Sizhu Li (4heads)

Joseph Bak­er is a mul­ti­me­dia artist who uses light and sound. Sizhu Li is a Chi­nese-born New York-based artist who cre­ates immer­sive kinet­ic installations

Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 10, 2020

3 – 4 PM: Sarah K Williams (NARS Foun­da­tion) and Lau­ren Pet­ty & Shaun Irons (4heads)

Sarah K Williams is a per­for­mance artist who cre­ates short inti­mate pieces engag­ing time as object and ges­ture as an effec­tive mode of com­mu­ni­ca­tion . Shaun Irons and Lau­ren Pet­ty are Brook­lyn-based artists who make mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary per­for­mances, mul­ti-chan­nel instal­la­tions, exper­i­men­tal films, doc­u­men­taries, as well as inter­ac­tive video scores to accom­pa­ny live performance.

4 – 5 PM: Alexan­dra Goldberg/​Joseph Mor­ris (Har­vest­works) and Sam Sundius (4heads)

Alexan­dra Gold­berg and Joseph Mor­ris are cur­rent­ly col­lab­o­rat­ing on new work that uses art and tech­nol­o­gy to make human phe­nom­e­na vis­i­ble. Sam Sundius is a fiber and instal­la­tion artist whose work deals with con­cepts of iso­la­tion, fam­i­ly, gen­der, and the body.

5 – 6PM: Jemi­la MacE­wan (Vir­tu­al Vol­cano Obser­va­to­ry) and Eliz­a­beth Demaray (Swale)

Jemi­la MacE­wan is an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary artist known for her inti­mate­ly inter­wo­ven earth­works, sculp­tures, and per­for­mances. Eliz­a­beth Demaray is a sculp­tor focus­ing on the inter­face between the built and the nat­ur­al environment.

Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 17, 2020

3 – 4 PM: Shan­non Finnegan (Beam Cen­ter) and Valérie Hal­li­er (Har­vest­works)

Shan­non Finnegan is a Brook­lyn-based mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary artist whose work aims to increase per­cep­tions of acces­si­bil­i­ty. Valerie Hal­li­er is a French mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary artist whose work reflects on the illu­sion of control.

4 – 5 PM: Tim Fite (4heads) and Zeel­ie Brown (Swale)

Tim Fite makes large-scale, com­po­si­tion­al­ly com­plex, black and white draw­ings that occa­sion­al­ly have a musi­cal or per­for­ma­tive com­po­nent. Zeel­ie Brown is a visu­al artist and cel­list who often uses sound and tex­tiles in her instal­la­tions, most notably queer sanc­tu­ar­ies called ​“soulscapes.”

5 – 6PM: Julie Ann Nagle (Swale) and Simone John­son (Works on Water)

Julie Ann Nagle cre­ates inter­ac­tive instal­la­tions and is cur­rent­ly build­ing on the expe­ri­en­tial aspect of her prac­tice by weav­ing an enor­mous out­door struc­ture based on the nests of birds local to Gov­er­nors Island. Simon John­son is a process-based instal­la­tion artist who is cur­rent­ly research­ing the rela­tion­ship between cli­mate change and the ocean, algae, sur­re­al­ism, and the imagination.

Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 24, 2020

3 – 4PM: Anne Wu (NARS Foun­da­tion) and Char­lotte Mundy (Har­vest­works)

Anne Wu’s work draws from archi­tec­tur­al struc­tures and dec­o­ra­tive ele­ments com­mon­ly found in exist­ing urban land­scapes. Char­lotte Mundy is a vocal­ist and com­pos­er who is now work­ing on mul­ti­sen­so­ry installations.

4 – 5PM: Aarati Akkaped­di (Beam Cen­ter) and Chris­t­ian Hin­capié (NARS Foundation)

Aarati Akkaped­di is a first-gen­er­a­tion Indi­an-Amer­i­can, cross-dis­ci­pli­nary artist, edu­ca­tor, and pro­gram­mer inter­est­ed in the poet­ics and pol­i­tics of datasets. Chris­t­ian Hin­capié’s work is equal parts research-based, stu­dio-based, and made in col­lab­o­ra­tion with pub­lic space.

5 – 6PM: Nil­u­fa Yeas­min (BronxArt­Space) and Anooj Bhan­dari (Beam Center)

Nil­u­fa Yeas­min is a New York-based artist born in Bangladesh whose work is influ­enced by the trav­el between these two places she calls home. Anooj Bhan­dari is a com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­er, sto­ry­teller, and per­former who is inter­est­ed in poet­ics, move­ment, and phys­i­cal theater. 

