CULTURAL CROSSROADS
Thursday, March 29 (7:30PM)
Artist and program curator Vanessa Godden in attendance.
Curated by Vanessa Godden, Cultural Crossroads showcases this selection of films by eleven emerging international artists addressing how the body performatively narrates and navigates cultural space. Various body parts and bodies relay a story about the respective cultures each artist is connected to. The program includes short works by Rushdi Anwar, Archie Barry, Sofi Basseghi, Lisa Hilli (and Julia Mageau Gray), Julia Huynh, Maya Krinsky, Anqi Li, Wangui Maina, Michael Menchaca, Milena Pafundi, and Melissa Tran.
Program:
Bum TV, Archie Barry, 2:44, Australia
My Own Sorrow, Melissa Tran, 6:16, USA
Afrophobia, Lisa Hilli, 5:20, Australia
Parmida's Story, Sofi Bassegi, 10:11, Tran/Australia
Pepper Spray, Milena Pafundi, 2:34, Argentina
January 2016, Julia Huynh, 3:57, Canada
English Lessons, Maya Krinsky, 3:00, USA
Now Listen, Wangui Maina, 2:43, USA
Facing living past in the present, Rushdi Anwar, 12:32, Kurdistan
24H Kiss Lip Balm, Anqi Li, 6:05, China
Identify Me, Lisa Hilli, Julia Mageau Gray, 3:46, Australia and New Zealand
El Que La Persiguen La Consigue, Michael Menchaca, 2:43, USA
VANESSA GODDEN is a mixed media artist from Houston, currently living in Melbourne, Australia. Her creative practice uses performative gestures to explore how personal histories of sexual assault, cultural heritage, and the body in relation to geographic space can be conveyed through material engagements with the body. She is currently working on her PhD at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. Her studio research extracts the internal to reveal the management of her personal experiences of the aftermath of rape through entanglements with her multi-cultural identity. Godden’s multiracial-immigrant identity contributes to the tension depicted in much of her work, which she uses to employ a narrative of unease. In 2014, Cory Rice of Musee Magazine wrote, “Godden’s ritualistic gesture adds a visceral dimension to the show that endures well after leaving the gallery.”
