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Beating the bounds
Beating the Bounds: a conversation between neighborhoods was a collaborative project led by me and Mary Stuart Hall. It focused on two Atlanta neighborhoods—Cabbagetown and Kirkwood—and invited the public into an experiential investigation of place through experimental mapping practices. The project centered on listening (to the land, to participants, to each other) and was based on the ancient community practice of “swatting local landmarks with branches to maintain a shared mental map of parish boundaries.” Beating the Bounds sought an embodied experience of neighborhood borders. To visit the project’s website, click here. I focused on Cabbagetown and my experience of…
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BUT MEREDITH, BOO-FUCKING-HOO
For the past 15 years, I have found myself returning time and again to the themes of family, origins, mythology, home, belonging, personal archives, and place. With this work, which is still in progress and process, I delve into the complex nature of healing inherited family trauma. In 2019, I performed BUT MEREDITH, BOO-FUCKING-HOO during that year’s iteration of bakie’s kansas city at The Bakery Atlanta’s New Square location, bringing together video, audio, storytelling, and song. In 2017, I participated in a collaborative residency and exhibition with Johnnie Ray Kornegay III and Ajmal ‘Mas Man’ Millar at Eyedrum that we…
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Disguises Welcomed Here
DISGUISES WELCOMED HERE is a participatory collaborative residency of Meredith Kooi, Johnnie Ray Kornegay III, and Ajmal ‘Mas Man’ Millar that transforms Eyedrum’s 88 Forsyth gallery into a quasi-domestic dwelling for the artists and audiences to explore their own stories, memories, and personas together. Using masks and costumes, video, photography, and sound, the group dredges up the past to look at it anew. DISGUISES WELCOMED HERE invites the public to join us for dinner, portrait and storytelling workshop sessions, and dancing. During these events, we encourage guests to dive into their own histories and share what they discover, adding to the…
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Enstranged Spaces
The space surrounding us is thick. Like geology, there are layers of space and place in the invisible air that swaddles us. Imbued with memory and history, the objects inhabiting our world breathe and vibrate. These objects and their surroundings are always on the precipice of becoming strange to us.
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ENTER THE BUCKY DOME ZONE
ENTER THE BUCKY DOME ZONE is a temporary communication platform open to the public for participation.
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he (the poet) marks me
he (the poet) marks me is a palimpsestic audio recording of me reading Antonin Artaud’s radio play To Have Done with the Judgment of God paired with exploratory video: of my body, of the landscape. Made during a residency at betterArts in 2011.
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How there is but one Popinjay on Ringing Island
How there is but one Popinjay on Ringing Island (Or, the Popinjay is born from Cardinogoths, Cardinogoths from Bishogoths, Bishogoths from Priestogoths, Priestogoths from Clerigoths → all birds of passage) is inspired by a passage in Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel, a series of novels written in the 16th century that uses satire, vulgarity, and wordplay to poke fun at church and state institutions. The work was included in the group exhibition The Garden of Unearthly Delights curated by Jerry Cullum at whitespace gallery in 2016.
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i like belle and belle likes me
i like belle and belle likes me was installed in the group exhibition ALTERNATE | ALTERNATE, curated and organized by the curatorial collective Doppler Projects for the East Atlanta Strut from September 25-26, 2015.
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I’m just trying to be a kid (again; or, maybe for the first time)
I’m just trying to be a kid (again; or, maybe for the first time) is a performance, video, and zine project that uses playgrounds and noise to convey the (sometimes) heaviness of play. It grapples with the difficulty of childhood through an unapologetic return to the playground. Technically, the project transforms playgrounds into noise instruments using microphones, transducers, and other technologies in order to sonify the sounds of play. Audience members are encouraged to expand their aesthetic range (e.g., unfamiliar sounds, bodily movements, etc) and engage playgrounds in a new way to reclaim childlike imagination for healing. Performance and installation…
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in/discrete in/discreet transmissions
in/discrete in/discreet transmissions was an installation and series of performances made in collaboration with Mason Brown.
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khora studies
The untitled (khora studies) series is an exploration of the feminine of the electromagnetic spectrum based on the concept of khora derived from Plato’s dialogue Timaeus.
