Initially, Invasive Species, a new exhibit by Ed Andrews, was supposed to solely be a commentary about the state of the environment. After all, Andrews, a Kansas native, has been fighting invasive species all his life whether it’s the loss of 12 American elm trees in his childhood home or the European Gypsy moth making quick work of the trees around Andrews’ northern Rhode Island studio.

The installation for Invasive Species at Boston Sculptors Gallery includes a large tree canopy and eight “spiders” that live in it. After a while, Andrews says, it became clear that the spiders looked like little drones so he decided to add cameras to the unit to make them even more invasive. The result is an exhibit that is not just a commentary about contemporary environmental issues but also about government surveillance.

Surveillance has bubbled up as a theme in Andrews’ earlier work as well. In See/Through at the Mills Gallery at the Boston Center For the Arts, the gallery space accommodated several real-time viewing stations fitted with surveillance cameras that could be trained on neighboring spaces. “As a citizen artist, I am inherently sensitive to changes that potentially threaten the rights and personal freedoms of the individual over and against any kind of authority,” says Andrews, a professor of sculpture and 3-D fundamentals at Northeastern University in Boston.

Invasive Species installation. Photo by Eric Antoniou

Much of Andrews’ activism on behalf of the environment comes from being steeped in it. His studio in Glocester, Rhode Island, is surrounded by deep woods, which he recently got rezoned as a forest. To achieve that he had to work with a state forester to learn about the woods and how to best manage what he had. “That includes managing invasive species of plants and insects and much of my knowledge of invasive species are a direct result of my forestry management training,” Andrews says.

Andrews started out as a landscape painter and switched to sculpture after seeing friends pursuing it. Growing up in a shop environment with his dad who taught him about tools also helped. Now he describes himself as a landscape sculptor bringing elements such as wind, water, light, sound and movement into his work.

Invasive Species detail during installation. Photo courtesy of Ed Andrews.

What does Andrews want viewers to take away from Invasive Species? “I want them to be both seduced in the space and a bit unnerved as the activity in the canopy increases in rhythm and the sounds become more intense,” he says. “But I also hope to create a memorable experience of a magical kind of environment that they enter fully, that surrounds them with sound and movement and recreates a little of the awe that we all feel when we enter into the woods.”

Ed Andrews–sculptor
Gloucester, Rhode Island
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Top image: Detail from Invasive Species. Photo courtesy of Ed Andrews.

The post Every Move You Make appeared first on Take Magazine.

The idea for Mobile Incubator, Lucas Spivey’s winning submission for the Public Art Residency on the Boston Center for the Arts Plaza, came as he was traveling to different regions of the U.S. for consulting projects. “I manage the Services Invisible network of over 30 consultants, and I connect entrepreneurs with these folks to scale their business,” says Spivey.

At first glance, Spivey’s Mobile Incubator is a vintage camper turned mobile office. In reality, it has a lot of facets. “It’s a public artwork, podcast studio, consultation office, and selfie destination,” Spivey says. “The point is to get arts and business together in a fun way, in whatever place that makes sense.” The residency in Boston goes through October 21st.

The story of Mobile Incubator begins in The Dalles, Oregon, where Spivey purchased the 1957 camper, covered in bullet holes and filled with yellow jacket nests. “The only original pieces are the aluminum skin, the windows and trim, the steel chassis, and the license plate light,” says Spivey. “I purposely picked a tear-down because I didn’t want to ruin a perfectly good interior when I put in the office.”

The walls are a 1,000-piece mosaic of reclaimed wood that has been glued and nailed together, stained, poly-ed and waxed. Spivey also installed a 200-watt solar system on the roof, a full kitchen, satellite internet, and podcasting, printing, and teleconferencing equipment. He purposefully avoided putting in a bathroom or sleeping quarters to maintain the space’s “get it done” atmosphere.

