2023-576-E-Arts Commission-Chieko Murasugi -2023-24 Arts Grants

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Project/Program Summary In August 2023, BASEMENT will host the first of two consecutive Radicle Residencies. Each residency provides a month-long, 700 sf, non-live-in private studio space in BASEMENT for a local artist who has roots in the Southeast. The resident will have full access to BASEMENT Art Space, which occupies the basement of a private home at 605 Caswell Rd. Chapel Hill. The BASEMENT space will be available to the resident from 10 AM to 10 PM daily. After a month of working in the studio, the artist will include their newly created works in a month-long solo exhibition, with affiliated programming, in BASEMENT. The Radicle Resident and the BASEMENT team will transform BASEMENT from a working studio to a gallery. The two Radicle Residents were among the 40 artists who responded to our public open call. They were chosen by the BASEMENT team after a rigorous selection process that included a virtual interview and two reference letters. The first resident, Martin W annam, is a recent Guatemalan immigrant who uses photography, sculpture, and performance to evaluate systematic structures such as religion, colonialism, folklore, and white supremacy. During the residency, he plans to focus on building three experimental sculptures with the intent to build a queer brown monument. He'll be exploring found objects, inflatables, maximalism, sounds, pop culture, public transportation aesthetics, language, and transformation to create new ways of looking and thinking about displays of power that can manifest in 3D. In addition, he will project a loop of 3 videos of performances and hang mixed media framed photographs. W annam will engage with the community by using his mixed media works, performance, and talks to generate critical conversations about the queer and BIPOC experience. The second Radicle Resident is Katie Shlon, a first-generation Arab- American conceptual artist and musician who uses sound, sculpture, and performance to address issues confronting diasporic populations estranged from their history and heritage due to colonial alienation. They plan to work on a new installation of drawings and sculpture titled "fine condition: much encrusted with desert accretions," the title which was derived from the condition notes for a pair of Bronze Age Levantine idols sold on an online auction site. To cultivate community they propose public open-studio sessions, and invitations to local artists to read poems, have tea, share skills or stories, DJ, or play music. The first Radicle Resident, Martin W anman, will start using BASEMENT as a studio on August 1, followed by an exhibition of his work in BASEMENT during the month of September. He and the BASEMENT team will plan concurrent community events that will take place in the space. Katie Shlon, the second resident, will begin their residency on October 6th, and exhibit their work in BASEMENT from November 4 -Dec 5h, with various community-facing events planned during that time. DocuSign Envelope ID: 423EEBF4-9342-4216-850F-20270E2D347E