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Inside Out: Artists in the Community II:
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About the project: Over the past six months, Kianga Ford has explored Winston-Salem to research its history, speak with members of the community, walk its neighborhoods, collaborate with local musicians, and imagine lives shaped by the city's patterns of settlement, de-segregation, and industrialization. In the audio-based artwork 34 x 52 x 40, she translates this information into a series of three guided walks and a driving tour of Winston-Salem. These narratives place us into the headspace of fictional characters inspired by the history and character of our city. |
As part of its 2009 public art program Inside Out: Artists in the Community II, SECCA was proud to launch Kianga Ford's 34 x 52 x 40 on Wednesday, August 5th at The Garage. In the next chapter of Ford's ongoing The Story of this Place series, the title of this project refers to Forsyth County as the 34th County of North Carolina (in slang, the "Tres-Fo") and its evolving relationship with the major North/South highway (52) and the major East/West highway (40) of Winston-Salem.
In conjunction with the National Black Theatre Festival, and in ongoing partnership with the Delta Arts Center, this special event celebrated the work's provocative marriage of theatre, music, and spoken word. Over the past half-year, Ford has explored Winston-Salem to research its history, speak with members of the community, walk its neighborhoods, and imagine lives shaped by the city's patterns of settlement, desegregation, and industrialization. She has shaped this material into a series of audio-guided "walks."
As part of 34 x 52 x 40, Ford has collaborated with the experimental, North Carolina-based band Turbo Pro Project. Their innovative fusion of Americana, Bluegrass Banjo, Hip Hop and R&B provided the platform for Ford's spoken word, as she introduced a project that inspires people to see our city anew.
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The Turbo Pro Project is the brainchild of Adrian "Turbo" Trbovich, who started the band as an experimental platform for exchange between Americana, Bluegrass banjo, Hip Hop, and R&B. Since it's inception in 2007, the band's roster has grown to include Chris "DJ Pro" Prear on turntables, Milton "DJ Deacon" Cockerham on beats and turntables, Kenn Smith on bass, Kim France and Martha Bassett on upright bass and guitar, and vocalist Ryan "RnB" Barber on keyboards. These members come from across North Carolina (including Wilkesboro, Graham, Asheville, Boone and Winston-Salem), and gather in different arrangements to create a contnuously evolving sound. Described in various terms as "Banjo Hip Hop Fusion," "Neo-Americana" and "New Southeast," The Turbo Pro Project creates heavy rhythm backdrops punctuated by banjo, turntables, bass and keyboard textures. Their debut CD "Daydream" (released in 2008) is grounded in a fusion of musical styles, featuring a groundbreaking mixture of banjo playing styles with hip hop grooves. They have played live across the Southeast, and continue to explore all avenues of musical collaboration and creation.
www.turboproproject.com
Check out behind-the-scenes images on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/secca/sets/
Click here to listen to Part I of WFDD's interview with artist Kianga Ford and curator Steven Matijcio. (Posted 7.30.09)
Listen to Part II Here (Posted 8.4.09)
Kianga Ford (Los Angeles, CA, USA) turns a neighborhood walk into an artistic experience. As part of her ongoing The Story of this Place project, Ford collects stories and histories that she shapes into audio-guided tours of a city's forgotten places. Using MP3 players and headphones, Ford speaks directly to her audience through walks that lead listeners to re-imagine the neighborhoods they thought they knew so well.
www.kiangaford.com / www.charmcityremix.com
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A city's history is a rich and complex story. Just ask the 12 students from the Salvation Army Ken Carlson Boys & Girls Club who participated in SECCA's most recent Inside Out Classroom from July 27-31. During this innovative project, the students explored and investigated Winston-Salem's bygone Black Business District.
Through research, which included a study of historical maps, documents, and images; conducting interviews with more than six elder community members; and surveying the current geographic location once occupied by the District, students re-constituted this once vibrant and vital piece of our collective history.
Throughout the process students utilized filmmaking and new media technology to share and preserve their experiences for others. The students scripted, hosted, filmed, edited, and scored a series of webisodes hosted on a dynamic website of their own design. The various webisodes convey the significance of the Black Business District and its cultural legacy, through the eyes and voices of our next generation.
In addition to the webisodes, the site hosts a series of student blogs and other material, that further expresses the story of The Generation of the Old & New. To visit the website please go to iii Eye Kids.
SECCA would like to thank Maya Gilliam of III Eye Digital, LLC with her program III Eye [kids], and Annette Scippio of the Society for the Study of African American History in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, for leading the program. SECCA would also like to thank the Ken Carlson Boys & Girls Club for their collaboration, and SECCA programs assistant Endia Beal for helping to facilitate the program.
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This program was presented in conjunction with Kianga Ford's The Story of this Place, which is part of SECCA's Inside Out: Artists in the Community II exhibition series.
Inside-Out: Artists in the Community II is supported by a grant from The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. In-kind support provided by Sundance Plaza Hotel, Spa and Wellness Center and AdColor of Winston-Salem.
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