Curated by the 2015 NLE Lab
November 20 - December 13, 2015
900 Grand Concourse
Intersecting Imaginaries considers mapping as a method for understanding place, time, and identity. Including borrowed and commissioned works by Bronx-based and tri-state area artists, this site-responsive exhibition and related public programming explore a complex vision of the South Bronx, while drawing parallels with cities around the world.
The title of the exhibition draws from the philosophical concept of the social imaginary, which considers community to be composed of human interaction and perceived connection. Intersecting Imaginaries melds this abstract understanding with an acknowledgement of external circumstance, presenting a constellation of works that speak to memory and lived experience as composite parts of a map, and as the binding fibers of community.
Facing the Bronx Supreme Courthouse, and mere blocks from Yankee Stadium, the storefront sits in a highly frequented intersection of the South Bronx. These landmarks, each controversial in their own right, arouse singular stories within a diverse borough that inform the cultural and sociopolitical discussion at the heart of the exhibition. The site has served many functions: it was once a ballroom as part of the Concourse Plaza Hotel, a diner, a thrift store, and now stands empty, sharing walls with housing provided by the Mid-Bronx Senior Citizen Council. Remnants of its former lives are evident in the raw space, serving as inspiration and context for works that navigate body politics, racial identity, communities in flux, and the natural environment as both separate and intersecting realities.
Artists: Elia Alba, Arthur Avilés and Nicolás Dumit Estévez, Bronx Photo League, Linda Cunningham, Josué Guarionex, Giorgio Guidi, Ariel Jackson, So Yoon Lym, Laura Napier, Anne Percoco and Ellie Irons, Amy Pryor, David Shrobe, Manuela Viera-Gallo
Curated by Natasha Bunzl, Dalaeja Foreman, Paola Gallio, Mary Kay Judy, Eva Mayhabal-Davis, Lindsey O’Connor, Walter Puryear, and Emilia Shaffer-Del Valle.
Programs
November 19, 2015
Preview for Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council Opening Reception: Intersecting Imaginaries
November 21, 2015
NLE Mixer: Meeting the No Longer Empty family and collaborators
December 02, 2015
Come Más Bronx Cuisine with Randal WilcoxThe Bronx Trolley: First Wednesday Arts & Culture Tour Stop
December 04, 2015
Artist talk with Ariel Jackson, Amy Pryor and Bronx Photo League
December 10, 2015
Panel Discussion: How Can We Unite to Preserve Our Communities?
December 12, 2015
NLE Curatorial Circle: Meeting emerging curators and professionals #NLEMeet A social media networking event
Closing Reception
December 13, 2015
Family Day with artist Giorgio Guidi: a Drawing Workshop at the Andrew Freedman Home
NLE Curatorial Lab (NLE Lab) is professional development program of No Longer Empty for emerging curators interested in gaining practical experience curating a site-specific exhibition. NLE Lab is designed as a socially conscious platform for experimentation in curating.
The 2015 NLE Lab is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by the Dedalus Foundation and Puffin Foundation.
Installation views of Intersecting Imaginaries, curated by the 2015 NLE Lab. Photo: Tom Powel Imaging. Courtesy of No Longer Empty
Linda Cunningham
Surviving Then and Now: South Bronx Sagas, 2015
Found construction elements, collage, dry wall, canvas, photo transfers, pastel, acrylic, mixed media
A commissioned work for NLE Lab
For 15 years, Linda Cunningham has been documenting the changing urban landscape of the Bronx, most recently through shredded drywall sculptures that reckon with memory, loss, and survival. Her sculptures record how nature permeates built environments, focusing on spaces where moisture invades architecture. Now, at a particularly contentious moment in the Bronx, her work finds new prescience and poignancy, engaging with transience and local history while questioning what remains and what is destroyed.
(From Left to Right)
Arthur Avilés and Nicolás Dumit Estévez
A Gentle Act of Men in Hunts Point, 2015
Part of Performing the Bronx
Video
Duration: 22 minutes
Courtesy of the artists
In Performing the Bronx, Arthur Avilés and Nicolás Dumit Estévez engage in an improvisational public action along Hunts Point Avenue focused on role-modeling kindness between men. Emphasizing banal actions, such as walking in the streets, Avilés and Estévez blur the boundary between everyday life and the performative act. The pair, using movement to promote gentleness, wears vestments designed by Lorenzo Walker and inspired by the clothing worn by Sufi Whirling Dervishes.
