SYNERGY

Allison Maria Rodriguez + Shaun Clarke

November 2–27, 2022

SoWa First Friday Art Walk: November 4 | 5–8PM

Artist Talk: Thursday, November 17 | 6:30–7:30PM RSVP for FREE TICKETS

“SYNERGY” features the multi-media installation work of Allison Maria Rodriguez and Shaun Clarke. In this exhibition, both artists present dynamic alternatives to understanding and engaging with conventional knowledge. In form, their work is both spatial and durational, and draws attention to the implications of existing in between traditional forms of classification. Through the use of symbolism and homage, they call upon historical traditions to recognize the limitations of exclusionary ways of being and to expand our future possibilities. They explore concepts of movement - balance & grace - in relation to energy and coexistence. Both in their exhibition collaboration and their individual works, Rodriguez and Clarke intentionally evoke the necessity of synergy.

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Allison Maria Rodriguez

Earth Oracles by Allison Maria Rodriguez is a multi-channel video installation that creates a sacred space centered around moving image portraits of various endangered species. The individual portraits merge iconography and stylistic devices of catholic prayer cards and new age oracle decks, using a blend of mediums including video, animation, photography, drawing and collage. Each video is presented as an object of reverence and contemplation. Together they ask the viewer to question who it is they seek guidance from. The work urges us to look not only above or below, to the past or the future, but also to the present world around us and our fellow species, who hold an incredible amount of wisdom and knowledge that is often overlooked.

Allison Maria Rodriguez is a first-generation Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist working predominantly in video installation. Her work focuses extensively on climate change, species extinction and the interconnectivity of existence. Through video, performance, digital animation, photography, drawing, collage and installation, Rodriguez creates immersive experiential spaces that challenge conventional ways of knowing and understanding the world. In addition to her art practice, she is a curator, educator and arts organizer. She is a Core Member of Fountain Street.

Shaun Clarke

Locomotion Leitmotiv by Shaun Clarke traces the development of early motion picture technology and pays homage to the earliest examples of dance on film. Featuring local dancer/artist Oliver Burns, the work comprises a series of printed black and white photographs and digital video shorts in a study of hip hop dance language. Clarke’s extensive work in the dance film format (aka “screendance” or “cinedance”) constantly seeks to find and exploit the unique, foundational overlap between cinema and dance, while also considering race, representation, gender, and the body.

Shaun Clarke is a filmmaker based in Boston, MA. His award-winning dance films, which explore ways choreography can be transformed through the cinematic language, have screened at numerous film festivals nationally and internationally. Clarke received a B.F.A. from New York University and an M.F.A. from Emerson College. He is currently an Associate Professor of Digital and Film Production at Emerson College.