Muyassar Kurdi: Love Is Blue
Muyassar Kurdi
Curated by Yvena Despagne
Love is blue
And vast. How can you forget?
infinite, ever-expanding. Blue in green
and one of my favorite bass lines, blue in the tide,
endless, timeless, above and below me.
A blue that breathes and laughs and cries.
A blue with an end and a beginning, longing,
reaching, bellowing, undulating.
Blue in solace and uncertainty.
Blue in forgetting, remembering,
all the things I’ve wanted to tell you.
Blue in gentleness, a deepness with no words,
In places I cannot reach, a blue in the last time.
Dreams of blue, floating surrounded
by a cool blue night,
crystal water true blue.
Leaving is blue.
- Muyassar Kurdi
La MaMa Galleria is honored to present Love Is Blue. Love is Blue is an interdisciplinary exhibition which meets at the intersection of film, photography, and painting - blurring the lines and connecting across modalities. At the center of these cinematic works is embodiment, liberation, and a process of decolonization through the lens of an Arab-American woman. It presents a meditation on the color blue, literally and figuratively, and aims to move beyond borders and walls. Experimentation, intuition, and improvisation is at its heart, stepping into the unknown: a ritual and an act of rebellion.
Love is Blue presents aliveness across mediums that emanates empowerment and freedom. Analog photographs paired as diptychs explore nature in relation to the body by pulling the viewer into intimate spaces juxtaposed with vast open landscapes. The geography of the body, boundless, shameless, an attempt at reclaiming her narrative. "Love is Blue", a song by the jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby, adds to the musicality behind this exhibition displaying large-scale oil paintings with sounding gestures and featuring graphic scores that were recently performed at Roulette Intermedium as part of Kurdi’s 2022-23 artist residency. This will be Muyassar Kurdi’s first solo exhibition at La MaMa Galleria.
Artist Talk with Muyassar Kurdi
Saturday, September 9, 2023 at 4–6PM
Moderated by Art Jones and Anna Lustberg
Join artist Muyassar Kurdi for a conversation on her solo exhibition ‘Love Is Blue’, with moderators Art Jones and Anna Lustberg, engaging in lively dialogues on her works of art, currently on view at La Mama Galleria.
Free Admission
BODY POETICS: Voice, Movement, & Improvisation Workshop (1hr 30min)
Saturday, September 16 at 1PM
Instructor: Muyassar Kurdi
Muyassar Kurdi’s workshop focuses on the relationship between body and voice with an emphasis on awareness through movement, spontaneity, and meditative improvisation. Participants will explore sound and movement through exercises built on trust, deep listening, and slow, concentrated, ‘soul’-generated theatrics.
Admission: Adults 18+ | $25 per person
Note: Advanced registration is required. Space is limited; first come, first served. Participants should bring water and wear comfortable clothing. No previous training necessary, all are welcome.
REGISTER HERE
Photo Credit: Steven Baboun
Muyassar Kurdi is a Palestinian-American, and New York City-based interdisciplinary artist, who encompasses sound art, extended vocal technique, performance art, movement, painting, analog photography, and film into her practice. Kurdi has toured extensively in the U.S. and throughout Europe. Through her experimental performance, Kurdi focuses on interweaving homemade electronic instruments into her vocal and dance, stirring a plethora of emotions from her audience members through vicious noise, ritualistic chants, and meditative movements.
www.muyassarkurdi.com | @muyassarkurdi
La MaMa Galleria
Founded in 1984, La Galleria is a nonprofit gallery committed to nurturing experimentation in the visual arts. La Galleria encourages an active dialogue between new media, performance, the plastic and visual arts, curatorial projects, and educational initiatives. It serves the East Village community by offering diverse programming to an inter-generational audience, and expanding the parameters of a traditional gallery space. As a non-profit, La Galleria is able to provide artists and curators with unique exhibition opportunities that are largely out of reach in a commercial gallery setting.