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  • I Wish That I Had Spoken Only of It All

    Sheryl Oring, Performance of I Wish to Say | 11am-1pm | Rebecca Stafford Student Center Patio

    Artist Talk | 4:30-5:30pm | Great Hall Auditorium
    Exhibition Opening Reception | 5:30-7:30pm | DiMattio Gallery, Rechnitz Hall

    With backgrounds in journalism and fine art, Sheryl Oring began her ongoing project I Wish to Say in 2004 from a concern that many people’s voices were not being heard. She started to take dictation from the public about what they wanted to say to the (next) President. Dressed as a 1960s secretary with a typewriter, she records whatever participants say onto a postcard, making copies with carbon paper. During larger events, a secretarial bank takes dictation. Oring mails the postcards to the White House and exhibits copies. To date she has typed over 4241 postcards. In this artist talk, Oring will discuss I Wish to Say, now in its 20th year, alongside her other socially engaged art projects.

    This talk is in connection with the exhibition I Wish That I Had Spoken Only of It All: 20 Years of Sheryl Oring’s I Wish to Say, which is on display in Rechnitz Hall’s DiMattio Gallery for the Fall 2024 semester. A reception and performance of I Wish to Say in the DiMattio Gallery will follow this talk.

    About the Artist

    Sheryl Oring examines critical social issues through projects that incorporate old and new media to tell stories, examine public opinion, and foster open exchange. Using tools typically employed by journalists (the camera, the typewriter, the pen, the interview, and the archive), she builds on her experience in her former profession to create installations, performances, artist books, and internet-based works that address themes of citizenship, free expression, first amendment rights, story-telling, and activism through art. Oring received her MFA from the University of California at San Diego. She is currently a board member for the National Coalition Against Censorship. She has held several academic positions, most recently serving as the Dean of the School of Art at University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

    Oring has shown her work at the O1SJ Biennial; Bryant Park in Manhattan; the Brooklyn Public Library; and the Jewish Museum Berlin. She has also presented work at Art in Odd Places in New York; the Art Prospect festival in St. Petersburg, Russia; Encuentro in São Paolo, Brazil; and the International Symposium on Electronic Art in Dubai. She has completed public art commissions at the San Diego and Tampa International Airports. Collecting institutions include the Library of Congress; Museum of Modern Art; Tate Britain; Bibliothèque nationale de Luxembourg; and many others.

    For more information, see: https://www.sheryloring.org/
    Or contact Dr. Corey Dzenko, cdzenko@monmouth.edu

    This exhibition was made possible with funding from the Edna Wright Andrade Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation and from the Diversity Innovation Grant Program coordinated by the Office of the Provost and Intercultural Center at Monmouth University. Thank you also to ArtNOW, the Helen Bennett McMurray Endowed Chair of Social Ethics, and Monmouth University’s Department of Art and Design and Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

  • Pussy Noir and Victoria Reis: A Conversation about Collaboration

    Join us for a conversation between artist Pussy Noir and curator and gallery director Victoria Reis. They will talk about the specific collaborations they have undertaken together as well the broader importance of collaboration to their professional and creative practices.

    An ArtNOW and 2024 Intercultural Center Black History Month Event

    Jason Barnes (Pussy Noir) was born and raised in the Washington, D.C., area and grew up in its theaters and rehearsal halls. At 18, diving headfirst into the New York entertainment industry, Barnes began with styling photoshoots and working backstage at fashion shows. He spent some time in Paris, enchanted by the European fashion and art scenes, and is influenced by the time to this day.

    Mixing his background in music, theater, art, and fashion, the Pussy Noir character developed into an androgynous entity within the nightclub circuit; later, museums and galleries around the city. A popular act in the D.C. region, Barnes continues to culture his brand by giving the audience exuberant energy during performances and providing a gender-queer imagery inviting the audience to have a full sensory experience during their/his performances. Barnes has made appearances and performed in many groundbreaking shows and events. He also produces and performs in a “one-woman” cabaret at Trade, now in its third-year run.

    https://www.kennedy-center.org/artists/n/no-nz/Pussy-Noir/

    Victoria Reis is a curator, writer, and arts organizer who has been actively supporting contemporary visual artists and arts organizations within local, national, and international contexts since 1991.

