March 26 - 27: Rodney McMillian

13 unrelated ideas: 
Rodney McMillian’s proposition 13 unrelated ideas asks several questions about the nature of performance and includes an original performance in collaboration with Tracie D. Morris and Chicava HoneyChild. How does performance function in each of the vignettes presented (Bobby Womack, Jada Fire, Samuel R. Delaney, Nina Simone, Michael Jackson, Aliens, Funkadelic...)? How do we understand subjectivity or personae in terms of abstraction? How do we understand subjectivity from within the performances? Are these really the questions? Or is it about physicality, images, sound, historical perspectives and the insistence of a need to utter that's being presented or represented? Alternatives to other forms of political, cultural or domestic powers? A freedom? A possibility that film, photography, material, and performance are a form of time travel? A possibility, like in Samuel R. Delaney’s science fiction novel Dhalgren, whereby potential and repetition are actions?

Friday: 7 p.m. lecture by Rodney McMillian
Saturday: 12 p.m. Performance by Rodney McMillian, Tracie D. Morris, and Chicava HoneyChild

Propositions is a public forum that explores ideas in development. Inspired by the scientific method of hypothesis, research, and synthesis, each two-day seminar explores a topic of current investigation in an invited speaker’s own artistic or intellectual practice. Over the course of a seminar session, these developing ideas are presented to the public, responded to, “researched,” and discussed to propel the ideas forward in unique ways.

The structure of Propositions is as follows:
Friday, 7 p.m. – Initial proposition and lecture
Saturday, 12 p.m. – Guest speaker responds, followed by a lunch break
Saturday, 3 p.m. – Discussion

One Friday evening per month, an invited artist or cultural thinker will present on an idea in process—the hypothesis—as the seminar topic. This initial presentation introduces the seminar leader’s current thinking on a concept or idea as well as unresolved questions that remain. The next day, starting at noon, an “expert” lecture, screening, performance, or activity presents new perspectives or specific knowledge, followed by a lunch break. In an afternoon discussion, hypothesis, research, and public dialogue converge in an informal working session in the fifth-floor Museum as Hub space at the New Museum.

Propositions is part of the Museum as Hub initiative, a laboratory for art and ideas realized through a partnership of five international arts organizations that includes Insa Art Space, Seoul; the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo; and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. The initiative seeks to support art activities and experimentation; explore artistic, curatorial, and institutional practice; and serve as an important resource for the public to learn about contemporary art from around the world.

Rodney McMillian's practice embraces a wide range of media to investigate social history and culture. He uses Conceptual art strategies and applies them to painting to explore its relationship to language and content and its role as an artwork. His installations often incorporate various mediums, including video, assemblage, sculpture, and painting. In more recent video performances he reveals his intense interest in history and how past events relate to the contemporary political situation. McMillian's work has been exhibited at the 2008 Whitney Biennial, the UCLA Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Herning Art Museum in Copenhagen, and The Royal Academy in London.

Tracie D. Morris is an interdisciplinary poet and scholar who has worked extensively as a sound artist, writer, bandleader, and multimedia performer. Her installations have been presented at the Whitney Biennial, Ronald Feldman Gallery, and the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning. She holds an MFA in poetry from Hunter College and a PhD in Performance Studies from New York University. Morris is an Associate Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute.  She is completing two books: an academic work Who Do with Words on the work of philosopher J.L. Austin and a poetry collection, Rhyme Scheme as well as an untitled CD with music.

Chicava HoneyChild is pursuing an MFA in interdisciplinary art at Goddard College. She is an actor and creative producer of Brown Girls Burlesque. Their next show, Culture Classics, is a United Nations of Burlesque that deals with stereotypes and the sacred - celebration and struggle, using fishnets to net together a world of women's stories. Please visit browngirlsburlesque.com for details.