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L5P LIVE: PSAs
L5P LIVE: PSAs was a live broadcast-performance that took place in Atlanta’s Little Five Points neighborhood. Broadcasting over micro-FM and internet via Chicago-based NUMBERS.FM, L5P LIVE: PSAs presented voices and personalities of the neighborhood with interviews, live traffic reports, street music, and more. CO-HOST SCHEDULE 4-4:30: Pet Reports with Alice Kim 4:30-5: Super Fun Awesome Scary Fun Times with Audrey Most Adventure 5-5:30: Stuck BeHind The Potato Truck with Gently Yoused 5:30-6: FaceTime with The REAL maxcooper with Max Cooper @therealmaxcooper / noblebeastscapes with Scott Daughtridge 6-6:30: YOU DON’T SAY – Musings by Jordan Stubbs & Co. 6:30-7: STEDTalks with David Stedman…
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maybe it always disintegrates
maybe it always disintegrates (everything fucking dies) is a raw meditation on death through a displaced reflection on the artist’s confrontation with the decay of a wild boar, photography, collection of natural objects, and an artist book. maybe it always disintegrates (everything fucking dies) was gathered and the video shot on Ossabaw Island, a sea island off the coast of Savannah, GA. Stumbling upon a dead wild boar, one of many that roam the island, the video pays witness to its decaying body. While back home in Atlanta, GA, I reviewed the footage with my dog, my companion Belle, meditating…
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Muncie memories
Muncie Memories was a collaborative storytelling project made during a residency at PlySpace. It invited the residents of Muncie to share their experiences, memories, and stories of the place they call home. Through a plethora of activities such as oral history interviews, fieldwalks, information gathering, workshops with youths, soundwalking, archival research, and public engagement, the project sought to create a living archive of Muncie. Muncie Memories culminated in a participatory exhibition in PlySpace’s Gallery on August 1, 2019. Contributing interns included Ellie Phan, Jenna Mesker, Kai Cohen, Katie Strader, and Kitty Taylor. To see the project in process, please visit…
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new descendent on escaleer, no, too
Instructions: Perform Duchamp’s painting Nu descendent un escalier no. 2 (Nude descending a staircase, No. 2), 1912 Jazz it up (run up concrete stairs off of the lobby, members from Headband Girls play their instruments jazz-style) Reach the top of the staircase Pause Drone it down (navigate the staircase down with movement inspired by Cubism, Futurism, and Expressionism; members from Headband Girls drone their instruments) Reach the bottom of the staircase Walk away End of performance Performed at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta as part of College Night hosted by OMIGOD HELLO HOW ARE YOU to coincide with…
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Pitchtree, Peachtree, Nickel Bottom, too
Peachtree Creek has been a major element of Atlanta’s natural, social, cultural, and political histories and development. The exhibition – Pitchtree, Peachtree, Nickel Bottom, too – explores Peachtree Creek and its surroundings. As a site-specific project, Pitchtree, Peachtree, Nickel Bottom, too digs into (at times quite literally) the layers that make up the Creek, specifically the Zonolite District where {Poem 88}, the hosting gallery, is located. The Muscogee lived along Peachtree Creek, and Standing Peachtree was a hub village just up the creek from where Zonolite district is now. The name of the community garden at Zonolite Park is named Nickel Bottom, rumored to…
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radio books
radio books was an audio installation located throughout the grounds of art|DBF in Decatur, GA. The books, crime thrillers mainly and one by Rush Limbaugh, now devoid of text, contained radios in place of their printed pages. Rather than encountering a voice over the radio, either playing out a radio drama or narrating a text, the listener confronts an empty narrative, the only sounds of which are unseen flipping pages. radio books was presented by Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery for art|DBF of the Decatur Book Festival in Decatur, GA from August 30-31, 2015.
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Re-Performance: Meat Joy
Re-Performance: Meat Joy was performed for the performance exhibition Blood, Milk & Fire: Re-Performance Art, 1962-1977, curated by Grace Thornton and hosted by Mammal Gallery on October 1, 2015 (Atlanta, GA). Performers: Robby Kee, Theodore McLee, Maddy Laing, Alix Laing, Chelsea Wildflower Loftin Weyler, Maggie Benoit, Erin Vaiskauckas, and Jordan Stubbs.
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summer swan songs
summer swan songs was a performance and installation presented for the exhibition reFRESH at The Swan Coach House Gallery. Leading up to the performance, I ventured throughout the Swan Coach House and the grounds of the Swan House using a spirit box recorder, a VLF receiver, and standard field recorder. These spaces, marked by a luxurious history, carry within them the buzzing of gossip and intrigue. perceived vacant spaces are never empty places. summer swan songs from birdcage on Vimeo.
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tettix chorus for the unmarked
tettix chorus for the unmarked was an anti-monument memorial for those interred without markers in Potter’s Field in Historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, GA. In its current state, Potter’s Field appears as an open grassy knoll – a perfect place to picnic and converse. This picturesque scene hides the complexities of these acres, which are said to hold 7500 people, all resting in unmarked graves. This field is where the city’s poor who could not afford a burial were laid to rest, the travelers passing through were placed, and where African Americans were re-interred from the original acres. A large…
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the ether swaddles me | you | us
the ether swaddles me | you | us continues the philosophical investigation into the feminine materiality that began in the untitled (khora studies) series. To see the research Tumblr, click here.
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The SWATL Oral History Project
The SWATL Oral History Project was a multi-modal project that aimed to document the recent and historical narratives of Atlanta’s Southwest neighborhoods, while providing learning opportunities for neighborhood youths in interviewing, researching, recording and audio editing, and photography. Comprised of audio recording oral histories, a research blog, photographs, video, and archival materials, the goal of the project was to produce a multi-layered collaborative living document with multiple points of access that illuminate the rich history of the Southwest side of Atlanta. Audio Recordings James Bridges recorded by The Andrew P. Stewart Center iLead Campers with additional facilitation by Rachel Garbus…
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to be held in the valley of mountains
My recent practice has centered on healing—body, mind, and spirit, both ancestral and personal. Part of the work has required immersing my body in nature, asking the earth to facilitate my healing. In reconnecting to the earth, I tune into ki’s vibrations.[1] The plants, animals, geology, atmosphere, and energy surrounding me speak, and I ask them for guidance. This work was recorded on the ancestral lands of the Hohokam, Akimel O’odham (Upper Pima), Yavapaiv Apache, and O’odham Jeweḍ peoples, or what is now Scottsdale and Phoenix, Arizona, and edited on the ancestral lands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute), and…
meredith kooi 