Vivian Varasdi, conoció el amor por pintar desde que era una niña. Su padre fue su fan
número uno, y quien la impulsó a inscribirse a clases de pintura a los doce años en la
escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes en su país natal; República Dominicana.

Por motivos personales, dejó a un lado el arte para hacer de la Producción de Televisión su carrera. Pero pese a trabajar en varios medios de comunicación nacionales e internacionales como Univisión y Telesur, la pintura siempre le llamó la atención.

“ En una cobertura, visité la casa de un artista y quedé impresionada con el arte que
tenía en sus paredes, algunos de ellos de artistas famosos como Picasso. Después de
ese día , me motivé a pintar los cuadros que ahora decoran mi hogar” dice.

El arte además fue su mejor aliado para expresar su amor por el planeta ya que
muchas de sus obras son enfocadas en reciclar y cuidar del medio ambiente.

“Una vez una amiga me regaló un lienzo vacío para mi cumpleaños, y me dijo, “Píntalo” Eso me sorprendió mucho por que esa amiga no sabia que yo pintaba antes! Y gracias a ese gesto logré pintar mi primer cuadro en oleo!”

Vivian, recuerda que al principio sus primeros dibujos eran pequeños y reflejaban
tristeza, pero a medida que pasó el tiempo y su ánimo mejoraba los colores y el contexto de los cuadros eran diferentes; más coloridos y divertidos.

En los últimos años, ha perfeccionado su técnica de pintar, da vuelo a su imaginación y también a su amor y responsabilidad con el medio ambiente. Es así que ahora, muchas de sus pinturas son realizadas con materiales reciclados.

It was my passion to create, the never ending desire to bring the world of my imagination to life,

says Katrina Chiovon about her work.

NUEVA YORK – The organizations HERE and LEIMAY present Correspondences by Ximena Garnica & Shige Moriya, a free outdoor performance-based installation in Manhattan’s Astor Place ponders that will be for the public from October 1st to october 4th 2020.

A presentation of HERE’s new #stillHERE: IRL series, and supported by The Village Alliance, Correspondences has been envisioned by LEIMAY as a hyper-local work that will tour to each of the five boroughs. The installation offers spectators multiple entry points to engage with questions of being, interdependence, and coexistence. In Correspondences, performer, observer, machines, natural elements, and the urban square mingle in an entangled poetic microcosm while opening inquiries into animate life and environmental ethics.

Audiences can safely engage with the installation at any time and also witness 35-minute activations performed by members of the LEIMAY Ensemble.

As part of Correspondences, single bodies are enclosed inside transparent chambers partially filled with sand. Bodies are donned with gas masks as they try, time and again, to rise to standing. At intervals, machines attached to the chambers trigger a blast of sand causing the performers to lose their footing, sinking them back down into the ground. This seemingly perpetual eruption repeats throughout daily performance activation periods of Correspondences, both with and without performers.

How can we reconcile existential tensions between the flow and currents of the animate life of environments in contrast to the human-centered occupation of the world? What happens to our bodies when we encounter the unknown? How are we reshaping environmental ethics? Why are existential questions of being, interdependence, and coexistence, vital in these times of readjustment of powers and values? These are some of the questions Ximena and Shige are asking as New Yorkers, as immigrant people of color from eastern and western hemispheres, as a couple who share a life and artistic partnership, and through the poetic entangled microcosm of Correspondences.

Correspondences is performed by the LEIMAY Ensemble which includes Masanori Asahara, Krystel Copper, and Ximena Garnica, along with guest performers Ricardo Bustamante and Brandon Perdomo. The creative team includes Jeremy D. Slater (soundscape) and Irena Romendik (costume fabrication).

Correspondences will be on view from October 1–4 at the Astor Place Plaza, located at the corner of 8th Street and Lafayette Street in Manhattan. Over the four-day period, 14 activations will take place including October 1 at 8pm; October 2 at noon, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, and 8pm; October 3 at noon, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, and 8pm; and October 4 at noon, 2pm, and 4pm. Correspondences follows strict social distancing and safety guidelines. Please visit here.org for more information.

A series of ancillary actions, running September 21 – November 30, will also take place and include:

Correspondences -The Audience Files: A growing oral and written interactive archive for audiences to engage with over conversation by sharing their responses to questions of being, interdependence, connectivity, and environmental ethics. QR codes located at various tables across the plaza guide audiences to participate both on-site and on-line. Correspondences Audience Files will be open to the public to engage for 30 days starting a week prior to the installation launch. (September 21, 2020 | www.correspondencesfiles.leimay.org)

Correspondences On-Demand:  For a limited period of time, two different art films capturing the meditative nature of Correspondences will be available for on-demand access. (October 1st to November 30 at www.ondemand.leimay.org)

Correspondences Talks: A conversation with guest activists, scholars, designers, and scientists to discuss what “decentering the human” means for them and how this action relates to issues of environmental ethics and social justice. (November 6th, 2020)

Dancing for the Environment:  In support of local and international, indigenous, and immigrant-led organizations working to create a more just world, from the Amazons to the Bronx to LEIMAY’s home neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to Correspondences inaugural site East Village, LEIMAY’s season of Movement Classes for All will culminate with a series of encore classes where 100% of proceeds will be donated to: Organización Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas de la Amazonia Colombiana, Green Worker Cooperatives, El Puente, and the Loisaida Center. (October 6 and October 10, 2020 | register at www.dancingfor.leimay.org)

Correspondences was first developed at LEIMAY’s studio in South Williamsburg, with in-progress performances at the Watermill Center in the summer of 2019.  Correspondences at Astor Place is supported by The Village Alliance, 51 Astor Place, and Café Royal Cultural Foundation.

Dicen que una imagen habla más que mil palabras. 

Con los contrastes de luz, sombras y texturas, Susana Casillas crea un dramatismo que cautiva al espectador y lo invita a reflexionar sobre su yo interior.    La obra de esta artista deviene un análisis del tema de género, donde la mujer cobra protagonismo.   A través de un expresionismo casi brutal, la oscuridad crea un espacio íntimo donde el artista muestra la gama de emociones o estados de ánimo por donde ella transita. No cabe duda que el camino es hacia adentro. A simple vista lo que leo en la obra de Susana es la exploración del yo, un viaje introspectivo que se manifiesta a través de las emociones. El juego del color y las formas se amalgaman con el rostro en una sinergia donde el ser humano es uno con el todo. La sensibilidad a flor de piel.