    In 2002, Reis co-founded Transformer, an internationally recognized non-profit visual arts organization based in Washington, DC. Since 2006, Reis has been leading Transformer as its Executive & Artistic Director, curating and presenting substantial exhibitions and programs in support of emerging artists, innovative cultural production, and new & best practices within contemporary visual art. Reis has established comprehensive cultural partnerships & collaborations with an extensive range of arts, educational, and diplomatic organizations and institutions. She has launched and advanced the careers of several hundred artists.

    In May 2017, Reis expanded Transformer’s programming to include Siren Arts, an Asbury Park-based summer residency program for emerging visual artists working within the performance art discipline. Reis is a Founding Member of Common Field, a national network of art spaces and artist-led initiatives. She has been a member of ArtTable since 2000. In 2018, she joined the Board of Directors of Monmouth Arts, a non-profit arts organization supporting artists and arts organizations throughout Monmouth County, New Jersey.

    Transformer DC: https://www.transformerdc.org/about
    Siren Art series: https://www.transformerdc.org/siren-arts

    For 2024 Black History Month Events visit: https://www.monmouth.edu/intercultural/black-history-month/

  • I will dance with those oak trees as long as

    Performance and Q&A: Tuesday, January 23 | 4:30pm-6pm | Woods Theatre
    Theater of Cultural Resistance Workshop: Wednesday, January 24, 11:40am-1pm | Pollak Theatre
    Registration is encouraged.

    I need a street
    Empty of bloodstains,
    A street that has never seen
    Or known terror.
    Let it be flawless, let it be flawless, flawless
    Like the sex of these girls that are killed unjustly
    Let it be long, let it be long, long,
    Like their agony.
    Kajal Ahmad

    In March of 1988 in Halabja, Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s regime attacked Kurdish peoples through the use of chemical weapons, as part of the Anfal ethnic cleansing campaign. Set in a carpet store at this time, I will dance with those oak trees as long as takes us on a poetic voyage into the life of three Kurdish women, inspired by the poetry of Kajal Ahmad and the characters Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and Ninsun from the world’s most ancient epic poem: Gilgamesh. Carpets, chairs, and strings create the environment in which two actresses interpret the three different women and how they react to a violent and unstable outside world.  Accompanied by soundscapes inspired by traditional Kurdish music, this international duo uses objects, puppets, and a multilayered world of reality, dreams, memories, and visions to explore the question of what it means to be a hero when you have no other choice. 

    Performed by: Audrey Rose Dégez, Daria Holovchanska
    Producer, Playwright, & Director: Audrey Rose Dégez
    Puppet Master, Lighting & Sound Designer, Movement & Object Director: Daria Holovchanska
    Stage Manager: Berivan Alothman
    Produced by:CP4P International Productions

    DARIA HOLOVCHANSKA
    Daria was studying at the Kharkiv National University of Art (Ukraine) until the war began on February 24th, 2022, when she transferred to Aleksandr Zelverovich Theater Academy in Warsaw (Poland) to finish her Master Degree in Puppetry. Daria previously worked at Kharkiv National Academic Puppet Theater, performed in “Fairy tale for a little rabbit” (rabbit Sister, Hedgehog), “Princes spec” (Queen Isabelle), “Magical ring” (Angel), and ”Mother Courage and her Children” (Katrin), directed by Oksana Dmitrieva. Daria is one of the founders and actresses of TERRA Theater Company (performances “Peace to your home”, “Our City”, “Night Call”). She also took part in Slovo.Theater group, where she was a co-director, actress, lighting designer and mask maker of the performance “Mothermotherland”. Recently she performed in one of the biggest puppet festivals in the world in Charleville-Mézières 2023. She is interested in movement theater, objects, materials, puppets, stop-motion animation and masks.

