W(hite)omen
A immersive exhibition by alyse james & sacha vega
Exhibition Runs October 8 - November 15 in Icebox Project Space (1400 N American St)
Opening Reception Thursday, October 8 from 6 - 9 PM
Performance & Workshop Saturday, October 24th from 7 - 8 PM
Halloween Party Saturday, October 3 from 7 - 9 PM
Closing Reception and Artist Talk Sunday, November 12th from 6 - 9 PM
About the exhibition:
What does it mean to be a good person in America under this regime? Through play, provocation, and an alarming number of wigs, Alyse James and Sacha Vega offer cultural criticism with humor, heart, and an ongoing question: Can a person, or people, actually apologize their way into becoming good? Can you put a price on repair?
Working across absurdist clowning, video, writing, and installation, the artists created a Marvel-esque cast of W(hite)omen Characters, who have joined forces to save the country, no, the world via workout videos promising eternal youth, an apology subscription service promising a cure to racism, and a series of other
well-intentioned, but failed attempts at atonement for their wrong-doings.
Their project chronicles the grotesque and delightful machinery of morality culture: the performance of betterment, the anxiety of being ethical enough, and the contortions we make when righteousness lacks a singular, easy shape. The video exhibition will be on view at Icebox Project Space October 8–November 15, alongside a series of performances.
about the artists:
Alyse James is a classically trained clown who creates out of an insistent sense of curiosity and existential pondering, inspired by a deep desire to merge otherworldly cosmic clown etherealities with our everyday human failures. Their collaborative theater-making and community engagement inform their socially conscious art practice. As a performer, they have worked with Pig Iron, Theater Unspeakable, and the Tank Theater. As a community engagement manager at Glen Foerd, a historical estate in Philadelphia, they've partnered with the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund, Thomas Holme Elementary School, Concilio, Asian Americans United, and various other community organizations.
Sacha Vega is an artist who collages across movement, poetics, and humor to invite focus into the ideologies that train our bodies to move. Creating through performance, time-based media, and writing, her practice encourages critical play in reframing genres of embodied instruction. Working in concert with performers and audiences alike, she’s invested in using her practice as an experimental space to test dogmas of authority, horizontal organization, and temporary utopias. She has exhibited and/or performed at MR at Judson Memorial Church, Westbeth Gallery, FringeArts, Theaterlab, Leslie-Lohman Museum, Mason Gross Galleries, Baxter St x CCNY, Java Project, Pelham Art Center, and 99cent Plus Gallery.