The Unsettlements - Walk Through, Lunch & Writing Workshop is a 3-part program with 2024 Texas Biennial Artist JD Pluecker that includes a site-specific walk through one of the sites related to The Unsettlements series, followed by a lunch and writing workshop How to Write Into What We Do Not and Cannot Know. All events are free with registration. You may attend all or part of the events on Saturday as your schedule allows.

More information on The Unsettlements please visit jdpluecker.com

The Unsettlements - Walk Through, Lunch & Writing Workshop Schedule

Part 1: Into The Weeds: An Unsettlement Walk Through

10 - 12pm, walk through. Registration is free but required to get site destination. Site location provided the day before the event in email to registered participants.

Join us for a walk through a location of meanings, known and unknown, in the East End. What is in the weeds? What is in the walking through and into? What is it to unsettle in relation to land and our own bodies? We will gather to talk and to walk through and in and under, deciding what each of us and the we might want to share and what we might want to do. How do we make meaning together? How might we unmake the meanings?

Registration required.

Part 2 & 3: How to Write Into What We Do Not and Cannot Know

12:30 - 1:30pm, lunch

1:30 - 3:30pm, writing workshop at Lawndale Art Center 

The writing workshop with JD Pluecker will delve into beginning a practice of writing out of not knowing, into the space of not knowing. Out of intimacy and kinship can arrive connection and knowing, but also a deep mystery and a deep sense of loss or lack. What happens after we generate a mad desire to dive in? When verve arrives, how do we hold it or channel it? How do we maintain that fire and follow it into the weeds? How do we get lost in the weeds and then emerge transformed after the traversing? No previous writing experience required; all materials necessary will be provided.

Registration required.

From October 17–19, 2024, the Blaffer Art Museum will host the 2024 Texas Biennial Performance and Music Nights entitled, Hymns of the Spirit, organized by Goodnews Nwankwo, Texas Biennial Curatorial Assistant.

Thursday, October 17, 2024, 6-9pm, Blaffer Art Museum
Performances from Isabella Vik, S Rodriguez, X'ene Sky, and Corey De’Juan Sherrard Jr.
The performance evening also features a Violin Duo with Jasmine Lin and Mann-Wen Lo.

Friday, October 18, 2024, 6-9pm, Blaffer Art Museum
Performances from Mashal Awais, X'ene Sky, and Ryan Holloway with Open MFA Artist Collective

Saturday, October 19, 2024, 3-5pm, Blaffer Art Museum
Migration Stories Workshop with Stacey Allen

Phillip Pyle, II: Wave Check

On Saturday, October 12, 3PM HMAAC presents “Wave Check/ 100” with Phillip Pyle, II, in collaboration with the 2024 Texas Biennial. This engaging performance is part of Pyle’s mid-career exhibition “So Far So Good” which ends on October 12. Pyle is one of 80 artists selected for the 2024 Texas Biennial and HMAAC is a presenting venue for the show.

The Biennial was curated by Erika Mei Chua Holum, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Assistant Curator at the Blaffer Art Museum, Ashley DeHoyos Sauder, curator at Diverse Works, and Coka Treviño, the Founder and Curator of The Projecto, and Artistic Director at Big Medium. A solo museum exhibition from artist Phillip Pyle, II. "So Far So Good" is a survey of the artist's work over the past 12 years. "Pyle is a visual artist, graphic designer, and photographer based in Houston whose primary interests are race, humor, advertising, sports, and popular culture. Mining imagery from sources diverse as mass consumer culture, contemporary advertising, to ephemera, historic imagery, and hip-hop, Pyle, introduces a complex vision that derives from a strong comedic foundation while also looking at the abstraction and transience of our values, and beliefs."

Performance and Reception presented by the Houston Museum of African American Culture

Krista Leigh Steinke: Particles in a Light Beam

Aurora and Basket Books & Art present Particles in a Light Beam as part of 2024 Texas Biennial: The Last Sky. The program features experimental films by Houston artist Krista Leigh Steinke and includes works created in collaboration with Aurora Picture Show dating back to 2016, along with the debut of three new films: Good Luck with the Sun, Pete’s Comet, and A Tiny Red Dot. This body of work incorporates a variety of experimental processes such as homemade cameras, direct animation on film, natural elements, and archival footage. Weaving together visual storytelling and the poetry of materials, this program reflects on life, creation, and the interconnectedness of all living beings. The screening will be followed by a conversation with the artist. Seating is limited and is first come, first served. 

Krista Leigh Steinke is a lens-based artist and experimental filmmaker who regularly exhibits and screens her work in museums, galleries, and film festivals across the country, as well as internationally. Her work has received support from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Puffin Foundation, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the Howard Foundation, among others. In 2024, she received a Jones Art Award, hosted by the Houston Endowment. Steinke holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a MFA from Maryland Institute, College of Art. She divides her time between Houston and rural New York state.

What the Sea Will Say

Houston area artists Debra Barrera and Theresa Escobedo will co-present a cartography and storytelling workshop aimed at discovering, unveiling, and recognizing the pathways of our common ancestors as they maneuvered through the Texas Gulf Coast and Texas/Mexico border. The workshop will investigate historical maps of the region with a focus on the Latinx diaspora. Storytelling will be a powerful means of interpreting and discovering mapping systems that best reflect the surrounding community and uplift other artists. 

RSVP