ISSUE is pleased to announce the selection of Sami Hopkins as 2021 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow. Hopkins will present Propositions from the deadWIP, a multidisciplinary performance series that balances considerations of knowledge and fallibility.
Hopkins notes, "The works shown here will settle on a principle of uncertainty, arguing for ever-changing and connective approaches to knowledge production and creative production. Through the character of performance, these works point to contingencies of knowledge by conceding the possibility that iterative and improvisatory practices may never be exactly replicated--meaning imbues the process of creation itself, as much as a work's eventual presentation or future iterations. By never claiming to reach finality, these works accept the condition of being always already "in progress,” with the potential to reimagine the status of a work-in-progress (WIP) altogether. Thus, the deadWIP is a meta-embodiment of creative work (and creative knowing): perpetually changing, immortalized in transformation, and documented through a process of non-judgmental and non-competitive making. The deadWIP neither presupposes its quality or significance, nor pursues hierarchical achievement in either area."
The Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellowship supports emerging curators in realizing ambitious new projects that will significantly transform their own artistic practice, move their work in new directions, and enable them to gain exposure to a broader audience. In its fifth year, ISSUE’s Curatorial Fellowship commissions emerging New York curators to organize challenging projects, serving a central role in fulfilling ISSUE’s mission to support and cultivate innovative art within the local community. Sami Hopkins follows Leyya Tawil, ISSUE’s current 2020 Fellow, Benedict Nguyen in 2019, Queer Trash in 2018, and DeForrest Brown Jr. in 2017.
Named for ISSUE’s visionary founder Suzanne Fiol, the program mentors a Curatorial Fellow by providing them with financial, technical and marketing support as they work to cultivate, incubate and present innovative music and performance projects.
The Curatorial Fellowship complements and builds upon ISSUE’s existing Artists-In-Residence Program (AIR). Both ISSUE’s AIR and Fellowship programs provide artists and curators with an opportunity to develop significant new works in partnership with ISSUE over the course of a year by offering a stipend as well as access to rehearsal space and facilities, equipment, documentation, pr/marketing, Curatorial mentorship and technical expertise.
Suzanne Fiol, who passed away in October, 2009, was an extraordinary spirit, a force of nature and a prominent figure in the visual and performing arts worlds. As both a visionary artist and the founder of ISSUE Project Room, she created one of New York City’s premiere destinations for experimental culture and avant-garde performing arts— a legacy that will resonate for decades to come.
Sami Hopkins is an artist, musician, and writer based in Queens, NY.
