WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART study sessions
On Friday, June 9, 7:30–9PM, Codify Art will be hosting a Study Session at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
So what is a Study Session? From the Whitney's Public Programs:
Study Sessions is a new, ongoing event series inspired by Fred Moten and Stefano Harney’s notion of study as “what you do with other people.” For each Study Session, an artist, writer, or cultural worker selects an artwork on view in the Whitney’s galleries as a departure point for thinking through an urgent question in our contemporary political landscape. Participants are invited to join in open-ended discussions and engage with creative practice. Study Sessions may take the form of workshops, listening parties, performances, readings, or film screenings.
For our Study Session, we will be responding to the Whitney’s newest exhibition, WHERE WE ARE: SELECTIONS FROM THE WHITNEY’S COLLECTION, 1900–1960.
Where We Are "traces how artists have approached the relationships, institutions, and activities that shape our lives. Drawn entirely from the Whitney’s holdings, the exhibition is organized around five themes: family and community, work, home, the spiritual, and the nation."
War Series: Shipping Out by Jacob Lawrence
Codify Art will facilitate a conversation around the themes of Nation and Work with Jacob Lawrence's War Series (1947) and Elizabeth Catlett's I am the Negro woman linocuts as our departure points. Framed as a writing and zine-making workshop, our Study Session examines the work as each artists' effort "to create her or his own vision of American life" and invites you to share your own contemporary reimagining. Bring a pen or pencil!
THE SURVIVAL LIBRARY at The Whitney Study Sessions
ICYMI, Codify Art is working with Pioneer Works' School of the Apocalypse to bring you The Survival Library, a project that:
...aims to consolidate and contribute to an ongoing collection of publications and media works centered around the personal narratives of W/Q/T/POC. We respond to the hostility of American society by amassing the knowledge gained in the course of our individual navigations into a shared archive. The Survival Library does not seek to replicate pre-existing nexuses developed for concrete resistance actions, which are invaluable and already available. Instead, it seeks to create an analogous resource for emotional responses: a confirmation that You Are Not Alone in your experiences, a torch warded against this gaslighting world of “alternative facts.” The [works are] available online and/or in-person—depending on optimal channels of dissemination—as a guerrilla hub of valid, examined feelings.
Physical works from this archive will be on view at our workshop! Be inspired, feel seen, and connect with folks from your community. Our goal for the Study Session is that you leave with the beginnings of a zine that tells your story. We hope that you'll contribute to this ever-growing collection of QTPOC voices and works. See you soon.