Marks the first durational movement installations to unfold in the Cousins galleries
and first choreographer as artist in residence at the Museum
Atlanta, GA (July 1, 2019) – The High Museum of Art has commissioned its first choreographer as artist in residence, glo founder Lauri Stallings, to create “Supple Means of Connection,” a new suite of live art designed for the Museum’s galleries. Stallings’ site-based work will inhabit the Cousins galleries from Aug. 3 through Sept. 8 during regular museum hours. In celebration of glo’s 10th anniversary, activations will begin on Thursday July 25, at 12:30 p.m. and continue on a rotating schedule leading up to the official opening.
A Rome Prize nominee and CREATIVE TIME artist, Stallings creates works of very diverse context, scale and textures. “Supple Means of Connection” will be both a gallery installation and a public artwork exploring themes of family, falling and maps with respect to women’s roles. Interrogating the infinite challenges of human co-existence—as well as the blurred lines between the fragility of the human body and the fragility of nature—Stallings mixes forms that defy the boundaries of genre and offers choreography as an invitation to collective action. The choreography will activate the Cousins galleries on the second level of the High’s Wieland Pavilion—relating and co-existing with installed neon art, text and mixed-media sculpture “trees”—and migrate to and from the galleries through other rarely habited spaces around the interior and exterior of the Museum. The shifting locations will ask the public to discover, lean under, peak through and part ways with traditional ways to view art, offering an alternative spatial experience of the Museum.
“Though we’ve worked with glo many times over the years, this partnership is uncharted, and very exciting, territory for us,” said Rand Suffolk, Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr., director of the High. “This is the first time we’ve invited a choreographer and performance group to be in residence at the Museum and to use our Cousins exhibition galleries as their stage. We hope our visitors will enjoy embarking on this journey with us and experiencing our spaces in a whole new way. We can’t wait to see how the project unfolds.”
Since 2014, Stallings has worked with a core group of female moving artists from diverse backgrounds to construct her durational, live–art activations. For “Supple Means of Connection,” glo moving artists will be joined by an intergenerational and interracial group of local women and children, ages 9 to 90. Stallings will not appear in the work herself but will be conducting the live interventions. Along with glo’s migrating choreographies and movement choirs, the schedule of happenings includes: movement workshops twice a week in the Museum (open to all), “People Parades” exploring the High’s grassy campus and the songs and calls of birds on terraces and at entrances, post-activation artist conversations, and a ceremonial duet for two glo moving artists down the Robinson Atrium ramp on Friday evenings.
A schedule of activations for this six-week residency is available at www.high.org.
“I am honored they trust me to do something. They are taking a risk; I think it’s good for museums to take risks, and I am humbled that this practice, which is so fragile in nature, has been recognized,” says Stallings.
A first edition pocket glo map and dictionary by Dr. Paul Boshears and Candice Thompson will accompany the project.
SUPPORT
Project support for “Supple Means of Connection” has been generously provided by an artist’s residency at Pasaquan, with support from Columbus State University, Pasaquan Preservation Society and Georgia Council for the Arts. Major sponsorship for “Supple Means of Connection” has been generously provided by the Florence Biennale XII edition, with support from the regional council of Tuscany, Italy.
In-kind support has been generously provided by the Goat Farm Arts Center, Dewberry Foundation and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Major glo programming support for 2019 has been provided by MailChimp, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Community Foundation, with support from Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund, Georgia Council for the Arts, Fulton County Arts Council, City of Atlanta, Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Goat Farm Arts Center and Lubo Fund.
ABOUT THE HIGH MUSEUM OF ART
Located in the heart of Atlanta, Georgia, the High Museum of Art connects with audiences from across the Southeast and around the world through its distinguished collection, dynamic schedule of special exhibitions, and engaging community-focused programs. Housed within facilities designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architects Richard Meier and Renzo Piano, the High features a collection of more than 17,000 works of art, including an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American fine and decorative arts; major holdings of photography and folk and self-taught work, especially that of artists from the American South; burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, including paintings, sculpture, new media, and design; a growing collection of African art, with work dating from pre-history through the present; and significant holdings of European paintings and works on paper. The High is dedicated to reflecting the diversity of its communities and offering a variety of exhibitions and educational programs that engage visitors with the world of art, the lives of artists, and the creative process. For more information about the High, visit high.org.
ABOUT LAURI STALLINGS
With modest economies, Lauri Stallings creates works of very diverse context, scale and textures, oriented toward the question of instinct. Her works inhabit spaces that have been surveyed by choreography, place keeping and social practice, where she deploys her migrations. A Rome Prize nominee, recipient of the 2018 Hudgens prize and inaugural FLUX Artist, as well as being recognized as a Bogliasco Fellow, Artadia, and Creative Time artist, Stallings has consistently centered her work on the revitalization of the American South, creating temporary hubs and migrations for challenged minorities in remote areas. The work serves as a catalyst for discussions on equity, race, history, and who gets to dance, while researching choreography as a toolbox devised to bring together things that normally would never meet. Along with her peers, Stallings is always trying to carve out space somewhere between live art and social activism. www.lauristallings.org
ABOUT GLO
glo is a collaborative platform of relationship building across issues, identities, and creative possibilities. Their mission is to demonstrate the impact of innovative and ambitious movement arts and cultural initiatives in the Deep South. Their work is framed by three core values: people matter; histories survive; our bodies unite. glo intermingles the power and potential of communities, places and civic rituals that often are forgotten. www.gloatl.org
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Marci Tate Davis
Manager of Public Relations
High Museum of Art
404-733-4585
marci.davis@high.org
Rebeca Rubalcava
Platform Organizer
glo
info@gloatl.org