With this public art residency the BCA sought interaction and engagement with the community, and Spivey’s incubator has delivered. “When I open up in the morning and put out the lawn flamingos, the dogs start coming to say hello, the old couple who had a camper comes by to swap stories, a developer across the street tells his story of a $11 million loss, the daycare center comes by for a dance party,” Spivey says. “It’s sort of a clubhouse now in the South End.”

But between the day-to-day interactions, the incubator is brewing big things in Boston. On November 1st, Spivey’s podcast Culture Hustlers will premiere, featuring successful entrepreneurs and leaders in regionally strong industries like comedy, fashion, history, food, and sports.

So far podcast guests include Erin Robertson, who just won Project Runway; stand-up and comedy writer Alingon Mitra; Josh Luke and Meredith Kasabian from Best Dressed Signs; Alice Saunders from ForestBound; and Emily Isenberg of Isenberg Projects, among others.

Spivey, who earned his undergraduate degree in art at the University of Washington-Seattle and his graduate degree in finance at Endicott College, feels strongly about the value of learning practical business advice rather than just theory or terminology. A rare BFA/MBA hybrid, Spivey wants the Mobile Incubator project to help encourage the exchange of information between creative and business-minded individuals. “A lot of people think arts and culture need to be protected and stewarded,” he says. “I say we arm it with business principles and let it take over the world.”

Have a question you want answered? Send questions to @mobileincubator on Twitter and they’ll #askahustler for you. Artists can also sign up for free consultation services at Mobile Incubator.

Lucas Spivey–artist and consultant, Mobile Incubator
Boston, Massachusetts
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All images by Melissa Blackall

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Kick off your summer with the most creative party in the South End of Boston.

Boston Center for the Arts will hold its annual fundraising gala event, the BCA Ball & Disco Under the Dome, June 3rd from 7:00 pm until midnight at the historic Cyclorama Building in Boston’s South End. This year follows up the inaugural event in 2016 which had record-breaking attendance and set the standard for this evening that features two great parties in one unforgettable night.

“This year, it was really important for Boston Center for the Arts to put the art front and center at the BCA Ball 2017,” says Gregory Ruffer, President & CEO of Boston Center for the Arts. “So we’ve contracted nearly 70 artists that run the gamut of the visual and performing arts, from classical cello to sampled dance music, contemporary dance to hip hop, spoken word and performance art, and visual arts of all kinds. This is truly an experience with something to delight all arts lovers.”

Support of the BCA Ball 2017 makes Boston Center for the Arts programs possible including those that incubate work by theatre, dance and visual artists; facilitate the development of vital contemporary art and performance; and introduce the community to artists and art that transforms.

The evening features a pop-up exhibition curated by Robert Moeller (with all sales benefitting the BCA), performances by John Lam (Principal Dancer, Boston Ballet), The Wondertwins, and Company One, music by composer Nate Tucker, Mobius Percussion and the Community Music Center of Boston.

PBD Events, will set the stage for the first part of the evening with delicious cocktails and cuisine donated by Gourmet Caterers, Capers Catering, The Catered Affair, East Meets West and MAX Ultimate Food while audiences are immersed in an awe-inspiring multidisciplinary experience. At 9:30 PM, the lights will dim for the second party, Disco Under the Dome, and DJ Natito will spin tunes to keep the party bouncing all night long, with delicious desserts and signature cocktails provided by Gourmet Caterers.

Single tickets for the BCA Ball ($300) and Disco Under the Dome ($100) are now available. For ticket and other event information, visit www.bcaonline.org/bcaball.

The post One Night Two Parties appeared first on Take Magazine.

Curious about what it might be like to live in a smart home? Fascinated by wearable art? Interested in architecture and the future of design? Boston Design Week 2017 has something for everyone interested in exploring how design infuses our lives.

Actually 12 days long, Boston Design Week 2017 is in year four. Last year’s event had more than 70 participants, in 84 different events, in nine Boston neighborhoods, and 10 cities and towns in the greater Boston area. The intent of the “week”—March 29th-April 9th this year—is to explore and illustrate the vital role design plays in our lives.

