EXHIBITION THESIS Design Process

CONCURRING EXPERIENCES: TOGETHER, APART • curated 2020

The twenty-seven selected works from the Corcoran Study Collection in Concurring Experiences: Together Apart follow an exploration of the themes of isolation, social, and hope. This show is presented in eight distinct groups evoking a journey to parallel universal experiences of life in 2020. We want to share ways to come together, to uplift community, to be active in conversation, creation, and social change. We want this exhibition to communicate as a place of reflection and dialogue. This show will be one of the first physical installments into the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery in Washington, DC in a post-2020 world.

Looking to exhibitions of the past, collections of old photographs, moments frozen in time before us, we understood that every photograph had been framed particularly, each containing narratives, simultaneously pre-determined and open for interpretation. This is the constant experience of life. This recollection of photographs is told with a contemporary perspective.

We sit in awe of the spirit of place, of intention, realizing we are not separate from but deeply rooted within our environment, our community, our culture, our world. We acknowledge the different contexts from which we come. We are learning to listen to each other, to help each other grow, to seek out and uplift one another’s voices and look through one another’s lens, to share opportunities. We are learning to give these platforms a life, a story that changes when met with its teller, away from the confinement of structure. We acknowledge this space as an opportunity to learn about new worlds within worlds, within communities, under the cosmos, together, apart. 

To create art is to live without structures, to be open to new ideas, flexible in thinking, accepting and welcoming to change and creativity, to move forward, to create new spaces and understandings, to radicalize. We want this show to inspire collaborations of thought and expression, new points of connection, thoughtful reflection, self-guided exploration, and a resounding sense of community. Alone and together. We explore questions regarding the recent and unified experience of isolation: What does it mean when we are faced with a border that separates us? What does it mean to be alone? What does it mean to separate? Why do we feel so compelled to be together? What does it mean to hold and grow community? What does it mean to hold each other? What does it mean to hold each other from far away? How do we hold space for one another?

 

WE SEE YOU, WE UPLIFT YOU

ALONE TOGETHER, TOGETHER APART

THEMES • UPLIFTED ORGANIZATIONS

1. ACKNOWLEDGE loss • COVID Survivors for Change  

2. TOGETHER uplift • Think Local First DC

3. RECOGNIZE understand • Dreaming Out Loud

4. CONNECT change • Unemployed Workers United, 730DC

5. AWAKEN adapt • Loyalty Bookstores

6. REJOICE revive • Busboys & Poets  

7. RELEARN metamorphosis • Support for Piscataway Tribe

8. POSSIBILITY resilience • Asian Pasifika Arts Collective

 

QUESTIONS

What language does not divide us?

How do we come together in isolation?

How do we adapt to make a better world?

 

How do we listen to each other?

How do we see one another?

How do we grow along with each other?

 

What is our footprint?

How do we hold each other?

How do we hold space for ourselves?

How do we enter spaces and not harm them?

How do we uplift each others’ voices?

How do we open and not close?

How can we create change?

 

How do we collaborate?

How do we communicate?

How do we make and keep discursive space?

 

How do we grow?

Where do we overlap?

How do we include?

 

Where do we unlearn?

Where do we relearn?

How do we teach?

 

How do we uplift voice?

How do we understand?

How do we expand?

 

How do we experience hope?

How do we keep faith?

How can we transform?