THERESA COLUMBUS, SKYLER FORT, MEGAN LOVELY, TAVIA LA FOLLETTE
EXPOSURE
(Baltimore, Maryland, USA)
Laid to bare is a project that grew out of a Towson University, MFA graduate class taught by Tavia La Follette. This new cohort, like many, began their graduate studies in the middle of a pandemic. The assignment asked the students to bring in work around something that they had been reflecting on and was representative of “the times we are living in”. In the USA, the pandemic, although horrific, has exposed numerous disparities in the country. From racial reckoning, led by the Black Lives Matter movement, to health care, to food disparities. These individual but connected critical cruxes can no longer be ignored. Each participant has a digital performative draft of a societal critique that lays to bare what was not so transparent in the past.
The work will be installed in the storefront and/or windows of the HnH building. The building is known as an “Arts Building” and a gathering space. It exists at a busy intersection of downtown Baltimore. Therefore, in the spirit of The Art Prospect Festival, we are confident it will “engage the local community and facilitate dialogue about shared concerns.”
Via the direction of curator/professor La Follette, three graduate students install digital works through light in Baltimore, Maryland. Columbus is a performance artist, playwright, filmmaker, and organizer. She has performed extensively in venues across the USA. Fort is a director/performance artist/musician. She creates physical, non-narrative theatre, gross food-based performance art, and aggressive but funny music. Lovely is a theater artist who builds with, for, and about local communities. She believes in the power of self-expression and collaboration, fostering environments that encourage story sharing, conversation, and community building. La Follette undertakes ground art initiatives that build global interchanges for the migration of ideas across political and cultural boundaries.