Tag: Art & Engagement

HENRIK VIBSKOV: THE BANK IS DEAD ?>

HENRIK VIBSKOV: THE BANK IS DEAD

Sun. 04.27.2025, 4-8pm | 717 Manhattan Ave Brooklyn | Open Call for Fordham Students

Fordham students may apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LMrDVhNLZV6M1ZGfCFbXfi6KVAYmj2FkdTLixbutqlE/edit


Once a space of wealth and restriction, this former bank in Brooklyn New York has been transformed into a soft, surreal stage. Inflatable structures press against the architecture, between floor and ceiling, like swollen memories of security, like the last breath of the institution trying to hold its place in a world that’s moved on.
The printed bank boxes hint at past obsessions with protection and power. They flutter, fly off with the slightest breeze, turning the walls into living symbols of financial volatility.

Dancers, dressed as bankers, perform a 10-minute ritual — echoing, mocking, and ultimately shedding the gestures of the financial world : Their gestures mimic the mechanical rituals of old finance: stamping papers, tightening ties, shaking invisible deal hands. But gradually, their movements loosen, their rhythm breaks, the suits become costumes rather than uniforms. A farewell to a broken system. A welcoming of creative chaos.
All visitors will get a key to the bank box when they arrive at The Bank.  

Fordham University Students – Henrik Vibskov- Bank Is dead – Victor Jeffreys II – mode PR

Presented in partnership with Fordham’s Art & Engagement program and the Center for Community Engaged Learning.

Who is Henrik Vibskov?

Henrik Vibskov is a renowned and award-winning Danish fashion designer, artist, curator and musician.

Although commonly associated with fashion and the twisted yet tantalising universes created around each collection, Henrik’s creative practice covers multiple platforms.

Working in the intersection between art and design, his work ranges from fashion collections to installation, performances and exhibitions, always exploring creativity without limits and adapting the design approach to the changing contexts.

Since his graduation from Central St Martin’s in 2001, he has produced more than 40 fashion collections and exhibited in several international design fairs, festivals and museums all over the world, including MoMA in New York, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa and the ICA in London, to name a few.

Next to the biannual fashion collections, he has also designed costumes for numerous operas and performances, including collaborations with Hotel Pro Forma, the Oslo Opera House, The Swedish National Ballet and the Brussels Opera House.

Most recently he designed the costumes for the ballet “Hammer” by Alexander Ekman at the Gothenburg Opera in Sweden.
As a musician, Henrik keeps himself occupied as a drummer currently with his band Luksus, who are to perform at Syd For Solen Festival 2023 in Copenhagen. He has also played with Hess is More, his own project Mountain Yorokobu, Mikael Simpson and Trentemøller, who he toured the world with for 6 years.

Jarrett Key Visits “Arts, Social Justice & Human Rights” Class ?>

Jarrett Key Visits “Arts, Social Justice & Human Rights” Class

Arts, Social Justice, and Human Rights: Foundations (THEA 4050) is a course that explores the relationship between arts and politics, and arts and community organizations. Taught by Professor Fadi Skeiker, students are encouraged to consider the transformative potential of “Theatre of the Oppressed” and applied theatre in empowering marginalized communities. This semester, students are working on a cumulative project, Two Islands, a play that explores themes of division, cultural identity, and reconciliation.

On March 25th, students in this class had the incredible opportunity to work with Jarrett Key, an artist whose unique background in both fine art and performance brought a fresh and important perspective to their creative process. Known for their powerful work in sculpture, painting, and performance, Key guided the students through a series of devised theater exercises that allowed them to break out of their comfort zones and consider new framework for their class project.

Meet Jarrett Key:

Jarrett Key (b. 1990, Seale, AL) is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Growing up in rural Alabama, Key’s practice draws deeply from their upbringing and the oral histories of the South, while also embracing contemporary modes of expression. After graduating from Brown University in 2013, Key pursued their fine art practice in New York City, later earning an MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2020.

Key’s work integrates sculpture, painting, and performance to create objects that embody multiple forms within one frame. The artist’s exploration of the intersections between history, memory, and contemporary issues is evident in their work, which often addresses the lost stories and historical conditions that shape their life. Their work has been featured in major exhibitions, including their first solo show, From the Ground, Up at 1969 Gallery in 2022, and their recent 40ft mural commission for HMTX Industries in 2023.

A Journey into Land Art and Performance

The workshop began with a presentation by Key, who introduced the students to iconic examples of land art and performance art, such as Richard Long’s “A Line Made By Walking” and Antti Laitinen’s “It’s My Island”. These examples sparked new ideas in the students’ minds, encouraging them to think about how their bodies and the environments around them could serve as effectual tools in creating their own theatrical work. Key’s ability to draw connections between land art, performance, and their own practice gave the students a new perspective on how they could use their bodies and the spaces they inhabit in unforeseen and dynamic ways.

Devised Theater: A Creative Collaboration

Devised theater, which emphasizes collaboration and collective creation, was the perfect framework for Key’s exercises. The students were encouraged to think beyond traditional scripts and explore how physical movement, space, and sound could work together to tell a story. Key led the students through several interactive exercises that encouraged them to tap into their creativity and push the boundaries of their performance. This included a “Song + Dance” Excercise where students were asked to create spontaneous movements and sounds alongside with lyrics they had previously created for Two Islands.

Students also participated in an exercise called “Walking on the Grid” where they walked along a imaginary grid while experimenting with movement, timing, and space. This exercise mirrored the practices of previously discussed land and performance artists, allowing students to explore how their bodies could interact with physical spaces in new and intentional ways. This exercise challenged students to think about how structure and freedom can coexist in performance, and how they might incorporate this into their play.

