The title, Trying, comes from my Artist Statement (since 2010), that in turn comes from my text for Faceless Portrait, 2007.
The exhibition is about the continuation of a variety of struggles in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, from irrational political actions to a global pandemic. The work consists of my text (written mostly in spring of 2019) and recycling prints into objects and having them be containers for handcrafted nature. I made these prints when I was Artist in Residence in the office of Ross Barkan's campaign for State Senator (that subsequently turned into a short-lived community space, Solidarity Space, 2018-2019 - see Political Office, 2018-2019).
Public Zoom opening with gallerist Jeannine Bardo and curator Valeria Federici (participating from Rome), during pandemic, anti-racist demonstrations and curfew - moderated by Doug Chapman of Turnstile Tours and live support by Isabelle Garbani and Elena Soterakis.
I dispersed my text throughout the gallery space - from two large scrolls to one sentence on a pencil: "We spend our days repairing, under the indifferent sun."
"KILL PAIN" is the only text in exhibition that is not my own; I saw it on the window of the El in Chicago, going to a friend's memorial service in January, 2017. It reminded me of Buddhist cognitive instructions: start off with premise of pain and then integrate skills/actions to combat suffering.
In addition to making work for the gallery, I also organized a collaboration for the gallery garden with SAFE (assistance to people who are asylum seekers due to gender identity and sexual orientation) to make a SAFE Asylum Wall. SAFE asked its community of asylum seekers and asylees to respond with an image to the following question: "What does Pride mean to you?" I had access to these images (19 total), as well as the text that accompanied some of the submissions; I converted the small files into large black & white images that I printed and then hand colored part of each image.
Jeannine Bardo, helping me install the SAFE prints in the Stand Garden.