Public Workshop: Collage as a Socio-Political Tool & Investigative Practice

SFAI is proud to present our Public Workshop Series. Learn creative and social justice skills with our celebrated artists in residence, and support our mission to create a more just society. SFAI offers our public workshops to provide imaginative and educational experiences for our community, to facilitate professional development for our residents, and to provide a direct way to support SFAI through collaborative learning. Learn more and enroll below!

MONTH	WORKSHOPS	TITLE
APR 15	Asha Canalos	Collage as a Socio-Political Tool & Investigative Practice
MAY 20	Rachel Lin Weaver	Place and Sound Art: Sounding Here
JUN 17	Joerael Elliott	History of Graffiti: Indigenous City Culture & Handstyle Session
JULY 15	Joerael Elliott	Graffiti in Action: Conceptualizing and Scaling Murals in Collectives

Collage as a Socio-Political Tool & Investigative Practice

April 15, 2017 / 1-4PM / $60 Enrollment

Taught by Asha Canalos of the Bronx Museum

Description/Objectives: This workshop will consider the medium of collage as a mechanism for expression, particularly within socially engaged contexts. Participants will receive a presentation on collage methods, examples, and ties to contemporary social history. The presentation will be followed by a an interactive, hands-on demonstration of various techniques, effects, tools, and applications, such as incorporating sourced material, tracing/reproducing/mirroring, layering media, cutting and gluing techniques, and composition strategies. With the help of the instructor, participants will experiment with some combination of techniques to produce their own socially meaningful collage during the workshop. Participants will be given time to engage in dialogues about one another’s work.

Instructor Bio: Asha Canalos is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, community organizer and climate justice advocate. Her work is focused on colonization, social justice, hybrid communities, and the borders of natural and urban worlds. In 2011, Canalos began working as a community organizer when a fracked gas compressor station was proposed near her farm in Minisink, New York. Canalos served as a press coordinator/organizer and delegate to meetings with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Canalos moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2015. There she continues to create interdisciplinary social history-based work, and to help collaboratively develop art, writing and public outreach interventions for communities facing take-overs by the oil and gas industry. As a socially-engaged artist, Canalos has been a visiting artist at Pace University, New York University, and the Bronx Museum where she led workshops and engaged with college students and faculty.  To learn more about Asha, visit her website.

Skill Level: No experience necessary.

Materials Provided: Scissors, tweezers, archival glue, papers of various colors and transparencies, source materials (magazines, books, newspapers), rulers, paint brushes, pencils, and acrylic paints.

Materials to bring: Participants may want to bring their own source materials (photos, prints, or other imagery) and/or papers.

For More Information: Write to Toni, SFAI Residency Program Manager at tgentilli@sfai.org, or call 505.424.5050.

Place and Sound Art: Sounding Here

May 20, 2017 / 1-4PM / $60 Enrollment

Taught by Rachel Lin Weaver of the University of Pennsylvania

Description/Objectives: This workshop is an opportunity to explore sound as a physiological, malleable, radical element of place. Sound is a means to engage and creatively collaborate with communities, landscapes, landforms, man-made structures, and even other species. In addition to learning about acoustic ecology and deep listening, workshop participants will learn field recording basics, and crucial sound editing skills, and also learn how to build their own portable DIY speakers as a part of this workshop (no fancy tools, dangerous electronics, or computers required!). At the end, participants will split into groups and the workshop will culminate in a collaborative sound art project.

Instructor Bio: Rachel Lin Weaver is an artist and curator whose practice spans video art, sound art, documentary, and performance. She is co-director of the New Media program of the New Orleans Film Festival, and has recently staged exhibitions of her work at the Czong Institute Contemporary Art Museum in Korea, the Nami Gallery in Tehran, Iran, and the Zhou B. Art Center in Chicago, among others.  Rachel has worked as a documentary filmmaker since 2006, with partnerships ranging from National Geographic, to collaborations with indigenous communities to preserve oral histories in Alaska and Central America. As an educator, Weaver’s areas of expertise comprise a diverse range of media formats, spanning video, acetate film, stop-motion animation, acoustic ecology, generative sound, interactivity, immersion, virtual reality, physical computing, and transmission technologies. Weaver currently lives and works in Appalachia, where she is an Assistant Professor of Creative Technologies at Virginia Tech.  To learn more about Rachel, visit her website.

Skill Level: No experience necessary.

