net.works.mn
“Conversations on art, technology and embedded practice”
net.works.mn
In our social, interactive, participatory, geolocated, attention-economy times, we rely on a number of digital networks to conduct our lives. Yet the neighborly practice of calling across the hall for support or collaboration remains an important way of connecting that sustains artmaking in our communities.
Northern Lights.mn partners with several art organizations, including All My Relations Arts, NACDI, and Two Rivers Gallery, to invite artists working in deeply embedded ways in their communities to talk about the possible roles technology may play in their work, both in aesthetics and engagement.
This series is presented in concert with Art(ists) on the Verge, a year-long, intensive, mentor-based fellowship for emerging artists working experimentally at the intersection of art, technology, and digital culture.
Programs and Partners
In Conversation: Tou Yia Xiong, Kao Lee Thao, Sieng Lee
Presented in collaboration with Center for Hmong Arts and Talent (CHAT)
Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015, 7 pm
Location: CHAT, 995 University Ave W #220, St Paul, MN 55104
Graphic design, animation, illustration, public art, sculpture, installation, drawing. These are the varied art forms practiced by three Hmong American artists whose work holds a common tendency to push boundaries while honoring cultural roots.
Listen as they present their work and converse about the current and future states of public, digital and technology-based art in the Hmong community.
Tou Yia Xiong is an illustrator and designer working across multiple creative disciplines. He has experience in graphic design, game development, and product design. By day he is an award-winning children’s toy designer at The Manhattan Toy Company. By night, he is a creative ninja, doing freelance work, exploring art community engagements, and tinkering on personal and collaborative projects. When he is not creating, he enjoys playing frisbee with his dog Momo!
Kao Lee Thao began her journey when her mother crossed the Mekong River while she was cradled in her womb. Her family escaped to America in 1976 with only $5 in their pocket to begin a new life; settling in La Crescent, Minnesota. Kao Lee’s arrival to the world created another journey for her mother across the Mississippi River to give birth in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Water and travel have become central ideas in her paintings. Her work is infused with an expressively fluid style that allows viewers to travel into the past and see the echo of Hmong folktales, themes, and patterns passed down verbally from generation to generation in the Hmong culture.
Sieng Lee is an installation artist and designer interested in creating work related to his refugee experience as a first generation Hmong American. Lee’s work reflects and questions the changes that are happening within his community as assimilation becomes inevitable. He is interested in the amount of cultural content generated by Hmong Americans, in academia and in social spaces like the web, media, politics, and events. He is a National Addy winner, designed the We Are Hmong Minnesota exhibit at the Minnesota Historical Society, and recipient of the 2015 Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Emerging Artists.
Artist Talk: Wendy Red Star
Presented in collaboration with All My Relations Arts/NACDI and Two Rivers Gallery
Friday, April 1, 2016, 7 pm
Location: All My Relations Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Wendy Red Star works across media to address history, colonialism, and stereotypes of Native people. Red Star holds a BFA from Montana State University, Bozeman, and an MFA in sculpture from University of California, Los Angeles.
Artist Talk: Leah Gilliam
Presented in collaboration with Juxtaposition Arts
Saturday, May 21, 2016, 2:00 pm
Location:Juxtaposition Arts, 1108 West Broadway Ave, Minneapolis MN 55411
Leah Gilliam’s long career of making media continues to expand the horizons of technology-based art in relationship to culture. An accomplished film/videomaker, new media artist, coder, strategist and game designer, Gilliam brings race, gender and sexual orientation into sharp conversation through interactive projects. Her interests range from the obsolescence of technology to the cultural and imaginative implications of human contact with Mars. More recently, her analog board games create a low-tech space for people to have real-world conversations through fantastical scenarios.
Also an educator committed to equity in the tech world, Gilliam held the post of new portfolio strategist at Hive Learning Network NYC and now serves as the newly appointed VP of Strategy & Innovation at Girls Who Code, a national non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in technology.
Following the talk, you’re invited to stay for a playtest of Lesberation, a storytelling game in which players combine personal actions (verb cards) and personal belongings (noun cards) to construct inventive solutions to the fractious problems plaguing a lesbian-separatist commune. Guided by game facilitators, players work together to repurpose their items and lend their actions to solve the crisis and further advance a prolesbian agenda. Note: Lesberation includes adult themes and is intended for mature audiences.
Note: This event was rescheduled from April.
