Committee on Women and Art to present 18th annual Matrilineage Symposium Feb. 23-March 5

Committee on Women and Art to present 18th annual Matrilineage Symposium Feb. 23-March 5February 19, 2009Erica Blustesblust@syr.edu

Syracuse University’s Committee on Women and Art will present the 18th annual Matrilineage Symposium Feb. 23-March 5. Events include presentations by eight multidisciplinary artists, two performances, an artist-in-residence and an exhibition. All events are free and open to the public.

The Matrilineage Symposium provides a unique educational setting in which artists from all disciplines present and discuss their work in an open forum outside of the classroom. The community and University gather over a two-week period for various presentations, exhibitions, workshops and performances.

Events for this year’s symposium include:

Monday, Feb. 23, 6 p.m.Lecture by Nancy CohenRoom 121, Dorothea Ilgen Shaffer Art Building

Cohen is a mixed-media artist who works in sculpture, installation and drawing. Through the use of materials and found objects, her work balances fragility and embodiment while evoking domestic objects and nature. Her work has been exhibited at the Noyes Museum of Art in Oceanville, N.J.; the Jersey City Museum in Jersey City, N.J.; and the Heidi Cho Gallery in New York City. It can also be found in many public and private collections. In addition, she has received numerous commissions for public art projects. For more information, visit http://nancymcohen.com/.

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2 p.m.Lecture by Laurel NakadateShemin Auditorium, Shaffer Art Building

Nakadate is a photographer, video artist and filmmaker, and the symposium’s artist-in-residence. She blurs documentary and fiction through her portrayal of situations that combine sexuality, loneliness, power and discomfort with play. Her first video installation, “I Wanna Be Your Midlife Crisis,” was exhibited by Daniel Silverstein Gallery in the 2002 Armory Show, and her first feature film, “Stay the Same Never Change,” was screened at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. For more information, visit http://web.mac.com/laurelnakadate/site/Laurel_Nakadate.html.

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 7 p.m.Lecture by Christiane PaulRoom 121, Shaffer Art Building

Paul is a theorist, writer and curator who explores new media, net art, information architecture, hyperfiction, and the context and meaning of digital art. She is the adjunct curator of new media arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the director of Intelligent Agent, a service organization and information resource dedicated to digital art. Her extensive writings have been published in such magazines as Sculpture, Leonardo and Intelligent Agent. She is author of “New Media in the White Cube and Beyond: Curatorial Models for Digital Art” (University of California Press, 2008).

Thursday, Feb. 26, 6-9 p.m.”Matrilineage Art Show”Spark Contemporary Art Space, 1005 E. Fayette St.

The “Matrilineage Art Show” is a one-night exhibition of artwork drawn from an open call.

Thursday, Feb. 26, 7 p.m.Performance and Q&A with Nao BustamanteSpark Contemporary Art Space, 1005 E. Fayette St.

Bustamante is a performance, video and installation artist and an associate professor of new media and live art at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She uses the body as a source of image, narrative and emotion to confront stereotypes. She has presented in galleries, museums, universities and underground sites around the world and has exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland, among other outlets. For more information, visit http://www.naobustamante.com.

Friday, Feb. 27, 5 p.m.Lecture by M.M. SerraRoom 121, Shaffer Art Building

Serra is a filmmaker, curator and educator. Her experimental films are often personal explorations that have recently focused on women, sexuality and fantasy. She is executive director of the Film-Makers’ Cooperative in New York City. Her work and her curated programs have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City, the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris, the London Film Festival, the Sundance Forum, and the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, Germany. She teaches media studies at The New School for Social Research.

Friday, Feb. 27, 8 p.m.Performance by Dynasty HandbagJabberwocky Cafe, Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Center

Handbag is a musician, performance artist and the alter-ego of Jibz Cameron. Her performances combine electro-ballads, camp, and tragi-comic monologues to create an intense and funny experience. She has presented solo shows in New York City at P.S. 122, Galapagos Art Space and Dixon Place, and performed at BAM Cafe, Joe’s Pub, SXSW Festival, the Aurora Festival and Duckie in London. Her first album, “Foo Foo Yik Yik,” was released by Lovepump United in 2006. For more information, visit http://www.dynastyhandbag.com.

Thursday, March 5, 5 p.m.Lecture by Janaina TschapeRoom 044, Comstock Art Facility

Tschape is a visual artist who works in photography, drawing, film and installation. Her imagery brings together the constructed and the natural, through which surreal landscapes evoke myth, nostalgia and memory. Tschape has exhibited throughout the world, including the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin; Tokyo Wonder Site; and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tuscon, Ariz. Her work will be featured in upcoming exhibitions at Catherine Bastide in Belgium, Kasama Nichido Museum of Art in Japan, Instituto Paranaense de Arte in Brazil and Sikkema Jenkins in New York City. For more information, visit http://www.janainatschape.net/.

Thursday, March 5, 7 p.m.Lecture by Cat MazzaRoom 044, Comstock Art Facility

Mazza is an artist whose work combines craft with digital media to explore the overlaps between textiles, technology and labor. She is the founder of microRevolt, http://www.microrevolt.org/, a Web-based practice that offers the free Web application knitPro. Her work was included in the exhibition “She Will Always Be Younger Than Us,” which highlighted contemporary artists working with fiber and feminist concepts, at the Textile Museum of Canada. She is currently assistant professor of new media at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

The Matrilineage Symposium is sponsored by Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, including departments and programs in its School of Art and Design and Department of Transmedia, as well as The College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Fine Arts; the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science; the School of Information Studies; the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications; the School of Architecture; and the College of Human Ecology.

The Committee on Women and Art is a group of volunteers concerned with celebrating the accomplishments of women in the arts and assembling progressive voices to create a dialogue about expression, meaning and feminism. For more information, contact Joanna Spitzner, assistant professor of foundation in VPA, at (315) 430-6979 or jspitzne@syr.edu or visit http://www.matrilineage.org.