Fall Newsletter 2022
Release Me Performance Live-Stream
and more exciting news!!!
|
|
Compassion in Action
Alfred University, NY
Fall 2022
|
Compassion in Action
by Sharon Kagan
curated by Maureen Weiss,
Associate Professor, Performance, Design, and Technology, Alfred University
EXHIBITION DATES
OCTOBER 10 - December 9, 2022
PERFORMANCE TIMES
Daily on October 10 – October 15
from 10 am – 3 pm ET
Alfred University Scenography Gallery,
Alfred, NY
|
|
study for Release Me durational performance
|
|
|
|
Artist Statement
"Forgiveness is the screwdriver we use to pry open our hearts.
For nearly twenty years I have used knitting as a metaphor to create complex forms to discuss complex issues. My work transforms knitting, a traditional woman’s craft, into a metaphor that expands the feminist tenets of liberation, diversity & justice.
I believe that each of us can choose to initiate a profound healing process to alleviate generational trauma experienced by the American Indigenous peoples and the American settlers that committed genocide, Holocaust survivors and the Nazis who murdered millions, or the descendants of Black slaves and White slave owners.
It only takes one person to begin the process of freeing themselves from a painful legacy to begin the process of change for all generations."
|
|
The exhibition will include:
The Undoing: Forgiveness video/performance;
The Red Lotus: To Witness, To Release interactive sculpture/performance;
and Release Me a 5-day live-stream durational performance/installation.
|
|
BOOK OF ESSAYS BY RENOWNED SCHOLARS & CRITIC
I am currently compiling a book of essays in response to The Undoing: Forgiveness video performance. It is exciting, affirming and thrilling to say that so far we have the following essayists:
Dr. Jane Goodall, activist, primatologist and anthropologist
Dr. Larry Ward & Dr. Peggy Ward, Senior dharma teachers
in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh & authors
David Pagel, Art Critic & Curator, Professor at Claremont Graduate University
Srilatha Batliwala, social activist, advocate of women's rights & scholar
Lucia Horan, 5Rhythms moving meditation teacher
Shana Nys Dambrot, Arts Editor, LA Weekly; Flaunt, Art & Cake, Artillery
Sunita Viswanath, women's & human rights activist
Elena Brower, teacher, author & speaker
Dr. Esam Daod, mental health specialist, founder & CEO
Dr. Daod's Center for Mental Health & Wellbeing
Erika Kindsfather, art historian
Everett L. Worthington, Jr., clinical psychologist, professor at VCU
Patricia Russo, creator of The Hell Yes Life
Jordana Blacksberg, Ph.D in Materials Science & Engineering
|
|
One reason Kagan’s video is so different is because it is intimate. The people in it are brave enough to be vulnerable.
David Pagel, Art Critic & Curator, Professor Claremont Graduate University
|
|
With her own background in performance art and its documentation, and through a triple lens of feminism, Jewishness, and community, Kagan has been working in a liminal space between private and public soul-searching.
Shana Nys Dambrot, Arts Editor, LA Weekly; Flaunt, Art & Cake, Artillery
|
|
Exhibitions, Publications, Screenings & Film Festival Awards
2019 - 2022
|
|
|
|
Solo Exhibitions
Compassion in Action, Performance Gallery at Alfred University, Alfred, NY October - December 2022
String Theory (solo exhibition), Hardin Center for Cultural Arts, Gadsden, AL, 2019
String Theory (solo exhibition), Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, MT, 2019
Selected Group Exhibitions
Kipaipai Group Exhibition at Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Palm Desert, June 2022
The Street & The Shop, NeueHouse in the Bradbury Building. Curated by Michael Slenske
Publications
5 New Exhibitions to Check Out, Angeleno Magazine, by Claire Harper, October 2020
Screenings
December 2-4, 2022
Film Festivals
Award Winner for best experimental film
London Indie Short Festival
Austin International Art Festival
Official Selection for best experimental film
The Impact DOCS Awards
LA Sun Film Festival
LA Independent Film Channel Festival
London New Wave Film Festival
Santa Barbara Film Awards
LA Indies
Toronto Film and Script Awards
Berlin International Art Film Festival
Toronto Indie Shorts
New York Independent Cinema Awards
SoCal Film Awards
Finalist for best experimental film
San Diego Shorts
Special Projects
Maiden LA, SOS.Siren, in collaboration with Snezana Petrovic. Online studio visits, panel discussions, 2020
Grants
Word is a program of American Jewish University’s Institute for Jewish Creativity.
|
|
|
|
Dear Friends and Supporters,
I am up to my eyeballs in preparations for the Alfred Show. In this photo I am actually sitting inside the knitting for The Red Lotus. Today I was at my computer pulling audio clips of my parents talking about their lives, the war and finding resilience for the voice over in the performance Release Me. It is painful, moving and powerful. I hope you'll pop in and watch the live-stream.
Best, Sharon
|
|
| | | | |
