When the World is Sick

producing art amidst a pandemic, late-stage capitalism, and beyond

a folkLAB experiment created for "How Well?"

a curated project for Carnegie Mellon's Center for the Arts in Social Distancing

The week of May 1st, 2020:

Four artists of diverse backgrounds and disciplines participated in a virtual, anonymous, exquisite corpse.

Each artist was... 

• assigned a medium to work in from a list of their top 3 preferred mediums.

• given up to 24 hours to complete their artwork. as long as the work took place in one 24-hour period, they could spend as much or as little time on it as they liked.

• allowed to use or incorporate the prompt (in the case of the first artist) or the previous artists’ work as much or as little as they saw fit.

• asked to consider their capacity, compensation ($100), and general well-being when approaching their art-making process.

The Art-works

The first artist was given a prompt. The following artist received the previous artists work as their prompt.

Here are the art-works in the order that they were created:

1. a poetic essay—by Rachel Greene

2. Between Two Worlds: a fairytale—by Nicole Gallagher

3. "Élégie for Bowel Destruction" soundscape in three movements (1) Forgiveness, Never (2) Destruction of the Bowel (3) Prince of Bowel—by 7D

4. Élégie for Bowel Destruction, Pt. 2 (improvised music jam)—by Samir Gangwani

Roundtable Discussion— May 20th, 2020:

Finally, all the artists came together remotely on Zoom—facilitated by curator and folkLAB founder Abigail Lis-Perlis— to meet, reveal their art-works to each other, and discuss the process. (Video, 1 hour and 49 minutes)

The Artists

7D (they/them)— is an experimental composer, musician, performer, visual artist, and educator. Their work focuses on their experiences with psychosis and disability.

YouTube: Seven Dee

Nicole Gallagher (she/her)— bitch/bruja media/activist/working girl/teller of tales/scrappy and upstanding student of life. follow me on instagram (@storiesinthetimeof) or follow #storiesinthetimeof to attend on of my storytelling events online.

Samir Gangwani (they/she)— is an interdisciplinary performance artist, curator, and educator who focuses on igniting conversations on disenfranchised communities, mindfulness explorations, and action-based scores for self-care and emotional support. She believes we can combat discrimination that occurs throughout the world by providing safe spaces for people of different backgrounds to communicate and collaborate. Gangwani’s work has been featured at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Queens Museum, Panoply Performance Laboratory, Fuse Factory Electronics and Digital Arts Lab, and Public Space One.

Instagram: @samirgangwani

Website: samirgangwani.com

Bandcamp: samirgangwani.bandcamp.com

Rachel Greene (she/her)— is a writer, performer, educator and spoken word poet who uses the power of personal stories and creative group process to foster social transformation. She has competed in the National Poetry Slam and Women of the World Poetry Slam. She spent a season with the Poetic Justice Theatre Ensemble in Port Townsend, WA, practicing Theatre of the Oppressed and Playback Theatre.