Join us for an interactive artist talk and Q&A with 2020 Bridge Work artists Gillian Drier and Kel Mur about their exhibitions Gillian Drier: Ideas, Ideals, Criticism, and Concerns, and Kel Mur: Reap, currently on view at Arts + Literature Laboratory. The program is hosted by Lisa Shoshany-Anderson, ALL Visual Arts Lead Curator.

Gillian Drier: Ideas, Ideals, Criticism, and Concerns is Drier’s personalized take on quilting through beads, community, and Black future. She invited Black community members to imagine a time when they or their descendants have risen above mere survival into a realm of rest and joy. “What does your day, your community impact, your success, your health, your family, your art, your life look like in a world where Black people can finally rest and the work is complete?” Drier created eight textile and embroidery works that illustrate these visions of Black power and Black future.

Kel Mur: Reap is a multimedia installation that focuses on the artist’s experience living with a large uterine fibroid in her abdomen. The causes of fibroids are not well understood but are thought to be related to a family history of fibroids, diet, excess estrogen collecting in the uterus, and, in some circles, the harboring of emotional or spiritual trauma. With surgery delayed by the pandemic, Mur worked outdoors near a cornfield and collected abandoned stalks, remnants of agriculture that helped her understand the mystery of her body’s fibroid development. Combining weaving, video, performance, and sound, Mur lays bare her own body’s landscape in relation to the natural cycles of the earth, sowing, and reaping.

Sponsored by Dane Arts, Bridge Work Madison is the Dane County chapter of a multi-state project founded by Jason S. Yi and Leah Kolb of Plum Blossom Initiative (Milwaukee), and joined in 2017 by Arts + Literature Laboratory. Bridge Work provides critical opportunities for emerging artists to broaden the scope of their professional connections and experiences. Bridge Work endeavors to forge a more interconnected arts community throughout the Midwest by facilitating meaningful artistic exchanges and dialogs among artists and art-centered organizations and professionals.
The emerging artists invited to participate in this project express the energy, commitment, and willingness to benefit from the resources and guidance provided by each region’s facilitators. A culminating group exhibition brings together a diverse group of artists who are dedicated to their practices and poised to fully engage the contemporary art world. Kel Mur and Gillian Drier will represent Madison in this year’s group exhibition at the Allen Priebe Gallery at UW OshKosh from March 29 to April 14, 2021.

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