This project is made possible with public funds from the Bronx Council on the Arts through the Department of Cultural Affairs’ Greater New York Arts Development Fund Program. Performing the Bronx has also received support from Casita Maria and the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) and Mothers on the Move (MOM).
David Shrobe
Tight Rope, 2015
Oil, ink, metal, wood, tile, paper, mixed media
Courtesy of the artist
In his mixed media wall installation Tight Rope, David Shrobe maps his environment via found materials collected in his Harlem neighborhood. Using tiles, moldings, and consumer packaging, Shrobe reclaims and re-presents these consumed and discarded items, creating a type of field guide by which to navigate the community. The detritus of the everyday is manipulated, transcending its original purpose and transforming into a remixed assemblage that at once examines the present and imagines the future.
Laura Napier
project for a street corner (Yankees), 2011
Video
Duration: 29 seconds
Courtesy of the artist
Working with the Bronx Museum Teen Council, Laura Napier’s project for a street corner (Yankees) documents a physical and symbolic confrontation between participating teens and baseball fans immediately before a game at an intersection near Yankee Stadium. Responding to the animosity that some locals feel regarding the infiltration of tourists during baseball season, the performative action both reclaims the streets of the neighborhood and suggests the preservation of locality.
Josué Guarionex
Coffee Break, 2014
From the series The Pursuit of Power
Wooden gun and bullets, coffee machine
Courtesy of the artist
Josué Guarionex’s Coffee Break maps the transatlantic slave trade, in which slaves, crops, and manufactured goods were trafficked between European colonies, West Africa, and the Caribbean. Considering the history of Caribbean coffee and sugar, the work reveals our silent complicity in the cyclical violence. Guarionex repurposes a coffee maker, a symbol of morning ritual and conversation, and literally ruptures that symbol, crystallizing our quotidian connections to systems of oppression.
Bronx Photo League
Jerome Avenue Workers Project, 2015
Courtesy of The Bronx Photo League
The Bronx Photo League’s extensive documentary series, Jerome Avenue Workers Project, sheds light on the people and professions that are threatened by the city’s plans to rezone two miles of Jerome Avenue for residential development. These nuanced portraits archive lived experiences under the strain of geopolitics and capture the ethos of one of New York’s last working class neighborhoods. Depicting workers’ individual relationships to the district, the images reveal the specter of displacement through a personal lens.
Jerome Avenue Workers Project de parte del Bronx Photo League es una extensa serie documental que recalca las personas y las profesiones amenazadas a causa de los planes gubernativos para recalificar dos millas de la avenida Jerome para desarrollo residencial. Estos retratos son un archivo sútil de las experiencias vividas bajo la presión geopolítica, y capturan al espíritu de uno de los últimos barrios de clase trabajadora de Nueva York. Representando las relaciones individuales de trabajadores y el distrito, las imágenes revelan un espectro del aburguesamiento a través de una lente personal.
Michael Kamber
Oswaldo
1689 Jerome Ave, Bronx NY
Oswaldo stands in traffic on Jerome Avenue waving potential customers into a friend's auto glass shop. Men like Oswaldo are a key part of Jerome Avenue's economy.
Edwin Torres
Bella Santiago Rodriquez
Flat Fix Shop, 1245 Jerome Ave, Bronx NY
Bella Santiago Rodriquez, a 21-year-old native Brazilian, hangs around the Flat Fix Shop on 1245 Jerome Avenue, where she's made a new group of friends that she calls family. She came from Brazil five months ago because of family issues. She hopes to find work at one of the flat fix shops along Jerome Avenue.
Trevon Blondet
Royal “KingBee”
Jerome Ave and Buchannan Ave, Bronx NY
Royal "KingBee," a graffiti artist raised in the Bronx, takes a break from painting a large-scale mural near Jerome Avenue and Buchannan Avenue. He's been a graffiti artist since 1988 and has painted dozens of storefronts along Jerome Avenue.
