Saturday July 20, 2024 | 11am – 5pm
Location: RU House at Colonels Row, Building #404B on Governors Island (map)
Ferry information | Video directions to RU House
This summer, the RU House at Governors Island becomes “The House of Confluence” where people from different places travel, gather, and work for some time, and various ideas, approaches, and practices flow with each other. On July 20 please join us for an open studio event where the international and US-based RU artists Alina Grabovsky (Austria), Nate Hester (USA), Alexandra Jonscher (Australia), Ai Sugiura (Japan), Aida Sulova (Kyrgyzstan/USA) and Asia Sztencel (Poland/USA) welcome the public into their studios at the RU House.
As part of the open studios events that day, Artist Ai Sugiura and curator and anthropologist Data Chigholashvili present a collaborative project “AI DATA POSTCARDS.” Ai Sugiura’s “Postcard Landscapes” will be on display at her studio, while the visitors will be offered a selection of old postcards from the US – to write on and send them, to think about writing and typing, about sending postcards and instant messages, and about mail art and its forms today.
The House of Confluence
Art residencies are like confluences – people from different places travel, gather, and work for some time, and various ideas, approaches, and practices flow with each other. NYC, a unique urban confluence, has bodies of water flowing around, and where some of them confluence, there is a historically layered island – once referred to as Paggank (meaning nut island) by the native Lenape, later reserved for colonial governors, then used as a military base that was decommissioned in the 1990s. Governors Island is now open to the public, art, culture, and education. The row of former houses has a new function now – every year from May to October, various organizations become temporary hosts with activities through the “Organizations in Residence” program of Governors Island Arts. Residency Unlimited (RU), a renowned international art residency program in NYC, is an organization in residence at one of these houses. For some time in 2024, this becomes “The House of Confluence” where various approaches coalesce through exhibitions and open studio events.
AI DATA POSTCARDS
While at Residency Unlimited, Ai and Data discovered that they both share a fascination with old postcards. Artist Ai Sugiura has been collecting postcards from faraway places, mostly from those she has not visited. By separating skies, landscapes, and buildings on them, Ai constructs new landscapes – “Postcard Landscapes.” Curator and anthropologist Data Chigholashvili has been collecting various old postcards, mostly for research, occasionally sending them to others. Data has been interested in mail art in the digital age, exploring it between physical and online forms.
RU is grateful for the partnership with Governors Island Arts.
