Artists Statement Also Artist Talk
Intersection*ology is an experimental stage piece and art installation-in-motion co-created and performed by artists Lori Hepner and Kendra Ross. The piece consists of lighting, image and video elements designed by Hepner in conjunction with musical compositions by Ross with their collaborative movement throughout. Working at the intersection between art, gender, race, and technology, Hepner & Ross use light, sound, movement, and image to situate memories of the feminine past and corporeality in the natural world into new, technologically mediated locations and spaces. The artists insert sonic and image-based queries at particular points in how they process women’s pasts into future technological landscapes of digital information. In doing so, Hepner & Ross explore how their physical, female selves are adapting, morphing, rejoicing and revolting to/in how they are perceived both physically and digitally, as their digital ecologies grow parallel to that of their physical ecologies in this new space.
lorihepner.com/intersection-ology
- Lori Hepner (USA) is a fine artist working primarily in conceptually-based photography and LED device artworks to create experimental landscapes regarding personal landscape, memory, and climate change in the Arctic. Lori’s work has been featured in Time Magazine’s Lightbox blog, UK-based Next Level Magazine, and in Wired Magazine and has been exhibited in places such as the Houston Center for Photography, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Brooklyn Museum. She is currently associate professor of integrative arts at Penn State University’s Greater Allegheny campus and lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA. lorihepner.com
- Kendra Ross (USA) is an award-winning songwriter and performing artist. Passionate about the nexus between artistic practice, arts advocacy, scholarship, and social justice, she believes that her worldview as an intersectional feminist both informs and collates her work in all arenas. Kendra has spent the last 15+ years writing, recording, and performing music as a solo act and in collaboration with celebrated artists, such as: Quincy Jones, Talib Kweli, and Res, among others. In 2007, she released her debut album titled, New Voice, which led to her being voted New Artist of the Year by the readers of Soultracks.com. She is currently a PhD candidate (2018) in Community Engagement at Point Park University. kendraross.com
Intersection*ology is supported in part by: The Heinz Endowments Small Arts Initiative; The Opportunity Fund; Penn State Greater Allegheny; & Point Park University. Intersection*ology is a sponsored project of Keyword: International, a collaborative initiative of Kelly-Strayhorn Theater and Carnegie Museum of Art. Keyword: International is supported by The Benter Foundation and The Fine Foundation.