Available:
OCT 4 @ 10A MT - OCT 11 @ 11:45P MT
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Creating meaningful change is not something that most people are willing to take on, which stems from a general reluctance to take chances and create something new out of uncertainty.
That is where the chaos pilots come in - the rare people who can take action and creatively lead a project through ambivalence. It’s not easy, but it’s essential says Zenia Tata. Zenia is the Chief Impact Officer at XPrize, which looks to create solutions to some of our biggest global problems through “large-scale global incentive competitions.” Her perspective on our need for chaos pilots and how to become one is at the center of this show. Joining her are a few short documentaries profiling folks who are doing this work in their own artistic way.
Bird’s Eye! showcases Petra Leary, a skater girl from New Zealand with no formal education, who learned to cope with ADHD and applied it as an asset to become an acclaimed aerial photographer.
Yves & Variation tells the story of Manhattan concierge Yves Deshommes, who helps his apartment building’s residents with their everyday, while practicing his violin and then, returning to his homeland to help those way less fortunate. One Window focuses on artist Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann who believes art “is a gift that makes the world, and the people who view it, weirder - and as an artist, you get to spend your whole day straining to imagine ways to break your own ossified shortcuts and assumptions.” This show will be moderated by New Orleans-based journalist, writer and OT all-star, Gwen Thompkins.
Speakers
Zenia Tata
Originally from Mumbai, India, Zenia Tata is passionate about her work with economically disadvantaged populations, believes in the innate entrepreneurial qualities of the poor, and is constantly searching for innovative solutions to global problems. She is bold, brimming with optimism, and determined to change the world. Zenia is also an avid scuba diver, lover of the outdoors, and a pilot. She will be speaking in our show “How To Be A Chaos Pilot” about just that - finding purpose and motivation in the midst of chaos.
Gwen Thompkins
Gwen Thompkins is a journalist and writer, based in New Orleans. She was the longtime senior editor of NPR’s Weekend Edition with Scott Simon and later became NPR’s East Africa correspondent, based in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2011, she was a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Thompkins is a contributor to NPR’s news magazines and NPR Music, as well as The New Yorker online. She’s also the New Orleans correspondent for WXPN’s World Café. Since 2012, she’s been the executive producer and host of the weekly public radio program Music Inside Out with Gwen Thompkins, which showcases the unusually varied musical landscape of Louisiana. A full archive of the show can be found at musicinsideout.org.
Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann
In her sweeping, explosive abstract paintings, Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann merges traditional Chinese and Japanese ink painting techniques with an approach rooted in Western abstractionism. She was originally trained in sumi ink painting, which forms the basis for her work. Describing her process, Mann says, “I begin each piece with a stain of color. . . From this shape, I nourish the landscape of each painting, coaxing from this organic foundation the development of diverse, decorative forms: braids of hair, details from Beijing opera costuming, lattice-work, sequined patterns.” These forms coalesce into compositions that appear alive and churning on the paper, sometimes spilling off the page and into site-specific installations. In addition to sumi ink, Mann uses a range of materials and techniques, including acrylic, graphite, collage, etching, and silkscreen.
Film
Bird’s Eye!
Life’s about how you see it. Petra Leary sees the world from above, seeking startling heights to create stunning art, all while trying to make sense of the complex and challenging world around her. Having pushed back against traditional education and now an ADHD New Zealand ambassador, Petra sets out with her skateboard, drone and dog Kodak to defy the odds and create her own artistic legacy.
One Window
Katherine Mann's art starts with an act of chaos, an act of chance — and then seeks to impose order around it. Her work invites people to take their shoes off and step into another world. Funded by Adobe, One Window is an experimental documentary short that seeks to use the creative methods behind Katherine's own art to produce a film about it. By the end of the film, viewers won't have any trouble seeing how a seventy foot-long abstract mural is a work of detailed self-portraiture about one of the most extraordinary artists of our time.
Yves & Variation
Every day, concierge Yves Deshommes practices his violin behind the front desk of a Manhattan office building. But during the hours outside his shift, Yves’s life is revealed to be equal parts intrepid and inspiring.
All Shows
