Harsh Noise: Conversation with Autumn Chacon

In this episode we hear from Diné and Xicana sound artist Autumn Chacon who uses her activism, art practice and community involvement to communicate as a contemporary storyteller both locally and internationally. Autumn starts the conversation with reflection on the term Artist and how claiming this identity allows for a breaking of the rules institutional working environments do not allow. We talk about sound and noise art, the complications of being a conceptual artist, and Anarchism as a way to force understanding. We learn how Autumn became an activist at a young age, informed by her parents and their generations' advocacy and frontline work. Autumn shares her cultural relationship to sound and waveforms and how she has committed her life's work to the deconstruction of ownership and forced regulations - which she carries out in all facets of her artistic practice. We look at the global solidarity that was formed at Standing Rock during the NODAPL action and Autumn reflects on her time in the movement. Autumn breaks down a global performative action she organized with other Indigenous women in order to block funding for extractive industry and which has been formatted and used in actions globally. We end our conversation with Autumn's work as a pirate radio engineer and we learn how broadcast transmission plays an important role in her art practice - breaking the boundaries of how art is accessed in institutional spaces. She pays homage to the long lineage and power of “illegal” broadcasting and reflects how pirate radio forces us to ask an important question: ‘Who do you ask permission to, and why?’ Autumn’s sovereign communication tactics and long standing work as a sound artist and broadcast engineer continues on from a long line of activists who have used waveform as a critical tool for survival and communication during resistance. Autumn urges us to bring front and center an awareness of an ongoing silent struggle for our rights - reminding us to pay attention. 

End track: Glory Horse by Tenderizor
Broken Boxes Podcast intro music by India Sky

Multiplicity Of Truths: Conversation with CASSILS

In this episode of Broken Boxes we hear recurring host and artist Cannupa Hanska Luger in conversation with Cassils, a transgender artist who makes their own body the material and protagonist of their performances. Cassils’s art contemplates the history(s) of LGBTQI+ violence, representation, struggle and survival. For Cassils, performance is a form of social sculpture: Drawing from the idea that bodies are formed in relation to forces of power and social expectations, Cassils’s work investigates historical contexts to examine the present moment.

In the conversation, Cassils speaks to recent and landmark projects including Monument Push, a multi pronged experiential work and reaction to Trans violence, and In Plain Sight, a national activation responding to policed migration and created in collaboration with dozens of artists across the nation. They speak to the larger ideas that shape their practice, including how their work explores the violence, resilience, strength and vulnerability of the body. They unpack the ethos behind their collaboration with other community members, how the audience becomes archive in their practice, and the importance of restructuring systems of care in large projects to actively dismantle the notion that those directly impacted should shoulder the burden alone. They see a desperate need to uplift complexity and productive disagreement to move us forward collectively and share how they exercise this communication model as an educator. Cassils reminds us of the potential of art, that within the space of making, our agency cannot be taken. Cassils ends the conversation reading an excerpt from a powerful essay by James Baldwin regarding the artist's responsibility to ”...drive to the heart of every answer and expose the question that the answer hides.”

Cassils has had recent solo exhibitions at HOME Manchester, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Perth Institute for Contemporary Arts, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, NYC; Institute for Contemporary Art, AU; Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts; Bemis Center, Omaha; MU Eindhoven, Netherlands.They are the recipient of the National Creation Fund, a 2020 Fleck Residency from the Banff Center for the Arts, a Princeton Lewis Artist Fellowship finalist, a Villa Bellagio Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, a United States Artist Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Creative Capital Award. Cassils is an Associate Professor in Sculpture and Integrated Practices at PRATT Institute.

CASSILS WEBSITE
Featured Song: Yoko Ono "Walking On Thin Ice" Dj's Transition Edit

Origin Story: Ginger Dunnill interviewed by Amaryllis DeJesus Moleski to celebrate 9 Years of Broken Boxes Podcast

This episode marks 9 years of the independently produced archival broadcasting project Broken Boxes. For this special anniversary episode, creator and producer Ginger Dunnill is interviewed by Artist and friend Amaryllis DeJesus Moleski. This is the first time Ginger has ever been interviewed on the project and the conversation provides a deeper look into the intentions of Broken Boxes, Ginger’s journey as an artist and her reflections on the very ideas she often draws out from those who participate in the project. In celebration of Broken Boxes 9 year trajectory, recently featured artist and friend India Sky composed new intro music for the podcast to carry us into the next year. Following the conversation is an excerpt from a DJ mix created by Miss Ginger from a recent Southwest tour. Gratitude to Amaryllis for making space for us to turn the tables on the conversation. 

Launched in 2014 by Artist Ginger Dunnill, Broken Boxes was created to transmit ideas between working Artists. The project shares the lived experiences and world building strategies of contemporary Artists in order to archive collective strength while considering how Art and imagining may unbind us from collective social trauma. This long-form interview podcast reflects the vulnerability and strength of the Artist while acknowledging the many variations of an Artist's practiced values including those of the activist, advocate, disruptor or culture activator.

Broken Boxes maintains that complexity is resilience. By actively practicing long term alliance through communication strategy, this work amplifies Artists at the forefront of global and regional impact who are creating new ways to see our existence through Art, organizing and advocacy. This project promotes deeper understanding, healing and solidarity as we move collectively towards witnessing each other and the world in new ways.

