APril 24 - May 30, 2021

That Day, We Looked Happy

Rowan Renee

Opening reception: Saturday, April 24, 6-8pm
RSVP HERE TO ATTEND THE Public Conversation
With Chloe Hayward and Rowan Renee on MAy 20, 6pm

Social Distancing restrictions apply, please see below

Ten years ago, Rowan Renee’s father passed away in prison. Renee’s family was not given the opportunity to visit him as his health declined. The interruption of the grieving process caused by the carceral system amplified other losses that came before his incarceration, flanked by intergenerational trauma and family secrets. For years afterward, Renee felt like there was no ritual that could hold this complex grief.

That Day, We Looked Happy is an immersive installation that envisions artistic labor as a vehicle for transforming loss that exceeds our limits. It draws from an archive of photos and documents Rowan Renee inherited after their father's death. At the center of the installation is a hand-woven enclosure built around the footprint of a 6ft x 8ft prison cell. The translucent linen and wool mesh is printed with fragments of correspondence and other documents that fade in and out of legibility. Along the walls of the gallery hangs a collection of family photos, broken and reconfigured on fused-glass.

For Renee art making became a way to process grief through the body. The aching shoulders from hours spent on the loom, the cuts from handling sharp glass, the way the materials Renee worked with engaged and resisted their touch gave the artist a place to contain the tension between absence and excess. At a moment of widespread loss the artist hopes this work can help us imagine new possibilities for personal and collective healing - possibilities that hold space for complex, and interrupted, experiences of grief.

Social Distancing: 12 people will be allowed in the space at a time. For the opening and closing, we encourage the public to come in and view the exhibition wearing masks, and to socialize outside. Dress warmly!

Public Conversation: Art in an Expanded Context is a series of public discussions where our artists discuss their work and process with a scholar from a field in the Humanities. Rowan Renee will be in conversation with Chloe Hayward, a licensed therapist and a Programs Coordinator at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Art in an Expanded Context is made possible thanks to Humanities NY.

About the Artist:

Rowan Renee explores how queer identity is mediated by the law, addressing the intergenerational impact of gender-based violence and incarceration through State records and family archives. Their work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at Pioneer Works (2015) and the Aperture Foundation (2017), and they have received awards from the Aaron Siskind Foundation, the Harpo Foundation and the Jerome Hill Foundation. Their installation, No Spirit For Me (2019), was included in the critically acclaimed exhibition Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, curated by Dr. Nicole R. Fleetwood at MoMA PS1.

Rowan will discuss their work with Chloe Hayward in-person in the Main Gallery, Thursday, May 20, at 6pm. Chloe Hayward is an art therapist, artist and educator living and working in New York City. She believes in the power of art to heal and has written articles on the subject for Studio Magazine, Pratt Institute, and Artsy Magazine. Her current book project, titled Museum-Based Art Therapy: A Collaborative Effort with Access, Education, and Public Programs focuses on identity and the role it plays in the healing of self and community. Chloe is a board member of Artistic Noise, an organization which provides self-expression through the arts for youth impacted by the justice system. As Education Manager at The Studio Museum in Harlem, she is working to develop a more robust focus on the intersection between art, education and mental health, managing programs and projects rooted in community care and abolition. Her clinical practice has included work with Village Care, Visual AIDS, and other Museums and Cultural Organizations. Her work uses the power of the creative arts process to heal, bring awareness and promote social change, equity, and inclusion.

Please RSVP here to attend the artist talk on Thursday, May 20, at 6pm.

Gallery Hours:

Thursday - Sunday, 1 - 6pm. Outside of these hours, please email hanne@fivemyles.org, or call 718-783-4438 to make an appointment.
Please wear a face mask to visit the gallery. Visitors without masks cannot be let inside. Thank you for your cooperation.

DIRECTIONS:

Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

FiveMyles is in part supported by the New York State Council for the Arts, Public Funds from the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Laurie Cumbo, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, the Spunk Fund, Inc., the Perlmeter Foundation, and our public conversations are supported by Humanities NY.