Screening in-person and online
Q&A with the artists follows the screening
Microscope is very pleased to present a new edition of its emerging artist series YES with works by New York-based artists Alex Burholt and Doménica García. The event will take place both in person at the gallery and online for those unable to attend. The Q&A with the artists that follows the screening will also be live-streamed for the online audience, who may participate through live chat.
The program features eleven works in film and video by the artists completed between 2017 and 2022. While García’s work is more focused on performance, identity and cultural stereotypes approached through a surrealist but fresh filmmaking vision, Burholt’s centers around experiences of gender nonconformity expressed mostly though compelling stop-motion animations in an array of formats. Their lines of inquiry at times intersect in the use of cross-dressing, the interest in music videos as well as socio-political themes.
In “Fragmentación” (2019), García melds performance art with symbolism and surrealism in scenes reminiscent of the cinematic expedients of Deren or Buñuel through a more contemporary lens and with a satirical touch. Utilizing fruit and plants metaphorically, often in relation to sex or violence and the female body, the artist seems to suggest a physical and spiritual union with nature, in a work that represents “a tribute to the Latin American women” whose stories have inspired her. “Corazón Entristecido” (2017) dismantles patriarchal stereotypes as well as the contradictions inherent in sharing both American and Latin American identities and traditions. The artist, in a man’s disguise, is sitting at a table scanning through The New York Times. Daily routine and indifference — instead of outrage for the acts of violence reported in the newspaper — don’t spare the coffee-addicted character from getting dirty with blood slowly spilling out of the paper pages, while the song “Pobre Corazón” by Ecuadorian trio Los Brillantes play as score. In the amusing “Ceviche,” an imaginary production chain composed of women preparing each of the ingredients for the dish at times vocalize the food’s reaction to being handled and sliced, before the meal’s surreptitious arrival at its final, unexpected destination.
Burholt’s “LDB” is a work made by drawing directly onto 16mm film frames, obscuring and censoring the cinematic deaths of LGBT characters in movies from the 1970s to 2018, who would have been considered “deviant” according to the industry’s moral standards as dictated by the Hays Code (1934-1968). In “What to wear,” a stop-motion animation of close-up shots of fabrics from unknown garments roll by over recorded voices belonging to queer and non-binary individuals telling real-life anecdotes about their experience of purchasing clothing, or giving advice. “La Placita: Project Uphill” is assembled from archival videotape footage edited together by Burholt and artist Charles Simonds, who also appears on tape as one of the proponents of the building of the La Placita play lot on East 2nd Street between 1973-75. The large, enthusiastic participation of the community — with children painting the lot's iconic large mural in just two days — appears now as an inspirational example of community and coming together.
Doors will open for entry at 7pm and the screening will start promptly at 7:30pm EST for both online and in-person viewing.
Online Tickets will be available starting at 7:00pm ET on Monday May 2nd on this page.
Please note: Proof of vaccine & masks are required at this time for in-person events.
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Alex Burholt is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY working across drawing, photography, and animation. Their video work often employs the manipulation of still photography and analog techniques to explore ideas of queer timelessness and how memory can be organized temporally. Emphasizing materiality and using the visual language of archival imagery as a reference, they work to find commonality in gestures and small moments through time. Their work has been shown work at Anthology Film Archives, Brooklyn Museum, ESMoA, 41 Cooper Gallery. They received a BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art and are currently working at Aperture Foundation.
Doménica García is an Ecuadorian multidiscplinary artist who spent her early years in Mexico City and is now based in New York. Her work delves into a process of introspection, exploring the personal and discovering the universal. With the use of a hyperbolic language and the juxtaposition of the radical with the ordinary, she gives greater relevance to the day-to-day experience. García’s multimedia approach, particularly merging performance and digital art, allows her to manipulate the perception of reality, facilitating a fantastic and surreal experience within the rational world. Her work has been featured in film festivals, art galleries and museums in the US, Mexico, and Ecuador, including the Atlanta Film Festival, San Diego Latino Film Festival, Queens Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Quito, and Granoff Center for the Creative Arts. García earned a BFA from the School of Visual Arts.