Influenced by the Musical Chairs game, 10×10 A Table (to be pronounced in two languages with slightly different meanings…) is a collective drawing performed and created by 10 immigrants to the stop and go rhythm of the music created and performed by another 10 immigrants during the opening of Our Stories/ Our Voices exhibit in Asheville in 2011 and referencing 100 stories of immigration. Visitors of all ages joined the artists in drawing, expanding the collectivity and also participating in the creation of this drawing. In this game no one is left behind.
Through drawing and music, the most basic cross-cultural mediums of communication, the immigrant artists share collective memory of transformation to reveal a permanent layered image of their emerging faces. Faces on top of faces, gestures on top of gestures gesticulate and represent the many faces of immigration and the transformation that takes place when one merges the stories of two cultures, and when many emigrants/immigrants merge their memory of that transition with those of others.
view time-lapse of the emerging drawing
visit other similar projects:
Impromptu Drawing of US : We Are *Almost All Immigrants
Flag of US – Why The Blue Faces?
The activity/event took place at the opening of Our Stories/Our Voices Exhibit. The exhibit which documents the stories of “new North Carolinians as a means of beginning to grow new understanding of the common humanity of all residents in WNC.” was curated by Victor Palomino an is supported by The Coalition of Latin American Organizations (COLA), Latino Advocacy Coalition (LAC), Center for Participatory Change (CPC), Workers Center of WNC, and Nuestro Centro. As well as The Center for Diversity Education, NC Arts Council, and The Asheville Area Arts Council. The Our Stories, Our Voices exhibit began at the ARTERY home of the Asheville Arts Council and was part of a traveling exhibition.
The project originated as an assignment that I developed for architecture students and have directed on the first day of class since 1995. As a visual, auditory and kinesthetic activity and a game, this exercise breaks the ice and helps everyone feel comfortable drawing regardless of experience and skill. The activity has also been used as a house warming party in which the dinner table becomes the drawing table, as a gift to a friend who lost her mother and as many others things. In all events, the activity eases people into drawing and into making music together in an uninhibited way.
2012 exhibited at Upstairs [Artspace] – Tryon, as part of group exhibit on “social malaise, political issues, philosophical angst and pop trends with a humorous edge.”
2012 exhibited as part of Our Stories, Our Voices traveling group show on immigration at Enka High School – Media Gallery, University of North Carolina, Asheville – Highsmith Union Gallery, and Artery – Asheville Arts Council.
2011 featured in Verve Magazine, the Mountain Xpress, and the Asheville Citizen Times in North Carolina
2017 on exhibit at Weizenblatt Gallery at Mars Hill University, Mars Hill, N.C.
Participants: Pheonyx Roldan Smith, Loida Ginocchio-Silva, Luis E. Laverde Tobón, Maria Rusafova, Jakub Markulis, Brista Hristova, James Cassara, Boryan Markulis, Oscar Feinberg, Raina, Aia Rios, Roby-Moser, Elisa Faires, Charles Faires, Ekua Adisa, Adriana, Tara Meadows, Jonathan Santos, Kitty Love and others.
Cultures represented: Chile, Bulgaria, Poland, Peru, Colombia, Philippines and others.
Are you interested in making a collective drawing in your community? Get in touch with me!