Art@6FT Is Back
Artat6ft, our socially distanced, pop-up art show, returns this Saturday, September 5, 2020 with an exciting lineup of performances, installations and exhibitions from eight artists in the Level Ground Collective. Before they all go live on Instagram, we wanted to take a minute to get to know each artist in Saturday’s show.
Tali Halpern
Pronouns: they/them
What’s your Artat6ft performance?
Journal #10 will delve into my latest artist sketchbook documenting my experiences from 2020 so far: top surgery, moving to Los Angeles, Covid-19, navigating and contributing to social unrest from racist violence, anti-racism and combatting metastasizing fascism.
What artistic mediums do you work in?
I work across a multitude of mediums, from book arts to painting, drawing, makeup, and sculpture. I have been a maker my whole life and have had the privilege to delve into my passions.
Weirdest purchase since quarantine began?
I collect vintage temporary tattoos.
How are you finding joy right now?
Art making and snuggling up with my love bug of a dog named Petunia.
Catch Tali’s performance, Journal #10 at 11 AM on Saturday, September 5 live on Instagram. See more of Talia’s work at taliahalpern.org or on Instagram at @totally.doomed.
Ricardo tomasz
Pronouns: he/him
What’s your Artat6ft performance?
The Art Race: A Manifesto is a performance art piece incorporating spoken word on the nature of art and reality in modern American society, designed as a critique of how American capitalism commodifies art and artists.
How do you describe your artistic practice?
The message behind my work is that we are all artists, and art is something special. Art is two things at the same time; art is the great democratizing factor, in that anyone and everyone can create art regardless of whether or not it sells; and art is also the most precious natural resource we have, because art can inspire people in ways that other commodities can't.
If you had to quarantine the rest of your life with only one book, movie, video game, etc., what would it be?
The Great Beauty by Paolo Sorrentino.
What’s your typical quarantine outfit these days?
Sweatpants and a bathrobe.
Catch Ricardo’s performance, The Art Race: A Manifesto at 12 noon on Saturday, September 5 live on Instagram. See more of Ricardo’s work at greaterandgrander.com or on Tumblr.
Rich Johnson
Pronouns: he/him
What’s your Artat6ft performance?
FOUR WALLS is a sound art installation and movement performance that offers a meditation on impermanence. Through the futility of attempts to make meaningful analogue impressions through digitally streamed live performance over a period of extended solitude, FOUR WALLS looks at what traces can exist and be captured both within and beyond the boundaries of four walls.
Weirdest purchase since quarantine began?
Kencko brand smoothies in powder form.
Typical quarantine outfit these days?
Linen shirts, shorts and sandals.
Simone tetrault
Pronouns: she/her
What’s your Artat6ft performance?
I am performing FOUR WALLS with my husband and artistic collaborator, Rich.
Who has influenced your art?
My work has been influenced by artists, scientists, and philosophers. Among them are Maris Battaglia, Daniel Catanach, Pina Bausch, Christopher Wheeldon, Christiane Jahaty, Grace Telford, Stephen Hawking, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Karmenlara Ely, Dermot Moran, Emmanuel Levinas and my late friend and mentor, Mary Overlie.
How many masks do you own?
Six. All black.
How are you finding joy right now?
I'm spending time slow cooking meals with love.
Catch Simone and Rich’s performance, FOUR WALLS, at 3 PM on Saturday, September 5 live on Instagram. See more of Simone and Rich’s work at simonetetrault.com, as well as on Facebook and on Instagram at @centrifugearts.
Rebekah mei
Pronouns: she/her
What’s your Artat6ft performance?
Growing is part of a larger, ongoing project titled Foreign/Familiar. Saturday’s installation focuses on the growth that takes place internally and interpersonally when raising a young child. I will be opening the window to what it looks like to work and care-take simultaneously through the act of sewing, an inherently domestic craft that has been utilized by primarily female-identifying people. The stitches that repeat bind me to not only the pieces of paper that have been written into my matrilineal line but also to the act of creation performed by matriarchs for much of human history.
What excites you about art right now?
I'm excited by revolution and the power of people. I am inspired by artists who use their work to push social expectations and shift consciousness. I am fascinated by the differences found without our shared human experience. I am in awe of the art form that is the human body.
If you had to quarantine the rest of your life with only one book, movie, video game, etc., what would it be?
