Spectrogram
John Pluecker and Sharbreon Plummer
Sunday June 5 2-3:30 PM
Charge House at 2507 Holman Street, Project Row Houses
We exhibit, we speak, we perform, we write, we produce — we love what we do. And often we feel compelled to say yes even when we don’t feel comfortable with the terms of an opportunity. Which opportunities actually serve our work and support artists, and when can saying no to an invitation be a generative response? Beyond staking out a yes/no stance, how do we feel about the chance? What arguments can shift us? Whose experience makes us consider taking a few steps in an unknown direction? Can we focus the blur between opportunity and extraction, or dance it open with some trickster skills?
We will create a human spectrogram, where attendees will position themselves along a spectrum to determine how they measure the value of various hypothetical opportunities. These scenarios, drawn from common experience, deal with the compromises, risks, and potential payoffs that come with navigating our role(s) in the art market, valuing our work and volunteering our labor, and the creative and ethical choices one makes when resources are limited.
Weighing personal needs in relation to the collective good, we will visualize how and why we make the very intimate choices that we do, and lay the ground for decision-making that both supports the individual artist and fosters solidarity.
The Spectrogram was hosted by Helena Keeffe and Lauren Van Haaften-Schick at Valuing Labor in the Arts at UC Berkeley and at Charge 2014, and hosted at Charge 2016 by Nicole Burisch and Taraneh Fazeli.
About Sharbreon Plummer
Sharbreon Plummer is an artist and creative practitioner with an interest in how culture and ancient practices act as influencers of personal expression, specifically within the African Diaspora + Latin America. Her practice is a combination of research, creation, and participation, and incorporates the inclusion of others as a way to build dialogue and/or visibility around contemporary issues.
She received her B.A. from the University of Houston-Downtown, and an M.A. in Arts Administration from the University of New Orleans. Sharbreon’s creative experiences stem from working directly with visual artists, youth groups, non-profits, and other cultural institutions across the U.S., including Texas, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Louisiana.
In addition to acting as the Program Associate for Community Engagement at the Joan Mitchell Center, an Artist Residency Program based in New Orleans, LA, she continues to explore her personal practice and independent projects through The Creative Apothecary, an experimental platform and consulting hub she founded in 2013. Her most recent participartory installation "#MYACTIVISMIS: Clothesline Conversations" was featured in "What Does #BLACKLIVESMATTER Mean To You?", a group exhibition that took place February 2016 at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Gallery 51 in North Adams, MA.
About John Pluecker
John Pluecker is a writer, interpreter, translator and co-founder of the language justice and literary experimentation collaborative Antena. He has translated numerous books from the Spanish, including Antígona González (Les Figues Press, Forthcoming), Tijuana Dreaming: Life and Art at the Global Border (Duke University Press, 2012). His most recent chapbooks are Ioyaiene (Fresh Arts, 2014) and An Accompanying Text (She Works Flexible, 2015). His book of poetry and image, Ford Over, was released in 2016 from Noemi Press.