Osaretin Ugiagbe
Girl at Islamic Cultural Center
1245 Jerome Ave, Bronx NY
A girl stands in front of the Bronx Islamic Cultural Center (Masjid Annasr) located at 50 Tremont Avenue. The center's Imam, Sheikh Ibrahim Gonja, expresses his fear of being pushed out of the neighborhood. The center has long played an important role in the community.
Netza Moreno
Pastor Nicanor González
Church of Living God, 1921 Walton Ave, Bronx NY
Nicanor González, 60, has been the pastor for 36 years at the Church of Living God, located at 1921 Walton Avenue, Bronx.
Melissa Bunni Elian
Bellissima Beauty
2175 Jerome Ave, Bronx NY
An unnamed client takes a cigarette break at Bellissima Beauty Studio at 2175 Jerome Avenue.
Elias Williams
Rubén and Roberto Vasquez
Vasquez Muffler Shop, 1275 Jerome Ave, Bronx NY
Brothers Rubén and Roberto Vasquez and their father, Pilar Antonio Vasquez, the owners of Vasquez Muffler located on 1275 Jerome Avenue. In operation since 1993, they pride themselves on offering auto and muffler repairs at affordable prices.
Adi Talwar
Rebecca
God is Wonderful Hair Weave & Braiding Center, 2 W. 183 St, Bronx NY
Rebecca, originally from Ghana, works part-time at the GOD IS WONDERFUL Hair Weave & Braiding Center at Jerome and 183rd Street, which her sister Beatrice has owned for over ten years. Rebecca has been married for two years; she and her husband are both studying health care and she aspires to be a doctor.
Jesus Emmanuel
Mwanz
SE Corner of Burnside and Jerome Ave, Bronx NY
Mwanz, a street vendor who sells incense, accessories, and other holistic materials near the intersection of Burnside Avenue and Jerome Avenue.
Jonathan Santiago
Makilsi Rodriguez
Valencia Bakery, 1997 Jerome Ave, Bronx NY
Makilsi Rodriguez at the Valencia Bakery located on 1997 Jerome Avenue. She has been working as a sales clerk and decorator for over ten years.
Berthland Tekyi-Berto
Tony Ramos
Kerry Carte Barber Shop, 1476 Jerome Ave, Bronx NY
Tony Ramos gives one of his customers a haircut in Kerry Carte barber shop located at 1476 Jerome Avenue. Tony grew up in the neighborhood and has been working at the shop for the past 3 years.
Rhynna Santos
Miriam Maddi
1326 Jerome Ave, Bronx NY
Miriam Maddi has been an employee at the Botanica San Elias, located on 1326 Jerome Avenue, for the past five years. Born in the Dominican Republic, she came to the United States with her family eight years ago. Ms. Maddi dreams of one day owning her own health spa.
David "Dee" Delgado
Raymond Herskovits
Mel's Locksmiths, 4 E 170 St, Bronx NY
Raymond Herskovits inside his tiny storefront, Mel's Locksmiths, at 4 East 170th Street. Raymond is a third generation locksmith; his grandfather first opened the shop in 1932. Raymond no longer resides in the Bronx but commutes six days a week from his home in New Jersey to open his shop.
Heriberto Sanchez
Maria, Alexandro and Allen
Yadira Flower Shop, 6B E 183 St, Bronx NY
Maria and Miguel have been married for ten years; they have two children, Alexandro and Allen. Originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, Maria started selling flowers at a storefront. As her flower business grew she saved enough to open her own small flower shop six months ago.
Ed Alvarez
Marcos Rueda
American Flat Fix & Tire, 1331 Jerome Ave, Bronx NY
Marcos Rueda (left) and his co-worker Vladimir (right) wait for customers to arrive in front of American Flat Fix & Tire located at 1331 Jerome Avenue. Marcos has been working as a flat fix mechanic for the past two-and-a-half years at this shop and a previous eight years in another flat fix on Jerome Avenue.
