A co-presentation with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
and muraLAB
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In a performance acting as a dismantled film, a narrator pieces together the sounds, images, and voiceover of a documentary before a live audience. Seated at a desk with a text and a laptop computer, artist and activist Ashley Hunt weaves video-testimonies of survivors together with his own personal recollections as a documentarian and organizer in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
While new disasters and emergencies move through the headlines on a daily basis, the political and human crisis of Katrina has, for many, receded into the past. Notes on the Emptying of a City brings back to the present the ruined and emptied homes, the cataloguing marks left by soldiers and police, and the prison that the city refused to evacuate. Hunt’s performance re-opens complex questions of race, visibility, and speech, which still beg for answers.
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Ashley Hunt sees art and activism as interconnected disciplines with similar missions, and combines the two to engage ideas of social movements and public discourse. Among his most recent works are the ongoing Corrections Documentary Project and exhibitions at the Project Row Houses and the Museum of Modern Art. He has also worked closely with Critical Resistance and other grassroots organizations over the past ten years.
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Another Ashley Hunt Event!
Sept 10 at 7pm
Artist Talk and Conversation with Ashley Hunt: Questions of Art, Participation, and Social Engagement
Free / 90 minutes
Temple Contemporary
at Tyler School of Art
2001 North 13th Street
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Notes on the Emptying of a City has been supported by Project Row Houses, the Visual Artists Network Exhibition Residency, which is a program of the National Performance Network, and the Art School of California Institute of the Arts.
Festival Producer
Tom Lussenhop
