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Shan­dak­en Projects Names Artists for Inau­gur­al Res­i­den­cy Pro­gram on New York’s Gov­er­nors Island

Nov 19, 2018 10:03 pm

Five NYC-based cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers will cre­ate site-respon­sive work over the next year

Shan­dak­en Projects and The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island are pleased to announce its first res­i­dents in the inau­gur­al ses­sion of Shan­dak­en: Gov­er­nors Island. Five NYC-based artists pro­duc­ing work in the fields of poet­ry, video, crit­i­cal the­o­ry, sculp­ture, per­for­mance and more have been award­ed free stu­dio space on Gov­er­nors Island. As part of their res­i­den­cy, the cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to explore and learn about Gov­er­nors Island and cre­ate work respond­ing to its rich his­to­ry, unique eco­log­i­cal frame­work and unpar­al­leled vistas. 

Res­i­dents announced include Can­dy­s­tore, a poet, artist and per­former who has recent­ly pre­sent­ed work at LaMa­ma, Dixon Place, and in Paper mag­a­zine; Ali­cia Grul­lón, whose per­for­mance, video, and pho­tog­ra­phy work is inspired by cit­i­zen action move­ments, and has been shown at the Bronx Muse­um of the Arts, Per­for­ma 11, BRIC, and the Cre­ative Time Sum­mit; Kavi­ta Kulka­rni, a writer, researcher, and edu­ca­tor who is com­plet­ing a PhD at NYU on race, affect, cul­ture, and space in Fort Greene, Brook­lyn, and was a recent Rubin­stein Crit­i­cal Stud­ies Fel­low at the Whit­ney Muse­um Inde­pen­dent Study Pro­gram; Marie Lorenz, whose project Tide and Cur­rent Taxi takes par­tic­i­pants through New York City using only the tide, in boats that she designs and builds, and whose work has been shown at MoMA PS1 and The Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Tour­ma­line (FKA Reina Gos­sett), an artist and film­mak­er whose work high­lights the capac­i­ty of black queer/​trans social life to impact the world and has been pre­sent­ed at the Muse­um of Mod­ern Art, The Kitchen, The Whit­ney Muse­um, MOCA LA, Brook­lyn Muse­um, BAM Cin­e­matek, and the New Museum. 

The five res­i­dents were select­ed from an open call. Begin­ning this fall, res­i­dents will work on Gov­er­nors Island through­out the win­ter and spring, deep­en­ing their prac­tices and devel­op­ing new work to be pre­sent­ed dur­ing Gov­er­nors Island’s 2019 pub­lic sea­son. These, projects, a new addi­tion to Gov­er­nors Island’s grow­ing art and cul­ture pro­gram, will be offered to the island’s hun­dreds of thou­sands of vis­i­tors for free. The works pre­sent­ed will respond to the con­text of the island, as expe­ri­enced by the res­i­dents dur­ing the course of the program. 

“We’re very proud to have cre­at­ed cru­cial­ly-need­ed free stu­dio space for New York City – based cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers in part­ner­ship with the Trust,” said Shan­dak­en Projects direc­tor Nicholas Weist. ​“New York­ers come to Gov­er­nors Island from every zip code of the city, and we’re excit­ed to bring our res­i­dents’ reflec­tions on a local site with a such a unique and impor­tant his­to­ry to these neigh­bors as well as guests from far­ther afield.” 

“Over the last decade, Gov­er­nors Island has been a hub for artis­tic research and exper­i­men­ta­tion. We are excit­ed to have this amaz­ing group of artists and schol­ars join our com­mu­ni­ty, expand­ing the Island’s role as a site for artis­tic pro­duc­tion and fur­ther root­ing our com­mit­ment to pro­vid­ing the time and space that is so piv­otal for artists in fur­ther­ing their prac­tice,” said Mered­ith John­son, The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s VP of Arts & Culture. 