    AUDREY ROSE DÉGEZ
    Audrey Rose Dégez is a producer, director, playwright (Our Common Thread (2015), Empathize Me (2016), 7×7 (2017), Mothermotherland (2022)), actress, mother, and wife from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA) and based in Paris (France). She received a BA in English Literature from Rutgers University and a professional acting diploma from l’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. During her undergraduate studies, she founded the post apocalyptic punk group The Wichts, as well as ran the sober basement show house The Blueberry Shire, which was featured in the short documentary, Safe Space. Scheduled to write a play at Residency Slovo in Kharkiv, Ukraine in September/October of 2022 as the first international resident in Slovo Building, she made the decision to found Slovo. Theater Group after the invasion of February 24th. For the last 10 years, shen has been developing CP4P International Productions through poetry and theatre workshops around the world. She has lived in Berlin and Paris, where she has created theatrical performances in English with children and volunteered with Syrian and Ukrainian refugee communities abroad. In her spare time, she is passionate about making incredible vegan cookies with her daughter, Lili Maritchka and her husband, Louis.

    For more information or to find ways to support this project follow: https://colabarts.breezechms.com/form/2023cp4p

    Co-sponsored by the Program in Gender and Intersectionality Studies (PGIS): Program in Gender and Intersectionality Studies | Monmouth University

    For more information about the event or to rsvp to the performance workshop contact Prof. Stojanov and Dr. Shoemaker astojano@monmouth.edu or dshoemak@monmouth.edu.

  • I will dance with those oak trees as long as

    Performance and Q&A: Tuesday, January 23 | 4:30pm-6pm | Woods Theatre
    Theater of Cultural Resistance Workshop: Wednesday, January 24, 11:40am-1pm | Pollak Theatre
    Registration is encouraged.

    I need a street
    Empty of bloodstains,
    A street that has never seen
    Or known terror.
    Let it be flawless, let it be flawless, flawless
    Like the sex of these girls that are killed unjustly
    Let it be long, let it be long, long,
    Like their agony.
    Kajal Ahmad

    In March of 1988 in Halabja, Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s regime attacked Kurdish peoples through the use of chemical weapons, as part of the Anfal ethnic cleansing campaign. Set in a carpet store at this time, I will dance with those oak trees as long as takes us on a poetic voyage into the life of three Kurdish women, inspired by the poetry of Kajal Ahmad and the characters Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and Ninsun from the world’s most ancient epic poem: Gilgamesh. Carpets, chairs, and strings create the environment in which two actresses interpret the three different women and how they react to a violent and unstable outside world.  Accompanied by soundscapes inspired by traditional Kurdish music, this international duo uses objects, puppets, and a multilayered world of reality, dreams, memories, and visions to explore the question of what it means to be a hero when you have no other choice. 

    Performed by: Audrey Rose Dégez, Daria Holovchanska
    Producer, Playwright, & Director: Audrey Rose Dégez
    Puppet Master, Lighting & Sound Designer, Movement & Object Director: Daria Holovchanska
    Stage Manager: Berivan Alothman
    Produced by:CP4P International Productions

    DARIA HOLOVCHANSKA
    Daria was studying at the Kharkiv National University of Art (Ukraine) until the war began on February 24th, 2022, when she transferred to Aleksandr Zelverovich Theater Academy in Warsaw (Poland) to finish her Master Degree in Puppetry. Daria previously worked at Kharkiv National Academic Puppet Theater, performed in “Fairy tale for a little rabbit” (rabbit Sister, Hedgehog), “Princes spec” (Queen Isabelle), “Magical ring” (Angel), and ”Mother Courage and her Children” (Katrin), directed by Oksana Dmitrieva. Daria is one of the founders and actresses of TERRA Theater Company (performances “Peace to your home”, “Our City”, “Night Call”). She also took part in Slovo.Theater group, where she was a co-director, actress, lighting designer and mask maker of the performance “Mothermotherland”. Recently she performed in one of the biggest puppet festivals in the world in Charleville-Mézières 2023. She is interested in movement theater, objects, materials, puppets, stop-motion animation and masks.

