Good Mourning Tis of Thee, an expansive, conceptual art installation directed and curated by the multimedia artist Alyssa Taylor Wendt and Co-Lab Projects' Executive Director and Curator Sean Gaulager, features work from over 65 artists and performers from Texas, New York, Detroit and Seattle. This interactive exhibition addresses topical issues such as grief, loss, death, architecture and urban development. Staged in an old building shell in downtown Austin currently being used by Co-Lab Projects as their gallery space, visitors are able to move through areas devoted to themes of mourning, darkness and transformation and occasionally interact with durational performances both during gallery hours and at designated events throughout the run of the show. The show is especially timely as the building is slated for subsequent demolition to make room for a planned development on this site.
The concept behind this show, conceived of by Miss Wendt, looks at death as a positive agent and component of change. American culture has few rituals around or processing death and the artists involved will bring their own ideas, superstitions and rituals about mortality, but also those of different cultures and belief systems. We all have the capacity to use such markers of change as vehicles for new beginnings and transformative magic. Visitors to the exhibition move freely in between the curated areas of the building in no particular order, ending with the message implied by the title, that each one of us is a source of beneficial change through cycles of ending and new beginnings. This exhibition explores both issues of urban redevelopment and those surrounding death and grieving. Our fear of death and the lack of concern for history and preservation in an age of rapid development and gentrification are addressed here through the mediums of photography, video, sculpture, sound, painting, installation, drawing and performance.
Participating Artists and Performers:
Michael Abelman, Butch Anthony, Toni Ardizzone, Jon Brumit, Shawn Camp, Chris Carlone, Marnie Castor, Gail Chovan, Livia Cocchi, Erin Cunningham, Alex Diamond, Rachelle Diaz, Maggie Douglas, Dan Estabrook, Michael Anthony García, Brooke Gassiot, Stefany Anne Golberg, Oren Goldenberg, Joshua Goode, Amy Guidry, Frank Haines, Hollis Hammonds, Ryan Hawk, Geoff Hippenstiel, Scott Hocking, Katy Horan, Lindsay Hutchens, Madeline Irvine, Tlisza Jaurigue, Jules Buck Jones, Joseph Keckler, Travis Kent, Jardine Libaire, Marne Lucas, Rebecca Marino, Colin McIntyre, Robert Melton, Angelbert Metoyer, Cynthia Mitchell, Landon O’Brien, Christos Pathiakis, Matt Rebholz, Cristin Richard, Lacey Richter, Benjy Russell, Beth Schindler, Elizabeth McDonald Schwaiger, Seth Orion Schwaiger, Lauren Silberman, Sandy Smiles, Julia Solis, Michael E Stephen, Terri Thomas, Brad Walton, Bruce Lee Webb, Jason Webb, Alyssa Taylor Wendt, Steve Wiman, Matthew John Winters, Rachel Wolfson-Smith, and YOUNGSONS.
Associated Public Programs:
"In the Round: Death and Urban Renewal" Panel Discussion, Q&A
"DARK AX I": Performance Event featuring Chris Carlone butoh ritual, Sandy Smiles (Frank Haines), and more
"Draw-a-Ghost Workshop" for kids led by Katy Horan, Emily Cayton, and Alyssa Taylor Wendt
"DARK AX II": Performance Event featuring Marne Lucas and Marnie Castor (Duelling Doulas), Michael Anthony Garcia, and Jardine Libaire
"Fear the Reaper: A Dance Party", Halloween DJ Dance Party where everyone is dressed up as DEATH
"An Evening Performance and Reading with Joseph Keckler"
Catalog Release Party