Artist Talk | LAURA STINGER & THOMAS PILNIK

SCHEDULE | July 30, 18:00
FREE ENTRY *
INFO | residencies@zaratan.pt
SUPPORT | República Portuguesa – Cultura / Direção-Geral das Artes

The Artist Talks offer the community a chance to meet the artists-in-residence at Zaratan and to gain insight into the creative process.
During this encounter Laura Stinger and Thomas Pilnik will introduce briefly their artistic practices and will give us an insight into the exhibitions: “Here is my eyes aren't” and “Ai, Que Coisa Feia”, simultaneously open at Zaratan.

The conversation will be held in english and the participants are encourage to engage.

 

[*In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the conversation takes place outdoors in the Zaratan courtyard, with mandatory use of a mask and limited seating, in compliance with hygiene and safety standards.]

BIOS:

>>> LAURA STINGER is a North American transdisciplinary artist. Laura works in sculpture, performance, collaboration, and research. Their practice coalesces around relationship to nature and the other, seeking to queer/disrupt this binary. Laura's most recent work, "Disturbed Landscapes," (with M Rasmussen) brought together living mycelium sculptures, research, and sound and movement artists to create a shifting installation. The interspecies collaboration imagined an interdependent way of life amidst capitalist induced climate chaos. The work drew from decentralized organizational strategies in nature, such as fungi, to structure the process; each artist added or subtracted to the installation as they wished over one week with no hierarchy determining the creative output. Currently they are continuing work on their decomposing sculptures series which explores the possibility of a monument as a site of constant change instead of history in stasis. The monuments are built from organic materials through a series of scores dictated by a machine learning bot, where the durational flux creates an illegible, non-rational object.
https://www.laurastinger.com/

>>> THOMAS MARTINEZ PILNIK grew up in London to Brazilian parents. He obtained his BA in Studio Art and Cognitive Science from the University of Virginia in 2016, and a Master’s in Education from the University of Southern California in 2020. As a sculptor and installation artist, Pilnik uses his strong global ties intersected with the cultural confusion instigated by his time in the United States to force self-reflection upon his audience as a powerful tool for societal change. He concurrently draws from his experiences questioning and confronting white supremacy in the South, watching his home nations suffer under the strain of late-stage capitalism and democratic challenges, and facing his own existential fears triggered by an understanding of neuropsychological processes.
With few roots but the support of many communities, Pilnik’s work is able to express a wide cross-section of cultural influences and global phenomena, which allows evolutions in his work to occur at a rapid pace. In the spirit of ever-changing landscapes Pilnik is currently pursuing his MFA at the University of Connecticut.
https://tmpilnik.com/