    AUDREY ROSE DÉGEZ
    Audrey Rose Dégez is a producer, director, playwright (Our Common Thread (2015), Empathize Me (2016), 7×7 (2017), Mothermotherland (2022)), actress, mother, and wife from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA) and based in Paris (France). She received a BA in English Literature from Rutgers University and a professional acting diploma from l’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. During her undergraduate studies, she founded the post apocalyptic punk group The Wichts, as well as ran the sober basement show house The Blueberry Shire, which was featured in the short documentary, Safe Space. Scheduled to write a play at Residency Slovo in Kharkiv, Ukraine in September/October of 2022 as the first international resident in Slovo Building, she made the decision to found Slovo. Theater Group after the invasion of February 24th. For the last 10 years, shen has been developing CP4P International Productions through poetry and theatre workshops around the world. She has lived in Berlin and Paris, where she has created theatrical performances in English with children and volunteered with Syrian and Ukrainian refugee communities abroad. In her spare time, she is passionate about making incredible vegan cookies with her daughter, Lili Maritchka and her husband, Louis.

    For more information or to find ways to support this project follow: https://colabarts.breezechms.com/form/2023cp4p

    Co-sponsored by the Program in Gender and Intersectionality Studies (PGIS): Program in Gender and Intersectionality Studies | Monmouth University

    For more information about the event or to rsvp to the performance workshop contact Prof. Stojanov and Dr. Shoemaker astojano@monmouth.edu or dshoemak@monmouth.edu.

  • Inviting Motion (Sabbatical project Wobbe F. Koning)

    Inviting Motion
    Be invited by motion. What will you give up by giving in?

    Inviting Motion is an interactive Virtual Reality (VR) experience with themes of enticing, luring, attention grabbing, and having to give something up when we give into attractions.

    Talk: 11:45am-12:30pm | The Great Hall Auditorium
    Demo: Experience Inviting Motion – 12:35pm-1:30pm & 2:50pm-4:30pm | Demo: IDM Lab (Plangere 135)

    The Experience

    After going through a simple onboarding process to calibrate and tweak the experience, you, the user, are initially tasked with finding a human form in the noise of particles that surround you. After your attention is grabbed, you will be invited, and then teased a little. You can enjoy exploring the interactions, but what are you giving away? Are you being scrutinized?

    The experience generally last about 5 to 10 minutes

    About the Project

    As part of his Sabbatical from Monmouth University, Wobbe F. Koning returned to his alma mater The Ohio State University and worked with the community at the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) to produce this VR experience. Motion Capture was used to create the attention grabbing and inviting motions, which are sparsely represented (using a limited amount of points) but are still instantly recognizable as human.

    The project was a collaboration, and took shape as a result of the interactions with the ACCAD community.

    Bios:
    Wobbe F. Koning     is an award winning animator and digital artist often combining 3D Computer Animation and video with audio to create mostly linear single channel works. Next to creating 3D printed stop motion animations, he has been exploring Virtual Reality (VR) as a medium, experimenting with different approaches while relying on his experience as filmmaker. Though not in his nature, he has been letting go of the total control the creator has over linear storytelling, and in stead embraced the interactive nature of VR.

    Earlier work includes on-stage videos for dance performances, and multi screen installations. At Monmouth University he teaches animation in the Department of Art & Design.

    Raven Serenity Glover received their bachelors degree in Simulation, Animation, and Gaming at Eastern Michigan University. There, they gained skills in 3D animation and character modeling. In their undergraduate research symposium project, Dynamic Storytelling with Animation, Raven Serenity explored the potential advantages animation has over traditional filmmaking in telling dynamic narratives. As part of the MFA program in Digital Animation and Interactive Media at The Ohio State University, Raven Serenity hopes to further expand the utilization of animation to promote self-awareness and self-expression.

  • Do You Know Where Your Art Comes From? by Victoria Reis

    Curator Victoria Reis, Founder & Artistic Director of Transformer Arts Organization, will highlight innovative contemporary platforms artists and arts organizations have initiated nationally to develop, create, and present art. Showcasing a range of visual art practices, including performative, experiential, social, and pedagogical, Do You Know Where Your Art Comes From? investigates current and future models of art organizing.

    Transformer is a Washington DC based arts organization that develops multi-faceted exhibition and program platforms to advance emerging contemporary artists & arts practices.

    Victoria Reis is a curator, writer, and arts organizer who has been actively supporting contemporary visual artists and arts organizations within local, national, and international contexts since 1991.