“I strive in all I do to build a living archive in celebration of our interconnection as complex and vibrant humans working together to witness each other heal and thrive as we activate the Artworld. I am inspired to create work and amplify artists' stories which center intersection and complexity within the human experience. Throughout my practice I am committed to sharing and learning with my peers how our stories intersect, how we can maintain solidarity for one another and how we can practice tangible acts of care and respect while acknowledging there are many expansive community values existing in tandem.” - Ginger Dunnill, Broken Boxes Podcast

Broken Boxes creator and Artist Ginger Dunnill centers human complexity and intersection through sound composition, performance, broadcasting and advocacy driven communication efforts in order to create a living archive of solidarity. For over two decades she has produced experiential artwork and organized numerous exhibitions and social engagement projects globally, activating transformative justice practices through long term acts of respect, relationship building and accountability in the Arts. As a practicing artist, Ginger has exhibited internationally at institutions such as The Whitney Museum of American Art, Smack Mellon, Washington Project for the Arts and Io Deposito in Italy, among others. She is currently touring as a DJ and continues to produce large scale projects in collaboration with other artists. 

Ginger is interviewed by Amaryllis DeJesus Moleski. Amaryllis is a Queer Puerto Rican American artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Raised between multiple cities and rural communities across America in a constantly shifting landscape, her practice explores themes of hybridity, mythology and sexuality. Utilizing drawings, video, sculpture, performance and installation, her work is a visual language paying attention to the spaces in-between categories, and revering those that know the trouble and pleasure there. Amaryllis has exhibited both nationally and internationally and earned an MFA from the Yale School of Art, a BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts, she is a Joan Mitchell Fellow and a Creative Capital Awardee.

Bright Sounds: Conversation with Laura Ortman

Broken Boxes met up with musician and composer Laura Ortman during her Artist Residency at the Institute of American Indian Arts for this episode where we chatted about her long love affair with the violin, how music has supported her in navigating the ups and downs in life and the value of the violin in contributing to collaboration and transcending art mediums. Laura reflects on how she stays centered while constantly traveling as a practicing artist and she speaks about being DIY to a fault, how she is learning to accept support from community, grants and residencies along the way. She shares about her upcoming album and the components she put forward in creating the record, including songwriting and archival field recordings. We hear a bit about a recent performance at SITE Santa Fe - which was days away when we recorded this broadcast - and where she performed a site specific performance on artist Pedro Reyes’ Disarm Violin, an instrument made from decommissioned gun parts. She spoke to the importance of long term collaborative relationships as a way to sustain community connections and combat isolation and offered some sound advice to not throw away ideas that don’t resonate in the moment, to be patient with the process, and come back to a work that isn’t quite fitting in the now. As we spoke, the artists' effect pedals and violin were set up around us and we ended the broadcast with Laura sharing a powerful live mini performance session. 

Laura Ortman, a member of the White Mountain Apache tribe, is a musician and composer who creates across multiple platforms, including albums, live performance, field recordings, and video works. As a soloist, Ortman performs on amplified and Apache violin, vocals, piano, electric guitar, and keyboard. She has performed and presented work nationally and internationally at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2021); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2019); the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, Toronto, Canada (2017, 2011); Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Canada (2017); and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2009). Ortman is a 2022 recipient of the United States Artists Fellowship.

Listen to Laura’s work on Bandcamp

Dark Symphony: Conversation with India Sky

In this episode we hear from multidisciplinary artist India Sky whose art practice of music, moving image, installation, dance and performance investigates the invisible forces of ancestry, power and spirit that shape her experience, and engages radical imagination as a source for transformation, communion, homecoming, liberation, and survival. Her work as a stage and video/film director, producer, choreographer and performer is guided by her passion for world making and her practice of creating and contributing to platforms that uplift Black, queer and femme voices.  India received a BA in Theater with a minor in Media Arts from Antioch College in 2008 and an MA in Artist Film and Moving Image from Goldsmiths University of London in 2020.

Somewhere Over The Mystic Moon releases February 5, 2023 and is the premiere full length album by India Sky. Image credit: Ethan Lyles

In our conversation, India shares about the journey to her debut album, Somewhere Over The Mystic Moon, which will be available everywhere February 5th 2023. We also chat about how she has activated music and performance throughout her life, how she accesses pole dancing as a conduit between worlds and holds deep respect for the craft as an endurance practice. We learn of her reverence for the ancestors from the disco era, her foundational work with Queer and BIPOC Circus Arts and India unpacks how she continues to engage somatic therapy through her art, tending to the vulnerability inherent in performance while finding joy and empowerment in the work. Our conversation also expands to acknowledging the body as a guide for understanding self, how creativity is a way to connect with a power that is beyond self and that our perception of the world is our own.  In ending our conversation India shares resources around African cosmogram, Afro Surrealism, the incredible Queer and Black Femme art and music scene in Oakland and she gifts a bit of knowledge on how utilizing the moon cycle can act as an accountability mechanism to check into our intentions monthly.

Learn more about India Sky and her work and music on her website

Song Featured: Dark Symphony from Over The Mystic Moon by India Sky