About 4heads:
4heads is a 501©3 non­prof­it arts orga­ni­za­tion run by artists for artists. It was launched in New York in 2008, when Nicole Laemm­le, Jack Robin­son, and Antony Zito, who are work­ing artists them­selves, saw an oppor­tu­ni­ty to cre­ate a plat­form that would serve emerg­ing artists and the local com­mu­ni­ty through exhi­bi­tions, edu­ca­tion pro­grams, and artis­tic col­lab­o­ra­tions. The organization’s DIY spir­it helps cat­alyze the ongo­ing dia­logue between artists and peo­ple from all walks of life. Its diverse slate of ini­tia­tives includes art fairs, arts-edu­ca­tion for under­served com­mu­ni­ties, and a sum­mer Artists in Res­i­dence pro­gram on Gov­er­nors Island. 4heads is com­mit­ted to shed­ding new light on hid­den cul­ture and bring­ing new life to unex­pect­ed and unique spaces across the city.

About Beam Cen­ter:
Beam Cen­ter is a com­mu­ni­ty of kids, teens, adults, artists, and teach­ers col­lab­o­rat­ing to cre­ate spec­tac­u­lar projects root­ed in a pas­sion­ate curios­i­ty for learn­ing, mak­ing, and shar­ing. Beam has more than 16 years of expe­ri­ence cre­at­ing large-scale youth-built art instal­la­tions, includ­ing Flip­NYC, giant flip­books at the foot of the Man­hat­tan Bridge in DUM­BO, +Pool Light at Pier 17 in Low­er Man­hat­tan, and Ice­berg , a mas­sive ther­mochro­mat­ic struc­ture float­ing in the mid­dle of a lake in New Hamp­shire. Light­house is Beam’s artist res­i­den­cy on Gov­er­nors Island that pro­vides space for artists to engage their inter­dis­ci­pli­nary prac­tices with FabLab tech­nolo­gies and tools.

About Har­vest­works:
Found­ed as a not-for-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion by artists in 1977, Har­vest­works has helped a gen­er­a­tion of artists cre­ate new art­works using sound, image and inter­ac­tive tech­nol­o­gy. The 2020 Har­vest­works Artist Stu­dios con­tin­ues their Art and Tech­nol­o­gy Pro­gram on Gov­er­nors Island that is cen­tered on art works cre­at­ed at the inter­sec­tion of art and tech­nol­o­gy. Since 2011, the pro­gram has includ­ed artists’ open stu­dios, exhi­bi­tions of dig­i­tal media art, pub­lic work­shops and an edu­ca­tion­al research facil­i­ty. Har­vest­works’ goal is to pro­vide exhi­bi­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties to elec­tron­ic media artists and also to edu­cate the pub­lic about how artists use new and emerg­ing tech­nol­o­gy for artis­tic expression.

About the New York Art Res­i­den­cy and Stu­dios (NARS) Foun­da­tion:
The New York Art Res­i­den­cy and Stu­dios (NARS) Foun­da­tion is a 501(c)(3) not-for-prof­it arts orga­ni­za­tion com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing artists and cura­tors on an inter­na­tion­al lev­el as well as engag­ing the local com­mu­ni­ty in Brook­lyn and the Greater New York area, through short-term inte­grat­ed res­i­den­cy pro­grams, pro­gres­sive exhi­bi­tion pro­grams, inter­na­tion­al exchanges, and engag­ing pub­lic pro­grams that fos­ter glob­al under­stand­ing and dynam­ic cross-cul­tur­al dia­logues. The 2020 NARS Satel­lite Res­i­den­cy at Gov­er­nors Island hosts 5 New York based artists, who are pro­vid­ed with admin­is­tra­tive, cura­to­r­i­al, and pro­fes­sion­al sup­port to explore and expand the scope of their artis­tic prac­tice through research, dia­logue, and pro­duc­tion of new projects. As a stu­dio based res­i­den­cy, the focus is on prac­tice with­in the stu­dio and the exper­i­men­ta­tion and explo­ration that results from cre­at­ing new work. Res­i­den­cy artists ben­e­fit from NARS’ com­mu­ni­ty dri­ven pro­gram and the ongo­ing dia­logue between fel­low res­i­den­cy artists.