Collective Actions II
An exhibition of printed matter highlighting collaboration, communication, and public engagement.
The Unity of Opposites
Print Lab
Mobile Print Power / Soñamos Sentirnos Libres: Making it Real
On view from February 1, 2017 – March 3, 2017
Exhibition Opening: Friday, February 3, 2017, 5:00–8:00pm
Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design
ICA Gallery hours: Wed–Sun, 11:00am–5:00pm, Thurs, 11:00am–7:00pm, Friday, 11:00am–5:00pm, (FFAW until 8:00pm)
Print Lab - Schedule of Events
February 3, 5-8PM: First Friday show opening + Zine Fair opens
February 4 + 5, 11-5: Zine Fair
February 9, 12:30-2:30: Future Mothers artists in residence
February 16, 12:30-2:30: Future Mothers artists in residence
February 23, 12-2: Mobile Print Power community workshop
February 24, 3:30-6:30: Mobile Print Power community workshop with Survivor Speak
March 2, 12:30-2:30: Future Mothers artists in residence
Masthead Image: Liz Bannish, The Whole View II: Coelomate Soup, century plate lithograph and cyanotype
Interview with the Director of the ICA, Erin Hutton, with CTN on Collective Actions II.
The Unity of Opposites
Sally Clegg, Riddle, etching and a la Poupee, 16" x 20"
Remember playing the game Telephone when you were young? One person whispers a statement to the person sitting next to them, then that person whispers it to their neighbor and on and on around the circle with the last person speaking the now radically changed statement aloud.
The Unity of Opposites is a visual riff on this childhood game, exposing real world issues about communication and interpretation in our contemporary culture.
This exhibition features the collaboration between two printmaking studios, Zea Mays Printmaking (Florence, MA) and Peregrine Press (Portland, ME) and begins with one artist from each studio responding to a secret verbal prompt. These two beginning artists will create a print that is a visual interpretation of the verbal prompt. The process will continue until 75 artists have participated over the course of five months.
The final prints will be exhibited first at A.P.E. Gallery, Northampton, MA in October 2016 and move to the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design, Portland, ME.
Located in the Lunder Gallery
Print Lab
For the exhibition Collective Actions II, Elizabeth Jabar and Colleen Kinsella of the Future Mothers art collective, and multi-generational NYC collective Mobile Print Power, with student artists from MECA&DZine Club, are collaborating on an interactive Print Lab. The artists will partner with students, artists, activists, educators and community members on public programming. This includes participatory workshops such as screen printing, stitching, and zine making. Through these workshops, participants will have the opportunity to engage in creative projects and explore urgent social and cultural issues.
The Print Lab features the Future Bridges tent, the Mobile Print Power silkscreen cart, and the Zine Fair. These three distinct but complementary projects employ socially engaged art practices and draw on printmakings rich history of collaboration, dissemination and public action. Each of these projects highlight the potential and power of co-creation and collective action as a force for social change and community building.
Located in the Evans Hunt Gallery
Mobile Print Power
Soñamos Sentirnos Libres: Making it Real
Mobile Print Power (MPP) is a multi-generational collective based out of IMI Corona, in Queens, NY. We use silkscreen printmaking and participatory design in public space to engage communities and explore social and cultural situations. Since 2013 we have created public projects throughout NYC, including regular projects in Corona Plaza, Queens. We have published seven books, including Message from Corona Plaza and Solidarity, Solidaridad, and exhibited at museums, universities, and galleries, such as The New School, Columbia University, and the Queens Museum. We regularly collaborate with local organizations and collectives that positively impact our community, creating workshops and public projects that engage urgent issues such as brown-black solidarity, health equity, and immigrant rights.
Interference Archive explores the relationship between cultural production and social movements. This work manifests in an open stacks archival collection, publications, a stud center, and public programs including as exhibitions, workshops, talks, and screenings, all of which encourage critical and creative engagement with the rich history of social movements.
Soñamos Sentirnos Libres: Making it Real is an evolution of the exhibition Soñamos Sentirnos Libres: Under Construction which ran at Interference Archive in Brooklyn from May-September 2016. The collaboration utilized the archive's historical resources to draw connections between past and current struggles for the rights of immigrants, intentionally prioritizing the voices of youth, undocumented folks, and women. This version of the exhibition highlights some of the collaborative work produced produced throughout it's initial run at Interference Archive. Here, at Maine College of Art & Design, a series of public events will engage different communities with the ideas behind MPP's work, including collaboration, immigrant identity, and the role of the artist. With this latest iteration of Soñamos Sentirnos Libres, we will explore these concepts within a new context -- both responding to the local context of Portland, Maine, and to the charged political atmosphere post-election, especially around immigrant rights and the question of who "belongs" in America.
This exhibition was organized by Mobile Print Power and Interference Archive.
Esta exhibición fue organizada por Mobile Print Power e Interference Archive.
Project Collaborators include: Talk is Cheap, New York State Youth Leadership Council, Arts Greenhouse, Combat Paper NJ, UnLocal, IMI Corona, and Steam Exchange.
Colaboradores del proyecto incluyen: Talk is Cheap, New York State Youth Leadership Council, Arts Greenhouse, Combat Paper NJ, UnLocal, IMI Corona, y Steam Exchange.
Located in the William Sloane Jelin Gallery