CSArts ( Climate, Sustainability and the Arts) Temple University + Harvestworks NY present
new video-sound installations by Peter d’Agostino and Homer Jackson. The works were
created during the COVID-19 pandemic as a virtual online preview for future onsite exhibitions.
Date: April 5 – 11, 2021
Time: 7 PM EDT
Location: STREAM HERE for a preview of the virtual installation April 5 -11, 2021.
World-Wide-Walks / between earth & water / CAPES (2019-21) Peter d’Agostino
Video walks performed in and around South Africa’s significant ecological and historical sites: Cape Town, Robben Island Prison, Cape of Good Hope, and Cape Agulhas. In 2018, Cape Town’s city manager warned
of a looming ‘Day Zero’ crisis when water taps would run dry following years of severe drought. Robben
Island, across from Cape Town in Table Bay, is the site of an infamous maximum-security prison for Black,
Indian, and mixed race opponents of South Africa’s apartheid regime. Nelson Mandela was incarcerated
there for 19 of his 27 years in prison before serving as the country’s first black president from 1994-99.
While the Cape of Good Hope is widely known for early Portuguese explorations (1487-98) it also played
a key role in the slave trade beginning in 1652. Cape Agulhas, at the geographic southern tip of the African continent, is the geographic divide between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
Music and sound design: Joseph M. Williams, Jr. Virtual model: Danielle Hope Abrom
Special thanks: Tom Moses, Robben Island Museum.
Support: Climate, Sustainability and the Arts (CSArts), Film & Media Arts Sustainability Fund, Temple University, and Harvestworks Digital Arts Center.
Walkin’ & Singin’ : New Songs of the Open Road ( 2019-21) by Homer Jackson
This installation reframes a performance event produced by Homer Jackson, director of the Philadelphia Jazz Project, celebrating poet Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday in 2019. The songs, performed by participants walking through the city of Philadelphia, were inspired by Whitman’s “Song of the Open Road” and songs that fueled civil rights marchers to “challenge with their feet the boundaries of freedom.” Written and arranged by minister and vocalist, Taylor “Toby VeNT” Martin, choirmaster, and composer Waverly Austin, and singer/songwriter James Solomon, the musicality of these tunes were buttressed by a chorus of professional singers and members of the general public. “Tear Down These Walls” by Austin and “As I Give…As I Walk” by Martin are featured in this new installation. Additional concept development: Asha Jackson.
Support: University of Pennsylvania Libraries Kislak Center and funded by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.
BIOS
Peter d’Agostino’s pioneering video, photography, and new media projects have been exhibited internationally for over five decades. His work was in the biennial exhibitions of Sao Paulo, Brazil; Gwangju, South Korea; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive; Oakland Museum of California; National Gallery of Canada; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Charleroi, Belgium; CaixaForum, Barcelona; among others. D’Agostino’s grants and fellowships include: the National Endowment for the Arts, Pew Trusts, Onassis Foundation, Japan Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, MIT. He was an artist-in-residence at the TV Laboratory, WNET, New York, the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, Italy as well as a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome and the Art / Sci Center University of California, Los Angeles. Surveys of his World-Wide-Walks projects were exhibited at University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne Art Gallery, Bizkaia Art Gallery, Bilbao, Spain; and Laboratorio Arte Alemeda, Mexico City. The book, World-Wide-Walks / Peter d’Agostino: Crossing Natural-Cultural-Virtual Frontiers (2019), was published by Intellect Press, UK and the University of Chicago Press, USA.
Visit the website.
Homer Jackson is an interdisciplinary artist from Philadelphia with a background in teaching and social service. His work is presented as installation, performance art, public art, video and audio. He uses images, sounds, text, live performance, video, audience participation and found objects to tell stories. His visual, media arts and performance works have been exhibited through a wide and diverse range of venues that include: The Smithsonian Institute Traveling Exhibition program, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Hallwalls Arts Center, Buffalo; Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis; Art Center/South Florida, Miami Beach; Maryland Art Place, Baltimore; The Kitchen, Art In General, Aaron Davis Hall in New York City, and ArtBlackLive in Northhampton, UK. Jackson has received support for his work from: the Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Pew Fellowships in the Arts, Pew Charitable Trusts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Pennsylvania Humanities Council, Pennsylvania Radio Theatre, The Playwrights Center, Art Matters, Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art, and Civitella Rainieri Foundation, Italy. With over 20 years experience as a teaching artist working in community settings, Homer Jackson has served as project director for a number of arts & humanities projects and has conducted workshops in senior centers, prisons, schools and community organizations. He is the founder and director of the Philadelphia Jazz Project. Visit the website.