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Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows | The Front Triennial
The Front Triennial is a free public art phenomenon that is based in Ohio and takes place in Akron, Cleveland and Oberlin every two years. The exposition showcases an excellent roster of accomplished installation, performance and visual artists in venues across all three cities. I was honored to be included in the 2022 iteration, named after a Langston Hughes poem. My work was curated by Annie Wischmeyer, who selected the former Quaker Oats Factory in Akron to exhibit my single screen video T M I, a stainless steel edition of Cursorial Reciprocity II, and a new site-specific installation From V to H. T M I investigates the concept of inherited memory through a montage of abandoned commercial spaces in Detroit that features performers in the periphery, intoning their own associative versions of popular songs from the past. These interiors evolve in a cyclical journey as one unified body of the spirit, connected by doorways, ruins, and song. The video was projected onto a decrepit wall, blending into the abandoned aesthetic and giving the illusion of a real-time performance. Elevated and flanking the video, the steel edition of Cursorial Reciprocity II embodied the power of momentum in an assemblage which speaks to the healing power of creative gestures, propelling us closer to the light and towards the future. The position was enhanced by a single spotlight, emphasizing its theatricality. Lastly, the site specific From V to H presented a gradient of symbolic artifacts that progress from representations of violence to those of healing and empowerment. This panoply consisted of numerous found, collected and crafted objects -such as trophies, 45 records, decayed shingles, pin up girls, seeds, shackles, bear traps and dolls -laid out as an archaeological ombrayed path in the shadows on an elongated table. The venue was an ideal space to showcase this work, as both building and my art were palimpsests of culture and time. 2022