Onyedika Chuke: The Forever Museum Archive_Circa 6000BCE
Muna Malik: Blessing of the Boats
June 12–October 31, 2021
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) is thrilled to announce that The Arts Center at Governors Island—the first year-round, permanent home for the arts on Governors Island curated and presented by LMCC—will re-open to the public on June 12 with commissioned, site-specific exhibitions by internationally renowned artists Meg Webster and Onyedika Chuke and a participatory sculpture installation by Muna Malik.
Running through October 31, the 2021 season presentations push us to examine the fixity of the surrounding world, prompting us to question our social, environmental, and personal structures of justice and our understandings of sustainability. In this exploration, water becomes the undercurrent of the exhibited works at The Arts Center: physically, as the vital life source with which we nourish and grow; and metaphysically, as the ever-shifting entity whose flows inform new ways to interact with and reimagine the world around us.
Meg Webster
Wave
June 12–October 31
Thursday–Sunday, 12–5 p.m.
Curated by Alice Russotti, LMCC
Meg Webster’s work is grounded in an unwavering interest in natural cycles and how a nuanced combination of form, material and site can come together to create diversely charged ecological systems. Layering the trace of ancient growth onto real-time germination, the installation subtly inflects the arc of our understanding of natural time, reorienting the viewer towards a more expansive understanding of their relationship to the environment both in terms of what has been engineered within the gallery and what occurs naturally beyond it.
Onyedika Chuke
The Forever Museum Archive_Circa 6000BCE
June 12–October 31
Thursday–Sunday, 12–5 p.m.
Presented in partnership with Pioneer Works, curated by Gabriel Florenz
Onyedika Chuke’s ongoing project The Forever Museum Archive (2011–present) dissects the mythologies of power within the fabric of contemporary society. This latest iteration—co-commissioned by LMCC and Pioneer Works—features a monumental 2,200 sq ft installation. A culmination of research conducted by the artist/archivist on Rikers Island (2018-19), Rome (2015), and Libya (2011), the work weaves together postcolonial theory with material workmanship to analyze the origins of the carceral state, military, and religion.
Muna Malik
Blessing of the Boats
June 12–October 31
Thursday–Sunday, 12–5 p.m.
Muna Malik’s Blessing of the Boats is an interactive, participatory sculpture constructed of mirrored and transparent materials, creating a matrix of reflections that fractures and reassembles the physical surrounding. Conceptually, the work matches this potential for reconfiguration by engaging with the audience through a prompt, asking: “We have an opportunity to set sail towards a new future. What society would you build and how do we get there?” Writing responses onto origami paper boats that each participant builds themselves, the work activates the audiences in thought, supporting them as they make their first step towards becoming agents of change.
Visit LMCC.net for more information and ticketing. LMCC programs and events are free and open to all.
Supporters
The 2021 season of programming at The Arts Center at Governors Island is made possible, in part, by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Con Edison.
Meg Webster: Wave is underwritten by UGG®. Special thanks to Paula Cooper Gallery.
Meg Webster’s Pollinating Garden, presented by LMCC in partnership with GrowNYC’s Teaching Garden, is part of the exhibition Wave presented at The Arts Center at Governors Island.
Onyedika Chuke: The Forever Museum Archive_Circa 6000BCE is presented in partnership with Pioneer Works.
Onyedika Chuke: The Forever Museum Archive_Circa 6000BCE is supported in part by the Art for Justice Fund, the ForGood Fund, Foster Pride, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and Young New Yorkers.
LMCC is also grateful to our many capital supporters. For a list of capital supporters, please visit lmcc.net.
LMCC additionally acknowledges our partnership with the Trust for Governors Island.
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC)
T 212 219 9401 / info [at] lmcc.net
Press inquiries: Chris Schimpf at Sacks & Company