Since picking one of anything is torture for me, here are some honorable mentions:
Best new show: I May Destroy You
Nostalgic feel good movie: Bride and Prejudice
New card game: Illimat
Best binging show: RuPaul's Drag Race
Fascinating observation of human psychology: Love Island UK Season One
Most calming album: Marvin Gaye's What's Going On
Album on repeat: Bob Dylan's The Times They Are a-Changin'
Do you have a favorite face mask?
I would say my lightning bolt pattern mask, but I don't want to make the other masks feel bad.
Catch Rebekah’s performance, Foreign/Familiar: Growing at 4 PM on Saturday, September 5 live on Instagram. See more of Rebekah’s work at rebekahmei.art.
kateri lirio
Pronouns: she/her
What’s your Artat6ft performance?
SONGWRITING IS EASY! is an improvised songwriting session with Kateri Lirio. You type ideas, we write the song, ‘cause songwriting is easy!
What kind of art do you practice?
I'm a multidisciplinary teaching artist that is well-versed in music. I'm exploring teaching songwriting in educational settings as a way to bring classrooms and families together. I recently released the album from my one-woman musical, Psalms for Inside Times, which explores the long-term effects of childhood trauma.
If you had to quarantine with one other person for the rest of your life, who would you pick and why?
Ben Folds. We could write songs all day and talk about our exes bitterly.
How are you finding joy right now?
Hosting private dance parties of one in my room.
Catch Kateri’s performance, SONGWRITING IS EASY! at 5 PM on Saturday, September 5 live on Instagram. See more of Kateri’s work at katerilirio.com or on Instagram at @rhymeswithbattery.
Meredith adelaide
Pronouns: they/them
What’s your Artat6ft performance?
I will be performing a live reading from The Great Blue World, my new book with photographer Nirav Patel, which explores grief and loss through imagery and word—precisely: pictures, poems and prose. The book represents the culmination of over two years of artistic collaboration between myself and Nirav.
How do you describe your artistic practice?
I use imagery as a way to speak. It excites me that there are multiple ways to communicate, many ways of thinking and experiencing reality-- as individuals and as a collective. I tend to explore themes of identity, self-awareness, connection, and the concept of using what you have, where you’re at.
What’s your typical quarantine outfit these days?
I've actually been dressing up every day! I’m really having fun with being truly free and fluid with my gender presentation.
How do you find peace right now?
Consistently getting therapy. I am focused on listening to my gut. Really trying to remember that everything that is happening is a reflection of things that are inside of us all, and that this is a group effort to help shake out the things that are not serving us, as a whole. When I remember this is bigger than me, as an individual, I feel soothed, because I then know how I can help participate and follow my purpose.
Catch Meredith’s performance, The Great Blue World, at 7 PM on Saturday, September 5 live on Instagram. See more of Meredith’s work at meredithadelaide.com or on Instagram at @meredithadelaide. You can also support them on Patreon.
Cedric tai
Pronouns: I use any and all pronouns.
What’s your Artat6ft performance?
I’ve been depressed, but I often find a liminal place where jokes and humor somehow co-exist even when feeling totally shitty. It's obviously a coping mechanism. So, taking my usual enthusiasm out of the equation, I plan to "entertain the troops” with A Comedy Set for Activists—and by troops, I mean my friends that do art and activism. And by entertain… I mean it'll be another one of my “bad artworks.”
How do you describe your art?
I make artwork to tickle, cajole and inspire people to consider their fears, limits and individual aspirations with curiosity. Recently someone said that I’m “pathologically curious,” which is the most tender way I’ve ever heard my ADHD (aka Time-Blindness, aka Intention Deficit Disorder) described back to me. Some of my work is setup systematically so that I can focus on the way that I want to elicit a response from a specific audience. Other works are like love letters wherein I come to know someone through the process of making the work. What brings my work together is the magic element of play, which begins in the landscape of the unconscious, made of doubt, ritual, grief, healing, honesty, tiny pleasures, guilt and responsibility. All of these elements are authentic and alive in my work, speaking to each other.
Weirdest purchase since quarantine began?
Spoke reflectors for biking at night, even though I have no clue when the next time is that I'm going to bike around at night.
How are you finding joy right now?Art making and snuggling up with my love bug of a dog named Petunia.
Catch Cedric’s performance, A Comedy Set for Activists, at 8 PM on Saturday, September 5 live on Instagram. See more of Cedric’s work at construction.cedrictai.com or on Instagram at @fakingprofessionalism.
Don’t forget to tune in to Instagram Live on Saturday from 11 AM to 8 PM for Artat6ft and support the work of these artists!