Image from Coded Couture | Curated by Judith Hoos Fox

Tony Fusco, whose company, Fusco & Four/Ventures, LLC  Boston, is co-producing the event, says New England offers a unique design perspective. “I think there is a very interesting dichotomy going on in the world of design in New England,” he says. “On the one hand, we see an increasing number of artisans and craftspeople who are focused on creating individual works, fashion, furniture, and other design and decorative arts with a handmade aesthetic. Not only are we seeing a strong increase in custom-made design, but also, increasingly, that design is being done fully cognizant of the impact on the environment, sustainable or renewable resources, and the desire to create and do no harm.”

The well-conceived schedule of Boston Design Week 2017 is in keeping with the theme of form and function. The daily calendar makes planning your visit(s) easy. A few events that caught our eye include the four Kick-Off events on March 29th, one each in Back Bay, Fort Point, South End, and Metro West. The Fort Point Channel kick-off event features the non-profit Artists for Humanity hosting an open studio, showcasing the works of art and design by the teenagers hired to work in the design profession in their much-lauded organization.

10th Anniversary AD20/21: Art & Design of the 20th and 21st Centuries and the Boston Print Fair

The design-intensive week sticks the landing with AD20/21: Art & Design of the 20th & 21st Centuries and The Boston Print Fair held at The Cyclorama, Boston Center for the Arts, a ticketed gala to celebrate Boston Design Week and benefit Design Museum Boston. This curated show will feature nearly 50 vanguards in the fields of modern to contemporary fine art and design. Jonathan Leo Fairbanks, director of the contemporary Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts, will be honored as the 2017 Lifetime Achievement recipient. Down in Rockland at the Roomscapes Cabinetry and Design Center’s massive showroom, you can pair wine with chocolate as you cruise their high-quality interiors and dream about the perfect kitchen on April 3rd, 4:00-7:30 PM. They’ve also partnered with Brenda Taylor, art curator and consultant for Liquid Art House, with a gallery of her picks. Event is free, but an RSVP is requested.

Boston Design Week – art and design show and events
Boston, Massachusetts
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Top image – Builder: FBN Construction | Architect: David Mullen

The post Boston Design Week 2017: Living by Design appeared first on Take Magazine.

Recently, it’s been the cultural trend to rope off the beginning of the year to catch up on all the moments, movies, music, and writings we missed last year. So, once you’ve caught up with Moonlight and/or finally get around to listening to the newest And The Kids album (released summer ’16), consider looking ahead to our Artists to Watch for 2017.

Though we do have favorites of our own, we could not adequately survey the region for artists to watch without consulting a few of our many trusted curators and friends: Abigail Ogilvy, Owner of Abigail Ogilvy Gallery in Boston’s South End; Randi Hopkins, Director of Visual Arts at Boston Center for the Arts; and Ian Alden Russell, Curator at Brown University’s David Winton Bell Gallery.

All of these artists sculpt, paint, record, and perform works worth following, especially considering our current social and political climate. Since we’ve recently been reminded that we cannot rely on the centralized leadership of our democracy to defend our integrity as human beings, or the integrity of thought through the defense of facts and mutual respect, we look to artists like these as our true cultural gatekeepers. The artists on our list are people we can trust to use bold expression, tenderness, and knowing imagery to question the status quo. Sometimes they hold up a mirror to our culture. Other times, they hold up a loudspeaker or a puppet mask, a paintbrush, a bouncy ball, or a digital camera.

These cathartic, sarcastic, pointed, paradoxical, and, most of all, inimitable artists are who we’re watching in 2017.

