Overview
WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND: IN THE NAME OF ART
September 15 – October 20, 2018
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, September 15, 6-9pm
Transformer is honored to present What We Leave Behind: In The Name of Art - a group exhibition organized by artist Maps Glover in collaboration with Uptown Art House and the TrashPass.
Activating Transformer’s storefront with a full-scale, site-specific installation of a chapel-like space, and through weekly Saturday evening ‘services’, the participating artists’ works speak to creative energy, and what it means to live and create as an artist. Moving through ritual ceremonies and musical accompaniment, artists Maps Glover, Yacine Fall, Larry Ray Travis, Khaki Malik, Jamal Gray, Sifu Sun, Elijah Williamson & Hipster Woods incorporate a variety of artistic practices that explore what it means to leave behind a time capsule of objects, thoughts and energy.
“As the soul separates from the body, we leave behind all of who we are. Artists are the storytellers of our collective history, leaving behind objects that become relics and music that becomes classic. “ – Maps Glover
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PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE
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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 6-9PM
MAPS GLOVER & THE AQUATIC GARDNER,
Art is the body
A 3-hour opening event that invites artists & audiences to take in the spirit of art through music and performance
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 6-8PM
YACINE FALL, TAUT
Religious practice naturally lends itself to repetition and meditation. These become tools in the learning, consuming and submerging of the mind and body within that belief system. This work explores the balance of constraint and security within this experience.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 6-8PM
MAPS GLOVER, AQUATIC GARDNER, SIFU SUN & HIPSTER WOODS
Highlighting the reasons why we come together - the importance of the act and the value of what we exchange during that time. This performance invites artists from around the city to discuss and experience why we gather.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 6-8PM
SIFU SUN, Create, Utilize, Learn, & Target
The altar represents a place of praise, worship, and sacrifice. Known as ‘The Alter,’ this space becomes a stomping ground of the spirits. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. Access your divine realities within the religion of Art, let the words absorb you, and welcome you into the new cultural denomination; Conform, Undulate, Labor, and Thirst for what awaits you.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 6-8PM
HIPSTER WOODS, SACRIFICE
Artists make sacrifices in order to achieve their goals to live as artists. Hipster Woods will perform a musical/coding set, demonstrating sacrifice: “an act of slaughtering an animal or person, or surrendering a possession as an offering to God (art) or to a divine or supernatural figure.”
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 6-8PM
MAPS GLOVER, ELIJAH WILLIAMSON, & KHARI MALIK, the body
This closing event invites audiences to witness the final day of WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND: IN THE NAME OF ART for a celebration/observation of what we left behind though music and performance
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ARTIST BIOS
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MAPS GLOVER creates work inspired by human behavior and observation. He visualizes how time affects behavior and observation of behavior alters perspective. He constructs portals in which the characters he creates exist and experience the world around them, often in ways that seem unnatural to the viewer. Maps recently performed as the co-lead role of Lyan, in the performance The Landing, an immersive piece of speculative fiction conveyed through the mediums of sound, movement and video at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. Maps also designed the choreography and costumes.
YACINE FALL is an interdisciplinary conceptual artist and BFA candidate at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. Using performance, sculpture, painting and natural materials, her work investigates identity, politics, and history through the lens of the body and its object-hood. Her work and practice speaks to the human body and its entangled relationship with the natural environment. A Senegalese heritage and an American upbringing informs her aggressive, laborious, and meditative art practice.
JAMAL GRAY (AQUATIC GARDNER) is a conceptual artist, musician, organizer, and curator based in Washington, DC. In 2017 he founded the Uptown Art House, a creative incubator for progressive Artists and Activists, where he serves as Creative Director. As leader of avant-garde jazz troupe Nag Champa Art Ensemble, the D.C. native has used his ingenuity to bridge the gap between the city’s underground art and music scenes. Gray brings his unique conceptual perspective when transforming recognized venues such as The John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts, Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Phillips Collection, and Capital Fringe, down to unconventional spaces such as warehouses and open lots.
KHARI MALIK: is a vocalist currently based out of Baltimore Maryland. Raised in Waldorf Maryland, he has been creating, singing, and performing since the age of 6. Malik’s works are a compilation of personal experiences, the experiences of others, lessons he’s learned and his hopes for the future. Malik’s number one goal is to leave witnesses of his work better than they came by giving them food for thought by way of well-intentioned works of love and peace. He seeks to become one with the audience, particularly with his vocal performances and creates a shared experience of love, introspection, and growth.
Maya sun (aka SIFU SUN) is a time-based performance artist, with focuses based on the visual, musical, theatrical, oratorical, and healing arts. Her work is largely centered on the emotional journeys and the connection of the self to unlimited facets of life. As a persona based on the mastery of creative light-work, SIFU’s work attributes to daily crises and atrocities.
LARRY RAY TRAVIS: For Larry Travis, design is more than a passion. It’s a lifestyle. Since moving to the DMV area, Larry has continued to nurture his desire for design by amassing experience in markets such as commercial, office, institutional, healthcare, and retail. However, he is most fascinated with architecture that focuses on the experiential qualities of spaces that encourage activity, contemplation, and community. For Travis, architecture is not just about designing the building; it’s about designing the experience. Larry aims to continue to use building materials as a medium to create work that is holistic, thoughtful, and unassuming in solving architectural problems.
ELIJAH WILLIAMSON is a graphic Designer and visual artist based in the Washington, D.C. area. Driven by movements that are rooted in community, action, and change, Williamson has been a contributor to the Uptown Art House, as well as a co-producer for Mel Chin’s ‘Fundred Dollar Bill Project’ since 2016. Williamson seeks to explore the ways in which color, imagery, and text can be used to express the correlations between society, satire, and portraiture. Williamson received his Associates and Bachelor of Arts at the Delaware College of Art and the Corcoran College of Art and Design.
Andrew "HIPSTERWOODS" Chase or "Woods" is a modern-day marvel who possesses technical skills to produce on all expressive mediums. Woods has a Bachelors of Fine Arts majoring in Interactive Media Design and Web Development but spent most of his time in undergrad with the Audio/Visual design majors. Fast forward 6 years, Woods is now a producer, DJ, web developer/programmer, visual composer (video editor) and graphic designer. In his very young professional career, Woods has designed websites for The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, as well as The National Institutes of Health. While having all the skills to be successful in a very corporate city, Woods is also very prevalent influence on the underground music and arts scene in Washington, D.C.
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Uptown Art House
Founded in 2017, Uptown Art House is a community of creators, curators, and organizers using art as a vehicle for progressive social change. Looking to engage the community through a myriad of performances, exhibitions, and other original programming, our ambassadors have executed community partnerships and collaborative projects with storied institutions such as The John F Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, The Phillips Collection, The Smithsonian Institute, and many more. We envision an Art House without borders, where locally based artists produce work with global reach.
TrashPass
The TrashPass was founded in the fall of 2017, when Artist and Founder, Woods Chase or “DJ HIPSTERWOODS” moved from The Uptown Arthouse. This transitional space, which triples as living quarters, became a venue and collaborative art space for underground artists. The TrashPass with punk and raunchy roots, grows in popularity with the biker, cyclist, skateboard, and underground musical communities. Favored by its visitors, the space holds a slew of events ranging from game nights, forums, open mics, concerts, to an after-hours party spot. Frequently DJ’d by Woods Chase, artists from all over the world have come and enjoyed freedom of expression and creativity within the TrashPass.
