april 24 - may 30, 2021

That day, we looked happy

rowan renee

OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY, april 24, 6-8pm

Ten years ago the artist’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.

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.

Public Conversation, May 22, 6pm:

“Art in an Expanded Context” is a series of public conversations inviting our artists to discuss their work and process with a speaker from a field in the Humanities. Chloe Hayward, therapist, artist and educator, joins Rowan for a conversation about art-making as a tool to heal. Chloe 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. 
This program is made possible thanks to Humanities NY.

GALLERY HOURS:

Thursday - Sunday, 1 - 6pm, or by appointment. Please email hanne@fivemyles.org, or call 718-783-4438.
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 Greenwich Collection, Humanities NY, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, and the Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason Foundation.