*This site is made possible by the beautiful digital crafting work of Joseph Kurm, a former student of mine who does amazing graphics and digital creations.
STUDIO XANOI*
Studio Xanoi is a digital space where I talk about my studio practice as and artist, activist, and teacher. What is my studio practice like? Well, it is multi-faceted, where the different facets of art, politics, and education often overlap in my work.
But let’s be real, one of my studios is also a room in my house.
As a resident artist of the Chicago Art Department, I rent a studio and enjoy the connectivity of this amazing community of artists at CAD.
Currently, my work revolves around 2 disciplines:
- New Media Installations involving digital video, soundscapes, architectural elements, and performance.
- Drawings about architectural space, spiritual space, emotional space and connectivity as a visual language involving schematics.
You can see the latest works on this blog.
In the past: I have worked with Collage, Painting, and Photography/Expanded Cinema
Collage
Artworks of cut magazine images. These collages revolve around sci-fi concepts of alien worlds and alternate dimensions. They signify a sense of my own alienation from the outside world and offer a vision of landscapes where I can be free. That freedom may be exciting, soothing, or terrifying depending on the world we are “transported” to. Here are two of the latest to come out of Studio Xanoi.
Photography/Expanded Cinema
This body of work is about using physical light and darkness to explore… light and darkness in conceptual and psychological terms. The process is digital photography and I am using still images for cinematic projections in installations. Here are some images from the summer Open Studios showing.
ACTIVISM
Much of my activism uses art as a vehicle. I do not do this alone, rather I enjoy collaborating with others. This awesome crew of artists included Colin Ewald, Dan Estep, Jessica Rosenbaum, and Devan Picard. As CPS art teachers anticipating a strike, we went kind of crazy building a giant Rahm Emmanuel puppet and printing T-shirts. If you know anything about Chicago, you know that our mayor is embattled on many fronts. His privatization and sabotage of Chicago Public Schools is re-knowned. Now that the strike is most likely averted, we need to figure out what to do with our amazing puppet. We figure that Rahm’s controversial actions won’t change too much. There is still the ongoing Laquan MacDonald situation (cover up of city-sanctioned murder and such).
Stay tuned for some street performance action in the near future. (Note: The T-shirt design is not mine, artist is Dan Estep)
ART TEACHING
I teach an art class at Curie Metro H.S. on the Southwest Side of Chicago. This course is designed to give artistic autonomy to the students. The Guerrilla Art class is run as a collective. Instead of being the “teacher” that gives assignments, I am part of the collective. I act as facilitator, artist, and instructor depending on how I am needed. So, in this case, my artist’s practice very much overlaps my teaching practice. My own processes and interests as an artist influence our collective work. Some of you will recognize artists we encountered during our summer LRMFA residency on the collective’s list of inspiring research. Current work revolves around social justice issues and the use of text and space in the delivery of visual works. We have a special partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art called S.P.A.C.E. In that partnership, I work with an artist in residence whose studio is embedded in our school. Andres Hernandez is an amazing artist who has had tremendous impact already.
You can see our work best via Instagram @GAC.CurieHS
Our 2021 project included an interactive virtual reality exhibition around self care. You can see and perform some of our work by visiting the website:
Self Care is Self Love
Much of our archived work through 2019 can be seen on our blog:
studioxanoi.com 