About the event
Please register here to attend the performance in person at the James Gallery.
To attend in person, it will be necessary to show proof of COVID vaccination or negative test.
Artist Maria Hupfield will hold workshops with Guttman College and Graduate Center students in the James Gallery and a public performance Wednesday October 26 at 6pm.
In her performance, Maria Hupfield will activate the objects in her artwork Untitled (Flag/Suit/Body Bag) made especially for the exhibition “We Are Beside Ourselves.” The exhibition examines artists’ strategies for working out very large questions of nationalism, and belonging by bringing them close-up—closer to our everyday, supposedly “common sense” routines, rituals and gestures. Maria Hupfield’s objects in the exhibition contain an unsettling absurdity: they are common objects–clothing and bags, one adorned with a maple leaf–that everyone uses, even though nobody can actually agree on their use or meaning. Her seemingly simple large canvas bag in the exhibition is a powerful response to injury, turning inside out expectations and the usual narrative of national heritage. Who says the maple leaf is a national symbol; it belongs only to nature.
Often both humorous and pointed, Maria Hupfield’s art is a support of indigenous sovereignty and cultural strength. What are the traditions you rely on and reckon with, navigate, and what processes do you create to go back and claim and protect your heritage and bring it with you to move forward to build the future for you and your loved ones?
