Archives: Alumnus

In developmental body organizations, X is one of the first patterns to develop. It is a pattern of contraction and expansion, radiating from the core outward and returning to the center. HV Movement Collective creates an improvisational score that does just that, following this fundamental pattern through space and their bodies. Through a collaborative process they will explore the symbology of X, through gesture, body architecture and marking of spaces with their physical presence. The performance will be durational, occurring over the course of a few hours, playing also with the contraction and expansion of time.

Hudson Valley Movement Collective is currently in residence at Art Society of Kingston. It was formed in Dec 2018, by a consortium of professional dancers and movers residing in the Hudson Valley. HVMC is a community formed to unite movement based artists and enthusiasts, and create greater visibility and accessibility. We regularly host workshops, Work in Progress showings and hope to provide more services to the community.

The proposal for this year’s X theme concerns the threat of extinction for wildlife due to climate change. A bird commonly seen today is reflected on a fossil of itself, calling to mind the knowledge that many species are only known to us today by their preserved remains, and that nothing is truly permanent. The composition contains an X in the mirroring of the bird, and the issue of extinction itself is inspired by the theme.

Michael is an emerging artist based in Kingston, New York. He earned an MFA at the New York Academy of Art and a Bachelors of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute. From an early age he studied under Peggy Frank at her Young Artists Studio in Livermore, California. His professional work experience includes art instruction, electric motorcycle startups, advertising firms, sign painting shops and battery technology manufacturers.

www.michaelhfusco.com

Granny’s House is an immersive theater piece loosely based on “Little Red Riding Hood.”  Little Red Riding Hood is an adult woman who travels down a gloomy, wooded path with a basket of cookies to take to her Granny. She meets the Wolf on the trail. The Wolf is creepy but handsome, and he shows some interest in Little Red. Red moves away in confusion. He asks her to dance, she worries about seeming impolite, she lies and tells him she doesn’t dance. He strokes her beautiful red cape unasked, she is bashful about pushing him away. See these vignettes and more – performing the dance of seduction (both unwanted and wanted) at The Crown Friday October 11th, and Saturday, October 12th: special drink menu, scheduled performances at 7p and 9p, various happenings until 11p.

​http://sophikravitz.com/

 

A  multi-media installation including a silent video installation displayed on screen(s), large photographic prints that are stills from/photos related to the video piece, and, space allowing, multiple projections on various surfaces including but not limited to the large printed photos.

The video piece and related images will display a series of motion portraits synching/melting/overlapping with each other at intervals.

Each participant in the piece will be lit, and adorned atmospherically in a particular way, expressing their individuality and persona while staged in a single set.

The interaction and editing of the portraits into each other will seek to blur the lines between gender, race, age, showcasing both the beauty and the grotesqueness of our commonality. Some transitions will probably be deformative, some intrinsically beautiful as all meetings/crossings of any kind often are.

Born in Paris of Austrian and Franco-Belgian parents, Alexandra was raised primarily in London before moving to the US where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Theatrical Set and Lighting Design from Bennington College in Vermont.  She pursued a design career in New York and Washington DC for several years before unforeseen events led her to work at the World Bank and as a high school teacher. A return to her native France included a Masters Degree in Contemporary French Literature, with a thesis on Cocteau, from NYU Paris, before several years as a project manager on International Development and Reform Projects financed by the European Commission throughout the Balkans and several former Soviet satellite countries. She moved back to the United States and settled in the Hudson Valley in 2013.  She works primarily in photography and film but continue to create large hyper realistic charcoals as well.

www.alexandradewez.com

X is the intersection of mediums, attempting to create an intersection of people and encourage further conversation, connection. The collection, a collaborative effort between visual artist Eva Magill-Oliver and recording artists Matt Pond and Chris Hansen, comprises twelve paintings and twelve instrumental compositions across twelve keys. The artists have responded to each other’s work over time and across wireless miles in the languages they speak most fluently, adding to the collection as a reaction to what they’ve seen and heard from each other. In its completed state, An Orchestrated Impulse is intended to be interactively experienced in a way that allows the observer to choose what he sees and hears most intensely.

Eva Magill-Oliver is an artist currently living and working in Atlanta, Georgia. She creates delicate, meditative collages, drawings and paintings that reflect and explore different elements of the natural world. Her main subject matter is drawn from abstractions and patterns found in nature and organic environments. She feels a strong sense of connection to the constantly evolving and transitioning state of the natural world that surrounds her. Her mediums of choice are pencil, ink and cut paper on paper. The variance in materials adds a textural interest that she uses to mimic those found in the environment. The collage aspect also adds an element of controlled design as a fresh transformation emerges with every new layer. After two decades of successfully pursuing simple truths in popular music,

Matt Pond has recently begun to take on projects that stretch beyond the conventional trajectory of independent rock and roll. He currently resides in Kingston, New York, and pays strict attention to the arc of every season.

