Alembic: Body and Spirit. Live art as healing art.
Curated by Jana Astanov
Artists:
Shauna Cummins
Lisa Levy
Arantxa Araujo
Ronit Levin Delgado Rojas
Maija Rutkovska
Sindy Butz
Postponed
JUNE 26, 2020 7PM Online platform
We live in times, in which quantum physics confirms the most far out theories of Western as well as Hindu philosophies unifying within the concept of the world as one consciousness that expresses itself through the creative medium of space and time. This holistic view of the world is proliferating our Western ideas of body and soul, and the mechanical division between them. Theories of the healing effects of art have been present for some time, therefore, there are studies that confirm and quantify the healing dimension of art. It is in this spirit that we bring together artists whose practices embody the view of holistic healing.
Performance art is an art medium that has been particularly associated with the catharsis power of healing, and particularly healing of trauma, individual and collective. Time based practice, and its nowness, that experience of being “caught in the moment” seems to allow the transmutation of energies, possibly even transforming the audience into the extreme mode of participation as the collective body subject to the healing. In the times of political and social divisions between the class of 1% and the rest of us, the precarious equilibrium of our cities in the face of XXI century pandemics, and the technological advancements that do not soothe our souls, evoking the creative healing powers of artistic practice is the quantum leap of holistic thinking.
“Alembic: Body and Spirit. Live art as healing art” presents the works of performance artists who are interested in translating concepts of healing into the art form. This idea embraces such diverse healing modalities as humour, through the works of Lisa Levy who transforms herself into a psychoanalyst; hypnosis through which we descent into the core of the Higher Self guided by an artist and hypnotherapist Shauna Cummins; movement as in the works of a duo Ronit Levin Delgado and Maija Rutkovska; as well as trance inducing experiences through the medium of light Arantxa Araujo; and meditative sensory journeys of Sindy Butz.
Bios:
Shauna Cummins is an interdisciplinary artist and a Clinical Hypnosis Master Trainer, board certified through the National Guild of Hypnotists in 2012. As a hypnotist she refers to hypnosis as the “medicine of the imagination” utilizing creativity, collaboration and compassion to reprogram and De-hypnotize the mind- which works to help her clients transform old limiting patterns into new positive ones. Integrating tools such as visualization, hypnotic journeying, and self-directed neurolinguistic programming creates an empowering yet updated version of the healing art of hypnosis.
She is also the founder of The Divine Feminine School of Hypnosis and holds a private practice in NYC at The Center for Integrative Hypnosis & at Maha Rose in Brooklyn. Her work as a hypnotist and performance artist has been showcased worldwide at; Center for Contemporary Art in Glasgow, Scotland, the Queens Museum of NYC,
Borealis Music Festival, Norway, The National Gallery of Denmark and in publications such as The Independent, YAHOO news, The Independent, NYLON, BUST, Refinery 29, and in the Jet Blue documentary HUMANKINDA.
www.shaunacummins.com
@thewishcraft
Lisa Levy is a conceptual artist, comedic performer and (self-proclaimed) psychotherapist. Her visual art has been widely exhibited at many venues including The New Museum, The Bronx Museum, SPRING/BREAK Art Fair, The Pulse Art Fair and The Brooklyn Academy of Music and numerous galleries. Her artist multiples are for sale at Printed Matter, Open Editions and Fuse Works. Levy’s work has been covered with feature stories in numerous publications such as the New York Times, The London Times, Time Out New York, The Daily News and The New York Post. As well as many other publications such as Artnet, Hyperallergic, and ARTNews
As a live performer, her most popular character is Dr. Lisa, the self-proclaimed psychotherapist. Currently, she hosts a weekly show on Radio Free Brooklyn, called “Dr. Lisa Gives a Sh*t” where she conducts funny, emotionally revealing “psychotherapy sessions” with a wide range of creative guests. You can listen to her show is live every Thursday 2-3pm on RadioFreeBrooklyn.org
Lisa has performed at The Brooklyn Museum, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Joe’s Pub and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Dr. Lisa has been the subject of feature stories in numerous publications such as the New York Times and The London Times. For her send-up Marina Abromavic’s The Artist is Present, which she titled, The Artist is Humbly Present, Levy sat naked on a toilet for two days, garnering international attention.