    In 2002, Reis co-founded Transformer, an internationally recognized non-profit visual arts organization based in Washington, DC. Since 2006, Reis has been leading Transformer as its Executive & Artistic Director, curating and presenting substantial exhibitions and programs in support of emerging artists, innovative cultural production, and new & best practices within contemporary visual art. Reis has established comprehensive cultural partnerships & collaborations with an extensive range of arts, educational, and diplomatic organizations and institutions. She has launched and advanced the careers of several hundred artists.

    In May 2017, Reis expanded Transformer’s programming to include Siren Arts, an Asbury Park, NJ based summer residency program for emerging visual artists working within the performance art discipline. Siren Arts will be presenting its 7th season of programming summer 2023. Reis is a Founding Member of Common Field, a national network of art spaces and artist-led initiatives. She has been a member of ArtTable since 2000. In 2018, she joined the Board of Directors of Monmouth Arts, a non-profit arts organization supporting artists and arts organizations throughout Monmouth County, NJ.

  • Collaborative Performances for Social Justice by Tessa Carr

    Feminist theatre/performance studies scholar and artist Dr. Tessa Carr will give an artist talk about her experiences directing plays and developing devised performances with college students and in communities using a feminist ethics of care.

    Artist Talk: Monday, March 20, 2023, 4:30-5:30 SC 202B

    Tessa Carr serves as Associate Professor of Theatre and Artistic Director of Mosaic Theatre Company at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in Communication Studies with an emphasis in Performance Studies and a portfolio in Women’s and Gender Studies. Her research focuses on devised performance in practice and theory, autobiographical performance, feminist performance strategies and performance as pedagogy. She is currently co-authoring a manuscript with Dr. Deanna Shoemaker about collaborative performance as a social justice communicative intervention. She writes, directs, and facilitates performance throughout the year in the mainstage season at Auburn University and with Mosaic Theatre Company.

  • The Night Sea Journey – An Artist Talk by Associate Professor Kimberly Callas

    Associate Professor Kimberly Callas will give an artist talk on the artwork she created during a two-year Monmouth Fellowship, where she served as the artist-in-residence for the Urban Coast Institute. During the fellowship, Callas created a series of large-scale (10′) drawings that connect images of the ocean, ocean archetypes, and the human body. Inspired by historical nautical charts hand-drawn and mounted on muslin, Callas’ drawings are made of graphite, dye, and India ink on paper and dyed muslin. They are then mounted on canvas. In the drawings, Callas uses latitude, longitude lines, and depth charts to ‘specifically place’ the work in places that follow the Right Whales’ annual migration through the Jersey Shore. The drawings include symbols like the Whale, Fish, Boat, Net, and Horizon Line, and archetypes like ‘the night sea journey,’ a journey navigated by stars to a new shore.

    Kimberly Callas is a multi-media artist, sculptor, and the lead artist of the Social Practice project Discovering the Ecological Self. She uses digital emerging technologies with traditional hand and clay modeling techniques to create life-size figures that combine the human body with symbols and patterns from nature. The figures are drawn or cast in plaster or bronze, 3D printed or routed out of wood with a CNC. Ground pigments, beeswax, and natural materials such as wasp paper or birch bark are often used to finish the work.

    Her work has been exhibited internationally in galleries and museums and has received national and international grants and awards. Recent awards include a Pollination Project Grant, an Urban Coast Artist-in-Residence, and a Monmouth University Faculty Fellowship. In 2020, she received 1st Place Award in Sculpture at the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club’s Annual Exhibit in New York City. Other recent exhibits include the 2019 International New Media Exhibit at the CICA Museum in South Korea, Summer Exhibition at Flowers Gallery in New York City, 9×12 at Dual Galleria in Budapest, Hungary and Crossing Boundaries: Art and the Future of Energy at The Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL. Her work has been published in Post Human, New Media Art 2020 by CICA Press and has appeared in the Huffington Post and Art New England. Callas received her MFA from the New York Academy of Art and her BFA from Stamps School of Art at the University of Michigan. She is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Monmouth University, in West Long Branch, NJ and maintains a studio in both Maine and New Jersey.

