Defibrillator Gallery + Zhou B Art Center proudly present

DFBRL8R Performance Art Apprentice Showcase 2019

amplifying the talented folks who help make Defibrillator happen… featuring performance art by:

Taylor Rae Botticelli | Erin Evans Delaney | Dove | dyoskuri [Michael Lee Bridges + Terra] | Ashley Hollingshead | Lesley Keller-Reed | Kazumi Seki

Defibrillator celebrates our former apprentices – emerging artists who are energetically questioning and embracing exploration, discipline, risk, and hope – while thoughtfully considering what they do and why they do it. The artists in this program are remarkable for they have selflessly given their time and energy to other artists in order to learn, grow, and actively contribute to the legacy of Performance Art

The DFBRL8R Performance Art Apprentice Program is an alternative pedagogical system of structured mentorship designed to provide professional experience, practical knowledge, and applicable skills to artists who want to be versed in the presentation of time-based practices. In exchange for this experience, DFBRL8R Apprentices provide the energy and labor necessary to sustain our non-profit, gaining insight into the inner workings – the struggles and triumphs – of a unique organization.

b i o g r a p h i e s

Taylor Rae Botticelli [www.instagram.com/tayraebo] (b. 1993 MA,USA) is an interdisciplinary artist & restaurant industry professional currently residing in Chicago, IL. Taylor holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Theatre Performance from Salem State University (Salem, MA). Post-undergraduate degree, Taylor has pursued training at SITI Company (NYC), Penland School of Crafts (North Carolina), and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (Maine). Bracing Acidity is a critique of the artifice of fine dining which, much like traditional theatre, relies on suspension of disbelief, particularly in regards to humanity of the players involved in the production. This piece is designed to be a disruption in which I, a longtime professional in the service industry, attempt to literally and figuratively “fill up my own cup”.

Erin Evans Delaney [www.erinevansdelaney.com] is a Chicago based artist and curator working in performance, ceramics and music. As an interdisciplinary artist, her work investigates productive collaboration between artist and audience as well artist and object. Erin Delaney uses performance as a tool for alliance building, creating platforms for empathy and awareness in line with her social and political concerns. In Under The Flag, she will install a ceramic tile representation of the American flag on the gallery floor, beneath the flag will be a thick layer of soil. She will use a hammer and chisel to break up the ceramic, burying the broken shard in the soil. She will play audio of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez describing her horror at watching the American flag fly above a Texas detainment center. The work finishes when the flag is chipped to pieces and buried.

Dove [www.nonbirdbody.com] is a Chicago-based mover & multimedia maker. In recent projects, they have interacted with discarded metal, construction materials, & tools. These materials operate as augmentations of self, modes of occupying space, & metaphors for their chronically ill laboring body.

dyoskuri [Michael Lee Bridges + Terra] [www.facebook.com/dyoskuri] is a conglomerate of Floridian heritage and Chicago sensibility. As a duo they seek to create performance work inspired by Greco-Roman mythology, Floridian hyper-capitalism, and millennial technological quirks. They’ve shown work at Defibrillator Gallery in Chicago and at Spread Art in Detroit. Their work, MANiKen, was used as reference material in a TEDxTalk in 2015 concerning performance work created in the collegiate environment. Their durational piece for the Apprentice Showcase, Scrye, invokes their own version of medieval ‘scrying’ to communicate – a mixing of ancient and millennial communication techniques. Via Skype, Terra’s face will be projected into a bowl filled with black liquid. Terra will be communicating to Michael verbally while Michael will be communicating to Terra non-verbally.

Ashley Hollingshead [www.ashleyhollingshead.com] is a director, creator, and performer. They make work that prioritizes personal narrative, re-appropriation of pop culture, gentle audience participation, and dance made by non-dancer bodies. They have recently graduated from Columbia College Chicago with an MFA in Devised Performance Practice. Ashley served as the Production Coordinator for DFBRL8R’s Rapid Pulse International Performance Art Festival from 2015-2017. Their performance presents comfort, labor, pleasure, nostalgia, repetition, and chocolate chip cookies.