www.lisalevyindustries.com
RADIO: Dr.Lisa Gives a Sh*t
Arantxa Araujo is a Mexican artist with a background in neuroscience. Her work is essentially multidisciplinary, feminist, and rooted in bio-behavioral research. Explorations of gender constructions, performativity and identity, and the politics of migration are seen and experienced in her installations, which often include video, sound, photography, mapping, light, and performance. Her work has been shown in the Brooklyn Museum, at the Radical Women Latin American Art Exhibit, Chashama Space to Present, Grace Exhibition Space, Glasshouse Gallery, The Queens Museum, Panoply Lab, Art in Odd Places in NYC; RAW during Miami Art Week; the Semel and Huret & Spector Gallery in Boston, and the SPACE Gallery and Bunker Projects in Pittsburgh; in Mexico, at El Monumento a la Revolución and La Explanada del MUAC, during the Hemispheric Institute’s Encuentro and El Vicio; also participated in the Nuit Blanche Festival in Saskatoon, Canada.
Araujo is a Franklin Furnace Fund for performance art award recipient (2020/1019) BAC grantee (2020), an LMCC (2019) grantee and has received support through numerous residencies and fellowships including Leslie-Lohman Museum Artist Fellowship (2019-2020), Creative Capital taller (2018), ITP Camp (2018, 2019) and EMERGENYC (2017). Araujo was awarded a full scholarship from Mexican Government Institution CONACYT (2012). She holds an MA in Motor Learning and Control from Teachers College, Columbia University and a BA in Theater Studies from Emerson College.
@ArantxaAraujo
Ronit Levin Delgado Rojas is an Israeli–born, New York–based multidisciplinary visual artist and a Fulbright Scholar. Levin Delgado graduated from MSU, NJ, MFA Studio Art program, and the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, BFA Fine Art program. Levin Delgado has won multiple awards and honors, including the Fulbright Scholarship, AICF American-Israel Cultural Foundation, Asylum Arts, Jewish Art Salon Fellowship, Daughters of Troy Residency in Governors Island, UJA Fellowship, the Israeli Ministry of Culture Scholarship, Bezalel Academy Award for Excellence and on 2014 she was chosen to be the recipient of the First Annual Prize for Bezalel Alumni. Levin Delgado has had Solo and Two-person exhibitions, including at Raw Pop Up (Art Basel Miami), Spring Break Art (NY), Gallery Sensei and Chashama (NY), the Frame Gallery (PA), Guttman Museum (Tel Aviv) and her work has been widely shown in international group exhibitions in Israel, Europe and the US, including, The Queens Museum (NY), Museum of Russian Art (NJ), Magnan Metz Gallery, and Trestle Gallery (NYC), Index Gallery, Aferro Gallery (Newark), Cardiff, Wales and Leeds (UK) and Hertzelilinblum Museum in Israel.
As a performance artist, Levin Delgado has performed at The Cell, Grace Exhibition Space, House of Yes, Paper Box, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, EFA in NYC and many other art festivals, galleries and independent venues worldwide as well as participated in many international collaborations. Her work is featured in both private and public collections.
Her work explores conditions and experiences of instinctual human interactions through the use of the body, rituals, and the intimacy of a kiss. In performances, videos, paintings and sculptural objects, she calls into question the personal narratives of vulnerability and desire. In immersive installations she invites the viewers to engage and share a private intimate moment in a collective environment experience. The artist’s personal rituals fuse the fragments of cultural traditions, rituals and beliefs into performative actions and objects.
