CREATRIX Magazine invites you all to the conference
Art as Spiritual Practice, Art as Activism
December 28, 4:30-8:30pm
Part of NOUMENA: deLIGHT December 21-30th
Magic & shamanism series curated by Jana Astanov
With an art show Altars, Portals, Grottos
Panel discussions + Q&A:
The Power of Water with Damali Abrams, Jennifer Taves, Megwyn White moderated by Jana Astanov.
Art as Spiritual Activism with Jill McDermid, Jaguar Mary X, Hector Canonge, Nilton Maltz moderated by Claire Zakiewicz.
Performances:
Hector Canonge, Jaguar Mary, ASTRALOOP, Duo: Depends on the Day with Gravity, Queen of Love and Hope + Heather Morowitz.
Location:
The Park Church Co-Op
129 Russell St, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
G-Nassau, L- Graham
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/590481908190032/
THE POWER OF WATER
Panelists:
Damali Abrams – the Glitter Priestess
Megwyn White – Embodied Technologist and Sexologist
Jennifer Taves – Costumegasm Creatrix and Purrmaid Performer
Yannanda – The One Who Speaks With The Stars
Moderated by Jana Astanov – interdisciplinary artist + astrologer
ART AS SPIRITUAL ACTIVISM
Panelists:
Jill McDermid – director of Grace Exhibition Space, and Rosekill, a farm and an outdoors performance space
Nilton Maltz – psychoanalyst and visual artist
Jaguar Mary X – ritual performance artist and filmmaker
Hector Canonge – interdisciplinary artist and curator
Moderated by Claire Zakiewicz – interdisciplinary artist
Doors open at 4:30pm
On display in the main sanctuary of the church a group show “Altars, Portals and Grottos”: Katie Cercone, Agnieszka Pestka, Elena Chestnykh, Shayma Aziz, Miah Artola, Claire Zakiewicz, Maria Liebana, Janice Sloane and Kat Ryals.
curated by Jana Astanov + Shayma Aziz
on view by appointment until December 30st.
Performances:
HECTOR CANONGE
SACRIFICIO (Sacrifice)
Description: SACRIFICIO (Sacrifice) is a performance that addresses notions of the spiritual while posing questions about the nature of human forgiveness and physical detachment. Through a series of actions marked by movement, physical endurance, and symbolic visuals, interdisciplinary guest artist, Hector Canonge, will deliver his last performance of 2019. SACRIFICIO (Sacrifice) is a reflection on contemporary culture, and people’s struggle to understand and connect with their inner “Self” in relation to the “Holy.”
ASTRALOOP
An electrometamorphic trance journey guided by Yannanda &Prone
DEPENDS ON THE DAY with Gravity, Queen of Love and Hope + Heather Morowitz wearing Jennifer Taves costumes.
BIOS:
Jaguar Mary is a performance artist, glossolalia vocalist, filmmaker and hoop dancer. Her specific concerns, and the directives that have driven her art practice, engage black feminist discourse, questions of history, and recently, ritual performance and practice in art. Jaguar Mary aka Jocelyn Taylor has shown and performed internationally, at the Johannesburg and Havana Biennials, the New Museum, Museum of Modern Art, KARST Gallery in the UK and Dietch Projects in New York. In 1989, she co-founded the historic Clit Club with Julie Tolentino. Jaguar Mary has also collaborated with feminist artists Annie Sprinkle, Yvonne Rainer and Cheryl Dunye and others. Her essay, “Testimony of a Naked Woman” about being a black feminist sex-worker was included in Afrekete: An anthology of Black Lesbian Writing edited by Catherine McKinley and Joyce Delaney. Under the name Jocelyn Taylor, she was commissioned to make work for the Public Art Fund and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. She’s also received grants from the Jerome Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts.
She is an alum of the Whitney Independent Study Program and has an MFA in Film and Video from California Institute for the Arts. Jaguar Mary received a full scholarship from Pratt Institute and will complete an MFA in Performance and Performance Studies in May 2019. Jaguar Mary is based in the East Village, New York City and is an artist-in-residence at the Art/Life Institute in Kingston. NY until May, 2019.