Nabeela Vega, Visiting Thahab (series, ongoing) | Photo courtesy Robin Allen LaPlante

Nabeela Vega | Boston, MA

Using photography, performance, and video, Boston-based artist Nabeela Vega creates immersive works that examine elements of our individual experiences of the social world as it intersects with identity, personal politics, and queerness. Oftentimes, the work calls into question our taken-for-granted notions about bodies, media, and gender. As Hopkins points out, “Vega’s rich exploration of the contemporary presence and experience of the Muslim femme takes forms that are performative, collaborative, generous, vulnerable, and exquisitely beautiful. The artist takes risks with their own body to think about our greater body as citizens and humans, work that feels vital and particularly brave today.”

Tanja Hollander | Auburn, ME

“This month sees the premiere of the entirety of Tanja Hollander‘s Are you really my friend? at MASS MoCA, the Maine-based photographer’s epic endeavor to photograph all 626 of her Facebook friends,” says Russell. “Bringing her across the nation and around the globe, the work probes the issue of friendship and connection in our digitally mediated age. Questioning the boundaries between personal, public, and online life, the project presents us with intimate portraits she took of the personal spaces and environments of the people she is connected to via social media.”

Teatime, 2016, Acrylic and mixed media on steel 18 x 12 in. | Photo courtesy Abigail Ogilvy

Katie Wild | Pawtucket, RI

“Wild’s striking, cinematic paintings transform the tradition of figure and portraiture to achieve a contemporary understanding of the human condition,” says Ogilvy. “In her most recent series, Steampunk, Wild references photographs she took of real people at a steampunk festivals. In 2016 she was a recipient of the Fay Chandler Emerging Artist Award in Boston, MA.”

Kai Franz | Providence, RI

“Originally from Cologne, Germany, Kai Franz makes sculptures and drawings that confront and complicate the relationships between process and artifact,” says Russell. “Testing and questioning the potential of computer-aided design while appearing as formal aesthetic statements in their own rights, Franz’s works and projects are strong examples of the tradition of critically and technologically-engaged art making in Providence.”

Mutsu Crispin, Mapping the Day, 2015, bouncy balls, plexiglass, stainless steel, 41″h x 41″w x 2.25″d | Photo courtesy Mitchell Giddings Fine Arts

Mutsu Crispin | Brattleboro, VT

Atlanta, Georgia transplant turned Southern Vermonter mutsu crispin (aka John DiGeorge) is a performance artist, filmmaker and. . .bouncy-ball sculptor? Last year, DiGeorge found a way to make those familiar, seemingly childish forms simultaneously fun and subversive. We’re sure we can find some comfort in these delightfully bright pieces as the year turns potentially darker. “. . . the balls float forward and back within their designs or wanderings, rhyming with their cast shadows, ghostly glows, nearby hardware and reflections,” says the artist. “These dear objects from our childhood are animated and transmogrified, speaking in a chorus at once lighthearted, humorous, mysterious, and ecstatic.

Matt Neckers, Crash Site, 2015, 72 H x 24 W x 24 in | Photo courtesy the artist

Matt Neckers | Eden, VT

“Neckers’ Portals hidden in forests, a rocket in a tree, a parachute caught in branches—Matt Neckers’ installations interrupt the serenity of the woods,” says Russell. “Fascinated by the impact of mechanization on our imagination, Neckers opens up earnest, generous, and sustained conversations about the world we inhabit, the others that may exist, and the precarious journeys between.”

Arien Wilkerson | Hartford, CT

“I am Arien aka TNMOT AZTRO aka ARI AZTRO.”

Wilkerson is one of Hartford’s many young Renaissance Men. His list of current projects is too long to add here; suffice it to say that Wilkerson, at age 25, is an uber-accomplished dancer, film artist, activist, artistic director, and overall creative mastermind. In the words of our dear friends at Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, “He’s too black, too vocal, and too flagrant. He’s also one of the few indispensable figures in Hartford’s ever-continuous push to art and cultural prominence. Say hello to the city’s new brash monarch.”

