Artist Talk: Kirsten Leenaars & Whitney Bradshaw: Embodiments in Time

We Are Not All That is Possible, video still, 2022

Kirsten Leenaars & Whitney Bradshaw: Embodiments in Time

Public (Virtual) Lecture, Tuesday, January 25th:

Zoom webinar.

When: Jan 25, 2022 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81446067630?pwd=MnBrVDJKR3lpNXhBUk1Wcmw0TnlkUT09

Passcode: 136618

Or One tap mobile :

US: +13017158592

In Body, Mind, Spirit: Embodiments in Time, Chicago-based artists Kirsten Leenaars and Whitney Bradshaw each show individual projects and their collaborative project: Revelations from the Archive - which mines the Saint Mary’s archive for representations of belonging, community, empowerment and activism. Questioning what these images and documents represent and subsequently what the absences in the archive reveal about what it means to be a student at Saint Mary’s. Through this research they try to make connections to the discussions that are happening right now, at campus and in society at large.

Leenaars worked with former and current Saint Mary’s students to create a multi-channel video work titled: We Are Not All That Is Possible (Portraits). Leenaars invited the young womxn to consider what a culture of belonging looks like and what this would mean to them?

Bradshaw’s OUTCRY series is an ongoing social practice project that provides a safe space for womxn to express feelings that have been silenced, or dismissed in our culture.

The connecting thread between Leenaars' and Bradshaw's projects and practices is that their work is underpinned by a strong desire for social change and creating space through their work for womxn to reclaim their voice, tell their stories, take up space and each offer a platform through their work for a multitude of voices and self-expression.

Department of Art

Saint Mary's College

226 Moreau Center for the Arts

Saint Mary's College

Notre Dame, IN 46556

Exhibition: Body, Mind, Spirit: Embodiments in Time

Moreau Art Galleries at Saint Mary's College present:

Body, Mind, Spirit: Embodiments in Time

-- a collaborative project and gallery exhibition by Kirsten Leenaars and Whitney Bradshaw

January 10th – February 25th, 2022

In Body, Mind, Spirit: Embodiments in Time, Chicago-based artists Kirsten Leenaars and Whitney Bradshaw each show individual projects and their collaborative project: Revelations from the Archive - which mines the Saint Mary’s archive for representations of belonging, community, empowerment and activism. Questioning what these images and documents represent and subsequently what the absences in the archive reveal about what it means to be a student at Saint Mary’s. Through this research they try to make connections to the discussions that are happening right now, at campus and in society at large.

Leenaars worked with former and current Saint Mary’s students to create a multi-channel video work titled: We Are Not All That Is Possible (Portraits). Leenaars invited the young womxn to consider what a culture of belonging looks like and what this would mean to them?

Bradshaw’s OUTCRY series is an ongoing social practice project that provides a safe space for womxn to express feelings that have been silenced, or dismissed in our culture.

The connecting thread between Leenaars' and Bradshaw's projects and practices is that their work is underpinned by a strong desire for social change and creating space through their work for womxn to reclaim their voice, tell their stories, take up space and each offer a platform through their work for a multitude of voices and self-expression.

Saint Mary's College

226 Moreau Center for the Arts

Saint Mary's College

Notre Dame, IN 46556

On the set!

A Letter to the City: "jail is not my home", production still, 2021

Filming this week our documentary, funded by the DCASE Artist Response Grant

A Letter to the City: “Jail is not my home” Circles & Ciphers - a hip hop based restorative justice organization in Rogers Park, Chicago - and Chicago-based Dutch artist Kirsten Leenaars’ 2nd video project is based on letters received from people that are currently incarcerated. Weaving their deeply personal stories through performative actions and image making into our social fabric. The letters are the material for unexpected encounters to reflect on the ways the prison-industrial complex affects individuals, families, communities, a city. We received 46 letters as a response to our open call for letters through organizations that currently work within Cook County Jail. Each letter writer is compensated for their creative efforts. For the video work we are collaborating closely with 15 selected letter writers who are currently incarcerated. Their letters form the main material for the video piece. Different excerpts from the letters and individual sentences will be displayed through projections and site-specific mark making on walls, buildings, street surfaces, banners etc, throughout different neighborhoods in Chicago which our letter writers identified as their home communities. Community members respond in interviews to the displayed texts. Additionally, we are recording the letter writers over the phone - calling from Cook County - each reading their own letters. Young performers from Circles & Ciphers performed freestyle ‘serenades’ in front of Cook County Jail in response to a letter they selected. An airplane flew over Cook County Jail with a banner with the text (derived from one of the letters): jail is not my home. All these moments are documented and will be edited together as a letter to the city, amplifying and echoing the deeply personal stories and experiences of young people that are often marginalized in this society.