In Process | Open Studios @ The Watermill Center

ABOUT IN PROCESS

In Process @ The Watermill Center is our ongoing series of studio visits and open rehearsals that invite the community to gain unique insight into the creative process of our Artists-in-Residence, cultivating an understanding of how artists from across the globe develop new work.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

JOANA P. CARDOZO (she/her), United States,Brazil
Discipline: Performance/Visual Art/Interdisciplinary

Joana P. Cardozo (b. Sao Paulo, 1979) is a Brazilian visual artist based in Los Angeles. Her art practice is rooted in rituals and spirituality, exploring ideas of mortality, domesticity, and identity through photography, mixed media, installation, and performance.

Project Description:

Time is a prison. Our bodies, minds, souls, essence, and Self are trapped in time. Drawing inspiration from the writings of the Brazilian scholar Leda Martins, who explores the relationship between body, time, performance, memory, and knowledge production, Cardozo will create a series of durational performances. The artist must transcend time when performing an endurance piece. Time is no longer linear but spiraling, ascending, descending, amplifying, and shrinking. Martins suggests that spin is a central component of African-Brazilian traditions, such as carnival and capoeira. Through spinning, dancers can break the linearity of their movement and, more importantly, of time itself. Clockwise movements refer to the future, while counter-clockwise movements honor ancestors and the past. This is Cardozo's attempt to transcend time, subjecting her body to repetitive movements drawn from capoeira and classical ballet practices.

KATHERINE PROFETA (she/her), United States
Discipline: Dramaturgy/Writing

Katherine Profeta (dramaturg/writer), Ralph Lemon (choreographer/visual artist), and Darrell Jones (performer/choreographer) have collaborated on Ralph Lemon's performance projects since 2002, when working on 2004's Come home Charley Patton. Katherine is currently a Professor in the Practice of Dramaturgy at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, and has served as founding member/choreographer of Elevator Repair Service, as well as dramaturg to many choreographers. Ralph Lemon is a choreographer and visual/conceptual artist with a long and storied career in multiple disciplines, and recipient of multiple awards including a MacArthur and a National Medal of Arts. Darrell Jones is a two-time Bessie Award winner (for his work with Bebe Miller and his own work) and an Associate Professor of Dance at Columbia College.

Project Description:
Ways of Writing about Low and Rant

Katherine Profeta , Ralph Lemon, and Darrell Jones have collaborated on Ralph Lemon's performance projects since 2002, when working on 2004's Come home Charley Patton. They are gathering at Watermill to work out a way to capture Jones' and Lemon's ongoing collaboration -- in improvisatory and shifting performance modes entitled "Low" and "Rant" -- in writing. By interweaving interviews, scores, essays, meditations -- and other formats for writing not yet discovered -- they hope to evoke a mode of movement exploration that has resisted easy description.

LINDSAY MORRIS (she/her), United States
Discipline: Visual Art/Journalism

Lindsay Morris is a photographer known for documenting events in her personal life and surrounding community. Morris studied at the University of Michigan School of Art, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and The School for International Training, Nairobi, Kenya. She is a regular contributor to the New York Times and The New York Times Magazine. Her works are held in the collections of The Parrish Art Museum, Watermill, NY, and The Newport Art Museum, RI. Morris is a producer of the 2016 BBC documentary, My Transgender Summer Camp, and the upcoming documentary, 'Mom, I've Got Something to Tell You.' Morris' first TED talk will be published in March 2024. 

Project Description:
The Kids of Camp I Am

The Kids of Camp I Am documents participants at a pioneering annual retreat for gender-expansive children and their families. Here the viewer experiences a place that served as the backdrop for an important moment in history, where a gender-creative childhood was freely expressed for the first time. Morris is making updated portraits and conducting interviews that will contribute to a discourse about the crucial role that support plays in the lives of these children and how this affirming place played a role in shaping their identities.

SARA STERN (she/they), United States
Discipline: Interdisciplinary

Sara Stern is an interdisciplinary artist from New York City. Her recent projects prod histories of urban development with speculative fiction.

Project Description: GO WEST (Out East)

At Watermill, Stern will begin developing a new multimedia performance and moving image installation that circles around a queer Western fantasy set on the West Side of Manhattan. While in residence, Stern will conduct research and do a series of scene studies for the project, in conversation with the Center’s art collection and library.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Please note: The Watermill Center no longer requires visitors to wear face-coverings for indoor events. The use of masks is encouraged, and disposable masks will be provided by The Center upon request. We thank you for supporting our efforts to keep both our international and local community of artists and alumni safe and healthy during their stay at The Watermill Center.

Please arrive 10 minutes early to allow for the check-in process.

The Watermill Center is committed to providing accessible programs and services for all patrons and artists with disabilities. For further information about any accessibility needs, please email us at visit@watermillcenter.org.

Image Credits: `1. Courtesy of the Artist Joana P. Cordozo 2. Katherine Profeta Courtesy of Ralph Lemon 3. Courtesy of the Artist Lindsay Morris 4. Sarah Stern Courtesy of the artist

Additional photos by: Lindsay Morris