For the opening reception in the waiting room at Grand Central Terminal, Hassinger turned partiers into “kinetic sculpture.” Hassinger writes that she “wore a bright red suit and put bright red crosses on furniture, walls, and people:” “Red fabric tape was the material I used to “mark” anyone who wanted me to with a red cross. These people than went about their business at the opening socializing, etc. The red crosses made the people stand out in the space – they moved about like kinetic sculpture. The red crosses also brought up other associations – like the American Red Cross, religion, etc. I originally wanted to remove lights in the chandeliers there and replace some of them with red exit lights. At the last minute they denied me permission. So, what to do with just a few hours ’til opening – improvise!”

A reviewer described Hassinger’s installation at School 33 Art Center: “The first floor’s ceiling is covered with a thicket of branches and plastic bags and a great beard of dirty, knotted newspaper cascading down like a waterfall of trash, as if the viewer is some mud-dwelling croaker looking up from the bottom of a polluted river. That’s fitting, considering artist Maren Hassinger uses the metaphor of a flowing river sweeping debris downstream to illustrate how trouble travels through families. Her installation, titled simply ‘The River,’ includes a projected video of Hassinger’s interview with a long-lost uncle who unskeins their family’s tangled, incestuous genealogy: Hassinger’s troubled grandmother was the offspring of a white woman and her nephew, the son of her father’s Cherokee mistress.”

See Violet Glaze, “The River, New Work, Ex Libris: Rethinking the Library,” Baltimore City Paper (July 27, 2005).

Hassinger presented Why Did This Happen? in an exhibition, “Unforgettable,” featuring artworks that responded to the events of 9/11. Curated by Judy Collischan for Chelsea Studio Gallery, New York, the exhibition ran September 5-28, 2002. Hassinger also presented this work at the “Faculty Show,” Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, in 2002.

For a review of “Unforgettable,” see “Ausschreibung ‘Unforgettable’ @ Berliner Kunstprojekt,” NYArts (December 2002).

Manifesto

Manifesto pg. 1

“We”

Since 1978 (during CETA, Title VI) we’ve been working alone and together as our paths crossed.  Sometimes it was a sculptural collaboration, but more often, we performed in each others works.  Events, process, ideas were shared in (list pieces).

What was the nature of the work done together?  A sense of play and improvisation was always at the core of our process.  Senga might say, “Oh, I saw this big hole where they demolished Broadway Wilshire.  We should see that.”  Then off we’d go to see the hole.  We all agreed it was a big hole.  Years later Houston made a cubic hole in the ground in Atlanta and filled its shored up sides with niches containing secrets.  I made swirling round wire rope pieces, etc.  Nothing explicit — but a shared moment individually interpreted.  Often these shared moments seemed incredibly awkward to me.  I didn’t always understand why I was looking at these exciting feats of (de)construction.  Senga’s process seems to have a lot to do with this unknowingness, but a feel for the rightness of the effort.  Maybe this stems from her dada/surrealist roots.

In cases like “Blanket of Branches,” (1986) I told Senga and Ulysses that I was doing this installation at the Contemporary Arts Forum in Santa Barbara and invited them to perform within (under) this canopy of branches at the opening.  We all (Frank Parker was also in the cast) appeared in Senga’s piece, “Nature’s Way.”  Ulysses piece was (discuss his piece).

In 1984 I told everyone I had written “Voices.”  We had been working with Rudy Perez (in Ulysses’ studio) and we all gathered as personnel for “Voices.”  Other performers included classmates from Lester Horton dance classes and a student from Cal Arts. (get names)

Conceptually all these pieces are marked with a distinctive physicality probably derived from our shared interest and pursuit of dance.  Senga’s humor and quirky (psychologically and sexually charged) interpretations of reality surface in “Las Vegas Ikebana.”  Maren’s desires for unity are apparent in “Voices.”  A shared romanticism is apparent in Senga’s poster of myself and Frank Parker dancing  and in Maren’s contributions to “Las Vegas Ikebana” and the installation of “Our Book.”

Post-modern commentaries on politics, the end of nature, etc., are apparent in our approaches in “Voices” and “Las Vegas Ikebana.” (others?).          Maren’s minimalist inclinations have brought a sympathy with architecture, repetition. and site inspired forays.  “Flying” is an example.