    ***This lecture can also be viewed virtually through Zoom – please CLICK HERE to register to receive the zoom link***

     

  • The Woods – A mixed-reality, two-player cooperative game

    “The Woods” is a mixed-reality, two-player cooperative game that addresses the perils of social isolation by promoting connections between people and actively engaging them through play. Using  Augmented Reality (AR) and 4-channel audio spatialization panning, players choreograph their movement in real-world space while interacting with birds, clouds, and other objects in virtual space. In pursuit of a shared goal, players experience an immersive sonic narrative of rumbling storm clouds and disconnected voices that culminate in stories of hope and reconciliation. The design intent behind “The Woods” is to illuminate human connections to others and to celebrate this through collaborative play.

    4pm – 5pm – Experience The Woods (Demo)
    Location: IDM (Interactive Digital Media) Research Lab, Plangere Room 135
    RSVP Required for the demo session ONLY.
    For more info or to RSVP, contact Wobbe F. Koning at wkoning@monmouth.edu

    6pm – 7pm – Artist Talk and Q&A     | Location: Pollak Theatre | Free and open to the public

    Bios:

    Kyoung Lee Swearingen is a visual storyteller with over a decade of experience as a Lighting Technical Director at Pixar Animation Studios and DNA Productions. Kyoung teaches computer animation at ACCAD/The Ohio State University and specializes in cinematography for games and animation. Her current research focuses on creating games and animation for collaborative play, using various emerging technology, and practicing transdisciplinary collaboration. Her award-winning projects have been shown (inter)nationally at ACM SIGGRAPH, IEEE-GEM, Unite Berlin, GDC, Montreal Independent Game Festival, and Bucheon International Animation Festival, and many more.

    Scott Swearingen is an Assistant Professor who teaches game design at ACCAD/The Ohio State University. With a research focus in designing game mechanics that enhance collaborative play, his work cultivates the human experience of connectivity across a variety of physical and social boundaries. His award-winning games and other works have been exhibited at (in)ternational conferences and shows including SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH-ASIA, CURRENTS New Media, GLS, IEEE-GEM, IFIP-ICEC, Montreal Independent Games Festival, and HASTAC. Prior to joining Ohio State, Scott worked in the video game industry for over ten years as a game designer, level designer, and environment artist at multiple video game studios including MAXIS, Electronic Arts, and Gearbox Software. There he worked on numerous award-winning games and franchises including Medal of Honor, Brothers in Arms, The Simpsons, Dead Space, The Godfather and The Sims.

    https://kyoungswearingen.com/the-woods

  • The Red Bank: Rum Runner – Immersive Digital Storytelling

    Award Winning local Red Bank filmmaker and Monmouth Alum will present a talk and creative workshop at Monmouth University’s ArtNOW visiting artists series. Anthony Jude Setaro and cousin Douglas Booton will discuss their creative process in-depth as they dive deeper into the local history of their family emigrating from Italy. The Setaro family left Sassano, Italy, their home for the last 400 years, in 1888, searching for a better life in America. With maps and trade routes drawn out by their father, Don Vito Setaro, his sons split the family apart to create shipping routes to establish their wine business on the shores of New Jersey, establishing an Italian community and then bootlegging in the Red Bank area.

    After releasing a podcast, The Red Bank: Rum Runner, Part 1: Temperance, which they recorded with Ming Chen (A Shared Universe), Setaro and Booton are now using cutting-edge 3D software, Unreal Engine (also used in The Mandalorian and The Matrix Awakens), to visually recreate Red Bank and Monmouth County in the early 1900s. Anthony and Doug are using Unreal Engine to bring long-forgotten ancestors back to life with an incredible level of lifelike detail. The filmmakers combine live footage, filmed by cinematographer and producing partner Joe Minnella (Joe Minnella Studios), with virtual footage to transport viewers to a time of significant change in our area.

    October 4th 
    Tuesday 6pm – 7:30pm , 30min Q&A
    Location: The Great Hall Auditorium

    October 5th 
    Wednesday 2:45pm – 4:30pm
    Location: IDM (Interactive Digital Media) Research Lab, Plangere Room 135
    RSVP Required

    For more info or to RSVP, contact Amanda Stojanov at astojano@monmouth.edu