Take It to the Bridge

July 18-September 15

The Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design, in conjunction with the Washington Project for the Arts, presents a new series of work by local and regional artists (DC, MD, VA, WV, PA, DE). Take It to the Bridge includes temporary exhibitions, performances, installations, and interventions on the Performance Bridge inside the Corcoran’s glass entryway. Many of the events take place on Free Summer Saturdays.

Take It to the Bridge is juried by performance artist Holly Bass; Lisa Gold, executive director of Washington Project for the Arts; and Sarah Newman, curator of Contemporary Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Created in February 2012 by Bass and architectural designer Kashuo Bennett, the Performance Bridge transforms the Corcoran’s glass entryway into an exhibition space. The Bridge asks us to look up and  out, to see in entirely new ways. As a performance space it embodies explicit conceptual themes such as exposure, transparency, entrapment, anthropological display, and the diorama.  It is capable of supporting sculpture or installation, live performers, as well as more ethereal works that use sound and light as material.

Wenesday-Sunday, July 18-22 (installation; all museum hours)

Maya Freelon Asante, Ubuntu

Asante’s tissue paper installation gives the illusion of a weightless floating sculpture. Ubuntu is a classical African concept that means “I am because we are.”

Maya Freelon Asante, 'Ubuntu' timelapse installation 7-17-12 from Corcoran Gallery of Art on Vimeo.

Saturday, July 28 (10 a.m.–5 p.m.)

Chajana Denharder, Sleep

The artist states, “Often performance art tries to draw as much attention as possible. My instinct for this piece is to get quiet, to maybe go unnoticed, to try and relax, to sleep, and to not entertain. To just be.”

Saturday, August 4 (installation; all museum hours)

Jennifer Coster, Canaries in McMansionland

An installation featuring live birds that investigates, in the artist’s words, “visible and invisible systems, quiet directional devices, and everyday monuments of Americana.”

Saturday, August 11

Kathryn Cornelius, Save the Date  (10 a.m.–5 p.m.)

This performance explores the life cycle of marriage and divorce, and the wedding ceremony’s complex mix of private emotion, public spectacle, social expectation, and state power. Follow her preparations via her Twitter feed. In lieu of wedding gifts, please visit her Honeyfund page. An archive of the live-streamed performance can be found on the Save The Date DC Tumblr. 

Live video from your Android device on Ustream

Saturday, August 18 (12 p.m.–5 p.m.)

Sarah Levitt/Dance Exchange, Procedures for Ground Loss Safety

Taking inspiration from cheery Cold War safety films of the 1950s, the artist will use the Performance Bridge to help visitors prepare for “sudden ground loss”—what to do when the ground underneath them gives out.

Saturday, August 25 (installation; all museum hours)

COLON:Y, The Airborne Leaflet Campaign

This new media installation involves computer printers choreographed to print leaflet papers with authoritarian texts.

Saturday, September 1 (10 a.m.–5 p.m.)

Carolina Mayorga, Maid in the USA

This performance piece uses the Performance Bridge to comment on stereotyped views of roles often attributed to immigrants of Hispanic origin. The artist, dressed in a typical Colombian outfit, will clean the glass box while listening to popular Latin music.

Thursday-Sunday, September 5-9 (installation; all museum hours)

Annie Albagli, Bridging the Light

Inspired by the work of Richard Diebenkorn, this site-specific installation involves screen prints of geometric and organic forms stretched from the ceiling to the floor of the Performance Bridge.

Saturday, September 15(10 a.m.–5 p.m.)

Maida Withers, This Space Occupied (by Maida)

Maida Withers, Washington, D.C., performer, choreographer, and filmmaker, will deliver an interactive performance of structured improvisation and a temporary installation.