Ilana Coleman (Film/Video MFA 17), Deborah Goffe (Dance MFA 01), Clara Philbrick (Art BFA 17) and Jessie Closson (Film/Video MFA 18) are among the recipients of the 2022 Creative Capital Awards, which were announced on Jan. 12.
The 2021 cycle drew more than 4,000 submissions, awarding 59 individual artists representing 50 projects. The select projects, which represent various creative disciplines and multidisciplinary practices, will receive up to $50,000 in funding from the nonprofit grantmaking organization, as well as additional career development services.
Coleman and Jamie Gonçalves were awarded for their feature film The Inventory, in which a faltering bureaucracy results in the disappearance of more than 80,000 children. More about the film from Creative Capital:
When a committee of bureaucrats realize they’ve lost a word for the upcoming edition of the dictionary, they work through a series of Kafkian protocols to find it. Set against the lived realities of mothers recounting their own experiences of searching for their children, and the subsequent deadends and undying trauma brought on by a broken bureaucratic system. As the committee treks further into their obligation they face waves of panic, fear and, eventually, indifference.
The film depicts the power of language, and how its deconstruction in social and historical contexts shapes new realities.
Goffe was awarded for Liturgy|Order|Bridge, a performance installation inspired by Black church traditions seeking to make the barrier between performers and audience more porous through dance. More about the project from Creative Capital:
The reorienting and restorative power of collective movement, clapping, vocalization, and call and response stirs the space, and reconciles the complexities of individual voice with the synchronicity of group-body in swells of mutuality. This church service weaves three simultaneous scores, organized around the intersection of identities, sense of place, and commitments to support one another.
By positioning dance as a liturgy’s chief organizing principle, viewers are invited to ponder the implications of engaging in dance as a communal and faith-based practice.
The Revolution School, a collective comprised of Philbrick, Closson, Jennifer Moon, and Devin Alejandro-Wilder, was awarded for My Little BEI 🤖🐱: Robot Animal Familiars. The project invokes BEIs (Belief Entity Identifiers), artificial intelligence in the form of robotic animals or mobile applications, as a vehicle to connect to the microbiota within one’s own intestinal tract. More about the project from Creative Capital:
Connecting to our gut’s “second brain,” BEIs 🤖🦁 are trusted and beloved companions helping us process cyclical underlying traumas and feelings that are produced by and perpetuate systems of oppression. My Little BEI’s 🤖🦆 ultimate forms are an infinite variety of fantastical, lifelike robot animals of your design that connect to the “second brain” in one’s gut microbiome using complex “quantum physics/diffractive” AI.
The Revolution is currently collaborating with computer scientists and engineers to present a simpler version of the experience in a smartphone app titled My Little BEI 🤖🐠.
“Creative Capital believes that funding the creation of new work by groundbreaking artists is vital to the vibrancy of our culture, society, and our democracy,” Creative Capital President and Executive Director Christine Kuan noted in the official release. “We are dedicated to supporting artists who are pushing boundaries and asking challenging questions—especially now when new ideas are critical to imagining our future.”
Check out the full list of winning artists and projects on Creative Capital’s official site.