EMBODYING THE RECORD at UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art ?>

EMBODYING THE RECORD at UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art

On October 12, 2023, UnionDocs collaborated with Fordham University and our Center for Community Engaged Learning and Visual Arts Program, to ask how we might embody found histories.

Fordham students and Lincoln Square community members display collages they created through a workshop with Crystal Z Campbell the day before.

Workshop participants included Helen Cahill, Luisa Coutinho Gazio, Dana Ebralidze, Nicole Estelami, Matthias Lai, Nicole Miceli, Manpreet Singh, Marie Stephen, Herbert McMillon and Michael Nelson.

Beforehand, students had read excerpts from After 1921: Notes from Tulsa’s Black Wall Street and Beyond, a collection of poems, essays, and images edited by artist Crystal Z Campbell and co-published by their Archive Acts (archiveacts.com) and VSW Press.

UnionDocs hosted Crystal Z Campbell and Catalina Alvarez to present work that approaches embodiment and performance of underknown or erased histories. Crystal Z Campbell shared and unpacked their concept of “underloved archives” while Catalina Alvarez shared sequences from Sound Spring, a film that shares resonant overlaps and methodologies.

God Bless the Child | Microscope Gallery ?>

God Bless the Child | Microscope Gallery

At this multimedia event in collaboration with Microscope Gallery and UnionDocs, Fordham students taking “Intro to Art and Engagement” showed work in a program together with internationally acclaimed experimental filmmaker Christopher Harris, on March 12, 2024.

The video installation and performance by Fordham students featured interviews, field recordings, and images of historical documents related to the destruction of the San Juan Hill neighborhood and Lincoln Square community in the 1950s.

The performance was followed by a presentation of God Bless the Child, Christopher Harris’s first autobiographical work.

In God Bless the Child, Harris draws directly from his experience as a foster child. Combining photos, records, and other materials from his personal archives with 16mm film footage he recently shot in Senegal, Harris situates “the carcerality of the social welfare state and child services in relation to Black childhood in the U.S.” within the broader context of the transatlantic slave trade and the French Catholic Church’s colonization of West Africa and the Americas. His hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, is presented alongside Saint-Louis, Senegal, as fraternal colonized twin cities.

The presentation was followed by an open conversation and Q&A with the audience.

The day before, Christopher Harris had lectured on abolitionist filmmaking for various classes taught by Alvarez, as well as Fadi Skeiker’s, THEA 4050 Arts, Social Justice, and Human Rights: Foundations:

These programs were supported by a Fordham University Faculty Challenge Grant and an Interdisciplinary Research Grant.

Materials for the Arts (MFTA) ?>

Materials for the Arts (MFTA)

On September 16, 2024, students in the “Intro to Art & Engagement” course visited Materials for the Arts (MFTA), New York’s largest creative reuse center, to collect their art supplies. Everything at MFTA is free, as it would otherwise be discarded and end up in a landfill!

Afterwards, Education Coordinator, Will Niedmann, led students in a zine-making workshop, using found materials.

This isn’t oral history (learning from the library) ?>

This isn’t oral history (learning from the library)

On Wednesday October 23, 2024, in the Lipani Gallery and the adjacent seminar classroom at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus, there was a quiet and short multimedia installation by students and their interviewees studying the “art of the interview”.

After brief talks from representatives of Landmark West! (Executive Director Sean Khorsandi) and Good Shepherd Faith Presbyterian Church (Michael Nelson, Ronald Woods and Neal Matticks) on topics ranging from urban renewal to urban removal, students presented research talks they had developed with the help of New York Public Library staff (thanks to Mia Brunner of the NYPL General Research Division for her tremendous support, as well as her colleagues in the Picture Collection of the Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs and the Milstein Division of United States History, Local History, and Genealogy).


The installation in the Lipani Gallery included this video by Fordham alumna Nikki Estelami, made with student field recordings and collages made by students and interviews from archival research at NYPL and Fordham University Special Collections.

This isn’t oral history featured presentations by Fordham students Junhan Zhao, Tanvi Shah, Ash Wang, Bhavika Yendapalli, Eric Bishop, Meena Kabbani and Morgan Mueller.

The classes of Professors Fadi Skeiker and Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock attended, along with several other individual guests.

This isn’t oral history was presented by Fordham’s Departments in Theatre and Visual Arts, Anthropology and American Studies.

Loops & Loops ?>

Loops & Loops

(Intro to Art & Engagement: Protest, Participation, the Public & Other Performance Practices)

A very temporary installation

Monday December 16, 2024 | 2-3pm  
Butler Gallery | Fordham College at Lincoln Center | 113 West 60th Street New York

Through a workshop with beck haberstroh and Mira Dayal, authors of Camera of Possibilities: A Workbook Towards a Carrier Bag Theory of Photography, students taking VART 1111 “Intro to Art & Engagement” were asked to think about the ways that text can serve as an invitation for engagement. They considered how invitations might serve as an incentive for someone to join in, and indicate who is invited to participate, how they participate, and what they can expect when they do. At Loops & Loops, our very temporary installation, students used simple prompts to invite the public into challenging and abstract conversations.

Film photos by Suchi Jalavancha:

Elizabeth Weldon offered hushweh she made from a recipe by her sithu and napkins with questions about food and culture for tasters.
It was a very social event

Artworks by VART 1111 students Suchi Jalavancha, Isis Poulose, Shamia Rahman, Veni Rosales, Michelle Rosas Garcia, Pradanya Subramanyan, Elizabeth Weldon and Janson Zheng.

Presented by the Department of Theatre & Visual Arts. Special thanks to Nikki Estelami, Materials for the Arts, and Fordham’s Center for Community Engaged Learning.

Zine by Suchi Jalavancha