Discrit|Atlanta Contemporary

Join us for an afternoon of edification, creative collaboration, and community that celebrates both the revolutionary work of Benjamin Patterson but also the creativity we have within us all.

In Performance Study: Ben Patterson, a performance art workshop centered on Fluxus co-founder Benjamin Patterson (1934-2016), art historian and Patterson scholar julia elizabeth neal introduces participants to the ideas and key works by this pioneering 20^th_century artist. Between a series of short lectures from julia, participants will break into small groups to create and share impromptu interpretations of Patterson’s instruction-based work. Conducted entirely on Zoom, Performance Study is a dynamic event suitable for those new, old, and in-between to Patterson’s work and to performance art more generally. Join us for an afternoon of edification, creative collaboration, and community that celebrates both the revolutionary work of this artist but also the creativity we have within us all.

This virtual lecture will be streamed via Zoom. Register here and receive a reminder to join.

Watching via Zoom
Viewers can watch via Zoom. Zoom participants can join in via audio, video, and text chat during the open conversation portion of the lecture. Zoom participants are capped at 100 people.

Zoom Conversation guide

First-time users can watch this video on how to join a Zoom meeting.

Zoom viewers will enter the conversation with audio and video muted. Please stay muted until the open conversation portion. We promise we want to talk to you!
Start by introducing yourself with your name and pronouns.
We are here to grow and learn! Be open to different styles and areas of knowledge.
Share the floor – Be conscious of others joining in with questions and comments.

Bios

Discrit

Discrit (“critical discourse” / “discourse critique”) is an initiative of public knowledge-sharing and discussion. Spanning lectures, seminar-style discussions, critiques, and screenings, Discrit provides the public with programming dedicated to explorations of contemporary art and culture and free, university-quality art education. Discrit is Joey Molina and Chris Fernald.

Joey Molina

Joey Molina is a multi-disciplinary artist and scholar working between video, installation, and collage. Their work engages with visual culture as material, object, and ephemera. Molina’s research interests include horror films, queer theory, and new media. They received their BA from Georgia State University in 2013 and will be on track for their MA in Film and Video at Georgia State University in Fall 2020.

Chris Fernald

Chris Fernald is an artist, writer, and cultural programmer. He is the Co-Founder of Discrit and a Graduate Student in the History of Art at Williams College. His work has been exhibited in group shows in New York and Mexico City, and his poetry and art criticism have seen publication in both Canada and the US. His writing and creative work often examine how modernity’s crises disassemble and re-constitute notions of personhood. Recurring subjects of interest include techno-spirituality, post-human cosmologies, lifestyle minimalism, animism, and the digital’s relation to the afterlife. He received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2013.

julia elizabeth neal

Art historian and writer julia elizabeth neal (she/her) specializes in modern and contemporary art in the United States, with a particular focus on conceptual and performance-based practices by Black artists engaging politics of identity and (trans)nationalism since the “post-war” era. Her current project, Who Taught You to Think (Like That): Benjamin Patterson’s Conceptual Aesthetic historicizes the artist’s persistent practice of deconstructing sociocultural perceptions and value systems. Presently Neal is “dissertating” to complete doctoral candidacy at the University of Texas at Austin. Her dissertation is supported by the German-American Fulbright Commission, the Terra Foundation for American Art, and the Getty Research Institute.
As consultant to the Estate of Benjamin Patterson, Neal completed Performance Works within the Estate of Benjamin Patterson: A Catalogue Raisonné Volume I (October 2020, pp. 1-118, forthcoming), the first medium-specific volume inventorying works in-situ in Hamburg. Neal has contributed research and writing for varied institutions and periodicals, including Suzanne Jackson: Five Decades, Texte zur Kunst, NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, all-over Magazin für Kunst und Äesthetik, and Common Wealth: Art by African Americans in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Neal has since pursued professional projects keen to critical historiography and African American Art history, which involves lecturing at Georgia State University and participating in panels at the College Art Association’s Annual Conference with regard to critical and liberatory pedagogies.

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Contemporary Talks focuses on artists’ projects, curatorial platforms, and contemporary theory and connects you with individuals who represent a diverse range of disciplines as they consider, examine, and question contemporary art.