Now, as we celebrate 35 years in art, we haven’t heard of any other collaborations between African American women in the area of performance and installation.  We know of some individuals (Adrian Piper, Lorraine O’Grady, et al), but never people working together.  So, we are unprecedented.  AND the collaboration is particularly important when you consider what exactly is commingled here.  We are nearly textbook examples of the art historical crossover from modernism to post modernism practiced during the past 50 years.  Senga’s roots are dada and surrealism, mine are minimalism.  We both shared a background in dance training (specificallly with students and company members of Lester Horton in Los Angeles).  We have both gravitated towards explorations involving sculptural objects, installations, performance.  I became enamored of using film and video.  Senga is obsessed with still images.

Because Senga’s work employs pseudonymous personalities who engage in diverse art

Manifesto  pg. 2

activities (e.g., Harriet Chin is a draughtsperson), her involvement with this collaboration can be seen as an extension of that impulse.  It is Senga, the dancer or talker/mail writer, who participates in these works.

Maren’s involvement probably stems from a desire to work communally towards goals with (possibly) wider connotation, application, and appreciation.  By combining efforts the total might be greater than the sum of either part.  Something actually NEW might happen, or at least, something inspiring….  These pieces together also are a concrete examples of the unity Maren has frequently cited as a goal of her recent solo work.

We’ve kept each other such good company all these years and we’ve had so much fun doing it, that it’s hard to separate the abiding friendship from the issues of theory and practice.  Finally, it seems we’ve collaborated and those times together have kept us making art, maintained our curiosity(when much else failed), and stepped up the ante in art history.  Our times together making work have healed many difficult moments wrought by (these only childs’) lives.

Senga — risky, spunky, sexy, outstandingly absurd — hanging stuff off the demolition site and Maren flopping around all this wire rope to make a row of steel trees mourning nature’s passing while proclaiming the authority of its replacements, combine to produce pieces of rare power and imagination.

(If this is text, show illustrations of each.  If this were a slide show, show these now on split screen.)

Below, a selection of the media coverage documenting Owens’ residency.  Click a heading to follow the link:

Artist Clifford Owens visits UNC Nov. 2-13

UNC-Chapel Hill College of Arts & Sciences press release, October 2009.

The Process Series and Clifford Owens

Interview and profile of Clifford Owens for the Independent newspaper, November 4, 2009.

Clifford Owens visiting artist

Brief story about Clifford Owens’ performances from the Durham Herald-Sun newspaper, November 2009.

The CHAT Festival’s mission was to explore how “digital technologies are transforming the practices of the arts and humanities, including how we learn, think, know, teach and express ourselves both as individuals and as communities.” Festival events included live performances, a series of panels and lectures, and exhibitions of collaborative projects created by scholars at UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, and North Carolina State University.

Photo: John Bowles demonstrates the Archive to CHAT Festival attendees.

Below, a selection of CHAT Festival coverage documenting the Archive’s participation.  Click a heading to follow the link:

Internet Archive of African-American Performance Art

A CHAT Festival announcement with a description of the African American Performance Art Archive and exhibition details.

Photos from Faculty Exhibitions

Photo gallery documenting the CHAT Festival, including a photograph of John Bowles at the exhibition of faculty projects, demonstrating the site to visitors.

CHAT Festival’s Photos – Faculty Working Groups

Photo gallery documenting the Faculty Working Groups held in preparation for the CHAT Festival. John Bowles appears in two of the photographs.

Photo: CHAT Festival participants Paul Jones and John Bowles at one of the Faculty Working Groups, summer 2009.

Maren Hassinger first performed Women’s Work in conjunction with her collaborative performance with Senga Nengudi, Side by Side, at “Les soirées nomades: Nuits Noires,” at the Foundation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, France, in April 2006.  Hassinger explains, “‘Women’s Work’ was my individual creation. Senga had an individual creation and then we made an extended piece together [Side by Side] which involved a video review of our work together over the years and a gift giving segment involving the Paris audience.”

Hassinger adds, “In 2009 the ‘Women’s Work’ piece was reprised during an evening of performance organized by Ulysses Jenkins called ‘Quiet as Kept’ at the California African American Museum (CAAM) in Los Angeles.  This evening was in honor of my receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus [for Art] that year and to the many African American women artists of Los Angeles.  Many of them were present that night, including Senga.”