What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1302565
OCTOBER 25-31, 2020 WHAT'S UP! 9 colored, and really thinking also about the impact that nature has had on her in this moment — this moment of when we're all sheltering in place and sheltering at home, and isolated, but also being able to go outside and spend time outside," Haynes explains. "Derrick Adams: Sanctuary" opens Feb. 20 in Gallery 1 and Gallery 3 and uses art to examine a difficult piece of America's past that is still lamentably relevant today. The Green Book, or "The Negro Motorist Green Book," was a guidebook published from 1936 to 1967 to identify welcoming businesses, towns and even whole regions, as well as unsafe establishments for Black Americans during the Jim Crow era. Through mixed-media collage and sculpture, Adams uses The Green Book as reference material to reflect on the concept of freedom of mobility — who has it and who doesn't, even today. "For some people, this is a historical document, and, yes, but the situation and the reason it was created and these circumstances we have now are still very much tied to this," Haynes offers. "What Derrick is talking about and making commentary on is [that] this is still a radical act for a Black person to think about, 'What does it mean to be able to go wherever you want?' And how can we talk about this now?" On Feb. 27, the third winter exhibition will open in Gallery 2 with "Diana Al-Hadid: Ash in the Trade Winds." In using wall panels and sculptures created to look very delicate — but constructed of sturdy, strong materials — Al-Hadid explores dualities in gender, memory, globalism and progress. The mixing of materials also reflects Al-Hadid's cross-cultural identity, being a Syrian immigrant raised in Ohio. "She also develops these processes," Haynes shares. "She experiments, she tries things. So she's not doing something that someone else has done before. She's innovating and creating her own style. And she's very much bringing in references that are both Eastern and Western art historical references. "That's also something that all three of these artists have in common," Haynes goes on, "they're very much interested in history and art history and things that came before them, and how it all impacts and plays on their work, but again, in very different ways." Opening three new exhibitions across various spaces in the Momentary that will overlap visually — as guests move from one gallery to the next — but also temporally will offer a change of perspective on what feels right for the guests, artists and curatorial team. "We're really thinking about how can we, very early on in the Momentary's trajectory, try new things and try new rhythms and see what makes sense?" Haynes muses. "Because we're learning the space. I think we will continue to learn the space even past our first few years as every artist that we work with is allowing us to see the space in a different way, and even understanding different limits and different parameters and how we can bring it all together." Adams (Courtesy Photo/Christopher Garcia Valle) "At the Momentary, we're really wanting to make it a space where people can come and see great and engaging art, but also art that isn't afraid to make you think or maybe make you uncomfortable in a way that then pushes you to want to know more — to want to learn more about something or an artist or an artwork or a topic," Haynes shares. "Keep Your Head Down and Your eyes Open" by Derrick Adams (Photo/Jenna Bascom; courtesy of the Museum of Art and Design) "These shows are all thinking about this idea of works created recently responding to the current moment and the times that we're in. I think that's going to be something that we effuse as much as possible in the Momentary," Haynes says. "Particularly when we have trying moments or difficult moments that we're all trying to understand, looking to these artists and looking to the work that they're making to really help us gain a little context and to gain perspective, and maybe a perspective that we wouldn't have thought about or understood without their works." "Ash in the Trade Winds" by Diana Al-Hadid (Courtesy Photo/Timothy Doyon) Al-Hadid (Courtesy Photo/Lisa DeLong)