Materials Provided: Audio field recorders, a variety of microphones to experiment with, two computers for audio editing, materials for DIY speaker construction, and finished speakers.

Materials to bring: A notebook and pencil for note-taking, a charged cellular phone that is audio-recording capable. If you have specific technology questions, please contact SFAI.

For More Information: Write to Toni, SFAI Residency Program Manager at tgentilli@sfai.org, or call 505.424.5050.

History of Graffiti: Indigenous City Culture & Handstyle Session

June 17, 2017 / 1-4PM / $60 Enrollment

Taught by Joerael Elliott of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh

Description/Objectives: This workshop provides an in depth lecture on the history/geneology of graffiti and how it has informed social networking and communication and will include a handstyle exercise at the end. The lecture will explore key individuals in graffiti history, esoteric personal theories around the transience of identity, real defining features, constraints, conflicts/alliances and the future of the culture. The intent of this workshop is to educate the viewer to see graffiti writing and their personal relationship with territory in a different way, and to introduce handstyle writing to participants.

Instructor Bio: Born in San Angelo Texas, Joerael is a narrative artist with a focus on creating complex figurative works. His figurative works focus on the subtle body, psychological imprint and the metabolic hum. In figures, Joerael weaves current and historical content pertaining to social justice, Earth’s environment, and that of the sacred. His works range from small scale mixed media drawings and paintings to large murals. Joerael has developed a visual and conceptual vocabulary from his direct experience as a yoga practitioner/teacher, activist, traveler, graffiti writer, street artist, and as a Texan. Elliott’s intentions as a narrative artist and teacher of yoga are to create non-reductive works that cultivate a contemplative space of liberty through living symbolism and the creative unconscious.  To learn more about Joerael, visit his website.

Skill Level: No experience necessary.

Materials Provided: Large chisel tip, small chisel tip, and regular Sharpie markers, and newsprint paper.

Materials to bring: If participants have their own drawing materials, sketchbooks, and calligraphy /graffiti markers, they are welcome to bring them.

For More Information: Write to Toni, SFAI Residency Program Manager at tgentilli@sfai.org, or call 505.424.5050.

Graffiti in Action: Conceptualizing and Scaling Murals in Collectives

July 15, 2017 / 1-4PM / $60 Enrollment

Taught by Joerael Elliott of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh

Description/Objectives: During this workshop, participants will conceptualize and develop a mural for a wall in the constraints of a collectively agreed upon content.The intent of this workshop is to grow outside personal boundaries and find deeper connectivity to others and symbolism to better communicate. Participants will create conceptual sketches and compare them to examples of collaborative works. In the next stage, participants will be partnered and will explore identity, listening, acceptance, tolerance, sharing and relationship. Lastly, participants will conceptually quantify their sketches by imaginging what they would be if they were to be on the fictional wall. Participants will be introduced to perspectives on: communicating ideas, mis-appropriation, neighborhood/cultural awareness, grey areas, environment, political echo chambers, inclusivity and not being perfect/self acceptance. Last, Joerael will introduce a project and collective solution to funnel creative energy titled “Mobilize Walls.” The hope is that this practice can better cultivate a more dynamic and peaceful future.

Instructor Bio: Born in San Angelo Texas, Joerael is a narrative artist with a focus on creating complex figurative works. His figurative works focus on the subtle body, psychological imprint and the metabolic hum. In figures, Joerael weaves current and historical content pertaining to social justice, Earth’s environment, and that of the sacred. His works range from small scale mixed media drawings and paintings to large murals. Joerael has developed a visual and conceptual vocabulary from his direct experience as a yoga practitioner/teacher, activist, traveler, graffiti writer, street artist, and as a Texan. Elliott’s intentions as a narrative artist and teacher of yoga are to create non-reductive works that cultivate a contemplative space of liberty through living symbolism and the creative unconscious.  To learn more about Joerael, visit his website.

Skill Level: No experience necessary. This workshop will build on the History of Graffiti workshop from June, but does not require prior participation.

Materials Provided: Wall outline paper and pencils.

Materials to bring: If participants have their own drawing materials, sketchbooks, and calligraphy /graffiti markers, they are welcome to bring them.

For More Information: Write to Toni, SFAI Residency Program Manager at tgentilli@sfai.org, or call 505.424.5050.

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For more questions, write to Toni, SFAI Residency Program Manager at tgentilli@sfai.org, or call 505.424.5050.