Artist Talk - Ciara Elle Bryant + Brandon Thompson

1501 S Ervay,Dallas TX 75215

23 January, 2021

Description

Artists Ciara Elle Bryant and Brandon Thompson in conversation with Jordan Roth discuss the concepts and process in their most recent works Where: Ro2 Art the Cedars 1501 S. Ervay St. Dallas, TX, 75201 When: Saturday, Jan 23, 3-4 PM Limited capacity, 12 participant maximum, facemasks required. Artists Ciara Elle Bryant and Brandon Thompson in conversation with Jordan Roth go in depth into the concepts behind Server 3.0 and Hard Work, No Play. Join us for this discussion, with a following Q&A in this intimate, socially distanced setting. Artist Statements: Ciara Elle Bryant “Server 3.0 serves as a space where identity, culture, and self-actualization can occupy a current sliver of time, all at once. Server exists as an origin story that encompasses a visual bibliography to my art practice. Server is a mixed media installation that incorporates: collage, photographs, audio, moving image, objects, and relics. When brought together, the installation becomes a life-sized view of this bibliography in the real, a space not hosted virtually but physically. My inspiration for Server is the need to save and archive data that embodies Black culture. I have always been a hoarder; a miner for Black images. Over time and through my studies I realized that there were few people curating and cataloging these images and films in general. Most of the people who did just had it saved locally on their desktop or on a hosted site that was made for blogging or mass sharing of images. It was very important for me to take this data out and physically ‘like’ and share these images by plastering them all over in an installation. The process of gathering imagery starts from an assortment of archive data that I have been accumulating over the last decade. The images have been saved from Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram. With these images, I create various sized posters and prints as a sample of the data I have collected. The audio manifests itself from a youtube visual playlist that I have been compiling over the last few years. The video is also an integral part of the installation. The video mimics the rhythm of scrolling through one's feed, showing how this data exists in the interwebs. I decided that Server had to be made to challenge the predominately white graduate institution that I was attending at the time. However, in turn it became a launching pad to build a place where other Black people can see themselves. ‘Nothing without intention, do nothing without intention…’ Specific decisions were made about what I wanted to allow to happen in that space. Server, needs to just exist, and it needs to be a whole damn room. Server is a roadmap to understanding the vital influences in my practice. It shows how important it is for creators to have an abundance of cultural representation. Since the manifestation of Server, in its first iteration, I have had countless moments with people that identify as black tell me they felt seen. Server gave them a moment to exist as they are, as they are known. From spiritual transcendence to healing, Server provided blackness to be felt by many in a space. This work has launched me into creating and curating more outlets for black artists to share their own works. Server has turned into a new creative process for sharing experiences and providing support for other artists. The moment that someone gets to see themselves in a work of art is the moment their existence is validated.” Brandon Thompson "My work is inspired by the neighborhoods and culture I grew up in -that being the South Dallas county area, and the lifestyles of those neighborhoods. Taking references from the fashion and hairstyles, slang, music, heroes, and everyday events, and then reimagining them into colorful paintings and sculptures. Some of my references come from biblical stories, inside jokes, African-American history and literature. Through these artworks I want to create realistic and surrealistic imagery to show the feeling of belonging and not belonging." All works will be on view December 12, 2020 – January 30, 2021at Ro2 Art the Cedars, located at 1501 S Ervay St, Dallas TX 75215. For more information, visit www.Ro2art.com