In conjunction with the exhibition Liz Ensz: NO GRIDS NO MASTERS, artist Liz Ensz has invited artists to participate in a series of performances in response to their exhibition. This evening will include a new performance by artist Isa Leal and a participatory screening of a video work by artists Skye Fort and Liz Ensz.

Isa Leal’s participatory performance asks, Can we practice pre-colonized ways of knowing while we remain surrounded by the detritus of the trauma of late stage capitalism? In Systems from our flesh, our emotional memory to oceans. What are we feeling with?

Liz Ensz + Skye Fort will be screening You Are Made of Stardust and Microplastics: Meditation for Extinction, a 25-minute embodied meditation which activates objects from the exhibition, NO GRIDS NO MASTERS: A Post-Cartesian Experiment. Using a speculative fossil molded from recycled #2 plastic (HDPE) and a guiding video, this experiential work explores the transformation of matter, deep time, and the acceptance of our own extinction.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Isa Leal
b. 1984, New York
Lives and works in Richmond, VA and Baltimore, MD

Isa Leal (they/Isa) is a latinx performance researcher and scholar who makes participatory performance inventions that are intersectional and occultist. They consider all bodies transmedia activist tools for co-ontological agency and use their own body in spaces to divine self-reflection. They invite open minded multi-disciplinary artists and audiences to do the same in large scale immersive works.

Isa is passionate about instigating connection and co-education between communities as a touring and bicoastal performing artist-educator. On the east coast, Isa runs Ghost Family House, an art residency and community performance space supporting historically marginalized populations in Richmond,Va. On the west coast, a PhD Candidate in Performance Studies at UC Davis, Isa writes about subjugated epistemologies and BIPOC art-activism, and as an Associate Instructor of Theatre and Dance Isa teaches Contact Improvisation, Modern Dance and Acting.

Liz Ensz
b. 1983, Minnesota
Lives and works in Baltimore, MD

Liz Ensz was born in Minnesota to a resourceful family of penny-savers, metal scrappers, and curators of cast-offs. Liz received a BFA in Fiber from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Ensz has exhibited their work internationally, including at The Henry Moore Institute (Leeds, UK), Frontviews Gallery (Berlin, Germany), Franconia Sculpture Park (Shafer, MN), Roots and Culture Contemporary Art Center (Chicago, IL), Boston Center for the Arts (Boston, MA), The Mission (Chicago, IL), Current Space (Baltimore, MD), and Goucher College (Baltimore, MD). Their work has been supported by The John Michael Kohler Arts/Industry Program in Foundry (Sheboygan, WI), Franconia Sculpture Park (Shafer, MN), Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL), LATITUDE (Chicago, IL), Blue Mountain Center (Blue Mountain Lake, NY), City of Chicago DCASE Individual Artist Grant, Faculty Grants from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Travel Fellowship.

Skye Fort
b. 1990, New Mexico
Lives and works in Philadelphia, PA

Skye Fort is a multi-disciplinary artist from New Mexico, currently based in Philadelphia. Skye holds a B.A. in acting from the University of New Mexico, and an M.F.A. in Theatre Arts from Towson University. Her practice includes theatre, video, performance, music, and installation. Skye’s videos and installation have been featured at Collar Works Gallery in Troy, NY, Towson University, and The Current Space in Baltimore, MD. She is a recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council’s Professional Development Grant, a producer with Cannonball Festival, and a founding member of the performance art group So This Is Art.