To Own The Suffering Project

“An empty cage is not, by itself, reality. Reality is chaos inside calmness, violence under peace, and vice versa.” 
– Huang Yong Ping’s essay on censorship of his work at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. 

“For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”
– Audre Lorde

To Own the Suffering
Creative Authorship and Institutional Critique

Multidisciplinary visual artist Michaela Pilar Brown has partnered with performer, director, choreographer Terrance Henderson and the Outpost to launch a collaborative project titled, ‘To Own the Suffering” – Creative Authorship and Institutional Critique’. This project operates in three phases:

Phase 1: 

July 15 through August 17

A Call To Artists:

A public call to artist was released in July. All submissions were reviewed during recorded jury sessions and three artists were selected to participate along with Michaela Pilar Brown and Terrance Henderson. Four additional artists were asked to participate in a group discussion of the cultural ecosystem. 

  • Venecia Rickenbaker
  • Meredith Yuhas
  • Roni Nicole Henderson and Cedric Umoja

Phase 2: 

October 7th and October 21st. 

A public symposium to discuss our current systems of cultural access:

Participating artists, stakeholders in the cultural system and program directors will begin to discuss process, access, and systemic barriers in regards to race. During the symposium the group will initiate the development and performance of publicly edited documents in conjunction with the symposium. The public will be allowed to access and edit the document and the process will be recorded. If the public does not agree with the description, they are able to strike-through text or add text of their own. Complete erasure will be suspended to visualize how differing opinions can co-exist in the same community.

 

Phase 3: 

November 4th through December 16th

A bibliography and public exhibition of collaborating artists.

Artists will share reading material, visual inspiration and musical inspiration that has guided their projects and after the symposium, a calendar will be created and shared of the resulting presentation schedule for each of the five projects to be presented at Outpost Art Space.