Transformer

All day screening of Old Lines from the Luminous State

t r a n s f o r m e r
1404 P Street NW Washington, DC 20005 | 202.483.1102 | www.transformerdc.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For further information contact: Ebony Dumas
10.26.11 ebony@transformergallery.org | 202.483.1102
Transformer is pleased to present our first comprehensive Storefront Video exhibition:
Storefront Video
October 29 – December 4, 2011
Nearly a year after Transformer’s December 1, 2010 storefront screening of
an edited version of David Wojnarowicz’s A Fire in My Belly, screened in a
direct response to the Smithsonian Institution’s censorship of a similar work
from the National Portrait Gallery’s Hide/Seek exhibition, Transformer revisits
the use of our storefront space as a way to interact with audiences through the
sidewalk presentation & viewing of video.
Working in collaboration with a diverse range of artists and organizations in the development of this program,
Transformer launches Storefront Video with works from the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum’s ARTLAB+ program, a
design studio for teens (www.artlabplus.si.edu). ARTLAB+ guest filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu, curator of the
ARTLAB+ Film Forum program, has guest curated a special selection of Film Forum videos especially for
Transformer’s Storefront Video exhibition.
Storefront Video launches at noon on Saturday, October 29 with Cameltooth Curtain, 2005 and Whip What Stat,
2009 by CamLAB (a Jemima Wyman and Anna Mayer Collaboration), as well as Untitled, 2009 by Akosua
Adoma Owusu. This screening will run continuously through to 11:59am on Monday, October 31.
Additional works from the ARTLAB+ Film Forum program, as well as works by teen participants of ARTLAB+ will
screen each weekend throughout the run of Storefront Video. Participating Artists include: Iram Parveen Bilal,
Laura Bouza, Julia Brown, CamLab, Diana-Sofia Estrada, Kevin Jerome Everson, Charles
Fairbanks, Lindsay Foster, Victoria Fu, Hong Huynh, Eliza Hittman, Caroline Key, Assia Lakhlif,
Elana Mann, Kirthi Nath, Natasha Ngaiza, Julie Orser, Stephanie Owens, Akosua Adoma
Owusu, Ali Prosch, Dinorah de Jesus Rodriguez, Elleni Sclavenitis, April Totten, Carlin Wing,
Zina Saro-Wiwa, & Michiko Yao.
In tandem with these ARTLAB+ artists, Storefront Video will also feature works by: Forest Allread, Wilson
Butterworth, Micaela Durand, Billy Friebele, Felicia Glidden, Travis Hallenbeck, Michael Dax
Iacovone, Carolina Mayorga, William McKenna, Kendall Nordin, Bart O’Reilly, Jordan Swartz,
Lisa Marie Thalhammer and more!
Transformer will close out Storefront Video December 1-4, 2011with a special screening of Untitled, a new video
work by Jim Hodges, Carlos Marques da Cruz, and Encke King. Marking World AIDS Day / Day With(out) Art
2011, Untitled is a non-linear montage of archival and pop footage recalling the passionate activism sparked by
the early years of the AIDS crisis. Un-spooling at multiple levels, the narrative flies between scenes of tragic
brutality to kitschy humor, arch clips of laughter and ironic surprises while shredding traditional chronology. Many
references - the title, short excerpts from Golden Girls and Dynasty, popular songs, and contemporary issues - nod
towards Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ oeuvre, but the film is not an attempt to portray the artist; rather, it places the
viewer “in his room.” In this way, the framing of the artist becomes a means to project any number of people,
endlessly. This video is present courtesy of Visual AIDS: http://visualaids.blogspot.com/
t r a n s f o r m e r
1404 P Street NW Washington, DC 20005 | 202.483.1102 | www.transformerdc.org
Storefront Video Exhibition Hours: Works will be on view 24 hours a day, 7 days a week beginning
Saturday, October 29 at noon. New works will screen Mon – Saturday at noon. A full schedule will be released
weekly on Transformer’s new website www.transformerdc.org & our facebook page.
ArtLab is a dynamic and dedicated community space in the Hirshhorn Museum’s Sculpture Garden. It gives DC
area teens access to up-to-date technology, the support of artist-mentors, and access to the vast physical and
virtual resources of the Smithsonian. The space has a sound booth, gaming area, and DropZone - a regular
afterschool program with weekend hours. Teens can drop in to play video games, socialize with friends, access
equipment, meet with mentors or in clubs, plan productions or take a workshop. They create their own experience
and the museum supports them with resources to build & realize their own projects. Regular workshops with artist
experts draw inspiration from the collection, current exhibitions or the DC community. Many of the projects teens
create through ARTLAB+ programs are challenge-based with real world applications to the museum or their
communities.
Film Forum is a component of ARTLAB+ where teens and guest filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu curate a
festival of experimental film and video shorts from 6-7pm on Wednesday nights. Film Forum exposes teens to a
range of filmmaking styles and subjects, giving them a forum to discuss and influence each other’s views on film
and video. This event is ongoing, free and open to any teen interested in dropping in.
Akosua Adoma Owusu is a US born filmmaker and artist of Ghanaian descent. She received her MFA in film,
media and art at CalArts and BA at the University of Virginia. Owusu's films are richly informed by traditions in
avant-garde filmmaking, cultural identity, and African storytelling. Her films and installations have exhibited
worldwide including MoMA, The National Gallery of Art, Rotterdam Film Festival, Viennale, and London Film
Festival. Shortly after graduating from CalArts, she became the youngest of 42 black conceptual artists featured in
the group exhibition, 30 Seconds Off an Inch, at the famed Studio Museum in Harlem, where she also exhibited
solo video projects. Owusu’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington City Paper, SF Weekly, and
was selected in ArtForum's Top 10 in 2010. Her critically acclaimed film, ME BRONI BA (My White Baby) was
honored with screenings at over 60 international film festivals worldwide. She was a featured artist at the 56th
Robert Flaherty Film Seminar and teaches in film and video at ARTLAB+ in the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum.
A full programming schedule for ARTLAB+ can be found at: artlabplus.si.edu. A virtual tour created by Will
Beaman, ARTLAB+ teen communications intern can be found at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tzaW_Wb9ok.
Image credit: Cameltooth Curtain, 2005 (still), DVD, 5:30 minutes by CamLab
t r a n s f o r m e r is a Washington, DC based 501 (c) 3 artist-centered non-profit visual arts organization, providing a
consistent, supportive, and professional platform for emerging artists to explore and present experimental artistic concepts,
build audiences for their work, and advance their careers. A catalyst and advocate for contemporary artists and emergent
expression in the visual arts, Transformer connects and promotes emerging visual artists within regional, national and
international contexts through exhibition and programs partnerships with artists, curators, commercial galleries, museums and
other cultural institutions.
Transformer's 2011/12 exhibition series and programs are supported by: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts,
The CrossCurrents Foundation, The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities/NEA, The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz
Foundation, The Robert Lehman Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts’ Access to Artistic Excellence award, and
The Visionary Friends of Transformer – individual donors & sponsors of our Annual Auction & Collector’s View series.

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