Toby Sisson, 2015 Black Tears, Ink and beeswax on paper 7″x5.5″ each, approx. 6.5’x16′ overall | Photo courtesy the artist

Toby Sisson | Providence, RI

“Toby Sisson‘s encaustic paintings and drawings rigorously explore the metaphoric potential of abstract form,” points out Russell. “Often contrasting shades of black with shades of white, Sisson’s works are informed by personal narrative and her mixed race heritage. Her images and forms offer open-ended prompts for poetic reflection on the assumed oppositions and conflicts with which we struggle—personally, emotionally, and socially.”

Michael Stasiuk, Marco the Magician, 2012, 25″ x 24″ x 10″ metal crumber pan, darning egg, rhythm stick fragments, assorted wood fragments | Photo courtesy Abigail Ogilvy

Michael Stasiuk | Portsmouth, NH

“His multimedia sculptures assemble found objects into playfully illustrated characters,” says Ogilvy, “each with a unique personality. His choice of material imparts a sense of nostalgia and memory, imaginatively re-purposing everyday objects that accompany us throughout our lives.”

J.R. Uretsky and Scott the cat | Photo courtesy the artist

J.R. Uretsky | Providence, RI

If you read Take, you already know we’ve had a crush on J.R.’s awkwardly signature brand of brave, big-feeling, truth-telling performance for a long time. Yet it’s not only her magically strange, emo-queer performances to watch out for in 2017. Specifically, it’s J.R.’s puppets that will lend you space to emote and bring us all solace as 2017’s social and political climate sags and twists. “The characters that emerge through her performances are relatable yet also alien and non-specific,” says Hopkins, “forging an ambiguous space where emotion is the remaining constant.”

Titus Kaphar, Space to Forget, 2014, oil on canvas, 64 x 64 x 2 3/4 inches | Photo courtesy Jack Shainman Gallery

Titus Kaphar | New Haven, CT

Kaphar creates new histories with each work he paints and sculpts. It’s through his careful reinterpretation of the past, mixed with artful exclusion and deconstruction of specific images that makes his work powerful, “In my work I explore the materiality of reconstructive history. I paint and I sculpt, often borrowing from the historical canon, and then alter the work in some way.” says Kaphar “I cut, crumple, shroud, shred, stitch, tar, twist, bind, erase, break, tear, and turn the paintings and sculptures I create, reconfiguring them into works that nod to hidden narratives and begin to reveal unspoken truths about the nature of history.”

Inside shot of Love Shack instillation featuring video loop of “Waking Up And Getting Up Has Never Been Easy”, instillation and video by Coe Lapossy | Photo courtesy the artist’s website

Coe Lapossy | Boston, MA

Ever wonder what it’d be like to wake up in a super-cozy, literally endless bed? Well, Lapossy has theorized it, and has many more other immersive, speculative works ready for the upcoming year. “Lapossy brings feminist sass and romantic charm to smart sculptural and installation work,” says Hopkins. “Pop culture seeps into her artistic vocabulary with ease, for example weaving 20th-century art history together with early 90s romantic-fantasy film in a setting that evokes the vaudeville vibe of the magician’s trick.”

Nabeela Vega – Boston, Massachusetts
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Tanja Hollander – Auburn, Maine
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Katie Wild – Pawtucket, Rhode Island
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Kai Franz – Providence, Rhode Island
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Mutsu Crispin – Brattleboro, Vermont
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Matt Neckers – Eden, Vermont
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Arien Wilkerson – Hartford, Connecticut
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Toby Sisson – Providence, Rhode Island
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Michael Stasiuk – Portsmouth, New Hampshire
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J.R. Uretsky – Providence, Rhode Island
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Titus Kaphar – New Haven, Connecticut
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Coe Lapossy – Boston, Massachusetts
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VISITING THAHAB AT SUPERNOVA PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL | PHOTO COURTESY THE ARTIST

The post Artists to Watch 2017 appeared first on Take Magazine.

