Art
In Your Absence the Skies Are All the Same
September 1–30, 2020 Kambui Olujimi and Project for Empty Space
In Your Absence the Skies Are All the Same combines footage of skies from around the world, morphed into a central, slow moving, kaleidoscopic image. To create the work, artist Kambui Olujimi collected over 40 views of the sky, shot at different times of day under a variety of weather conditions in various locations, including New York, Cuba, California, and Detroit. Referencing a universal longing for human connection amidst distance and infinitely shifting possibilities, quadrisected skies slowly fold into one another to create an other-worldly dusk. Illuminating the screens of Times Square every midnight in September, In Your Absence the Skies Are All the Samespeaks to the evolving nature of the current social and political moment with a sense of collective transformation and notions of interdependence across time and place.
For audiences at home and under skies beyond New York, the work will also stream online for the month of September, set to a mash-up of the song “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me” — the classic originally made famous by Dee Dee Warwick and later recorded by The Temptations and The Supremes. Combined with this audio, In Your Absence the Skies Are All the Same deepens its meditative investigation of longing and invites reflection on conventional notions of love.
In Your Absence the Skies Are All the Same is presented in partnership with Project for Empty Space. Originally presented as a large-scale installation at The Brooklyn Museum in 2013, In Your Absence the Skies Are All the Same has also been exhibited at Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA. A related public artwork, Where the Sky Begins (2018), is permanently installed through the MTA Arts & Design at Avenue I station on the F Train in Brooklyn.
Also in September, Project for Empty Space (PES) will present WALK WITH ME, a collection of more than 200 ink works on paper by Olujimi, all derived from a single photograph taken in the late 1950s of Ms. Catherine Arline, who was the artist’s longtime mentor, friend, and guardian angel. This solo exhibition will christen PES’s new home in Downtown Newark and will be presented in celebration of the organization’s 10-year anniversary, from September 12, 2020 to January 4, 2021 by reservation only.
Kambui Olujimi was born and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn and received his MFA from Columbia University in New York City. Olujimi’s work challenges established modes of thinking that commonly function as “inevitabilities.” This pursuit takes shape through interdisciplinary bodies of work spanning sculpture, installation, photography, writing, video and performance. His solo exhibitions include: Zulu Time at Madison Museum of Contemporary Art; A Life in Pictures at MIT List Visual Arts Center; Solastalgia at Cue Arts Foundation; and Wayward North at Art in General. His works have premiered nationally at The Sundance Film Festival, Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and Mass MoCA. Internationally his work has been featured at The Jim Thompson Art Center in Bangkok; Museo Nacional Reina Sofia in Madrid; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Finland and Para Site in Hong Kong among others.
Olujimi has been awarded residencies from Black Rock Senegal, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and MacDowell Colony. He has received grants and commissions from numerous institutions including The Jerome Foundation, NFYA/NYSCA Fellowship, and MTA Arts & Design. His work has been featured in news media and periodicals such as The New Yorker, Art Forum, Art in America, Brooklyn Rail, CNN, PBS, and The New York Times. Monographs on his past project include Zulu Time (2017), Wayward North (2012), The Lost Rivers Index (2007), Walk the Plank (2006), and Winter in America (in collaboration with Hank Willis Thomas, 2006).
Project for Empty Space is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating safe and equitable spaces for audiences and artists alike. PES is committed to cultivating discourse around important social issues through the catalytic lens of contemporary art. Our mission is to promote artists whose work is oriented around social impact; and to initiate conversations that engage issues of marginality, intersectionality, and cultural tolerance. Through our work we strive to create exhibitions and programming in our spaces that dispel the notion that art is meant for one type of audience. Our aim is to encourage the idea that everyone should have equal opportunity to access art.Share:
Gay Pride, Bryant Park Picnic Performances, Movie Nights, Lincoln Center Summer for the City (Midsummer Night Swing), Juneteenth, New York Philharmonic Concerts in the Parks, Tribeca Film Festival, Free Outdoor Concerts, Museum Mile Festival, the Puerto Rican Day Parade and that’s just the beginning!
