Organized by Niki Kriese of ADHT, The Nocturnals is a lecture series featuring Parsons staff-members who are creative practitioners in their ‘off-hours.’ Seven artists will present and discuss their work, which includes visual art, writing, sound, and choreography. While the breadth is rich, these artists share an obsession with the invisible, and a sense of longing for the unattainable. Yet the work does not feel sorry for itself. It is sharp, humorous, self-effacing, and self-aware, while willing to relinquish control long enough for something magical to happen.
Jill Corson: Thursday, February 27
Watch Jill’s talk here.
Jill Corson remembers the year her vision changed, when every window became a kaleidoscope. She found herself peering inquisitively into shops and restaurants, less interested in catching her own reflection than the fragments of people, buildings, cars, and signs that converged in each pane of glass. A camera lens, with its own filters of glass and mirror, seemed an apt medium through which to pass her ephemeral visions.
“This all started when I slowed down and stared for a while,” she says. “Walking with my camera in Atlanta, I relaxed my eyes. Reflection in a store window revealed a new way of seeing the world.
“Suddenly, I saw not only what was before me, but also things beside me and behind me,” Corson says. “Fascinated, I began to make photographs incorporating my new way of seeing.”
Corson’s photographic work is in private collections, and is represented by Meter Gallery and Gallery Stock. She has also worked collaboratively as a performer in New York.
Corson works as the Director of Global Advising for Parsons The New School for Design. She has worked at Parsons since 2004. She formerly worked as President & CEO of the New York Chapter of Advertising Photographers of America (now American Photographic Artists) from 2000-2002.
Corson lives with her family in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Niki Kriese: Thursday, March 13
Watch Niki’s talk here.
Kriese explores tasks that are seemingly bound to fail, and embraces the vulnerability of being wrong. Her interest is in the futility of containing the ineffable, of capturing traces of the absent, and of portraying the glint of chemistry between people.
She takes inspiration from Pliny’s recount of the origin of drawing. A young woman traces the shadow of her departing lover on the wall, hoping to keep his image near. Like any souvenir object, it holds meaning but fails to truly replace the absent. The idea of trace resonates through all of her work, functioning as an indexical imprint. Like water evaporated from a sheet of paper, no residue remains yet the paper is transformed.
After barely graduating with her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2007, Niki Kriese moved to New York in search of fame, fortune, and falafel. She doesn’t remember anything before that. She makes art and lives in Long Island City with her husband and freaking adorable kids.
Carolina Wheat: Thursday, March 20
Watch Carolina’s talk here.
Carolina Wheat currently lives in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn with her family. Born in Detroit, bred in surrounding wetlands and vacant industrial wastelands, her writing, soundscapes and visual art-work, attempts to tap into spirits. Playing with ancestry, used objects, the body and historical places, she works to incorporate a supporting mystic yet scientific belief system. Be it focusing on the afterlife or this life now, she integrates empathy with skepticism. With sensitivity, she handles the ephemeral perception to human’s omens and the atmosphere surrounding us.
With a BFA in textile surface design from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, early on she realized working for the NYC fashion industry wasn’t as cool as fabricating installations for the Detroit electronic music rave scene in the mid-90’s. Later, her deep dark love of radio transmitted her to volunteer for WCBN, FreeRadioSAIC and was one of the founding members of CHIRP (Chicago Indie Radio Project). When she’s not reading palms, she’s making aspiring artists/designers dreams come true as the Director of Admission at Parsons The New School for Design.
Heechan Kim: Thursday, April 3
Watch Heechan’s talk here.
Kim’s body of work embodies his interest in human relationship; how each individual either defines or recognizes one’s existence which is, often times, made by other members in the modern society. His works explore the human desire that wants to keep one’s individuality and, at the same time, wish to be in a community or group. The contrast between a tangibility of the structure and the obscurity of the form represents complex emotional tension in human relationship. His methodology, which is mainly stitching thin strips with metal wire, represents his belief that everyone is connected, bounded, and destined to live together against their will. He is interested in finding the vulnerability, the fear and the violence in relationship through his body of work.
Heechan kim was born in 1982 in Seoul, Korea. He received a BFA in metal craft from Seoul National University 2006. Soon after he immigrated to the United States to continue studying art. His interest in materials led him to study wood to broaden his horizons. He received his MFA in furniture design and wood working from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2010. By eliminating the limitations of making fully functional objects, he is continuing his art practice in sculpture in Brooklyn, NY.
Amanda Keller: Thursday, April 10
Watch Amanda’s talk here.
Amanda will be sharing her experiences as a choreography, dancer, and teacher. As a dancer, her career has spanned from classical ballet to clogging. Although she has danced professionally for a contemporary ballet company, she has danced for no pay more times than she cares to remember! Amanda is also a choreographer and her background in the fields of Sociology and Education heavily influences her work. Her choreography always has a story to tell and there is usually a dueling duo involved. As a dance teacher, Amanda has taught modern dance to fourth grade students, she has led dance classes for senior citizens, and she currently teaches an arts-based research elective.
Originally from Philadelphia, Amanda danced with the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet and Koresh School of Dance before moving to New York City for college. Amanda attended Eugene Lang College for her bachelor’s degree and double concentrated in Social and Historical Inquiry and Dance. While in school, she danced on scholarship with the Cunningham Dance Studio. After graduation from college, she danced professionally with the contemporary ballet company, In-Sight Dance Company. Amanda is a graduate of the master’s program in the School of Education at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Culture, Curriculum, and Change Department. Amanda is the program administrator for the First Year Program at Parsons.
