Bronx Museum Online Exhibition: Alicia Grúllon: At Home with Essential Workers, - 11/23
"March 31, 2020: Rikers Island Prisoners Are Being Offered PPE and $6 an Hour to Dig Mass Graves-https://theintercept.com/2020/03/31/rikers-island-coronavirus-mass-graves/", 2020. Archival Digital Print. [Image Description: the artist wears an orange prison jumpsuit standing in a domestic space with white walls and a chandelier, there are dramatic shadows on the wall behind her from flash photography.]
Alicia Grúllon: March to June: At Home with Essential Workers
Until October 23, 2020
Online Exhibition
The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected and devastated communities of color throughout the United States. Comprised primarily of Black and Brown communities, the Bronx has the highest rates of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths in New York’s five boroughs. Many of New York City’s essential workers who keep public transportation moving, shelves stocked, and provide healthcare live in neighborhoods most affected by COVID-19. Alicia Grullón’s new series of photographs, March to June: At Home with Essential Workers, continues her exploration of the self-portrait as a participatory process. Through her work, she documents her experience as a woman of color, as well as a member of a community at the epicenter of the pandemic.
“These self-portraits were created in my home in New York City during the Covid-19 quarantine, from March to June 2020,” explains Grullón. “In this body of work, I simultaneously document my time at home and current affairs affecting the nation during quarantine. As performances, they are sites of mapping, engaging in participatory approaches of record keeping with my body.” The titles of each work refer to the date the photographs were taken accompanied by news articles about the treatment of essential workers and incarcerated people during the pandemic. Grullón’s series of photograps continues, but the selection on view at the Museum website concludes with an image taken on the day of protests in the Bronx against police violence, following the murder of George Floyd.
An Afro-Taino Caribbean descendant on Lenne-Lenape land, Grullón has been featured in a number of group exhibitions including The 8th Floor; The Bronx Museum of the Arts; BRIC House for Arts and Media; School of Visual Arts; El Museo del Barrio; Columbia University; Socrates Sculpture Park; Performa 11; and Old Stone House and Art in Odd Places. She has received grants from the Puffin Foundation; Bronx Council on the Arts; the Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of New York; and Franklin Furnace Archives. Grullón has participated in residencies at the Hemispheric Institute for Politics and Performance at New York University; the Center for Book Arts; the Bronx Museum of Arts Block Gallery; AIM Alum; and the Shandanken Project on Governors island. She has presented at the 2017 Whitney Biennial with Occupy Museums; Creative Time Summit 2015; The Royal College of Art; and the United States Association for Art Educators. Her work has been reviewed in many prominent journals, includingHyperallergic, ArtNet News, and Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory. Grullón is a recipient of BRIC’s inaugural Colene Brown Art Prize for 2019.
For Educators
Download a curriculum by Grullón exploring the self-portrait HERE.
En la casa con las trabajadoras esenciales
Exhibición virtual
La pandemia COVID-19 ha afectado y devastado desproporcionadamente a las comunidades de personas de color en los Estados Unidos. Las comunidades del Bronx que son mayoritariamente Negras y de color, tienen las tasas más altas de casos de corona virus, hospitalizaciones y muertes de los cinco condados de Nueva York. Muchas de las personas trabajadoras esenciales, quienes hacen funcionar el transporte público, mantienen las estanterías abastecidas, y brindan cuidado de la salud, viven en los barrios más afectados por COVID-19. Las nuevas series de fotografías de Alicia Grullón, De marzo a junio: en la casa con las trabajadoras esenciales es una continuación de su exploración con el auto-retrato como un proceso participativo. En su obra, ella documenta su experiencia como mujer de color así como miembro de una comunidad que es epicentro de la pandemia.
“Estos auto-retratos fueron creados en mi casa en Nueva York durante la cuarentena Covid-19, entre marzo y junio del 2020,” explica Grullón. “En esta obra, documento simultáneamente mis momentos en casa y la coyuntura que afecta a la nación durante la cuarentena. Como actos performáticos son sitios de mapeo, que involucran maneras participativas de mantener registros con mi cuerpo.” Los títulos de cada trabajo se refieren a la fecha en la que tomé las fotos y las noticias acerca del trato a personas trabajadoras esenciales y las personas encarceladas durante la pandemia. Grullón continúa añadiendo a la serie pero la selección de fotografías que se presenta aquí concluye con una imagen tomada durante las protestas a la violencia policial que ocurrieron en el Bronx por el asesinato de George Floyd. Su obra ha recibido la crítica de renombradas revistas como Hyperallergic, ArtNet News, y Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory. Grullón recibió el Premio inaugural al Arte Colene Brown de BRIC en el 2019.
You can see the exhibition here.
You can find out more about the Bronx Museum here.