#transformer dc

chukwumaa: Thee Urban(e) opens this Thursday 6-8pm at Transformer, the third and final exhibition in E10: Conceptual Art. During the opening reception, he will perform a thee intel i gent see ya in Transformer’s storefront window.

I caught up with chukwumaa to talk about his upcoming show. Though the overarching theme of this year’s Exercises for Emerging Artists series is Conceptual Art, chukwumaa shies away from the conceptual title, stating that his work is more literal. He makes work to be read quickly, the basic ideas are immediately apparent. “That’s how communication works.” he tells me, it is important that the message is direct, foregrounding in the familiar.

Thee Urban(e) is comprised of an installation, video, photographs, and completed with a performance during the opening. The exhibition presents two personas of a fictitious single individual, two possible outcomes or strategies for dealing with the world. Specifically, the “urban” and the “urbane”. He uses culturally pre-defined characters with great contrasts for the sake of illustrating an idea.

The statement on Transformer’s website: “Thee Urban(e) explores the complex intersection of education, affluence and race using the symbols of clothing, the book and metamorphosis. The adage goes ‘know thyself, and adorn thyself accordingly’, but it's never that simple when contending with another’s gaze. chukwumaa states: “In external perception and actuality, education - and, by extension, intelligence - has always been a fraught arena for young men of color. For many it can be hopelessly out of reach or very difficult to attain. And when attaining education is directly conflated with success, this can be an especially sore situation. This conflation moves education into the realm of class marker, the way that possessions like a house, car or clothes can function."

We talked about the term “Identity Art”, which he understands as more diaristic, than his work. If “Identity Art” generally deals with the exposition of the artist’s unique identity, chukwumaa’s work looks at the internal and external construction of the presentation of self. His first solo show, Thee Urban(e) asks us to consider the structures which put persons in opposition to one another, rather than lead to synthesis. At this point in the conversation he jumped up from his seat to illustrate a point- in a very windy place, you have to put effort into leaning forward just to stay standing, he acted out the strain on his body, the awkward angle tilted forward. But, when there isn’t resistance, you’re free to direct your energies elsewhere, and he relaxed, and settled back into being himself.

Transformer Institute will open its doors this Thursday, July 25 at 1404 P Street NW, with an opening reception and on-site class registration from 4-8pm.

Transformer Institute will open its doors this Thursday, July 25 at 1404 P Street NW, with an opening reception and on-site class registration from 4-8pm. Jane Claire Remick's ESL for Native Speakers is the second of three solo shows at Transformer for E10: Conceptual Art.

Transformer Institute functions like any ESL school. It has a fully informative website (eslfornativespeakers.com), it participates in social media, has a class schedule and online registration, the possibility of private tutoring, and interactive apps that students may use in the space during open hours when classes are not being held.

The aura of authority that comes with any established art organization leads to certain expectations and set rules of engagement. In shifting the purpose of the space, new roles emerge in participation. No longer a viewer, but a student.

ESL for Native Speakers uncovers popular notions of neutrality, in spoken language and in visual language. A tour around the website shows an amalgam of imagery and language, both appropriated, and constructed in a way to appear to be appropriated. Jane Claire asks us to examine the cultural implications of the production of an aesthetics of neutrality.

As previews of the material that will be covered in class, Transformer Institute has been posting word games on Instagram and facebook (@TransformerESL, facebook.com/TransformerInstitute) asking followers to identify the correct word associated with the posted images. This multi-part exhibition explores the realm of social media as a type of public space. A relationship is established between that digital open space and the physical space of Transformer, while asking questions about access and availability.

As ESL classes often do, ESL for Native Speakers classes will use role-playing to teach the lesson. As a student of the Institute, participants perform themselves, emphasized by the role-play, pointing to the breadth of ways that we perform ourselves in different contexts.

I caught up with Jane Claire at Transformer the other day in preparation of her install. While scraping Adrian's vinyl letters off the window, she told me about seeing the immersive installation of video interviews, Question Bridge: Black Males a video installation by Hank Willis Thomas and Chris Johnson in collaboration with Bayeté Ross Smith and Kamal Sinclair at the Brooklyn Museum last year, and the impact it had on her position towards museums and art institutions. She felt that works termed social practice are often as exclusionary as the institutions they seek to critique, and public art is often dumbed down, making yet other assumptions about audience. It seemed that avoiding art institutions altogether is too easy a critique, and work like Question Bridge: Black Males needs to be shown in as public a way as possible- something that the museum can provide.

Jane Claire also told me about her experience learning Spanish in Lima, Peru- not from a language class but from her peers. It brought up a different consciousness of language, a personal awareness that we are represented by the way we speak, and the way we speak is learned from others. From that point, she brought up Rachel Jeantel, the witnesses for the prosecution in the George Zimmerman trial who was criticized widely for her speech. In particular, the instance where the defense attorney questioned whether she speaks or understands English, and all the implications of asking.

Transformer Institute, the language school of ESL for Native Speakers deals with authenticity. Is Transformer actually becoming a language institute? Yes. Is it the first solo show of a local artist? Yes. The apps are interactive and function in the space outside of the classes so at any time a viewer can come into the space, participate, and can take away an experience. I'll conclude with a quote from the home page of Eslfornativespeakers.com “In professional and personal life, communication is key. Through Transformer's communicative approach, students learn not only vocabulary and grammar, but how to use language in real life contexts. Even though English is your first language, you'll gain the knowledge to express your needs, feelings, and desires in the office, at home, and in other day-to-day situations.”

Jane Claire Remick: ESL for Native Speakers July 25 – August 3 2013 Opening Reception and Class Registration: Thursday, July 25, 4-8pm

He is about 1/8 of the way through his 48 hour endurance-installation at Transformer. I'm here. exhausted. I was in Brooklyn for nearly the past week for BIPAF (Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival) and came straight here from Union Station. He is transcribing the document of every art idea of the last 8 years- which he's posted online for our editing pleasure: http://bit.ly/12mRSMm

He's also live-streaming the work-- http://m.ustream.tv/channel/adrian-parsons. He live streamed his hunger strike last year, for 'accountability' 

So I'm thinking about performance and accountability. and I'm drinking iced coffee and eating veggie chips. I just did a CVS run, (for pencils and the chips) luckily- there's a 24 hour CVS on the block. So I'm thinking about the night, and the massive difference between what Adrian is doing here and what the CVS employees are doing there. In one of our very first E10 meetings this year, Adrian talked about the possibility for an artist to sleep in a gallery or museum, but the impossibility for a homeless person. Then Tilda Swinton happened at MoMA. And today- Marina Abramović danced at Pace while Jay-Z rapped about her. Hyperallergic called it "The Day Performance Art Died"

And I'm thinking about Adrian's notion of space-as-document. So what he is transcribing on the walls is this long document, and the words he is writing are documenting the time he is spending here- language as a testament to a duration- and the document itself has been formed over eight years. And there is this relationship between the virtual document that changes- that is changed- and the one that is being written, fixed onto the walls. and the un-fixing that will occur with the public opening. The space itself is made into a vessel for text, the text is a document of ideas, and the writing is a document of performance. Space-as-document (the noun) and space-as-document (the verb).

His writing is getting smaller and tighter. the floor around his feet is sprinkled with pencil shavings. 

I want to have ecstatic revelations about performance while I'm here, sitting in the 'office' loft of Transformer- where I have spent hours and hours in the last two years- but I'm just kind of tired, brain isn't working great. Waiting for a second wind. started this post an hour ago. He is further down the wall.