THIS IS(NT) FOR YOU

March 29 - May 13, 2021

Who controls the narrative, who is art for, who is left on the outside looking in? THIS IS(NT) FOR YOU is a pairing of two solo exhibitions, each with an artist making work for their own community—communities alienated in different ways by language, location, and class expectations. By constructing the exhibitions using language and coded signifiers of the communities whom the work is for, each artist creates dual viewing experiences that immediately confront the viewer with a sense of (not) belonging.

It is everything you won’t understand and yet everything you need to see.

Contributors on THIS IS(NT) FOR YOU:

Lorena Cruz Santiago // Featured Artist

Brock Oakley Ailes // Featured Artist

Tola Atewologun // Podcast Guest

Tiffany Danielle Elliott // Lead Curator

Connor Walden // Lead Programs Manager

Raziah Ahmad // Graphic Designer

LORENA CRUZ SANTIAGO

“Ñuu Savi”

Lorena Cruz Santiago is a Mexican-American artist from Northern California currently based in Detroit, Michigan. She received her BFA in Photography from Sonoma State University in 2016 and her MFA in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2019. Cruz Santiago has attended residencies like ACRE (Steuben, WI), Tesselate (Pontiac, MI), and most recently Pocoapoco Residency in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, MX. Her work has been included in shows at El Comalito Collective (Vallejo, CA), Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (Grand Rapids, MI) and in ArtMile Detroit 2020. Through an interdisciplinary practice that spans photography, video, and painting, she investigates decolonization.

My work is informed by my family’s history as immigrants from the Mixtec region of Oaxaca, Mexico, a state where half of the population is made up of Indigenous people. Through an interdisciplinary practice that includes photography, video, and printmaking I make work that illustrates post-colonial themes like migration and assimilation through an expression of joy and celebration. Growing up Mexican-American and attending English-speaking institutions while speaking Spanish at home means I spent my life code-switching. The act of maintaining an identity constructed by settler-colonial institutions created a distance between me and the culture I was born into. In my work, I propose questions about the construction of an assimilated identity and how to subsequently recognize Indigenous identities and knowledge. Most recently, I have been interested in the intersection of archive and craft –I am curious about using these methods to share Indigenous resistance and resilience across the various cultures in which I code-switch. I am interested in speculating about a future outside of our current systems of control and oppression with an emphasis on the value of Indigenous knowledge as a guide for how to sustain ourselves during such tumultuous times.

The text piece, “Ñuu Savi”, is an affirmation of the existence of Indigenous people that does not expect nor ask for recognition from anyone.

“Ñuu Savi” was on display at Interloper’s (Seattle) Textboard location

As a guest curator for Das Schaufenster, Interloper’s Lead Curator Tiffany Danielle Elliott was invited to co-create the series ZAMBO MULATO CRIOLO CAFUZO with curator Anna Parisi. Based on the powerful content of Lorena Cruz Santiago’s work, she was selected to exhibit at both Interloper and Das Schaufenster, encouraging viewers to see two different dimensions of her work across Seattle.

Between April 15th and May 13th, 2021, “Tejidos”, Lorena Cruz Santiago’s solo exhibition was on view at Das Schaufenster.

Documentation of "Tejidos" at Das Schaufenster

BROCK OAKLEY AILES

“Plastic Spoon Feeder”

Brock Oakley Ailes (b.1985 Lancaster, OH), is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Columbus, OH. Ailes uses sculpture, video, performance, and image to create space for critical discussion about the future of work and class in America. His work resists the imposed hierarchy of capitalism by using a lens of tenderness and empathy while questioning the working class culture he was raised in.

Hidden in cupboards under the sink brittle Kmart bags and yellowed Tupperware preserve mold. Pissed my name in the snow. Golden Arch eulogy. Dried elastic and the powers out , I’ll have nothing to wear when nailed to the dogwoods on the front lawn. An icicle magnifying glass hanging from sun bleached nylon, burning discount patriots like the last pall mall. Lancaster rotary club 1967, beef, eggs, bread, saltine crackers, salt. A lucky horseshoe hanging above the uninsured. ODJFS provided a fair view just before noon Sunday, but tonight the river valley seems more of a drip than a trickle even though my feet are blue.

“Plastic Spoon Feeder” was on view in 3 distinct locations:

In-person in Lancaster, Ohio at the artist’s mother’s home, restricted viewing for artists’ family, friends, and neighbors
Online on an Angelfire website displaying documentation of the work installed in Lancaster, Ohio
In-person Temporary Installations around Seattle of Ailes’ sculpture “we gotta get out of this place”

"July 1969 North Bay Ontario, Canada", 2021

"enclosed bridges from one work site to another", 2021

"we gotta get out of this place" installed in front of an empty commercial building that was occupied for years by an ice cream shop, until they were kicked out so the owner could find a new tenant that offered more high end food. It has sat empty for months. Fast food has slowly gotten kicked out of Greenwood over the years, unable to afford the increasing rent. Who can afford to eat in this neighborhood? Who can afford to live here? Who belongs and who doesn’t?

"we gotta get out of this place" installed in Columbia City outside of organic food market, PCC, emblematic of a gentrifying neighborhood's changing food supply and demand.

"we gotta get out of this place" installed at Seattle Art Museum. It was up for 30 min before a security guard asked us to remove it. He clarified that we were allowed to stay, but the unlicensed art was not.

"we gotta get out of this place" installed in a warehouse office in Georgetown, part of Seattle's industrial district, one of the only places in Seattle with a thriving fast food industry. And a growing unhoused community right outside the door of the warehouse.

Exhibition Statement for "Plastic Spoon Feeder" by Brock Oakley Ailes

Click here to see documentation of the online exhibition portion of “Plastic Spoon Feeder”