Death Becomes Her is a group exhibition on view at BRIC in the Main Gallery, co-curated and in partnership with The Green-Wood Cemetery. The exhibition features ten artists—Mimi Bai, Kim Brandt, Nona Faustine, Rachel Grobstein, Gyun Hur, McKendree Key*, Heidi Lau, Catalina Ouyang, Freya Powell*, and Keisha Scarville—exploring how death and the grieving process impact the living. With an opening reception on Wednesday, February 19, 2020, from 7PM to 9PM, the exhibit runs through April 19, 2020.
These ten female-identifying artists examine loss as a catalyst for self-discovery, its cultural and social associations, and the politics of death and dying. They are inspired by personal traumas, ancient myths, and historic injustices. Through their use of objects and tropes commonly associated with death (such as gravestones, flowers, and shrouds), the artists also expand the visual rhetoric of how the departed are remembered.
The centerpiece of this collaboration is an unusual activation of BRIC’s Main Gallery. The typically open-air space will be transformed into a tomb-like environment with atmospheric lighting and an intimate enclosure intended to facilitate a deeper engagement with the audience. The works on view are introspective and deeply personal, drawing our attention to the universally inevitable concept of death.
*Death Becomes Her will be accompanied by a series of public programs that, like the exhibition, encourage unconventional conversation and personal inquiry around death. Two of the featured artists, McKendree Key and Freya Powell, will present performance art pieces at Green-Wood in lieu of exhibiting work at BRIC. 5 x 10 @ The Catacombs is a special edition of McKendree Key’s ongoing performance project that will present three intimate gatherings in the Catacombs of Green-Wood, bringing strangers together in an artist-led discussion about death, dying, and the hereafter. Freya Powell’s immersive performance project, Only Remains Remain, draws from the Greek tragedy Antigone to create an elegy for the hundreds of unidentified migrants buried in mass graves in Sacred Heart Cemetery in Brooks County, Texas.
Gallery at BRIC House
647 Fulton Street (Enter on Rockwell Place)
Brooklyn, NY 11217
