Artists Space

Heist Divination (fwiw remix)

Concert
October 25, 2024, 8:30pm

ASL interpretation and captioning are provided for this event.

Artists Space is pleased to present a special vocal and sound-based performance by S*an D. Henry-Smith, presented as part of the exhibition Constantina Zavitsanos: fwiw.

A debt to undo, dice in hand, chance on our side, ghost in the cup. The bank was already what they robbed—we’re here to get back what’s ours. S*an D. Henry-Smith poems a score with/for Constantina Zavitsanos along/under/inside their installation in the gallery.

Photograph of a performer standing behind a small desk that holds audio equipment. The performer stands upright with their hands held together in front of their face. To the performer
Heist Divination (fwiw remix). Performance documentation, October 25th, 2024, Artists Space. Photo: Destiny Mata. [Photograph of a performer standing behind a small desk that holds audio equipment. The performer stands upright with their hands held together in front of their face. To the performer's right a music stand holds a score. The background is bathed in blue and red light.]

Photograph of a performer standing behind a small desk that holds audio equipment. The performer stands upright with their head down and their hands held together in front of their face. To the performer
Heist Divination (fwiw remix). Performance documentation, October 25th, 2024, Artists Space. Photo: Destiny Mata. [Photograph of a performer standing behind a small desk that holds audio equipment. The performer stands upright with their head down and their hands held together in front of their face. To the performer's right a music stand holds a score. The background is bathed in blue and red light with the silhouettes of audience members visible. In the bottom left corner a recessed structure filled with water is illuminated.]
A performer closes their eyes as they sing into a mic pressed up to their mouth. They are holding a music stand with a score on it in their right hand, and adjusting audio equipment with their left hand. They are bathed in green light. On the left of the image a red-tinted column is blurred in the foreground. The background is dark purple.
Heist Divination (fwiw remix). Performance documentation, October 25th, 2024, Artists Space. Photo: Destiny Mata. [A performer closes their eyes as they sing into a mic pressed up to their mouth. They are holding a music stand with a score on it in their right hand, and adjusting audio equipment with their left hand. They are bathed in green light. On the left of the image a red-tinted column is blurred in the foreground. The background is dark purple.]
A performer stands close to a microphone with their right arm in the air holding a musical score. Their eyes are closed and pieces of their hair falls over their face. They are bathed in soft green light and the background is tinted dark purple.
Heist Divination (fwiw remix). Performance documentation, October 25th, 2024, Artists Space. Photo: Destiny Mata. [A performer stands close to a microphone with their right arm in the air holding a musical score. Their eyes are closed and pieces of their hair falls over their face. They are bathed in soft green light and the background is tinted dark purple.]
A performer
Heist Divination (fwiw remix). Performance documentation, October 25th, 2024, Artists Space. Photo: Destiny Mata. [A performer's hand adjusts the dials of audio equipment which is placed on top of a small desk. Their hands are adorned with rings and bracelets, and the scene is bathed in green light. The background is blue and purple tinted, and there are blurred silhouettes of audience members behind the performer.]
A group of people sit on the floor of a dimly-lit gallery. The audience is facing towards a wall on the left side of the image where a projection of live transcription text is projected. On the right side a performer bathed in green light holds their hands together as they stand infront of a mic. The audience member in the foreground is lit with red light, as well as an exit sign on the back wall. The rest of the gallery walls are blue and purple tinted.
Heist Divination (fwiw remix). Performance documentation, October 25th, 2024, Artists Space. Photo: Destiny Mata. [A group of people sit on the floor of a dimly-lit gallery. The audience is facing towards a wall on the left side of the image where a projection of live transcription text is projected. On the right side a performer bathed in green light holds their hands together as they stand infront of a mic. The audience member in the foreground is lit with red light, as well as an exit sign on the back wall. The rest of the gallery walls are blue and purple tinted.]
Audience members sit and stand alongside a ramp in a gallery. They are facing a performer who is framed in between columns to the left of the image. The audience members are bathed in red light, with a bright blue light coming from under a platform on the floor. The performer is lit with green light and the background is blue-tinted.
Heist Divination (fwiw remix). Performance documentation, October 25th, 2024, Artists Space. Photo: Destiny Mata. [Audience members sit and stand alongside a ramp in a gallery. They are facing a performer who is framed in between columns to the left of the image. The audience members are bathed in red light, with a bright blue light coming from under a platform on the floor. The performer is lit with green light and the background is blue-tinted.]

S*an D. Henry-Smith is an artist working primarily in poetry and photography, and, by extension, vocal and sonic performance and publishing. They are the author of Body Text (2016), Flotsam Suite: a strange and precarious life, or how we chronicled the little disasters & I won’t leave the dance floor til it’s out of my system (2019), Wild Peach (2020), the co-author (alongside Imani Elizabeth Jackson, with whom they collaborate as mouthfeel) of Consider the Tongue (2019), and the director of Lunar New Year (2021). Henry-Smith regularly collaborates with Dweller Electronics, Ryan C. Clarke, Constantina Zavistanos, Justin Allen, Gabrielle Octavia Rucker, Danny Sadiel Peña, Geo Wyex, Alec Mateo, Tavish Timothy, Yulan Grant, senakirfa A., and Derica Shields, among others.

Constantina Zavitsanos has exhibited at the New Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Kitchen, Artists Space, Participant Inc., and Performance Space New York, and at Arika UK, Glasgow; If I Can’t Dance, Amsterdam; and Galerie Max Mayer, Düsseldorf. With Park McArthur, they wrote “Other Forms of Conviviality” in the journal, Women & Performance, (Routledge, 2013) and “The Guild of the Brave Poor Things” in Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility (MIT Press, 2017). They co-organize the cross-disability arts events, I Wanna Be With You Everywhere, and have received a Roy Lichtenstein Award in Visual Arts from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and a Keith Haring Fellowship in Art and Activism from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. Zavitsanos lives and works in New York.

Exhibition support for Constantina Zavitsanos: fwiw is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Lead support is provided by Arison Art Foundation. Major support is provided by James Cahn & Jeremiah Collatz.

Artists Space Venue is generously supported by Stephen Cheng, Allan Schwartzman, and David Zwirner.

    Five dice float at the top of a container of water, which is tinted blue. There are small ripples created across the surface of the water and the frame of structure containing the water is slightly visible through the ripple distortion.
    Heist Divination (fwiw remix). Performance documentation, October 25th, 2024, Artists Space. Photo: Destiny Mata. [Five dice float at the top of a container of water, which is tinted blue. There are small ripples created across the surface of the water and the frame of structure containing the water is slightly visible through the ripple distortion.]