Chris Hansen began his career as a manager and engineer at the legendary Bearsville Studios, near Woodstock, New York. He continues a long collaboration with Matt as guitarist and co-producer of numerous Matt Pond PA albums and EPs. They co-wrote the score to the film Lebanon, PA and have composed commercials for IBM and Penguin Books.

http://orchestratedimpulse.com

X as a destination. X as an endpoint. When walking the old Dutch churchyard in Kingston earlier this year I noticed some of the first immigrant grave markers from the Puritan era. On the back sides of some of these grave stones was a simple mark, an X, which, though likely made to mark graves that were not to be exhumed for fear of disease, seemed an interesting simplification of a life passed and gone; an x-ing out of a life lived and now at it’s end-point.

In my university studies we were required to take physics and I was particularly struck by the Conservation of Energy theorem which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; rather it can only be transformed from one form to another. When this theorem is applied to human life, there is no death.

In this series—The Veil—grave-rubbings cover the solid form of each painting, floating and revealing the content underneath: various words that describe core essence. On each black rectangular canvas, chosen to reflect the human torso, a different word is sewn in red thread, to connote life-blood.

Along with this Installation I will also be presenting a play that I wrote, The Four Sisters; The Eye, the Ear, the Brain, and the Mouth, an absurdist piece in homage Chekov and Beckett that examines journey, distraction and destination.  In this one act, four parts of one psyche are divided into eye, ear, brain and mouth, and these argue, distract and confuse each other as to how to proceed on their voyage in which they find themselves marooned in a boat
out at sea.

I will also engage the community in making their own grave rubbings—providing materials and teaching the process which is really very simple.

Jicky Schnee received her B.A. in Art and Art History from Rice University and studied drama at BADA in Oxford, England. She works as both a painter and actress. As a visual artist, Jicky shows with AMP gallery in Provincetown, MA and Collective Gallery which she also curates in Woodstock, NY. Her most notable roles as an actor have been a supporting role to Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix in The Immigrant directed by James Gray, the female lead role in The Afterlight also starring Rip Torn and Michael Kelly (House of Cards), the female lead across from F. Murray Abraham in Perestroika and the title role in Arabian Nights at Classic Stage Company in NYC. She lives and works between NYC and Woodstock, NY.

https://www.jickyschneestudio.com

https://www.thecollectivegallery.art

This 12 min film will be a conversation framer/starter around what equitable development looks like in Kingston. The goal is to shift culture, moving hearts and minds in the region around the issues of housing affordability and access, and establish housing as a human right. X is a point of intersection, a crossroads. We are at a crossroads in Kingston where we can decide whether or not we believe that everyone deserves a safe place to live, and that our priorities need to reflect that decision that we make. Set in Kingston, NY, this film will uncomplicate the issues of gentrification, giving our viewers an understanding of the types of decisions our city, county, and state governments make every day that prioritize developers over people. It will explain how these forces that often promise revitalization and market growth also promise displacement and trauma for low-income communities and communities of color. This film will humanize the issues of displacement on both ends of the spectrum, putting a face and a story to those who are displaced and create a moral responsibility for those in power to choose differently. We will also show the types of decisions we want the places we love to be making instead.

Callie Jayne’s desire to fight for justice began in 8th Grade protesting against unequitable dress code policies. Callie’s career started off in sales, bouncing from job-to-job, and struggling to make ends meet. When she decided to go back to college, she found herself transitioning to the post-secondary education field – wanting to focus on helping women prioritize their education, and moving forward in their careers. It was then, that she found herself in a situation like so many before her – a single mother, trying to survive within structures that were created to make sure she failed. Callie finished her undergraduate degree in business, and then went on to complete her Masters’ in Nonprofit Management. For her internship, she began working at a human services organization, which later hired her full time. She built and expanded the volunteer base and pantry hours which increased the number of families who were able to access food. She increased the individual giving, community and business engagement which lowered operational costs. Though providing emergency services was helping hundreds of families every week, it was doing nothing to change the systems of oppression that are set in place. Her life, work and educational experiences led her to discover the institutionalized issues that were preventing her and many others — from all walks of life — from achieving a quality standard of living. Her desire for change comes from the belief that all people deserve a basic standard of living, and if we could all come together and hear many differing perspectives, we can use our struggles to achieve collective greatness. — 

Shadia is the Executive Producer and Founder of the Survival Media Agency and is a film director and photographer. She became an advocate for justice and the environment at an early age. At seven she got involved in a campaign to address the cancer cluster in her community that was caused by toxic waste. Though young, she spearheaded a successful eight-year campaign to pass state legislation to refinance the Superfund Program in New York State. She is a recipient of the Yoshiyama Award and the Brower Youth Award and has been featured in the 2007 Green Issue of Vanity Fair and is a recipient of Elle Magazine’s 2008 Green Awards. Shadia worked for the Environmental Justice & Climate Change Initiative as the youngest Campaign Coordinator in the Energy Action Coalition. Her photos have been featured in the New Yorker, the Boston Globe, MSNBC, and the front page of the Huffington Post among many others. She has mobilized photo and video teams all over the world to produce visual media tools that equip social movements. Since 2016, Shadia has helped produce 53 short films.

RiseUpKingston.org