Saturday, Nov 22, 2–5PM
FCCW: 3053 Rosslyn St. LA CA 90065
Info on our space here
Max capacity: 30
Free
As part of Silvi Naçi’s AIR project, skin to sky: radical play as resistance, come materialize, shapeshift and play with us in recess — a Black feminist playground! Inspired by childhood games, steeped in Black feminist texts and values, and mindful of consent/access, we will create a portal to a happening, where participants can shift their body-mind-spirit from one state to another.
Jump ropes, dolls, cards, prompts, and board games will be available for traditional or transformed use. We will also have materials to draw, sculpt, paint, create dance routines and playlists, write scores, remix poems, and browse through Black feminist books.
What can the body in states of translation/recreation leave behind – what instructions – what wisdoms of connection? Here we will practice different ways of being in relation to disturb/unsettle the oppressive now and foster new possibilities for our collective future. Let’s have fun! All ages are welcome, and you can drop-in throughout the afternoon.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Gabrielle Civil is a black feminist performance artist, poet, and writer, originally from Detroit, MI. Her series of performance memoirs, a chronicle of performance body, includes Swallow the Fish (2017), Experiments in Joy (2019), (ghost gestures) (2021), the déjà vu (2022) and In & Out of Place (2024). She organized and compiled Experiments in Joy: A Workbook (2019) and coordinated the translation for Experimentos en Alegría (2023) published by Co-Conspirator Press. Foundress of The Black Weirdo School, she teaches at the California Institute of the Arts. The aim of her work is to open up space. Photo credit: courtesy of artist
Silvi Naçi is a queer Albanian educator, artist, researcher, and writer working between Albania and Tongva and Chumash territory, colonized as Los Angeles. Their praxis engages the image and its politics across photography, performance, moving-image, text, weaving, drawing, and installation. Their work examines how the marginalized body is affected by an oppressive state, the subtle and violent ways that migration results from colonialism, and how processes of decolonization affect and reshape a people, the body, language, and possibilities of gender identity.
Naçi holds a dual BFA in Fine Arts & Graphic Design from Suffolk University and an MFA in Photography & Media from California Institute of the Arts. They have exhibited works at Manifesta 14 Prishtina, XK; National Gallery of Art, Tirana, AL; The National Gallery of Kosovo, XK; Grand Hotel, Kosovo, XK; Other Places Art Fair, LA; Greater LA MFA Exhibition, LA; and is a recipient of the Tim Disney Excellence in Storytelling Prize and the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Travel Grant. Their writing on art criticism has been published in Artsy, East of Borneo, Contemporary Art Review LA, X-TRA, Big Red & Shiny, NKA Journal for Contemporary African Art, and Hunter Fashion Magazine. Naçi has participated in residency at MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA); Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art (Berlin, Germany); Elsewhere Museum and Residency (Greensboro, NC); Évora NAU (Évora, Portugal); Vermont Studio Center (VT); perfocraZe International Artist Residency (Kumasi, Ghana), and the Feminist Center for Creative Work residency (Los Angeles, CA). Naçi is a doctoral student in the Global Studies department at UCI. Find more info on their work at silverprojects.co or follow them on Instagram @silvi.naci.