Until September 29 every summer in Times Square, NYC, TSQ LIVE showcases hundreds of artists, performers and cultural producers and this summer 80 free events hosting over a dozen incredible New York-based institutions and collectives, including Pioneer Works, NEW INC, Children’s Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Ailey Extension, New York Live Arts, OTA Entertainment, Soul Summit, Rash Bar, and Elsewhere.
6/1: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park New York City Opera: La Bohème
6/2: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Jazzmobile: The Steven Oquendo Latin Jazz Orchestra
6/2: Billy Joel @ MSG
6/3-4: Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit atUniversity Place, starting at East 13th Street and continuing south along the east side of Washington Square Park to West 3rd Street.
6/7 until September: Little Island Tony and Grammy Award winners in The Glade, late night djs, drag bingo, and dance parties in The Play Ground, weekly artmaking activities for all ages and Teen Night every Friday.
6/7 – 18: Tribeca Film Festival will take place movie theatres, rooftops and various venues throughout NYC, such as the new Pier 57, Beacon Theatre, the Angelika. The premiere of Let the Canary Sing with a performance by Cyndi Lauper or The Closing Gala: A Bronx Tale, followed by a conversation with director and star Robert De Niro, producer Jane Rosenthal, and writer and co-star Chazz Palminteri.
6/8 – 8/6: Shakespeare in the Park – Hamlet
6/8: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Contemporary Dance: Robin Dunn, The Lite
6/9: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Contemporary Dance: Dance Heginbotham, Jennifer Muller/The Works
6/9 – 11: @ Citi Field Governors Ball Music Festival – The contemporary music festival for music lovers by music lovers. With 60+ artists of all genres across 4 stages, there is something for everyone, including delicious restaurants, food trucks and menus.
6/9 – 18: River to River Festival The festival takes place in a variety of public venues that canvas all of Downtown New York – from Chambers Street down to the southern tip of Manhattan and across the island from river to river.
6/11: National Puerto Rican Day Parade Fifth Avenue, 44th to 79th Street
6/12: Bryant Park Movie Nights Almost Famous (2000)
6:13: Museum Mile Festival on Fifth Avenue from 84th Street to 109th Street: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Neue Galerie New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; The Jewish Museum; Museum of the City of New York; El Museo del Barrio; and The Africa Center.
6/14 – August: Dancing Under the Stars (formerly Midsummer Night Swing), free outdoor movies, dancing, singing, readings, celebrations, flamingos, disco ball, poetry, Mozart, concerts, crafts, Juneteenth and much more!
6/15: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Contemporary Dance: Terk Lewis + Kayla Farrish
6/16: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Contemporary Dance: Soles of Duende + Josh Johnson
6/17-25: Gay Pride The Rally, The March & Pride Island. The 2023 theme is “Strength in Solidarity” and Christina Aguilera is headlining NYC Pride Island on Sunday, June 25th at Brooklyn Army Terminal. The festivities begin with Family Night and the Rally and culminate with PrideFest & The March. Other events include Pride Island and the annual Dance on the Pier, following the parade wrapping up Pride Week in a grand fireworks display.
6/16 – 18: Juneteenth is a celebration of June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas, which declared the ending of slavery in the USA. The three day Juneteenth in NYC festival kicks off Friday with a virtual summit, Friday night is the Celebration of Black Kings, Saturday is Festival Community Day and the festival culminates Sunday with a Parade, Fashion Show, Food trucks Field Day and more. Monday, June 19th, is a national holiday, with government, banks and post offices closed. More Info: Junteenth NY
There are dozens more Juneteenth celebrations throughout all 5 Boroughs, including BBQs, the NYC Parks Department, Seneca Village, Broadway, Lincoln Center, concerts, shows, theater and more.
6/17: The Coney Island Mermaid Parade is the nation’s largest art parade where 3,000+ participants dress in hand-made costumes.
