Black in the Woods
with Krista Franklin & Ayanah Moor
FIBER & PRINT 652 001 | 3 credits | $150 Lab Fee
June 23 - July 6, 2024
This interdisciplinary seminar and studio course examines notions of blackness and the woods. We will discuss art works and readings related to concepts of the gothic, identity, race, cultural studies and the landscape. In addition to more traditional processes including papermaking, sun printing, monoprinting and creative writing exercises, faculty will support and cultivate diverse approaches to media, such as performance, site-specific installation, and field recording. In this course, students will view and discuss works by artists such as Kerry James Marshall, Ana Mendieta, and David Hammons. They will be required to read a number of works such as selected poems and essays from the anthology Black Nature, edited by Camille T. Dungy, and will screen short films and an episode from the FX television show Atlanta. Student assignments are varied and will range from creative writing and text generating exercises both in and out of class to hand papermaking, drawing, collage strategies, and conceptual prompts informed by student driven research.
Krista Franklin is a writer, performer, and visual artist, the author of Solo(s) (University of Chicago Press, 2022), Too Much Midnight (Haymarket Books, 2020), the artist book Under the Knife (Candor Arts, 2018), and the chapbook Study of Love & Black Body (Willow Books, 2012). She is a recipient of the Helen and Tim Meier Foundation for the Arts Achievement Award and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. Her visual art has been exhibited at DePaul Art Museum, Poetry Foundation, Konsthall C, Rootwork Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Studio Museum in Harlem, Chicago Cultural Center, National Museum of Mexican Art, and the set of 20th Century Fox’s Empire. She is published in Poetry, Black Camera, The Offing, Vinyl, and a number of anthologies and artist books.
The poetics of Blackness and queerness are centered in Ayanah Moor’s approach to painting, print, drawing, and performance. She earned a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. Her exhibition venues include Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, (Davis, California); Museum of Contemporary Art; DePaul Art Museum, and Museum of Contemporary Photography, (Chicago); The Studio Museum Harlem, New York; Andy Warhol Museum, (Pittsburgh); ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives—University of Southern California Libraries; Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, (New Zealand); Proyecto ‘ace, (Buenos Aires); daadgalerie, (Berlin), among others. Moor’s publications include, Incite: Journal of Experimental Media, SPORTS (2017) edited by Astria Suparak and Brett Kashmere, Nicole Fleetwood’s, Troubling Vision: Performance, Visuality, and Blackness (2011), and What is Contemporary Art? (2009) by Terry E. Smith.
Krista Franklin, Out of Love But Maybe There’s Still Some Romance, 2021, collage in handmade paper, 25.5 x 15.5 in.
Ayanah Moor, Ha-Ya (Eternal Life), 2022, Acrylic and latex on wood panel, glass shelf, plants, and shell skull, h: 60 x w: 48 x d: 17 in.