FRESH Exchanges: Experimental Structures ft. Dia Dear & Sebastian Hernandez

In collaboration with FRESH Festival 2017, the Red Poppy Art House is pleased to present FRESH Exchanges, free and by-donation events made to cultivate, cross-pollinate, invigorate, create access, and generate outreach within and outwith the dance, music, and performance communities. These interactive exchanges include Experimental Structures on Tuesdays, January 3, 10, 17. Hosted by Abby Crain and José Navarrete, Experimental Structures invite artists working on the edge of their form to speak about their work, share excerpts of current projects, and lead group discussions.

On January 10th, artist Dia Dear shows an excerpt of her piece On Tension, discussing her work in ‘pop’ performance art and the power plays of the queer body on display. She is interested in tension, what it is, how people relate to it, and the power of tension in body-based art.
 
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Dia Dear‘s performance art combines gay club aesthetics of appearance, movement, and attitude with their opposites. She uses trickery, sincerity, and pop culture to create emotionally visceral and visually fascinating images through live performance. Her work has been featured in various festivals and curated shows in the United States and internationally. Most recently, Dia was a recipient of the Maroc Artist Meeting Residency, in collaboration with Marrakech Biennale 6 in Marrakech, Morocco (2016), and Musik I Syd Future Legends Residency in Malmö, Sweden (2015).

Sebastian Hernandez is an LA native and multi-disciplinary artist who received his B.A. in Art Practice and Dance & Performance Studies from UC Berkeley in 2016. He employs a feminist theoretical analysis, queer theory, brownness, and notions of collectivity as modes of thinking and generating works that shift and complicate Mexican and Chicano narratives in the contemporaneous social imagination. His work inherently challenges traditional notions of space as he deals with his the interdisciplinary nature within both art and dance contexts.

Abby Crain is an Oakland-based artist who makes dances and other structures for performance. She also works in the field as a teacher, performer, writer, and curator. Her curatorial projects include the NO THANK YOU SHOW, which asked artists to represent or stage work that has been rejected by granting organizations, theaters, collaborators, or the artist herself; the NON MAJOR SHOW, which asked artists to show work not in their primary medium; as well as being on the curatorial panel of FRESH Festival.

José Navarrete is a native of Mexico City where he was first exposed to theater and dance, choreographing and performing in parks, hospitals, and children’s parties as a clown and dancer. He studied dance at the National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico and has a BA in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and MFA in Dance from Mills College. Currently, he leads the Guerilla Performance Group and curates and produces the Live Arts in Resistance (LAIR) initiative at Eastside Arts Alliance, which provides residencies and performing opportunities for artists of color in East Oakland. José has been participating in FRESH since 2015 and acting as a curator for 2017 + 2018.
 
ABOUT FRESH FESTIVAL:
FRESH Festival 2017, the 8th annual Festival of Experimental Dance + Performance in San Francisco, celebrates and showcases the abundance of embodied art, action, innovation, and inclusion in the Bay Area from January 2-22, with three immersive weeks with intensive practices, cutting-edge performances, and interactive exchanges. Produced by ALTERNATIVA, FRESH 2017 is curated by Kathleen Hermesdorf, Abby Crain, and José Navarrete, and hosted by Joe Goode Annex, Red Poppy Art House, F8 Nightclub in San Francisco, and CTRL+SHFT in Oakland.

To view the full schedule of FRESH Exchanges at the Red Poppy Art House, click here.

 
Time: Doors 7:00PM / Event 7:30PM
Admission: Free; by donation