Lesley Keller-Reed [www.lesleykellerreed.com/] is a movement artist, choreographer, and director. She graduated with an Interdisciplinary BA from Columbia College investigating the connection between dance and theater. She is researching finding universal human connection through personal truths and shared experiences using and interweaving the mediums of written word (poetry, prose, play) and visual form (dance, theatre, film). In 2016, Lesley helped form Bittersweet Arts Company, an artistic collective incubating writing, with her peers from school. After graduating, Lesley created Movement Lab (MVMT LB), a space for movement artists to create in process for process’s sake. This is an ongoing project cultivating a space of exploration and discovery that is separate from project deadlines and works in tandem with an artist’s ongoing research. Featured in Haven Chicago’s Spotlight Series February 2019, Lesley navigated the work she does as an inter-media artist, taking the audience through her process of creating dance movement film, and presenting an excerpt of her current project, ‘Ohne Dich’. Her durational performance Making a Poem Film: between land and sea films herself in the space, uses projectors, and layers the film on top of her body, in a cycle, editing and making the whole video live.

Kazumi Seki [www.kazumiseki.com] is a visual and performance artist whose artworks take a variety of forms such as artist’s books, interactive installations, and socially engaged projects. Currently living in Chicago, Seki was born and raised in Japan, where she earned a BA in psychology at Japan Women’s University. After that, Seki continued her education at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where she studied book art, letterpress, and other printmaking techniques. Seki earned an MFA from Columbia College Chicago where she worked to go beyond the conventional concept of a “book” to expand the range of her expression. Seki’s artist’s books have been added to the special collections at Colorado College Library, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, and some private collections. While at Columbia College Chicago, Seki organized interactive art events titled ‘Encounter Cycle.’ She also led a workshop at the Revolution at Point Zero: Feminist Social Practice Symposium through a partnership with Open Engagement 2017, and gave a performance at THAW 2018 hosted by Links Hall. For her MFA thesis project ‘あるがまま[Arugamama],’ Seki received the Albert P. Weisman Award and the Caxton Club Grant Honorable Mention. Her series Encounter Cycle is the investing of encounters among artist-audience, facilitator-participant and art-people. These encounters can be a cycle of inspiration and creation. Using tactics of socially engaged platforms, the project provides the experience of encounter and generates communication and collaboration among different groups of people. In Encounter Cycle4, people will experience わくわくドキドキ [wakuwaku-dokidoki], the mixture feeling of excitement and a little anxiety, through trying Yo-Yo balloon fishing. It also invites people to create their own art taking with what they experienced.

Defibrillator Gallery [www.DFBRL8R.org] is an international platform for Performance Art known for bold and courageous programming that aims to provoke thought and stimulate discourse surrounding genre defying time-based practices. DFBRL8R embraces those who look to the body in concert and conversation with time, space, object, or society. Actively contributing to a global dialog surrounding conceptual, ephemeral, or enigmatic modes of expression, DFBRL8R aims to raise awareness, appreciation, and respect for the discipline of Performance Art. Proudly part of Zhou B Art Center in Chicago’s historic Bridgeport neighborhood, DFBRL8R LTD is a 501c3 arts organization made possible with support from Elizabeth Morse Genius Charitable Trust; Martha Strutters Farley and Donald C. Farley, Jr. Family Foundation; Zhou B Art Center; DFBRL8R Board of Directors; and generous contributions from our loving community.

Performance Showcase : SUN 11 AUG | 7PM

Visual Art Opening: FRI3RD 16 AUG | 7-10PM | Lower Level
MON-FRI | 10AM-5PM through 13 SEP

Zhou B Art Center | 1029 W 35TH ST | CHICAGO IL 60609 | FREE!

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Tags: Ashley Hollingshead, Bridgeport, Chicago, Defibrillator, Dfbrl8r, DFBRL8R Performance Art Apprentice Showcase, Dove, dyoskuri [Michael Lee Bridges + Terra], Erin Evans Delaney, Kazumi Seki, Lesley Keller-Reed, Michael Lee Bridges, Taylor Rae Botticelli, Terra, zhou b art center