Mapping Intersectional BrutalityThis work uses drawing as a process of mapping intersectional violence against black bodies, indigenous bodies, female bodies, LGBTQ+ bodies, poor bodies and all marginalized peoples harmed by the patriarchal and colonialist system of the United States of America. The video of George Floyd’s murder was the catalyst for this work. As more…
Category: Contemporary Art
Terrain Biennial – Exiled in Light
Exhibited at 4916 S. Leamington, Chicago, IL as part of the Terrain Exhibitions 2021. The Exiled in Light videos were projected upon the windows of the host house and viewed by visitors from the outside. The Never(W)here soundscape accompanied the video animations for an immersive and eerie transportation of the viewer experience. Collaborations with dancers…
Cosmic Schematics – Imagined Architectural Space & Visual Language
Earlier drawings that mapped emotional, physical, and spiritual conditions during the Covid19 Pandemic have led to new conceptual iterations of my drawing practice. These latest drawings use the schematic language developed by the cosmic mapping experience. I have begun to think about the drawings as hieroglyphics, an unknown and intuitive “alphabet” of imagined spiritual spaces….
Exiled in Light :|: Never(W)here
Valerie Xanos has an interdisciplinary artist practice. Her thesis work uses analog and digital media to create site-specific, immersive installation art within a particularly composed architectural space. The Exiled in Light :|: Never(W)here series uses light projection, LCD installation, video animation and a digital soundscape to focus on personal narratives of body, memory, and perceptual…
Mapping Cosmic Spaces of Peace: A performative action of care during the Covid Pandemic
Drawings serve as a process of mapping cosmic spaces of spiritual power for comfort and healing during the Covid19 Pandemic crisis and racist/homophobic/misogynist trauma of 2020-2021. Abstract drawings are created in ink on postcard stock. The lines, shapes, and elemental structures “map” a space of spiritual power. Each artwork is an imagined space for the…
Mapping the Covid19 Experience
Sculpture as a map of emotions in the space of home and body
Mapping the Covid19 Experience
Mapping Space, Time, Movement, Sound, and Emotions through Drawing During the 2020 Covid19 Quarantine in Chicago, IL I’ve been working with my GAC students and colleague, Andres Hernandez to visually map our experiences during the Covid19 Pandemic. We actually started mapping our community before Covid19, but then we were concerned with issues of safety and…
Basile
Proud to be able to collaborate with my daughter Athena Xanos and her best friend (my other daughter from another mother) Jessica Dzialek for this series of photographs created Oct 2019 – March 2020. The works chronicle the birth of Athena’s son, my grandson, Basile Grey. Printed on fabric, we explore the labor of women,…
Black Hole
Here are a few of glimpses into my final video for the Never(W)here Installation.
Excerpts from “Exiled in Light” – Νύχτα
Νύχτα :|: Night Without the bustle of people, you’d think the city would be silent. But in the dead of night, you hear the background noises behind the silence. There is a hum of electricity. It is a low vibration and almost palpable in the air. I imagine how it would feel if…
Architectural Space – Radical Imaginings of Sanctuary
Valerie Xanos, Sanctuary – Barriers, Collage & Tape on graph paper, 2019