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Devotion | Patti Smith
Patti Smith and RISD Museum
September 27, 2017, 7:00pm - 8:30pm, RISD Museum. Renowned artist and author Patti Smith reads from her latest book, Devotion, a detailed account of her own creative process, inspirations, and unexpected connections. Sold out event. Limited seating, pre-registration required. Limit of 4 tickets per person. All prices include a copy of Devotion and are non-refundable.
Live simulcast available at the RISD Museum’s Metcalf Auditorium, 20 North Main Street, for free on a first come, first served basis. A limited number of free student tickets available through a lottery system through RISD’s Center for Arts & Language.
Patti Smith is a writer, performer, and visual artist. Her memoir Just Kids received a National Book Award, and her recent book M Train is a critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller. Smith was awarded the prestigious title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French Republic. Her seminal album Horses has been hailed as one of the top 100 albums of all time, and in 2007 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Smith lives in New York City.
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Critical Encounters: Egúngún Masquerade Ensembles
Bolaji Campbell, Henry J. Drewal, Thierry Gentis, Kate Irvin, Alagba Babatunde Akinsegun, and RISD Museum
Discussion held October 16th, 2016 at 2:00pm in the Chace Center, RISD Museum, Providence, RI.
Egúngún masquerade regalia is constructed from disparate layers that are appliqued, patched, and sewn into panels or lappets. Some of the oldest cloth—often locally handwoven—is found at the core of each ensemble, while the outer layers present more contemporary textiles drawn from the global market. Bold and vibrant, these assemblages on view in the exhibition, Whirling Return of the Ancestors: Egúngún Masquerade Ensembles of the Yorùbá, are multidimensional feasts for the senses. During this lively exchange, curators, art historians, and artists unfolded the material lives of these ensembles. Drawn from the collection of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, and presented in an art and design context, intended to be animated by movement, but presented in stillness, made and remade, these ensembles allow us to consider the conventions and parameters of academic disciplines and museum practices as well as the interrelationships between ritual, trade, and processes of making.
Speakers included: Bolaji Campbell, co-curator, professor and department head in RISD’s History of Art and Visual Culture; Henry J. Drewal, co-curator, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Afro-American Studies; Thierry Gentis, Curator/NAGPRA Coordinator, Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology; Kate Irvin, curator of costume and textiles at the RISD Museum; and artist Alagba Babatunde Akinsegun.
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A Conversation with Kara Walker
RISD Museum and Kara Walker
Accomplished artist Kara Walker (RISD MFA 1994, Painting/Printmaking), winner of a MacArthur “genius” fellowship, is best known for her candid investigation of race, gender, sexuality, and violence through silhouetted figures that have appeared in numerous exhibitions worldwide. The RISD Auditorium was full to capacity for this much-anticipated Artist Talk. This video was produced by RISD Museum.
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Critical Encounters: Kicking the Machine | a discussion between Todd Oldham and Wendy Goodman
Todd Oldham, Wendy Goodman, and RISD Museum
Hacking traditional manufacturing processes and manipulating materials in unexpected ways defined Todd Oldham’s fashion design methodology—characterized by reinterpreting and reimagining embroidery, wool, crystals, dyes, sequins, and even historic textile manufacturing methods. Oldham and Wendy Goodman, design editor at New York magazine, reflect on this intensive design process in the context of the 1990s, and discuss how Oldham’s innovations to garment-making standards reverberate today.