For Immediate Release
Project Row Houses Welcomes Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter to Houston, Highlights Issues of Race, Activism, and Self-Determination
Houston, TX – February 27, 2017 – Project Row Houses (PRH) is excited to present its 46th Round of artist installations, collectively titled Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter at Project Row Houses. Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter (BWAforBLM) is a collective of Black women, queer, and gender non-conforming artists formed in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. The collective was originally organized during contemporary artist Simone Leigh’s residency at the New Museum in New York City. In order to highlight and disavow the pervasive conditions of racism, they have since committed themselves to producing work that addresses the interdependence of care and action, invisibility and visibility, self-defense and self-determination, and desire and possibility.
At Project Row Houses, BWAforBLM will utilize the seven art houses on PRH’s site as a platform for public dialogue. By engaging the Third Ward and greater Houston community, they hope to create a space to discuss issues that impact the lives and movement of Black people.
Installations will consist of a collection of joy and grief flags that cover the interior of the spaces, allowing viewers to participate by contributing strips of fabric inscribed with moments of grief and joy or desires they would like to manifest; altars for surviving and thriving, establishing space for examining liberation, contemplation and action; ephemera and a typographic exterior installation; performances including but not limited to gestures, sound installations and processions and rituals to explore transformation and language justice; and short video work and installation-based work by the many women of Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter. Other art houses will present opportunities for the public to host meetings to creatively respond to our nation’s current political climate.
“I am not only thrilled but honored to work with so many brilliant women artists on shaping Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter at Project Row Houses,” said Ryan N. Dennis, public art director at PRH. Dennis points to the fact that while the co-mingling of art and activism is nothing new, it is timely and of the utmost importance for artists and spaces to speak to the issues that we face as a society. “Right now, we are in the fight of our lives, and art is a conduit for us to communicate and have meaningful conversations. This Round not only allows us to see the work of prominent black contemporary artists but forces people to face the issues that impact Black life in America.”
“We are delighted to locate ourselves in all seven of the art houses at Project Row Houses,” artist Simone Leigh stated. “We will use the Round to reflect on our recent projects and to organize for the future.” She added that the group plans to collaborate with black women artists in Houston, forming a local chapter and hosting a closing event.
Representative images are available here. Caption: Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter occupy the New Museum for their first performative action, Photo by Madeleine Hunt Ehrlich
Round 46: Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter at Project Row Houses is co-curated by Ryan N. Dennis and Simone Leigh. The Round will be on view from March 25 – June 4, 2017. The opening reception will be held on March 25, 2017 from 4-7pm at the art houses, 2505-2517 Holman St.