A full sched­ule of res­i­dent-led pub­lic pro­gram­ming, as well as a full cal­en­dar of arts and cul­tur­al pro­gram­ming on Gov­er­nors Island for next sum­mer, will be released in spring 2019. 

About the residents:

Can­dy­s­tore is a non-bina­ry, mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary artist, poet, and per­former from San Jose, CA. Shimher lat­est writ­ing project, titled CRAY OO LA, is a series of poems each named after a col­or from a pop­u­lar North Amer­i­can cray­on man­u­fac­tur­er. Candystore’s writ­ing and art have been pub­lished in Paper Mag­a­zine, Riot of Per­fume, Pre­cog, Phile Mag­a­zine, RFD, Mes­mer, Hand Job Zine, and oth­ers. She-he has per­formed around New York City at Club Cum­ming, The AC Insti­tute, LaMa­ma Gal­le­ria, Dixon Place, Picas­so Machin­ery, POWR­PLNT and every time she-he uses a pub­lic restroom. She-he is also a 2018 – 2019 Queer | Art fel­low. Can­dy­s­tore lives in Brook­lyn, NY in a pink room. 

Ali­cia Grul­lón​’s works have been shown in numer­ous group exhi­bi­tions includ­ing The 8^th Floor, Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty, Cen­ter for Book Arts, Franklin Fur­nace, the Bronx Muse­um of the Arts, BRIC, School of Visu­al Arts, El Museo del Bar­rio, Smack Mel­lon, Art in Odd Places, Jamaica Flux, and Per­for­ma 11. She has received grants from the Puf­fin Foun­da­tion, Bronx Coun­cil on the Arts, the Depart­ment of Cul­tur­al Affairs of the City of New York, and Franklin Fur­nace Archis and com­mis­sioned for the Old Storm Hose and Bronx Riv­er Art Cen­ter’s Immi­grant Cul­ture Ini­tia­tive. Grul­lón has par­tic­i­pat­ed in artists res­i­den­cies for El Museo del Bar­rio, Bronx Muse­um’s AIM pro­gram, and Korea Arts Coun­cil. She has pre­sent­ed at the Cre­ative Time Sum­mit 2015, The Roy­al Col­lege of Art, Unit­ed States Asso­ci­a­tion for Art Edu­ca­tors, and the Whit­ney Bien­ni­al for Occu­py Muse­um’s Debt Fair exhib­it. Grul­lón’s project PER­CENT FOR GREEN, a func­tion­ing green bill cre­at­ed as art with Bronx res­i­dents, con­tributed to her act­ing as co-lead orga­niz­er in the Bronx for the Peo­ple’s Cli­mate March. She is cur­rent­ly an artist in res­i­den­cy at The Cen­ter for Book Arts in New York and fel­low with the Wal­lach Art Gallery at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty. Her work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Hyper­al­ler­gic, Cre­ative Time Reports, Blown Art Blog, Art F City, and Art News. She is a con­tribut­ing author for the forth­com­ing pub­li­ca­tion from Pal­grave Macmil­lian ​“Rhetoric, Social Val­ue and the Arts: But How Does it Work?” and co-author of City Lim­its arti­cle The Intrin­stic Val­ue in Neigh­bor­hoods Tar­get­ed for Gen­tri­fi­ca­tion” with Hous­ing Activist and ED of Moth­ers on the Move Wan­da Sala­man. She holds a BFA from New York Uni­ver­si­ty and an MFA from the State Uni­ver­si­ty of New York at New Paltz. 

Kavi­ta Kulka­rni is a writer, researcher, and edu­ca­tor based in Brook­lyn, New York. She is cur­rent­ly a PhD can­di­date and adjunct pro­fes­sor in the Depart­ment of Media, Cul­ture, and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion at New York Uni­ver­si­ty, where she is com­plet­ing a dis­ser­ta­tion on race, affect, cul­ture, and the pro­duc­tion of space in Fort Greene, Brook­lyn from 1945 to 2010. Kavi­ta is also a recent alum­nus of the Inde­pen­dent Study Pro­gram of the Whit­ney Muse­um of Amer­i­can Art as a 2017 – 2018 Crit­i­cal Stud­ies par­tic­i­pant. Kulka­rni holds a BA in Soci­ol­o­gy from Emory Uni­ver­si­ty and an MA in Indi­vid­u­al­ized Study from New York Uni­ver­si­ty. Pri­or to pur­su­ing her grad­u­ate stud­ies, Kulka­rni was a com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­er work­ing on var­i­ous eco­nom­ic and hous­ing jus­tice issues in Atlanta, Geor­gia and Brook­lyn, New York. 

