March 20: Dia Beacon (3 Beekman Street, Beacon, New York) | (INVITE ONLY)
March 21 at Dia Chelsea (537 West 22nd Street, New York, New York) | 5–7:45 p.m.; free, open to the public (SOLD OUT)

Swamp Summit: Dirt and Water is a program that examines the relationship between natural and built environments at the boundary where water meets land. Using the unstable grounds of the swamp as a conceptual underpinning, this two-day summit gathers artists, architects, writers, curators, researchers, anthropologists, ecologists, poets, and other practitioners to discuss the material politics of water from different geographies—from the Gulf of Mexico to the Mekong River. Through their unique approaches of spatial research and art-making, participants address pressing issues relating to legacies of art and ecology, as well as the impact of industry and human-induced environmental disasters on historically excluded communities. Through shared thematic ties, Swamp Summit: Dirt and Water brings a diverse range of voices together to share ideas and build common ground.

The public program at Dia Chelsea on March 21 includes a reading by Mayan poet and water rights activist Pedro Uc; a keynote talk by linguist Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil; a conversation between Uc and Aguilar Gil, moderated by artist Abraham Cruzvillegas; a reading from Season of the Swamp (Gray Wolf Press, 2024), set in the fictionalized murky soil of 1850s New Orleans, by novelist Yuri Herrera; artists Jingru (Cyan) Cheng and Chen Zhan speak with artist Sky Hopinka about sensory and visual ethnographies; and artist collective Cooking Sections conclude the day with a lecture-performance on wetlands.

Swamp Summit: Dirt and Water is organized by Storefront for Art and Architecture, Dia Art Foundation, and the Graham Foundation. The program coincides with the conclusion of Swamplands, Storefront’s year-long research and program series including four exhibitions featuring newly commissioned work from artists Imani Jacqueline Brown, Jingru (Cyan) Chen and Chen Zhan, Gala Porras-Kim, and Fred Schmidt-Arenales. A forthcoming exhibition at the Graham Foundation presents all four projects together in addition to a new commission by Jerónimo Reyes-Retana and opens April 17, 2025.

NOTE: This event event has been canceled and will be rescheduled for a later date this spring. For questions, contact rsvp@grahamfoundation.org.

Join us for the book launch of A Hypothesis of Resistance (Mousse, 2024) with Cally Spooner.

A Hypothesis of Resistance contains five essays on Asynchronicity, Rehearsal, Undetectability, The Present Tense, and Duration. Each attempts to resist the doctrine of “performance,” the symptom of a society, stratified by how we perform​—​economically, socially, digitally. As we become ripe for consumption, caught in an economy of perpetual readiness, basic needs remain unmet and it is increasingly difficult to tell the difference between what is alive and what is dead.

Published by Mousse, 2024
Edited and designed by Will Holder
120 pages / Softcover, open-binding, with dust-jacket

The publication is made possible in part through Spooner's 2024 Graham Foundation Fellowship. This program synthesizes the Foundation's grantmaking and exhibition programs and provides support for the development and production of original and challenging works and the opportunity to present these projects in an exhibition at the Graham’s galleries in Chicago. The Fellowship program extends the legacy of the Foundation’s first awards, made in 1957, and continues the tradition of support to individuals to explore innovative perspectives on spatial practices in design culture.

Cally Spooner is an artist who exhibits performances that unfold across media—through sound, on film, in text, as objects, and as illustrated in drawings or scores. Institutional solo exhibitions include: Graham Foundation, Chicago; O— Overgaden, Copenhagen; Cukrarna, Ljubljana; Kunstraum Leuphana, Lüneburg; Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Sint- Martens-Latem; Parrhesiades, London; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; Swiss Institute, New York; Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin; Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva; Whitechapel Gallery, London; New Museum, New York and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.  Her live performances been staged at, amongst others,Tate Britain and Tate Modern, London; Performa 13, New York; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum M, Leuven; and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London. Her work has appeared in recent group exhibitions including at Museion, Bolzano; Palais de Tokyo, Paris and CAPC, Bordeaux (all 2024). Spooner is the author of recent monographs in the form of novellas, scripts, scores, essays: Collapsing in Parts (Mousse Publishing, 2012); Scripts (Slimvolume, 2016); False Tears (Hatje Cantz and Madre Museum, 2020); SWEAT SHAME ETC. (Lenz Press, 2024) and, A Hypothesis of Resistance (Mousse Publishing, 2024). Spooner is British Italian, and lives and works in Turin.