Jill McDermid began making performance art in 1997 performing in galleries and international festivals around the world including Venice Performance Week Biennale and Beijing 10th Open Performance Art Festival. She holds M.A (1999) M.F.A. (2000) in Performance Art and Intermedia. Throughout her performances, she explores how American identity is rife with contradictions, while accepting that the personal is political. In 2001, she became an active member of the International Association of Performance Art Organizers. McDermid began organizing performance art events in July 2001 with 21st Suffragettes: Art + Performance by Women. McDermid is the Founder/Director/Curator of the Grace Exhibition Space for International Performance Art since 2006, presenting established, mid-career and emerging performance artists. McDermid divides her time between New York City and the Hudson Valley, where knowledge and questions about Nature abound.
Hector Canonge is an interdisciplinary artist, independent curator, and cultural entrepreneur based in New York City. His work incorporates the use of new media technologies, cinematic narratives, Live Action Art, and Social Practice to explore and treat issues related to constructions of identity, gender roles, and the politics of migration. Challenging the white box settings of a gallery or a museum, or intervening directly in public spaces, his performances mediate movement, endurance, and ritualistic processes. Some of his actions and carefully choreographed performances involve collaborating with other artists and interacting with audiences. His installations, interactive platforms, and performance art work have been exhibited and presented in the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
As cultural entrepreneur, Canonge created and runs the annual Performance Art Festival of NYC, ITINERANT, started ARTerial Performance Lab (APLAB), a transcontinental initiative to foster collaboration among performance artists from the Americas, and directs his independent programs: PERFORMEANDO, a program that focuses on featuring Hispanic performance artists living in the United States and Europe, PERFORMAXIS, an international residency program in collaboration with galleries and art spaces in Latin America. . After living most of his life in the United States, Canonge returned to South America in 2012, and lived abroad for almost 3 years. The artist returned to New York City in late 2015 to continue with the development and execution of new projects, exhibitions, and initiatives among them: TALKaCTIVE, LiVEART.US, and CONVIVIR the international residency program at MODULO 715. In 2017, Canonge launched the performance art platform, NEXUS, premiered during Miami Art Basel, and worked in the development of LATITUDES, the International Performance Art Festival of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, presented in Bolivia (2018 and 2019). He launched AUSTRAL, Performance Art Festival Buenos Aires (April 23-27) in Argentina, and directed the 2019 edition of ITINERANT Performance Art Festival NYC (May 21-25) in the United States.
Site: http://www.hectorcanonge.netEmail: hectorcanonge@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hectorcanonge
Instagram: @hectorcanonge
Nilton Maltz is a Certified Jungian Analyst. He is a graduate of the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association (JPA) of NY. He obtained degrees in Electrical Engineering and Materials Science. Nilton studied contemporary art studio and art history at the School of Visual Arts at Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro. He took part in many art shows and presented at Jungian conferences and talks around the world. Before going for psychoanalytic training, Nilton has worked for many years in scientific, technical and managerial positions for the high tech industry in Silicon Valley and NY.
Claire Zakiewicz is a British inter-disciplinary artist and curator working across drawing, film, sound and performance. Zakiewicz’s practice examines the physical and metaphorical relationships between sound and drawing. It is a philosophical and practice-based enquiry -thinking through making. She says, “Our physicality is our cosmic home. Each line is drawn with attention to the body and to the drawing itself and our interactions outside of ourselves whether verbal or experiential, moment-to-moment.” Zakiewicz’s practice re-examines the pictorialization of space and the intimacy of exchange. Her animated films have been shown at Alive In the Universe for the 58th Venice Biennale, 2019 and at Tate Tanks and Tate Modern (London) in the exhibitions Tweet Me Up, 201 and Label, 2012. Zakiewicz has exhibited regularly throughout the UK, USA, Italy and Norway and has produced and performed in numerous productions and international institutions including Resonance FM (UK); ARTI3160 (Venice, Italy); USF (Norway); Bill Young’s Dance Studio (NYC); Mothership NYC; Last Frontier NYC and Itinerant Performance Arts Festival (NYC). Zakiewicz lives and works in London, UK and New York, United States. Zakiewicz writes for the publications Creatrix Magazine, Art511 Magazine and Hypocrite Reader. www.clairezakiewicz.com
Damali Abrams the Glitter Priestess is a New York City based artist, educator and reiki practitioner. Damali attended the Whitney Independent Study Program and earned her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and her BA from New York University.