New York-based artist Marie Lorenz has been explor­ing and doc­u­ment­ing urban water­fronts for many years. In 2005 she start­ed her Tide and Cur­rent Taxi, tak­ing par­tic­i­pants through New York City using only the tide, in boats that she designs and builds. Her art­work has been shown nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly, from Red Cat Gallery in Los Ange­les, Cal­i­for­nia, to MoMA PS1, in New York City. She has com­plet­ed solo projects at Ikon Gallery in Birm­ing­ham, Eng­land, Jack Han­ley Gallery, in New York City, and the Albright Knox in Buf­fa­lo, New York, among oth­ers. In 2008 she was award­ed the Joseph H. Hazen Rome Prize for the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my in Rome. 

Tour­ma­line (FKA Reina Gos­sett) is an artist and film­mak­er whose work includes Atlantic is a Sea of Bones, The Per­son­al Things, Lost in the Music, and Hap­py Birth­day, Mar­sha! She is also an edi­tor of TRAP DOOR, an anthol­o­gy on trans cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion pub­lished by the New Muse­um & MIT Press. Tour­ma­line makes film and installed video that high­lights the capac­i­ty of black queer/​trans social life to impact the world while liv­ing what is simul­ta­ne­ous­ly an invis­i­ble — and hyper­vis­i­ble — exis­tence. The through­line of her film­mak­ing focus­es on every­day peo­ple and their mun­dane cre­ative acts that blur the lines and liens of what con­sti­tutes pub­lic. She received a BA from Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty and is the recip­i­ent of the 2018 Pub­lish­ing Tri­an­gle Award, Spe­cial Men­tion at 2018 Out­fest Film Fes­ti­val, 2017 HBO & Queer/​Art Prize and 2016 Art Mat­ters Foun­da­tion Grant. She is a 2016 – 2017 par­tic­i­pant in the Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil Work­space pro­gram, and a 2012 – 2013 Queer/​Art/​Mentorship fel­low. From 2014 – 2018 she was an activist in res­i­dence at the Barnard Cen­ter for Research on Women. Her work has been pre­sent­ed across the world includ­ing at the Muse­um of Mod­ern Art, The Kitchen, The Whit­ney Muse­um, MOCA LA, Brook­lyn Muse­um, BAM Cin­e­matek and the New Museum. 

Shan­dak­en Projects sup­ports cul­tur­al advance­ment through pub­lic pro­grams and artist ser­vices. These oppor­tu­ni­ties are focused on process, exper­i­men­ta­tion, and dia­logue, and are aimed par­tic­u­lar­ly at impor­tant but under-served indi­vid­u­als. Through our free res­i­den­cy pro­grams Shan­dak­en: Gov­er­nors Island and Shan­dak­en: Storm King, our free edu­ca­tion­al ini­tia­tive Paint School, and our com­mis­sions, pub­lic pro­grams, and exhi­bi­tions, we cre­ate pos­si­bil­i­ties for cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers to forge new path­ways in their work and in the world. We believe that research, exper­i­men­ta­tion, and the pur­suit of new ideas are vital steps in the progress of cul­ture, and that the cre­ative com­mu­ni­ty must safe­guard space for them. We pro­vide an alter­na­tive orga­ni­za­tion­al mod­el and sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­ni­ties for this com­mu­ni­ty in an inde­pen­dent envi­ron­ment. Shan­dak­en Projects is inten­tion­al­ly small-scale.