Website: https://www.ronitlevindelgado.com/
Maija Rutkovska is a Latvian dancer and performance artist, who currently lives and works in New York. She received a BFA in Dance from the Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy in her native country of Latvia. She studied the Martha Graham technique, taught by Maggie Boogaart in Paris, and at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary dance – Rutkovska was the first Latvian to graduate from the Professional Training program and Teacher Training program in New York.
Maija has performed in numerous productions, naming few, Maija has performed with Elina Breice co ‘Ritms”(Latvia), was a dancer with the Maggie Boogaart (France), as well as Jean-Paul Goude productions (France). She has also danced in the legendary Maher Benham CO “Coyote Dancers”, and was a member of AZOTH Dance Theater founded by Jonathan Breton (USA) , Dance Group “Rituals” formed by living dance legend Vija Vetra(USA/Latvia).
As an independent choreographer, her work has been shown at the Hudson Guild Theater, Sance Limites Dance Festival, Amalgamate Dance Festival, Dixon Place. She has also developed and co-produced.
Follow her IG: https://www.instagram.com/maijarutkovska/
https://www.backstage.com/tal/maija-rutkovska/
Sindy Butz is an interdisciplinary visual artist, artistic researcher and educator. Butz’s art practice is project based and spans the disciplines of performance art, sculptural installation, performance based photography and video art, video sculpture and coaching and consulting through art and movement. She was born in the communist German Democratic Republic and raised in the suburbs of East Berlin. Butz is living and working in New York since 2009.
She received her B.F.A. in sculpture from the AKI- ARTez Netherlands, a M.F.A. in Art in Context from the Institute of Art in Context, University of the Arts (UdK), Berlin Germany. In 2009, she was a fellow of the German Academic Exchange Program with a DAAD Jahresstipendium to research at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University on wearable art.
Her work has been presented at the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Fountain Art Fair Miami and New York; Select Art Fair, New York; Alice Austen Museum, New York; Rush Arts Gallery, New York; Museum der Dinge, Berlin (DE), Korean Experimental Performance Festival KOPAS, Seoul (South KOR) among others. She has been awarded Artist in Residence in Schloss Plüschow, Germany (2007), Chill Rialaig, South Ireland (2007) and Hwaseong, South Korea (2008).
In parallel to her art practice, her dance enthusiasm has lead her to the position of a principal dancer at the New York Butoh Dance Company, Vangeline Theater since 2010. She has performed with the company at venues such as the Brooklyn Museum, New York (USA), El Museo del Barrio, New York (USA), and Bronx Academy of Art and Dance, New York (USA). Butz studied Dance Theater and Ballet since the age of 6 and is currently pursuing a dance teacher certification of the Maureen Fleming Technique to realize her upcoming art project “Engine of Memory”.
Website www.sindybutz.com
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sindybutz/
Marina Abramovic Institute https://mai.art/hearth
Jana Astanov is an interdisciplinary artist, a poet and an independent curator born in Poland, and living in the US. She is a founder of Creatrix Magazine: www.creatrixmag.com, portal for creative expression focused on art, activism and spiritual practice. Her work includes photography, poetry, performance art, sound art, and installation. She describes her performance art practice as “mythology vs ideology” referring to her two main interests: the political & economic foundations of our civilization and mythological/ religious values. In her work, she utilizes spiritual traditions, dance movement derived from the Grotowski technique, sound art, ritualistic theatre and astrofeminism, a term she has developed through her character Yannanda The One Who Speaks With The Stars. Together with her partner Niko van Egten she co-created an electronic music group ASTRALOOP featuring her poetry in dark electronic arrangements.
She has performed at Tate Modern, Smack Mellon Gallery, Grace Exhibition Space, Venice Biennale, Documenta 2017, and many other galleries, festivals and independent venues worldwide. She is also the author of five collections of poetry: Antidivine, Grimoire, Sublunar, The Pillow Book of Burg, and Birds of Equinox.
“Alembic: Body and Spirit. Live art as healing art” is part of Emerging Curators program organized by Local Project Art Space.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council