"Cultural Fluency: Engagements with Contemporary Brooklyn" - BRIC, Brooklyn NY.
Curator
Lori Ledis Emerging Curator Fellow
BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn NY
Read Jonathan Tarleton's review of the exhibition, "Cultural Fluency: Intersections of Art and Urbanism", in Urban Omnibus.
The exhibition brings together six artists whose active and purposeful engagements with the city embody its culture. Artists David Court, Aisha Cousins, Malesha Jessie, Hiroki Kobayashi, Martin McCormack, and Mark Reigelman all currently live or have recently lived in Brooklyn. Their work — ranging in format from public art to photography to guerrilla opera bombs — depicts while also impacting society. This is a practice that American conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth cited in his 1975 essay, “The Artist as Anthropologist”:
“For the artist, obtaining cultural fluency is a dialectical process which, simply put, consists of attempting to affect the culture while he is simultaneously learning from (and seeking acceptance of) the same culture which is affecting him.”
Nearly forty years later, the artists in Cultural Fluency are doing precisely that, within the context of Brooklyn.
The exhibition is part of a wider dialogue examining the creative exchange between urbanism and art practice. Through its newspaper/exhibition catalogue, communication materials, and the curator’s ongoing blog site (culturalfluency.info), Cultural Fluency expands beyond the gallery into the city, inviting all to participate.
The exhibition's public program night, "Inside Cultural Fluency", included Q&As with the artists, a salon-style talk about art's impact on the urban environment, and Aisha Cousin's performance art score, "Stand Up!".
Cultural Fluency is curated by Erin Gleason, a 2012-13 recipient of BRIC’s Lori Ledis Emerging Curator Fellowship.
