“Friendship and the Correspondence of Hannah Arendt: Forgiveness, Loyalty, and Authenticity” is an interdisciplinary social sculpture that asks four artists to consider the role that friendship plays in our political world.
Throughout the project, the participating artists and the curators will read texts, attend public presentations, share ideas online, and participate in an exploratory workshop, all with a mind to explore friend-making as a creative practice, a collaborative effort, and an intellectual pursuit that will culminate in an immersive, public event featuring work inspired by the process.
The project culminates in an evening-length program of immersive art installations, participatory events, and performances. The final performance is the result of a six-month-long, creative communal process whose foundation is a collection of letters written by political theorist Hannah Arendt.
The project is co-curated by Julia Claire Wallace and Jeanette “Joy” Harris.
Check out the project blog beingfriendswithhannah.com, where the public is invited to participate in this project as we seek to understand what it means to be a friend and how Hannah Arendt’s letters might shed light on how friend-making can be a component of amor mundi.
Pianist, writer, and cultural thinker, Elizabeth Newkirk energizes the stage with her thoughtful programming, expressive sound, and creative aesthetic. As a researcher and intellectual, her essays contribute context and narrative to all of her presentations. She welcomes multi-disciplinary collaboration as her passion for local camaraderie inspires her concert curations and ideas.
SAM/SIN approaches Hip-Hop and RnB with a global perspective, writing in English, French, and Dutch. With Creole and Surinamese roots, she mixes elements of Jazz, Reggae, Country, and Houston’s signature Dirty South to create a cinematic world of Southern Gothic style and eclectic sound, weaving a powerful story with each song.
Sarah Sudhoff is a Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist who interweaves themes of gender, science, and personal experience in my work, exploring notions of motherhood, mortality, intimacy, and illness. All of her works are, in some way, socially engaged and inherently participatory. Sudhoff’s works can be categorized into one or more of the following three areas of concern: Ethics of Care, Social Practice, and the Visualization of Data.
Yifei Zhang ist BArch-Kandidat an der Rice University und interessiert sich für die Schnittstelle zwischen Philosophie und Architektur. Er ist in China geboren und aufgewachsen und spricht Englisch, Mandarin, Französisch und Spanisch. Er war Illustrator für den Rice Thresher und erhielt eine lobende Erwähnung für seinen Entwurf „we-are-in-this-together“ vom Curators Collective und vom Nationalen Pavillon der VAE auf der 17. Architekturbiennale Venedig.
Content director and co-curator
Joy is a Houston-based artist and artistic researcher. She works in a variety of media including performance, video, photography, installation, and public engagement. She has shown work in London, the Netherlands, Venice (IT), Brindisi (IT), Los Angeles, New York City, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, San Francisco, Portland, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, and Houston, including a solo show at Lawndale Art Center (2016) and a residency with International Performance Association in conjunction with International Performance Art Week in Venice (IT) facilitated by Vest+Page. Joy regularly speaks about performance at universities and community organizations including Texas Woman’s University, University of Houston, American Society for Aesthetics, New Mexico Texas Philosophical Society, and the Jung Center Houston. Joy is on the management committee of Experimental Action and was elected to the American Philosophical Association’s Committee on Public Philosophy (2021-2023). She completed her MscR in history of art at the University of Edinburgh College of Art and is currently pursuing a PhD in Philosophy, Art, and Critical Thought from European Graduate School. Joy was scholar in residence at the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College and her presentation on Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism has gotten over 18,000 views on YouTube.
Creative director and co-curator
Julia is a Houston-based artist, curator, community facilitator, and director of Experimental Action, Houston’s performance art biennial. She works in a variety of media including performance, video, social practice, spoken word, painting, and writing. She has performed in Houston, Austin, Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York City, New Orleans, and Leipzig (GR). Julia served as a facilitator to Performance Art Lab and was one of the founding members of their guerilla flash dance project sexyATTACK. She is the creator and curator of Houston’s Performance Art Night and a founder and former facilitator of the social sculpture Continuum. She was a co-director of Lone Star Explosion 2014 and Experimental Action 2017. She was the director of Experimental Action 2019. She received her BFA in painting from the University of Houston in 2009 and her MA in Arts Leadership at the University of Houston in 2018.