Artist Silvia Lopez Chavez has been collecting packing protectors and nailing them up on her studio wall. A combination of corner protectors and various holders for retail items, all made of paper pulp, the assortment looks a bit like a 3D, topographical map. But this isn’t an installation, or a new project that she’s working on: Chavez is simply storing them until she can figure out what to do next. “Paper is one of my most beloved mediums,” she says. “I have seen piles of these paper pulp packing items out in the dumpster behind my studio, and they are just beautiful. I am trying to figure out how I can utilize them rather than letting them go to waste, so they have been slowly building up on my wall.”

Fresh Air explored the environmental and political aspects within air quality issues in Chelsea, MA, inviting the community to participate by sharing their story and serving as models for mixed-media portraits. The one-year project was partly funded by a LCC, Massachusetts Cultural Council grant | Photo courtesy the artist

Chavez breathes art in her daily life. On any given day, she can be found fervently working away in her studio at the Boston Center for the Arts, where she is also a board member, or collaborating on brightly colored projects with children at the Boston Children’s Hospital, where she is an artist-in-residence two days a week. While in her studio, Chavez concentrates on making her signature layered multimedia works that utilize a mix of monoprint, illustration, watercolor, and collage. “I love color,” Chavez says, “and illustration is something I always go back to. I am an illustrator at heart.” In her series, Fresh Air: Portrait of Chelsea Project, Chavez focused her talents on the residents of Chelsea, her home court in Boston. The series of portraits addresses the growing health problems in her neighborhood, due to the high density of diesel trucks commuting through it to service greater Boston. As she notes on her website, “Chelsea is the third most environmentally overburdened community in Massachusetts.”

Chavez’s passion for her community is also deeply interwoven with her love for working with children. Her current artist residency at the BCH has opened her eyes to the capacity of art to heal. “It is hard in some ways,” she says, “but also very beautiful, because you are able to really see the power of the creative process, which is something I greatly believe in. The power of the creative process to heal, to connect, as a way to engage in something different and connect with yourself and with others.” Chavez teaches the kids at BCH how to do collaging and printmaking, much of what she does in her studio. “They get into that mode of making and completely forget they are at a hospital in a room full of cables and machines,” she says. “Instead, they imagine this world of color and characters; all of the sudden, they are not in the hospital, they are in their imagination.”

A series of collaborative pop-up art installations throughout Boston with artist Elisa Hamilton. The artists invite the public to identify their “lemonade.” Project was funded by the New England Foundation for the Arts Creative City Grant. | Photo courtesy the artist.

In the summertime, Chavez focuses her energy on public art. Last summer, in collaboration with artist Elisa Hamilton and with funding by the New England Foundation for the Art’s Creative City Program, she completed a pop-up series of “lemonade stands” in association with the Eliot School in different neighborhoods around Boston. Lemonade Stand was used as a project to bring children and their families together, to “identify their ‘lemonade’—that positive motivator that helps each of us rise above challenges, turning the sour to sweet in our day-to-day lives.” Other projects include creating public art and murals with teenage girls through a free program at Raw Art Works, as well as her own commissioned murals and public art projects.

Silvia Lopez Chavez might very well be the wonder woman of the Boston art scene. Her practice and artistry can be found on city walls as well as in galleries, public schools, and hospital corridors, lighting up the lives of children and adults alike. Unsurprisingly, she has many things in store for 2017, including two murals that are currently in the drafting process, as well as a series of mixed-media illustrations called Imaginary Islands that will debut in the spring. “I always have a hundred things brewing in my head because I get bored so easily,” she says. “I find myself constantly coming up with projects because I need to create for myself.” Details for these shows are still in the works, so we’ll keep you updated on dates and showings.

Chavez at the studio. The project behind is a work in progress, using found recycled pulp paper packaging | Photo courtesy the artist.

Silvia Chavez Lopez – multimedia artist and educator
Boston, Massachusetts
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Top photo North Shore Community Development Coalition in Salem, MA | Photo by Dominic Chavez

The post From Lemons to Lemonade appeared first on Take Magazine.

