Charli Herrington
conditions of togetherness (our work on care)
This work maps the collaborative process by means of a film, an online performance and my research into care. The film documents the artists’ process while we work together. Beginning months before COVID-19 took hold, the events and dialogues featured in the film follow the creation of a score and a performance revolving around shared labor and friendship. It also shares the our struggles and joys as the pandemic forces us to adapt their modes of working and being together.
Care as Artistic Practice
- Artist statement; wat is je specialisme, wat maakt jouw werk uniek?
In my practice, Charli Herrington I explore care as a methodology to create moments and spaces around questions of how people can live and work together otherwise within a climate that is powered by productivity, money, oppression and hierarchy. By proposing new imaginaries of how we can care together, I aim to reconfigure the values connected to collectivity, accessibility and reproductive labor—social conditions that are often taken for granted.
Because of my experience in the fields of care labor and activism, including in the non-profit sector at the Center for Cuban Studies in New York, my social and political practice is informed by a sense of urgency. Most recently and importantly, my work at an art studio for individuals with developmental and physical disabilities—which included both direct care and administrative work (2016-present)—has had great influence on my research. - Wat zijn je ambities? Wat wil je over vijf jaar bereikt hebben?
My ambition is to keep searching for and experimenting with ways to work with care in my artistic practice. I hope that in five years I will have worked with many cultural practitioners, especially those who are my friends, and I will be challenging what it means to be an artist and cultural worker, as well as challenging capitalist and neoliberal systems in my work.
- Wat is het belangrijkste dat je hebt geleerd tijdens je studie?
The most valuable thing I have learned over the last 2 years, is that my artistic practice and my life are not separate. My friends, the things I care about, the way I communicate, and what I cook for dinner are all related to my work.
- Overzicht van publicaties / exposities / prijzen / concerten / voorstellingen etc.
Selected Exhibitions:
2020 If Not Now, HKU MAFA Gradutation Exhibition BAK Basis voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht
2020 Sense-Making, Arts and Society, Utrecht University, Utrecht
2019 In Between Us, Impakt Festival, Academiegalerie, Utrecht
2017 Luxury Condos: Coming Soon, Aviary Gallery, Boston MA
2016 Inheritance, Apartment Show, Roxbury MA
Performance and Presentation:
2019 Panel/Conversation 'Urban Practices and the Future of the City', Trainings for the Not-Yet, BAK, Utrecht
2019 Workshop Student Housing Initiative, BAK, Utrecht
2019 'Het trappenhuis van de stad (The City Staircase)', Opening Trainings for the Not-Yet, BAK, Utrecht
Residencies:
2016-2017 Artist-in-Residence, CityPOP Egleston, Jamaica Plain MA