James Wines discusses the transformative influence of Frederick Kiesler. This presentation is followed by a conversation on Kiesler’s impact and legacy with Wines and Graham Foundation director Sarah Herda.

This discussion builds on Wines’ essay, “Frederick Kiesler: Environmental Visionary,” as published in Frederick Kiesler: Face to Face with the Avant-Garde: Essays on Network and Impact (edited by Peter Bogner and Gerd Zillner, Frederick Kiesler Foundation, Birkhäuser, 2019).

This event is hosted via Zoom and presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Frederick Kiesler: Vision Machines, on view at the Graham Foundation through March 15, 2025. 

James Wines, winner of the 2013 National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement, is the founder of SITE, an environmental arts organization in New York. His visual art, architecture, landscape, and public projects are based on a response to surrounding contexts. He has lectured in fifty-nine countries and contributed essays to publications around the world. Books about Wines include De-Architecture (Rizzoli International, 1987) and Green Architecture (Taschen, 2000). There are 22 monographs and museum catalogues about Wines’ work with SITE which includes 150 projects in eleven countries. Wines has won 25 art and design awards, including the 1995 Chrysler Award for Design Innovation, and is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Kress Foundation, American Academy in Rome, Guggenheim Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Graham Foundation, and Ford Foundation.

Note: This event is virtual (Zoom) and does not include an in-person component.

Image: BEST Notch Building, Retail Store, Sacramento, CA, 1979. Designed by SITE for BEST Products Company, Inc. Copyright James Wines, courtesy SITE

For more information on the exhibition, Frederick Kiesler: Vision Machines, click here.

Cellist Lester St. Louis and trumpeter Chris Williams are the electroacoustic duo HxH (pronounced “H by H”). Together, they blend acoustic sound, grainy electronics, breaks, cuts, and beats into a kind of expansive, post-techno experimentalism that unfolds with a sense of limitless possibility. For Lampo, St. Louis and Williams premiere loop.max.infinite, a concert-length performance featuring strings, horn, and sample-based electronics, presented in quad sound.

HxH has performed at Pioneer Works, Roulette Intermedium, The Kitchen, Musik Installationen Nürnberg, ‘T’ Space Rhinebeck, The Lot Radio, and Abasement. The duo has collaborated with artists and organizations including Torkwase Dyson, fields harrington, Black Science Fiction, Found Sound Nation, TAK Ensemble, and the International Contemporary Ensemble.

HxH has performed at Pioneer Works, Roulette Intermedium, The Kitchen, Musik Installationen Nürnberg, ‘T’ Space Rhinebeck, The Lot Radio, and Abasement. The duo has collaborated with artists and organizations including Torkwase Dyson, fields harrington, Black Science Fiction, Found Sound Nation, TAK Ensemble, and the International Contemporary Ensemble.

Lester St. Louis (b.1993, Queens, NY) is a New York-based composer, improviser, cellist, sound designer, and curator. He did not begin playing the cello until he was 16 years old and quickly learned that he has perfect pitch. Upon graduating high school, he audited classes all over New York City, studying cello, theory, musicianship and composition, all without the aid of an institution. Since then, he has performed through the United States, Europe, South America, and China. In addition to his duo HxH with Chris Williams, he has collaborated with Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die, Ben Lamar Gay, Yaeji, Tortoise, Yo La Tengo, Miho Hatori, Dré A. Hočevar, Charmaine Lee, Otim Alpha, Nate Wooley, Isabel Crespo Pardo, TAK Ensemble, Random International, Irreversible Entanglements, Pheroan Aklaff, Terence Nance, Wet Ink Ensemble, and many more. The JACK Quartet, RAGE Thormbones, Jennifer Koh, String Noise, and Ghost Ensemble have commissioned his compositions. St. Louis also cocurates a monthly series in Brooklyn with bassist Luke Stewart called Assembly.

