Love, Crush, Anger, Institution
by Asa Mendelsohn
This offsite exhibition takes form as film screenings and community workshops.
Presented with support from the Alabama Humanities Alliance.
Film Screening and Panel Discussion:
Wednesday, June 7, 7pm
(additional screenings TBA)
Workshops:
Tuesday, June 6, 6-8pm
Thursday, June 8, 6-8pm
Pasture: a film by Asa Mendelsohn
Wednesday, June 7, 7pm
FREE Screening at Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema (tickets online)
followed by a panel discussion
Video still from Pasture, 2022. Courtesy Asa Mendelsohn.
In Mendelsohn’s film, Pasture (2022, 36 minutes, digital video, English and Spanish) a grassroots movement successfully resists private military development near the US-Mexico border in Southern California, where a trans New Yorker arrives in pursuit of an unlikely coalition. Pasture combines history, diary, and performance to intimately inquire into big questions about power, place, and what it takes to change.
Following the screening, Vinegar will present a panel discussion that reflects on the themes and systems addressed in Pasture. The Panel includes the artist, Asa Mendelsohn, alongside three guests:
Dr. Michael Innis-Jiménez is a Professor of American Studies at the University of Alabama. His research areas include Latinos/Latinas in the U.S., transnational migration and immigration, the American West, and Race and ethnicity in the Americas.
Lauren Jacobs is the Assistant Director at the Magic City Acceptance Center (MCAC) in Birmingham, Alabama. At MCAC, Lauren provides community building, sexual wellness/healthy relationship education, and STI testing and for LGBTQ youth ages 13-24.
Dr. Fen Kennedy is an Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Alabama and is a board member of Vinegar. Their research – creative and theoretical – examines how different articulations of our dance practices can shape our values and who we are as a society.
Love, Crush, Anger, Institution
a workshop facilitated by Asa Mendelsohn
Which institutions play major roles in your day to day life? How do institutions affect your emotional life? How do institutions affect the ways you think about love and hate?
In this public workshop, we explore these questions through personal writing and artmaking exercises. Participants will be guided to craft short artworks addressed to institutions.
As we turn our attention to institutions, we might think about social and political institutions like schools, bathrooms, prisons, families, medical institutions, immigration institutions, museums, and others. We will consider ongoing legislative and cultural attacks on our bodily autonomy: access to healthcare, and autonomy for LGBTQIA+ people, women, and those who love them.
In-person workshop, offered on two days (choose one):
Tuesday June 6, 6-8pm (doors open 5:30pm)
Thursday June 8, 6-8pm (doors open 5:30pm)
During these two hours we will devote time to personal reflection, writing and video prompts, and small group discussion.
Free of cost. Please bring a working phone with a camera to use for video making. Additional artmaking supplies and light refreshments will be provided.
Open to interested community members ages 18 and up. No special knowledge or art expertise required! Participants may attend either Tuesday or Thursday. Limited to 8 participants per day. RSVP required by May 31: to express interest in participating, please respond to this brief questionnaire.
Location and more details will be shared with confirmed participants. Location will be indoors and wheelchair accessible with all-gender restrooms on site. ASL interpretation available upon request.
Please share any requests to improve the accessibility and comfort of the workshop, and any other questions, by emailing hello@vinegarprojects.org.