July 30, 2020 at 7pm CT

curated by AJ McClenon

Jared Brown, AJ McClenon, & Amina Ross

AJ MCCLENON

AJ McClenon was born and raised in "D.C. proper" and is currently based in Chicago using performance practices, sound, video, movement, theater, and writing to share experiences living in a Black body. AJ holds a Master in Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received a Bachelor of Arts with a minor in creative writing from the University of Maryland, College Park and has also studied at The New School. AJ is interested in leveling the hierarchies of truth and hopes that all the memories and histories that are said to have “too many Black people” are told and retold again.

AMINA ROSS

An undisciplined creator, Amina Ross creates boundary-crossing works that embrace embodiment, imaging technologies, intimacy, and collectivity in physical and digital spaces. Amina has exhibited work, spoken on panels, and taught workshops at venues throughout the United States. Amina's intention within a media-centering practice is to engage sensuality and sense-perception as modes of reclaiming the body. Amina is a 2018-2019 Artist-in-Residence at Arts & Public Life and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago.

As an educator, Amina is an adjunct lecturer in the Contemporary Practices department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Co-Lead Artist of Teen Creative Agency at the Museum of Contemporary Art. 

As a cultural organizer, Amina is curator of ECLIPSING, a multi-media festival celebrating darkness.

JARED BROWN

Jared Brown is an interdisciplinary artist born in Chicago. In recent work, Jared has been broadcasting audio and text based work through the radio (CENTRAL AIR RADIO, 88.5 FM), in live DJ sets, and on social media. They consider themselves a data thief, understanding this role from John Akomfrah’s description of the data thief as a figure that does not belong to the past or present. As a data thief, Jared Brown makes archeological digs for fragments of black American subculture, history and technology. Jared repurposes these fragments in audio, text, and video to investigate the relationship between history and digital, immaterial space. Jared Brown holds a BFA in video from the Maryland Institute College of Art and moved back to Chicago in 2016 in order to make and share work that directly relates to their personal history.