6/ 19: Bryant Park Movie Nights Amistad (1997)
6/23: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Emerging Music Festival: Psymon Spine, THUS LOVE, Katy Kirby
6/24: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Emerging Music Festival: Ky Vöss, Seramic, Miss Grit, Dead Tooth
6/26: Bryant Park Movie Nights Mean Girls (2004)
6/30: Picnic Performances @ Bryant Park Jalopy Theatre: Michael Daves Quartet ft. Tony Trishka, Yacouba Sissoko, Terrell King
6/30: Intrepid Museum Summer Movie Series: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Taylor Swift’s career-spanning costume exhibition just opened at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design (MAD). On May 18, MAD Director Tim Rodgersand Board Chair Michele Cohen (with husband Marty) welcomed members and patrons for a preview of the exhibition before it opened to the public on the 20th. Guests included Susan and Larry Ach, Loreen Arbus, Christiana Baroni, Marian Burke, Patti and Michael Dweck, Alexander Hankin, Marsy Mittlemann, Netta Rosin, as well as MAD curators Elissa Auther, Barbara Paris Gifford, and Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy. Television cameras whirled in a music filled electric gallery.
(BFA Madison McGaw)
Taylor Swift: Storyteller is a career-spanning look at the artistic reinventions of the 12-time GRAMMY Award–winning artist who is one of the most prolific songwriters in history. The exhibition includes stage costumes from all her eras; the cheerleader and ballerina ensembles from the award-winning music video for “Shake It Off” (2014) to the sparkling ensemble from “Bejeweled” (2022). Concert attire by couture fashion houses including Cavalli, Gucci, Louboutin, Versace, YSL and more, are featured along with props, jewelry, ephemera, and projections of music videos. The exhibition runs through September 4, 2023. Timed tickets for the exhibition are available for $25 and include access to all Museum exhibitions. For more information, visit https://madmuseum.org/exhibition/taylor-swift-storyteller.
Alexander Hankin
Alexander Hankin, Barbara Tober
Amanda Ibrahim, Zachary Miller
Angelic Vizcarrondo-Laboy, Willow Holdorf
Barbara Paris Gifford, Angelic Vizcarrondo-Laboy, Willow Holdorf
Barbara Paris Gifford, Elissa Auther
Barbara Tober, Marian Burke
Ben Strauss, Marian Burke
Bruce White, Christina Clare Ewald
Isabel Lo, Lina Hares
Jeffrey Brosa, Andy Seid, Wendy Leiser
Jeffrey Quaritius
Joey Spieczny, Alexander Hankin, Zachary Miller, Justin Grabell
Larry Ach, Susan Ach
Tim Rodgers
Sasha Nixon, Robert Lugo
Patti Dweck, Michael Dweck
Michele Cohen, Marsy Mittlemann
Marsy Mittlemann, Netta Rosin
Lucig Kebranian
Last Thursday multidisciplinary, shamanic artist ETTE exposed the name of her predator and took back her life. The show was powerful, prolific and empowering. “Whistle Blower” was co-produced by Derek Warburton.
Now you can go inside the performance that exposed who raped ETTE and the action she took to take her life back.
Sexual Violence Affects Millions of Americans
Younger People Are at the Highest Risk of Sexual Violence
- Ages 12-34 are the highest risk years for rape and sexual assault.3
- Those age 65 and older are 92% less likely than 12-24 year olds to be a victim of rape or sexual assault, and 83% less likely than 25-49 year olds.4
On Thursday multidisciplinary, shamanic artist ETTE exposed the name of her predator and took back her life. The show was powerful, prolific and empowering. My guest Elisabeta, writer ElizaBeth Taylor and I, all felt privileged to be apart of an act so brave and true. Abuse victims should NEVER feel the way they are made to feel.
Before the main event we talked with ETTE about her abuse and how prevalent abuse is in our society.
Her co-host Derek Warburton also shared his story and why he co-produced this amazing night.
Did you know?
Before that happened T2C had a chance to see her art show entitled “Whistle Blower”.
ETTE’s art
Tomorrow the performance.
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