On June 3rd, 2016, J.R. and her band Feminist Conference got the ball rolling at the Boston Center for the Arts Gala with a stage full of raucous. The unsuspecting crowd of movers and shakers of the Boston arts scene faced a barrage of discomfort and amazement as J.R. Urestsky crooned sappy 80’s ballads at full blast, eventually stripping off the majority of her floral print outfit to reveal red briefs and bare legs.

Feminist Conference performing at the BCA Ball | Photo by Michael Blanchard Photography

The response was a mixed bag of surprise and uncomfortable wonderment. Uretsky notes, “I like to set up all of my performances to be failures…where the ego or whatever you want to call it, the Leo in me, feels really bad about the fact that I worked my ass off for that performance and no one wanted to listen to me sing, you know, karaoke in my underwear. Like, why? This tension makes embarrassment function as the root of the performances, the almost disaster, the performer falling to pieces in front of you, that’s where the work really hits – for me anyway. ”

Much of J.R.’s work centralizes around what she calls “expressive confessions”, powerful performances that weave a messy ensemble of narrative arcs such as heartbreak, loneliness, and grief. “The characters that emerge through these performances are relatable yet also alien and non-specific, forging an ambiguous space where emotion is the remaining constant,” says Uretsky. “In short, I make ‘feelings porn’. Like pornography, pleasure is the main pursuit of my work. I want to make work that is entertaining, that feels good and that provides space for people—for me—to emote.”

Photo courtesy of the artist

Despite her emotionally charged subject matter (endearingly referred to as “sad bro art”), Uretsky creates an absurdist dreamworld of feelings through bright colors and character expressions frozen in time. Hailed in by the not-so-threatening nature of these gloriously fluorescent puppets, J.R. creates a sense of intrigue, while also suspending viewers in a space of discomfort. “I am sort of always feeling sort of weird about bodies and I think that manifests in the sculptures…the gestures are sort of folding in on themselves a little bit…they are bright and still kind of noisy. To me, they feel like they are not noisy on purpose. I think they look that way just because they do, not because they have a big personality”.

Uretsky utilizes performance, sculpture, music and puppetry to expose the messiness of human emotion that decentralizes the polite nature of our expected social selves; a composite and affective production that visualizes the internal struggle to be human, to be alive. Her puppets and sculptures are often constructed to be worn, so that their life is found in collaboration with body movement and sound. Her current exhibition “What I Found Out there” resides at the Boston University College of Fine Arts at the Annex. Leaning into scholar Sarah Ahmed’s writing on queer grief, Uretsky has constructed a series of visual art that integrates video, audio, and puppetry to examine pain and melancholia. With new music by Feminist Conference and intricately constructed puppets made of new and found small objects, Uretsky explores how the process of grief and mourning alter the body.

Still from J.R. Uresky’s video “Bromance”

J.R. currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island and spends most of her time laying on the floor with Scott the Cat while watching Star Trek Next Generation and feeling feelings. After dropping out of bible school for Christian Education at BIOLA University in Los Angeles, she received her BFA in Interdisciplinary Studio Practice and an MFA in Sculpture and Video from the University of Connecticut.  As a self-proclaimed masculine-of-center dyke, Uretsky spends a lot of time contemplating larger conversations about masculinity, visibility, queerness, and feminism. “I am trying to figure out if the layering of familiar objects, sounds, and environments mixed with the abstract and monstrous nature of my work can illustrate the emotional experience of other. What if everyone experienced what it felt like to be other? To be queer? Would we then feel less alone?”

J.R. Uretsky is a multi-media artist  living in Providence, Rhode Island. Her work is currently on exhibition at Boston University College of Fine Arts through December 11th. Be sure to follow J.R. on Twitter. 

Top photo courtesy the artist

The post ART/Crush: J.R. Uretsky appeared first on Take Magazine.