When We Open Every Window
Season Three Artwork Reveal with GeoVanna Gonzalez, an evening with Collectors and Alumni on October 17 at the Moore Elastika in Miami Design District.
GeoVanna Gonzalez's when we open every window, our first commission of the season, is a colorful and modular representation of her great grandmother’s house in Inglewood, Los Angeles. On October 17 at the historic Moore Elastika, six performance artists interacted with the work and each other while GeoVanna recited a poem about intimacy, home and togetherness.
A structure of grids and lines, the installation served as a complement and inspiration for our members’ commissioned artwork: 8-inch sculptures of the life-size structure. Creating an atmosphere of contemplation after months of quarantine, when we open every window prompted questions such as: How do we think about space? How do we think about community? How do we think about memory?
“I like to think my work is like an opportunity for a collective ‘bringing,’ so starting with the personal is a way for people to connect. We all have these memories of our families and friends; even though they can be quite different, there are also similarities within them.
For me, it’s about seeing how art can be utilized as a tool to have deeper discussions. The ‘white cube structure’ [of the gallery or museum] makes us quite hesitant in a lot of ways. Not everybody feels welcomed in these spaces. So I’m really thinking about the proximity of private and public space and how they are being used, and how can I turn them on their heads.”
When we need a place to lay our heads down, I think of here. I think of this place where even in the midst of chaos I feel at peace. Where the people around me are the definition of joy, we are joy, we find joy even when it seems as though we have nothing, we have everything. Together we carve out spaces where we feel we need, spaces unseen, spaces to occupy but also avoid the spaces we never care to sway too.
I open all the windows at night to feel your warmth, your forgiveness and care, I see the possibilities of how we can move forward, I think of us here I feel the most free when we come together where the walls don’t enclose us but stay open, open to cleanse the space in hope for new hope.
I find hope in community. It looks like this for me, for us, what does it look like for you? I celebrate joy with us here.
Where I find the time to daydream, the time to look at the buildings that surround us and try to take them apart, to think about new possibilities of rebuilding something completely different and reimagine what these spaces could be used for.
Special thanks to performance and multidisciplinary artists Zaina Alsous, Akia Dorsainvil, Helen Pena, Carolina Ruiz, Monica Sorelle and Terrell Villiers, to sound artist Dion Kerr, and to the Miami Design District for their support and generosity.