Walking Stories: A Multimedia Exhibition
Walking Stories, co-presented by Asian American for Civil Rights & Equality (AACRE) and Edge on the Square contemplates the storied nature of human behavior and the embodied storyteller who, across generations, passes down countless stories that are shared, given, received, and exchanged. Unfixed and fluid in essence, stories constantly evolve as they are expanded upon, abbreviated, and adapted per circumstance, context and audience. As such, how do we carry, gift, receive, exchange stories? What is intentionally said and left unsaid? How might we tell the untold stories of those who do not have capability or reveal that which is not yet uncovered? What shapes do story making and telling take on interactively, cross-generationally, personally and collectively?
About:
From jongleurs to 說書人 Pingshu artists, storytellers throughout history have played a critical role in elucidating key facets of the human experience, making sense of our past and navigating our present. The stories they tell reveal profound truths about our reality, the shaping of identity, and human behavior. Both personal and political, some stories have insidiously perpetuated segregation, racism and sexism, whilst others offer visions of equitable futures through imagining and building worlds anew. Stories are inherently spiritual phenomena, often perceived as having a touch of magic, with their ability to manifest substance, texture, characters, and worlds. There is the gift of space, time and knowledge in stories.
The exhibition, Walking Stories, contemplates the storied nature of human behavior and how individuals may be perceived as embodied “walking stories”. Carried within the storyteller, passed down through generations are countless stories shared, given, received, and exchanged. Far from being fixed, stories are fluid in essence, constantly evolving as they are expanded on, abbreviated, and adapted per circumstance, context and audience. As such, how do we carry, gift, receive, exchange stories? What is said and intentionally left unsaid? How might we tell the untold stories of those who do not have capacity or reveal that which is not yet uncovered? In what ways do stories shape human connection, cross-generationally, personally and collectively?
Community storytellers from the AACRE Network explore these questions in their multimedia practice and collaborative exhibition, Walking Stories. Ranging from interactive installations, video, performance, photography, zines to conceptual potluck, the artists interrogate prevailing stories and their ramifications and prioritize stories that cultivate interconnectedness, empathy and invested involvement in the world around us. As individual and collective ‘walking stories’, every story we create, creates us. After all, we are shaped by our shaping of the world, which is perpetually shaped again in turn.
This exhibition is presented in collaboration with Edge on the Square.
Meet the AACRE Artivists:
