A US Embassy in Poland Grant Project
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The Solidarity Project / Projekt Solidarność: @home | @dom : virtual artist talk series
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Contact Us: solidarity2020project@gmail.com
EVENT DESCRIPTION // Saturday 29 May @12pm ET / 6pm CET
Enjoy our third @home | @dom: virtual artist talk series online public session: WHAT DOES MAKING CREATE? bookworms, niche art forms, and starting from scratch with Alex Bildsoe and Brandon Harrington.
View the meeting recording here via the project Youtube channel.
The Solidarity Project is in conversation with Brooklyn based bookmaker Brandon Harrington + illustrator, writer, and baker Alex Bildsoe. These artists will discuss new ways of being, thinking, and making through creating books.
The past year has prompted people everywhere to experience and reflect on solitude. Facing drastically new circumstances, we have had to re-learn the meaning of resourcefulness, community, and solidarity. The artists speaking with us have navigated this terrain and have found ways to create as individuals for and with the collective, reaching out in order to be themselves. These artists will share with us what it looks like for them to start from scratch, to regard convenience as the enemy of creativity, and to facilitate new artistic possibilities through texts and objects. Join us for their stories, as well as Q&A and discussion.
SESSION SCHEDULE: Saturday 29 May 2021 // 12pm ET / 6pm CET
please login promptly at 12pm ET / 6pm CET
Brandon Harrington Presentation
Q&A with Brandon, moderated by Jack Holloway
— 5 minute break —
Alex Bildsoe Presentation
Q&A with Alex, moderated by Jack Holloway
Farewell and End of Public Program / Commence Private Participant Session
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Brandon Harrington
Self-taught bookmaker based in Brooklyn, N.Y.
His practice explores how the intangible relationships between book objects and users might inform book construction.
While most bound paper materials are products of mass manufacture today, the historied art of bookbinding is an increasingly niche craft. Rather than ignore the experience of the book as a mass-produced object, Harrington creates constructions inspired by the material sensibility of mass manufacture, executed through hand bookmaking techniques.
He has completed numerous custom commissions since 2016, when he began binding books and journals.
Instagram: @WriteAndBind
Alex Bildsoe
My name is Alex Bildsoe and I am primarily an illustrator, writer, and baker. I write about the world around me (both real and imagined) in intricate detail, and my visual work often follows in style, using both intricate linework and a childlike sensibility.
My insatiable curiosity leads me to break down the world into the tiniest particles, then building a world out from there. Often cuisine and food sensory / ritual experiences are woven into this.
I received a studio arts degree from Beloit College and a masters degree in authorial illustration from Falmouth University.
Thanks,
Alex
www.alexandrabildsoe.com
Instagram: @alexandrabildsoe
What is the Solidarity Project / Projekt Solidarność?
The Solidarity Project / Projekt Solidarność is a virtual artist + cross-cultural exchange project that brings together emerging Polish and American artists to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis from 2020-2021 to investigate the critical need for togetherness and unity in an age when physical proximity is eliminated, isolation is mandatory, and life as we know it is drastically changing at a rapid, alarming rate. Emerging artists are invited to participate and established artists are invited to engage as guest artists and speakers to use the universal communication form of art to bring people together. Artists are also called upon to critically question and rethink what we do, the purpose of our work, the significance of artistic creation in a time of crisis, and how art can be used as a means of creating local and global solidarity in this moment of crisis as an artistic archival process. The project includes monthly virtual sessions with discussions, cross-cultural exchange, guest speakers, artist talks, and more. Concluding programming, specifically a virtual exhibition and remote opening, will take place in October 2021. Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks and months and let us know if you would like to cooperate with us!
Who are we?
Joanna Pottle, Artistic Director // website | instagram
Born in Richmond, VA, Joanna is a visual artist, researcher, educator, curator and recent Fulbright Alumnae (2019-2020 to Poland). Her studio practice combines abstract mixed media techniques of painting, printmaking, drawing, and installations. She currently resides in Kraków, Poland, as a graduate student at the Jagiellonian University, cooperating with MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, while facilitating the Solidarity Project.
Julia Leś, Poland based Curatorial Assistant // website | instagram
Born and based in Krakow, Julia is a visual artist, focusing on painting, drawing, digital art, graphic design and animation. She is a student of Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (from 2018). In her third year of studies, she is a Solidarity project co-organizer and logo designer.
Jack Holloway, US based Curatorial Assistant // website | instagram
Born in Seattle, Jack is a film director, photographer, musician, and activist. His ongoing projects include Morbid Instinct, The Heavens, and Act for Abolition. He currently resides in New York City and is a researcher and contributor to @blackwomxnmarch and is a Solidarity project co-organizer.