Sasha Wortzel, Dreams of Unknown Islands

Sasha Wortzel
Working between South Florida (Miccosukee & Seminole lands) and New York City (Lenape lands)

Dreams of Unknown Islands
PARTNER PROGRAM: DREAMS OF UNKNOWN ISLANDS / REORGANIZED BY STEPHANIE SNYDER AND KRISTAN KENNEDY FOR THE COOLEY GALLERY 2022. ORIGINALLY COMMISSIONED AND PRESENTED BY OOLITE ARTS, CURATED BY KRISTAN KENNEDY, 2021.

DATES
Exhibition Dates: Sept. 10–Nov. 20, 2022 / Please check the Cooley Gallery website for open hours, reed.edu/gallery

Sasha Wortzel Artist Talk: Sept. 10, 12:00–1:00 pm / Location: Reed Chapel, Reed College / Capacity: 150 / ASL provided

Exhibition Opening: Sept. 10, 1:00–3:00 pm / Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College / Capacity: 40

Film Screening: Sept. 11 at 2:00 pm / Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd / Capacity: 384 (see separate event page for more info)

ACCESS NOTES
Artist Talk / Chapel is accessible / elevator / ASL interpretation provided for artist talk

Exhibition / Written Sound Description Provided / Space is accessible ground level ramped

DESCRIPTION
Sasha Wortzel’s Dreams of Unknown Islands transforms the architecture of the museum into an ecological dreamscape in which coastal shores, animal migrations, and the shifting colors of the sky are transmitted through ritual sound, projected film, and a set of functional sculptures housing five listening islands that urge us to pause, rest, and contemplate. The soundscape is the exhibition’s weather—a Meltempi of voices reciting Kaddish. The sacred Jewish prayer originated ca. 30 BCE, written in Aramaic. Its purpose is to comfort the soul of the deceased and reaffirm the faith of the mourner. Wortzel awakens us to the tenderness necessary to confront the political and ecological challenges we face today. Through visual poetry and recited prayer, Wortzel offers us the experience of mourning—a ritual practiced by both humans and animals—that has evolved over millennia into a pronouncement of belief, hope, and possibility that does not ignore the suffering we face.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sasha Wortzel is a visual artist and filmmaker working between South Florida (Miccosukee and Seminole lands) and New York City (Lenape lands). Blending the archival and the imaginary, Wortzel uses film, video, installation, sculpture, sound, and performance to explore how the past haunts and inextricably shapes contemporary American life. Projects examine queer place-making, geographies of resistance, and the systems that marginalize, extract, and erase communities, peoples, and histories.

Wortzel’s films have screened at the Museum of Modern Art’s DocFortnight, True/False Film Festival, DOC NYC, BAMcinemaFest, Blackstar, New Orleans Film Festival, Wexner Center for the Arts, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Berlinale, among others. Their work has been exhibited at the New Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and The Kitchen, New York; and SALTS, Birsfelden. Wortzel has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation, Field of Vision, Doc Society, Art Matters, and a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship. Wortzel has participated in residencies including Smack Mellon’s Artist Studio Program, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Program, Abrons Arts Center, Watermill Center, New York; AIRIE (Artists in Residence in the Everglades) and Oolite Arts, Miami Beach. Wortzel’s film This is an Address (2020) is distributed by Field of Vision. Happy Birthday Marsha! (2018; co-director Tourmaline) won special mention at Outfest and is distributed by Frameline. Their work is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Studio Museum of Harlem, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, and Miami Dade County Art in Public Places. She has been featured in publications including the New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, and New York Magazine. Wortzel received an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College.

SPONSORSHIP
This exhibition is presented and supported by the Cooley Gallery and PICA in collaboration, with additional support from Oolite Arts (Miami Beach, Florida). The first incarnation of Dreams of Unknown Islands was originally commissioned and presented by Oolite Arts in January of 2021 and curated by Kristan Kennedy, PICA.