Voluminous Arts Summer
Study Program
Center for Art, Research, and Alliances (CARA)
New York, NY, June - August 2023
In partnership with the curatorial and production staff of CARA, Voluminous Arts founding director Gavilán Rayna Russom developed an innovative summer residency program for six trans and non-binary artists.
Built around elements of the history of the West Village (where CARA is located), the residency created space and structure to nurture the practices of six trans and non-binary artists.
Over six weeks of activities designed along a pattern of “tidal flows”, artists-in-residence Mercury Symbol, Ris Gumpert, Omari Love, Rat Porridge, Anka Raczynska, and Yvonne LeBien engaged in conversation, practice based and practice led research, facilitated sessions with visiting faculty, and the collaborative curation of Cooler Nights, a series of experimental performance evenings. Following the residency, objects, writings, sounds, and other artifacts were shared in an exhibition of sonic and material traces.
Conversation and Research
A central element of the residency was unstructured time without a demand to produce, based on historical and contemporary conceptions of the commons and Russom’s improvisational structuring technique of drift continuity. Readings were made available along with sound equipment, solitary and collective space, and occasional facilitations by Voluminous Arts and CARA staff. Artists-in-residence were invited to use the space as an informal gathering place and to share ideas and perspectives inspired by - as well as independent from - the readings and facilitation sessions. While conversation was foregrounded, space was also provided for artists-in-residence to engage in practice based and practice led research, as well as research creation, through object making, sound, DJing, writing, video, and movement.
Visiting Faculty Sessions
Each week, workshops led by visiting faculty brought new ideas, perspectives, and activities into the space. These sessions, led by Victoria Cruz, Anaïs DuPlan, devynn emory, Silvia Federici, Che Gossett, Isadora Neves Marques, SJ Norman, and McKenzie Wark ranged from artist talks to movement workshops. Artists-in-residence were provided intimate conversational time with each of the facilitators.
Cooler Nights
Inspired by the free artist curated “Monday Nite” series at The Cooler, a music venue that was open from 1993 - 2001 and was located very close to CARA’s current space, these experimental performance evening provided and opportunity for the artists-in-residence to gain practical experience with experimental curatorial practice in and institutional arts space. Artists-in-residence collaborated with each other and with Voluminous Arts and CARA staff to develop weekly programs featuring artists from within their creative communities or spheres of influence. Each night presented an expansive view of the possibilities of interdisciplinary art and experimental music in a trans-led environment. The structure of artist curation also created wider possibilities for artists who are often invisiblized by the art world to place their work front and center in one of its major institutions.
Traces Exhibition
Following the residency an exhibition of sonic and material traces was open to the public for several weeks throughout the entirety of CARA’s exhibition space. Spread out over three galleries and two floors, Traces provided a public view into the activities of the residency without compromising its intimate and trans-centric qualities. The exhibition included objects and adornments that were part of Cooler Nights performances, notes taken during visiting faculty sessions, drawings, altars, videos, texts, and photographic documents. These materials were installed ambiently, consistent with the themes and experience of the residency itself such as curiosity, encounter, conversation, listening, non-linear temporality, and giving things time.