Project 1612 is proud to present Whitney Johnson and Hannah Songer: kind in the right stomach on Sunday, September 10th from 5:00 to 7:00pm in the backyard location in Morton, Illinois. Following a week-long artist residency, Johnson and Songer will collaboratively respond to the outdoor exhibition setting, interacting with the garden and yard as they see fit for their work. During their residency, Johnson and Songer will also participate in the Big Picture Peoria Street Festival in Peoria, Illinois on Saturday, September 9th from 10:00am to 4:00pm. The Street Festival’s admission is donation-based and is a “one-of-a-kind interactive celebration of the arts in our community.”

kind in the right stomach is influenced by a poem titled ‘“Eggs” in Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons.

Kind height, kind in the right stomach with a little sudden mill. Cunning shawl, cunning shawl to be steady. In white in white handkerchiefs with little dots in a white belt all shadows are singular they are singular and procured and relieved. No that is not the cows shame and a precocious sound, it is a bite. Cut up alone the paved way which is harm. Harm is old boat and a likely dash.

Johnson and Songer will be working together to share an exhibition centered around painting. They are curious to see what kind of connections form between their painting practices during the residency.

Whitney Johnson (she/her) makes work to share space in life, and to imagine engagements with all forms of life we share this earth with. Her practice revolves around an expanded sense of painting, and relationships with fellow living beings. These habits act separately in some moments, and work together at other times. The projects Johnson engages in often ask for care and support from viewers or gallery staff. Johnson’s work stems from worries and desires for a future that supports life. These feelings drive her to make work that encourages meaningful somatic explorations of connections in environments shared with each other.

Whitney Johnson lives and works in Peoria, Illinois. Her interests live in painting, material investigation, and relationships with non-human kin. She received her BFA from Illinois State University in 2017, her MFA from Northwestern University in 2022, and currently teaches at Bradley University, Illinois State University, and the Peoria Art Guild.

“Currently my research is in the materiality of painting. I’m interested in the life of pigments – calcium carbonate from chickens’ eggshells, knit together with heme, the pigment of their own blood which has given their shells color and protection – iron oxide, from a degrading freight railroad track in Peoria – and verdigris, dissolved from a collection of pennies. I’m interested to engage with the plants and gardens in Project 1612’s space.”

Hannah Songer (she/her) explores the difficulty of living a queer life in a culturally conservative environment, and how her experience taught her to think quickly and be resourceful. Songer is interested in recreating memories of her personal history into improvisations. Through painting and drawing, she combines references of her everyday life and cultural events into repetitive interpretation. Songer’s animations of high tempo drawings are projected into an environment shared with viewers. The transformational nature of erase and redraw animation allows her to reveal connections intuitively.

Originally from Southern Illinois, Hannah Songer is a visual artist living and working in Bloomington IL. She received her BFA from Illinois State University in 2021 and is an artist at ComeTogetherSpace in Bloomington, Illinois. Songer is primarily a painter and uses drawing techniques to create animations. She gathers inspiration from the internet, books, video games, and weightlifting.

“My paintings explore the surveillance of nuisance animals native to the American Midwest. I am interested in exploring the behaviors of nocturnal nuisance animals. “Nuisance animals” refers to wild life that are potentially destructive and harmful to human populations. The conflict between wildlife and humans is a shared issues of habitat loss. I’d like to explore the commonalities between rural queer life and nocturnal wildlife.”

Project 1612 exhibitions are organized by co-founders Jessica Bingham and Alexander Martin. The 2023 micro-residencies and exhibitions are sponsored by Big Picture Initiative, a Peoria, Illinois grassroots 501(c)(3) organization “formed by a group of dedicated volunteers who believe that art has the power to change our community.”

Exhibition Dates
Project 1612 events are free and open to the public. Exhibitions are outside (weather permitting). Modifications to events will be posted on social media via Instagram and Facebook.

Sunday, September 10, from 5:00 to 7:00pm
Exhibition for Whitney Johnson and Hannah Songer
Artist talk beginning at 5:30pm
 813 East Jefferson Street, Morton, Illinois

Project 1612
Project 1612 is located at 813 East Jefferson Street, Morton, Illinois, 61550. Street parking is available. Additional information and updates pertaining to Project 1612 can be found on Instagram and Facebook. Visit our website or call 309.798.0375 for additional information.

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