17 May – 18 July 2021

We are pleased to announce that Maureen Maduadichie and Brandon Straus will be participating in the 319 2nd floor AIR summer program at Marginal Utility.

Brandon Straus May 17 – June 13 2021

Brandon Straus questions the increasingly muddled relationships between the physical and digital worlds. His work addresses how queer desire, architectrual history, and personal belongings manifest in visual culture. He mines online stores, vintage porn, historical footage, and stock video for imagery and he combines them with his own footage, informal cell phone video, and frame animation. This practice describes his free associations and visual research, attempting to make sense of his surroundings.

Maureen Maduadichie June 18 – July 18 2021

Through mixed media collages Maureen Maduadichie processes thoughts about identity, and ways that an individual can possess various and complex identities. Maduadichie’s work primarily explores this principle with regards to culture; specifically, fashion, and costuming because costumes have the power to create multiple characters. Thus, Maduadichie’s are heavily influenced by masquerade attires from Igbo land and other African cultures.

Materials that once served a domestic function are repurposed to embody their potential for
delicacy and beauty. When they are joined with yarn or thread, they become costume-like and take on a different shape and personality. So, in this way everything serves this dual purpose- to be used and then to become art. These material explorations allow for playfulness and the results are limitless.

The aim of gathering and repurposing these materials is to move the viewer to take a closer look, connect to and with them, and reflect on all the possibilities and multiplicities that can exist within a single material.