Donna Bassin and Stephanie J. Woods
Exhibition Walkthrough and Conversation with Artists Donna Bassin and Stephanie J. Woods
Saturday, December 5, 2020
1 pm EST
Via Instagram Live
@forwhichitstands
Join us via Instagram Live for a walkthrough with artists Donna Bassin and Stephanie J. Woods spotlighting their works in Bound up Together: On the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment at Smack Mellon, followed by a conversation moderated by Eileen Jeng Lynch. Curated by Rachel Gugelberger and on view through December 13, the exhibition explores women’s ongoing struggles for human rights in a country with a history of exclusion and oppression despite the national achievements of women. Reconstructing and re-contextualizing the American flag, Bassin's My Own Witness photographs and Woods's When the Hunted Become the Hunters moving audio photograph incorporate first-hand testimonies of women of color in response to racism, sexism, and misogyny.
Schedule:
Opening remarks by Gabriel de Guzman, Curator and Exhibitions Director at Smack Mellon
Introduction to the show by Rachel Gugelberger, Curator of Bound Up Together
Walkthrough with artists Donna Bassin and Stephanie J. Woods (via IG Live)
Conversation with artists moderated by Eileen Jeng Lynch, co-curator of For Which It Stands
Image above: Top - Stephanie J. Woods, When the Hunted Become the Hunters (detail), 2020, Image courtesy of the artist. Bottom - Donna Bassin, installation image, 2020. Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, New York. Image courtesy of the artist.
Donna Bassin is a photographer, film-maker, author, and practicing psychoanalyst. For the series Here We Are, she invited women into her studio to collaborate on portraits of resistance, motivated in part by the writings of Emmanuel Lévinas, Judith Butler, and Teju Cole, who speak of face-to-face encounters such as portrait-making as an ethical act and social responsibility. The sitters — Shontel, Sufiyyah, Danielle, Dulce, and Tacy — use pose, gesture, gaze, props, and story-telling to represent individual experiences that insist on agency in the face of our crisis of democracy and constitutional law. Born in Brooklyn, Bassin lives and works in New Jersey.
Donna Bassin, My Own Witness.Danielle. 2020. Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, New York. Image courtesy of the artist.
Stephanie J. Woods is a multimedia artist from Charlotte, North Carolina who creates textiles, photography, video, and community engaged projects. Using symbolic imagery and materials, she references black american culture through the lens of the southern experience to examine the cognitive effects of forced cultural assimilation and how performance is ingrained in identity. Woods earned an MFA from UNC Greensboro and is the recipient of several residencies and fellowships, including Halcyon Arts Lab social impact fellowship, the Fine Arts Work Center fellowship, ACRE Residency, the McColl Center for Art + Innovation, Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, and Penland School of Craft. Additionally her work has been featured in publications such as Bomb Magazine, Art Papers, Burnaway, and the Boston Art Review.
Stephanie J. Woods, When the Hunted Become the Hunters (detail), 2020, Image courtesy of the artist.