Chris Williams (b.1990, Sacramento, CA) is an interdisciplinary artist and musician based in Brooklyn. His work explores the dyad of ancestral trauma and power existing in all Black Americans. Williams has toured extensively throughout the UnitedStates and Europe. He has been commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble and WasteLAnd, the Los Angeles concert series. He was 2023 American Composers Forum Fellow and a 2024 Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow, and he has been in residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Collaborators include Eyvind Kang, Joanna Mattrey, Lester St. Louis, Patrick Shiroishi, Bennie Maupin, Nicole Mitchell, Fay Victor, Wendy Eisenberg, Yaeji, Luke Stewart, Pink Siifu, and Marjani Forte-Saunders.

Lampo, established in 1997, supports artists working in new music, experimental sound, and other interdisciplinary practices. The Chicago-based organization's core activity has been and remains its performance series. Rather than making programming decisions around tour schedules, Lampo invites selected artists to create and perform new work, and then the organization provides the space, resources, and curatorial support to help them fulfill their vision. Lampo also organizes artist talks, lectures, screenings, and workshops, and publishes written and recorded documents related to its series.

Please note that registration for Lampo programs is required, but does not guarantee entry.  Capacity for this performance is limited. Doors open 30 minutes prior to the performance and seats are available on a first-come, first-serve basis for those registered in advance. Due to the popularity of the Lampo programs, performances quickly reach capacity. No late seating will be permitted. This performance series includes high-volume sounds in close proximity to the audience, ear protection is available upon request.

Ka Baird premieres Yomp, a performance piece featuring live-processed flutes, samples, electronics, voice, broken rhythms, and movement. Yomp plays with the idea of a march that repeatedly falls apart, taking various sonic detours throughout the performance.

“The general time pressures destroy all that has the character of a detour, all that is indirect, and thus makes the world poor in forms. Every form, every figure, is a detour. If walking lacks all hesitation, all pausing, then it freezes into a march.”—Byung-Chul Han

Ka Baird (b.1976, Decatur, IL) is a performer, sound artist, musician and composer based in New York City. They are known for their live performances that include extended voice and microphone techniques, which are combined with electronics and psychoacoustic interplay of flutes and other woodwinds.

In March 2024, Baird released their most recent record, Bearings: Soundtracks for the Bardos (RVNG Intl.), which was built on a Lampo commission. Other releases include Sapropelic Pycnic (Drag City 2017), Respires (RVNG Intl. 2019), Brooding Exercises (Longform Editions 2021), and Vivification Exercises (RVNG Intl. 2021).

Performances include the Unsound Festival, Krakow; Lampo, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; MoMA PS1, Queens; Issue Project Room, Brooklyn; The Kitchen, New York City; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; TUSK Festival, Newcastle; Incubate, Tilburg; KRAAK, Brussels; Le Guess Who, Utrecht; and the Festival Of Endless Gratitude, Copenhagen. They have been artist-in-residence at We Jazz Festival, Helsinki; Sonoscopia, Porto; Inkonst, Malmo; ESS, Chicago; and Pioneer Works, Brooklyn. Baird has received the Foundation of Contemporary Art’s Emergency Grant, a Jerome Foundation Artist-In-Residence at Roulette Intermedium, and is currently a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow 2023–25. They are one of the core members of Spires That In The Sunset Rise, founded in Chicago in 2001.

Ka Baird last appeared at Lampo in March 2022, when they performed Bearings, which was commissioned for small audiences in the Lampo office. Ka explored the concept of “bearings” through a series of intimate performances, where they shifted guises between magician, shaman, clown, and athlete. This piece, in tandem with the heaviness of caring for a dying parent during the subsequent year, laid the groundwork for their 2024 album Bearings.

Lampo, established in 1997, supports artists working in new music, experimental sound, and other interdisciplinary practices. The Chicago-based organization's core activity has been and remains its performance series. Rather than making programming decisions around tour schedules, Lampo invites selected artists to create and perform new work, and then the organization provides the space, resources, and curatorial support to help them fulfill their vision. Lampo also organizes artist talks, lectures, screenings, and workshops, and publishes written and recorded documents related to its series.

Note: This event will be held in the ballroom on the third floor of the Madlener House, which is only accessible by stairs. The first-floor galleries and bookshop are accessible via outdoor lift. Please contact us at 312.787.4071 or info@grahamfoundation.org to make arrangements.


Photo: Michal Murawski

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