FROM ONE SHORE TO ANOTHER,
MY NAME MIGHT NOT BE THE SAME (2023)
Gallery Installation
French Malagasy artist Célia Rakotondrainy, in collaboration with model and Dan Suleymanova, floral arrtist Carolin Ruggaber, and sound artist, Dylan Hunter Chee Greene, presented From one shore to another, my name might not be the same, an exhibition of paintings, floral installation and sound score, in the UTA Artist Space Atlanta. Through her art, Rakotondrainy poetically depicts the concept that identity is constantly evolving and dynamically composed of layers that are added, transformed, destroyed, and reformed over time. This body of work is the result of over two and a half years of interdisciplinary collaboration between Rakotondrainy and three women artists, nurturing conversations surrounding complex identities and frustrations over binary perceptions of self. To create the oil paintings in From one shore to another, my name might not be the same, Rakotondrainy began by digitally editing, manipulating, and deconstructing portraits of Suleymanova taken by Dempsey. For each image, Ruggaber created floral arrangements retracing Suleymanova’s origins and immigration journey in five countries. In the resulting paintings, the floral compositions superimposed over the body serve as identity markers, offering a prism through which the multidimensionality and multifacetedness of identity is not only revealed but also challenged, rejecting the notion that the self is fixed and immutable, rather fluid and ever-changing. ( Read the Full Write-up )
Full Exhibition Catalogue
More on Célia Rakotondrainy
More on UTA Atlanta
Roles
Composer, Sound Designer, Audio Producer
Appearances
2023 Atlanta, US at UTA Artist Space
BLACK POST BOX (2021)
Short Film and Installation
Commissioned by Oyoun for their annual Embodied Arts Festival, Gugulethu Duma and Dylan Greene, alongside director Ayanda Duma, created an audio-visual installation called the Black Post Box. Visitors were invited Inside a mobile tiny house one at a time. For 20 minutes, they would sit amongst mirrors, sand, and chains, watching and reflecting on the piece. Afterwards, they were invited to write letters to their ancestors in the form of German visa immigration applications. The Black Post Box was stationed at May Ayim Ufer and Oberbaumstraße in Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany, from 9th-18th April, 2020. ( Read the Full Write-up )
Roles
Co-curator, Composer, Audio Producer and Sound Designer, Installation Artist
Appearances
Germany at OYOUN Kultur Neudenken for the 2021 Embodied Temporalities Festival
WHEN CHINA DISCOVERED THE WORLD (2019)
LAUNDRY AND COOKING (2019)
Chamber nonet for Hub New Music + Oracle Hysterical
Commissioned by Hub New Music & the Peabody Essex Museum
Premiere March 7, 2020 at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
Drawing on inspiration from Dawn of Midi’s Dysnomia and research from 1421 The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies, this work reflects on the expeditions of Zheng He. His expeditions were made during the rise of the Ming Dynasty and the construction of the Forbidden City which lasted for a matter of months before burning down. Suddenly, the Yongle Emperor Zhu di died and was superseded by the Zuande Emperor Zhu Zhanji, the economy tanked, and thus the political landscape of the era flipped. The new government burned all documentation of China’s age of exploration and thus buried the historical documents that might have proved that China was the first country to make a map of the world by way of trade and diplomacy rather than colonization.
Chamber nonet for Hub New Music + Oracle Hysterical
Commissioned by Hub New Music & the Peabody Essex Museum
Premiere March 7, 2020 at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
As a second generation Chinese immigrant, I grew up with the knowledge that my family, like many asian families, had relied on restaurant work once in the US. laundry and cooking sets The Heathen Chinee by Bret Harte to the UK style, grime. Harte’s poem illustrates a card game between a migrant Chinese laborer and a pair of cowboys in the California during the 1870s. The cowboys, with aces up their sleeves, cheat the immigrant to make a buck and the immigrant, speaking no english, cheats to survive. Harte was in support of immigrant labor and yet his satirical poem was misinterpreted by the general public. It fueled anti Chinese and immigrant sentiment from the Bay Area to Los Angeles and became a battle cry of the movement. Xenophobia swelled until the mass lynching of 1871 in which 17 Chinese men were killed by a mob in Los Angeles. In 1882 the Chinese Exclusionary Act was passed and remained in effect until 1944 when the first Chinese man lawfully gained US citizenship. Harte died, best known for his misinterpreted work, one of the most famous poems of the time. laundry and cooking explores these tensions as if it happened yesterday.
COMMISSIONS FOR CHOREGORAPHERS
Mark Morris Dance Center | NYC
For the Student Dance Company lead by Billy Smith, choreographer and MMDG company member
Imana Gunawan, choreographer | Seattle, WA
For the AU Collective
Amy Chavasse, choreographer | Detroit, MI
For the Detroit Institute of Arts
Eve Brown, visual artist | Atlanta, GA
For an immersive installation at Bard College
Chloe Zimberg, choreographer | San Francisco, CA
Solo performance
Hillary Kooistra, choreographer | Ann Arbor, MI
Solo performance
Ambika Raina, choreographer | Ann Arbor, MI
Solo performance
Eyrn Rosenthal, choreographer | Ann Arbor, MI
Solo masters thesis performance, University of Michigan