SPACE TAKING ARTIST RESIDENCY

2024 COHORT

Unearthing Black Porosity

RIAN CRANE

Pictured: Unearthing Black Porosity by Rian Crane, 2024 Photo by J Andrade

IN RESIDENCE: MAY - JUNE 2024

Unearthing: Black Porosity is an amalgamation of works exploring the ongoing lasting legacies, histories, and current relations of Black +/ Indigenous lifeways in the gulf south/ global south. Engaging writings from Black/ Caribbean scholars like the “The Black Shoals”, by Tiffany Lethabo King and Glissant’s “Poetics of Relations,” Imageries of Black life physically antithesis Blackness and colonial enclosure: Indigeneity and extraction: land and water relations. Unearthing: Black Porosities materializes as performance, sculpture, cyanotype, soundscapes, and cinema. Like the writings of Lethabo King the works disrupt movement of modern thought, time, and space to enable something else to form, coalesce, and emerge.” (Lethabo King, 2019 pg. 11).

Watch a video or view photos from Unearthing Black Porosity.

ABOUT THE LEAD ARTIST:

Rian Crane (he/they) is a post-disciplinary performance artist interested in Black diasporic rebellion as an anti-thesis to borders, gender, and prisons. Their work explores the paradox of hypervisibility for Black +/ Trans folks as well as the ongoing genocidal settler project of Anti-Blackness, displacement, colonial-made borders and severed ties from the land. Their work posits Black fugitivity as a refusal to the colonial imagination; they imagine Blackness in relation to land, water, and nonhuman kindred. He collaborates with other artists and communities to counter isolation, individualism, and the hyper-productivity of end-capitalism.

UNBOUND

KEDA SHARBER

UNBOUND is an immersive art experience that encourages attendees to examine the ways in which they have accepted limiting beliefs and dares them to explore the infinite possibilities of who they can become and the many things they can achieve when they embody a life of complete freedom. 

UNBOUND encourages attendees to see art and BE art. In addition to being an observer of fine art photography, films, and multidisciplinary performances that explore the ways in which we can shatter stereotypes and free ourselves to achieve beyond what others believe possible, the UNBOUND audience will have multiple opportunities to actively participate in the work by becoming the subject of themed portraits (still and moving) that will be created & displayed in the residency space. In addition they may also take part in multiple community art pieces that invite them to pick up an art tool and lend their hand, voice and perspective to a larger, collaborative work. Open Mic/Open Stage activations encourage attendees to be more than an observer, but to embrace the role of performer and display the ways in which they are unbound. 

Attendees of UNBOUND will be challenged to embrace the spirit of the project in multiple areas of their lives both during and beyond the residency through talks and workshops from practitioners in a variety of fields including culture & community, health & wellness, and career & education.

IN RESIDENCE: JULY - AUGUST 2024

Pictured: UNBOUND by Keda Sharber, 2024 Photo by Viva La Marx

Watch a video or view more photos from UNBOUND

ABOUT THE LEAD ARTIST:

Keda Sharber (she/her) is a Houston-based storyteller who uses film, photo, and written/spoken word to investigate and reveal the beautifully complex truths of her community. Since 2009 she has produced a variety of content including documentaries, web series, short films, fine art photography and written pieces that all share the same goal of shattering stereotypes and rewriting the narrative of Black people. A self-taught artist, Keda has held a solo fine art photography exhibit, had her images published in calendars and magazines and been awarded grants for her documentary film work.

Featured artists include Nessaja Camille, Comfort Ojo, Jeanine Bryant, Divine Decuir, Loren Holmes, Andonnia Maiben ,Dr. Lindsay Gary, Sha Davis, Misha Granado, Andonnia Maiben

The Space Taking Artist Residency is funded in part by a grant from Texas Commission on the Arts, the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance, Houston Endowment, and Brown Foundation.