Artist Talk: Alexandra Bell, The Natural History Museum, and Bayeté Ross Smith

Join us for a discussion about the artistic strategies of artists Alexandra Bell, The Natural History Museum, and Bayeté Ross Smith, moderated by No Longer Empty Co-Founder/Chief Curator Manon Slome.

In our “post-truth” reality, art has the ability to help us bring attention to and create dialogue around essential knowledge. Through a diverse set of practices, each artist uses methods such as editing, appropriation, and reenactment to explore what is seen and what is left out of the prevailing public conversation and institutional narratives.  The discussion will be moderated by No Longer Empty Co-Founder/Chief Curator Manon Slome.

To attend, you must RSVP.

Artists:

Alexandra Bell is a multidisciplinary artist who investigates the complexities of narrative, information consumption, and perception. Utilizing various media, she deconstructs language and imagery to explore the tension between marginal experiences and dominant histories. Through investigative research, she considers the ways media frameworks construct memory and inform discursive practices around race, politics, and culture. In her series, Counternarratives, Bell edits New York Times articles by altering headlines, changing images and redacting text to reveal oppressive patterns in news reportage and society at large.

Beka Economopoulos is the Co-Founder of the collective and non profit organization Not An Alternative, which operates at the intersection of art, activism and critical theory. The Natural History Museum, an ongoing expansive project by the collective, features pop-up exhibitions, a mobile museum, workshops and a robust online presence. The Museum inquires into what we see, how we see, and what remains excluded from our seeing. Partnering with local community groups, scientists and museum staff, the project leverages the symbolic and infrastructural power of science museums to transform them into champions of science for the common good, and advocates for a just and sustainable future.

Bayeté Ross Smith is a photographer, multi-media artist, filmmaker, and educator. He is represented by Beta Pictoris Gallery/Maus Contemporary, and is a member of TED Residency class three. Embedded within The New York Times for the documentary project POV (Point of View), Ross Smith—with colleagues Saleem Reshamwala and Logan Jaffe—developed a digital and interactive media initiative around the impact of racism in daily life in America. In addition to his fine art practice, Ross Smith is currently the Associate Program Director for the Kings Against Violence Initiative (KAVI), a hospital and school based violence prevention organization in New York that partners with Kings County Hospital. He is also a faculty member at the International Center of Photography and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Launched in September, 2014, The Natural History Museum is a mobile and pop-up museum that offers exhibitions, expeditions, educational workshops, and public programming. Unlike traditional natural history museums, it makes a point to include and highlight the socio-political forces that shape nature. The museum’s programs appear within established art, science and natural history museums, in its 15-passenger mobile museum bus, and online at http://thenaturalhistorymuseum.org.  The Natural History Museum is a member of the American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Science and Technology Centers. The museum is a project of Not An Alternative, a collective of artists, scientists, historians, theorists, and activists.

Bayeté Ross Smith at TED Talk, Photo by Ryan Lash, Alexandra Bell, Charlottesville 2017 at S,T Coffee in Brooklyn, NY, Beka Economopoulos, The Natural History Museum at Queens Museum. Photos courtesy of the artists.