Giacomo Francia
Jerome Avenue Workers, 2015
Video
Duration: 25 minutes
Courtesy of The Bronx Photo League
Manuela Viera-Gallo
Morir Matando, 2013
Part of the series Domestic Violence
Cotton rope, broken ceramic plates, glasses
Courtesy of the artist
Manuela Viera-Gallo’s tightly bound and precariously hanging broken dishes are at once bodily and ghostly, evoking the troubling and pervasive reality of domestic violence. The fragments of porcelain and ceramic—once sophisticated home décor—are transformed into weapons charting the global and local existence of women’s oppression and abuse. Thick cotton ropes and tightly executed knots compound the visceral sensation of aggression.
Ariel Jackson
Home AKA Media Lab, 2015
Including video works:
What Are the Blues?, 2015
Duration: 1:04 minutes
Blue Notes: Feelings 01, 2015
Duration: 0:15 loop
The Origin of the Blues, 2015
Duration: 4:17 minutes
B.A.M. aka By Any Means Inc., 2015
Duration: 4:15 minutes
The Confuserella Show (AKA I Need A Shrink), 2012
Duration: 5:14 minutes
A commissioned work for NLE Lab
Ariel Jackson’s videos serve as a web of studies and reports that her primary character, Confuserella, collects based on her experience navigating the space-net. Confuserella, performed by Jackson, immigrated from the planet Panfrika to live in Plastica, and these short films chronicle her struggles to understand racial politics in an alien environment. Using characters to navigate both conceptual place and actual geopolitical and socioeconomic issues, Jackson’s immersive works create safe alternative spaces to consider real life traumas.
(From Left to Right)
Anne Percoco and Ellie Irons
Next Epoch Seed Library, 2015
Seeds from spontaneous plants collected from Bronx & elsewhere, wood, paper seed packets, pamphlets
A commissioned work for NLE Lab
Next Epoch Seed Library catalogues the seeds of local weeds that grow on and around the Grand Concourse, creating an index of species that thrive in the dense and difficult urban environments constructed by humans. Merging built and natural environments, the work questions planned versus spontaneous growth and encourages closer examination of details that are often overlooked or marginalized
So Yoon Lym
Left to right:
Mariah, 2010
Angel III, 2011
Jhonathan, 2010
All works acrylic on paper
Courtesy of the artist
So Yoon Lym’s topographical drawings of braided hair recall a “menu” of styles at a hair salon, but also urban streets, winding rivers, and farming plots. Focusing on hair as a key method to self-define, Lym’s intricate drawings reveal suggestions of place and history. Femininity, hair culture, and personal narratives are all entwined in these portraits that depict dense cartographies of Black experience.
Amy Pryor
Sky above 40°45'6"N 73°59'39"W, 2015
Laser print
A commissioned work for NLE Lab
Working with junk mail and the packaging from her own consumer products, Amy Pryor reshapes the detritus of everyday life into landscapes, data, and aerial images. In Sky above 40°45'6"N 73°59'39"W, Pryor creates a visual-verbal map of the 39 constellations visible from 900 Grand Concourse during November and December. This poetic interpretation of spatial coordinates charts existence and time through waste, blurring the lines between commerce, culture, and cosmos.
Conversation Wall
As guests in this neighborhood, we support community efforts to preserve the histories and cultural identities of the South Bronx.
We hope that this space serves as a platform for engaging conversation for those who enter
Laura Napier
project for a street corner (Yankees), 2011
Video
Duration: 29 seconds
Courtesy of the artist
Working with the Bronx Museum Teen Council, Laura Napier’s project for a street corner (Yankees) documents a physical and symbolic confrontation between participating teens and baseball fans immediately before a game at an intersection near Yankee Stadium. Responding to the animosity that some locals feel regarding the infiltration of tourists during baseball season, the performative action both reclaims the streets of the neighborhood and suggests the preservation of locality.
INTERSECTING IMAGINARIES
900 Grand Concourse storefront | November 20–December 13, 2015
Location: 900 Grand Concourse (at 161 Street), Bronx
Opening reception: Thursday, November 19, 7–10pm
On view: November 20–December 13, 2015
Viewing hours: Wednesday–Friday, 2–8pm; Saturday & Sunday 12–6pm
Opening reception for Intersecting Imaginaries, curated by the 2015 NLE Lab. Photo: Whitney Browne. Courtesy of No Longer Empty.