Damali is a recipient of the Queens Council on the Arts New Works grant. She has been a fellow at Culture Push, the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, A.I.R. Gallery, and apexart in Seoul, South Korea. Damali has also been Artist-in-Residence at Fresh Milk in Barbados, Groundation Grenada, The Center for Book Arts, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (JCAL), and LMCC on Governors Island.
Damali has presented her work at School of Visual Art (SVA), Sonoma State University, Soho House, UConn Stamford, Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), Barbados Community College, New York University (NYU), SUNY Purchase, Hunter College School of Social Work, and Syracuse University’s 601 Tully.
Damali’s work has been exhibited at many spaces including El Museo del Barrio, MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art), Rush Arts Gallery, Longwood Gallery, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, JCAL, and The Point. Her writing has appeared on the blogs of art21, Fresh Milk, and Groundation Grenada.
Damali Abrams: damaliabramsart.com
Megwyn White is an Embodied Technologist and Sexologist currently heading the Education division within the Satisfyer, a leading Sexual Wellness Brand based in Germany. Her work has mainly focused on Sexual Wellness education which encourages sensual embodiment, self-care, and self-exploration as a means of empowering around sexual integration and pleasure. She has been a regular contributor for the Sex and Medicine Summit, has been featured in Cosmopolitan, Health.com, Elite Daily, Refinery 29, and X-Biz magazine, and and has had spoken around the world on the subject of how sensual embodiment effect health and wellness. In her free time, she can be found reading, painting, and practicing Pilates.
Jennifer Taves is a Brazilian American purrmaid performer and Creatrix of Costumegasm costume designs. She conceives costume items for all kinds of occasions. More than just mermaid tails, playa coats, and pasties. With two degrees from the Fashion Institute of Technology in Fashion Design and Accessories along with a background in the halloween and costume industry that spans well over a decade. Her studio is an industrial machine sewing powerhouse which houses an array of sequins, glitter, fur, rainbow, and many other fabrics that will blow your mind. She pours love and sparkle into transformation performance pieces and enjoys spreading sonar purrs of love for our oceans and waterways through her art. Mermazing miracles made to order.
I am Gravity, Queen of Love and Hope! I am a force to be reckoned with. I’m a City Kitty and Jane of all trades in the arts and in life. My true passion is mewsic and helping people feel all the feels that they did not know they were capable of feeling. I play piano and sing. I am currently working on recording my songs and conceptualizing videos for them. I do modeling of all sorts; figure, nude, bodypaint, underwater, human sculpture, and cosplay. I am the assistant creatrix for Costumegasm. I do public performances and readings, I mermaid, I write, I act, I dance, I cook yummy healthy things and I scoot. I scoot everywhere. It’s good for the booty. Ageless and cageless, I aspire to inspire people to live their dream life! I have turned my life into a work of art and it is quite glorious!!
Jana Astanov is a multidisciplinary artist, a poet and an independent curator living in New York. Born in Poland she studied anthropology, philosophy, and linguistics in France, and arts in the UK. She is a founder of CREATRIX Magazine: www.creatrixmag.com, portal for creative expression focused on art, activism and spiritual practice. Her work includes photography, poetry, performance art, sound art, and installation. She describes her performance art practice as “mythology vs ideology” referring to her two main interests the political & economic foundations of our civilization and mythological/ religious values. In her work, she utilizes elements of hypnosis, spirituality, dance movement derived from the Grotowski technique, sound art, ritualistic theatre and astrofeminism, term she has developed through her character Yannanda The One Who Speaks With The Stars. She has started three feminist performance groups JeDeive (Self Proclaimed Goddess), Red Temple (also a publishing house) and W.I.S.E. focused on ecological emergency. Astanov encourages other women to create and write their own stories that she often includes in her performances with an aim to portray the female world. Together with her partner Niko van Egten she co-created an electronic music group ASTRALOOP featuring her poetry in dark electronic arrangements. She is also the author of five collections of poetry: Antidivine, Grimoire, Sublunar, The Pillow Book of Burg, and Birds of Equinox. Web: http://www.janaastanov.com/
