Pur·suit

Due to the process-based nature of the Session program, this project will undergo constant modifications; the features of this page provide accruing information on the project’s developments.

Artist and researcher Mimi Ọnụọha describes our time as one of “unprecedented data collection.” Despite the overcollection of data, there continue to be gaps in our information systems. Ọnụọha describes these gaps as “spaces that are curiously devoid of data.”

In its physical form, Pur·suit is a 54-card poker deck by artist Naima Green that features portraits of queer womxn, trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people. Responding to the ‘curious’ absences of data on queer and trans people of color, Pur·suit helps to complete an image of the world that we live in.

The idea for Green’s card deck emerged after she stumbled upon artist Catherine Opie’s Dyke Deck, which was made between 1990-1995 in the Bay Area, in a New York Public Library database in 2017. With Opie’s blessing, Green endeavored to reimagine the Dyke Deck so that it might fill spaces devoid of data.

During her Session at Recess, Green will focus on developing an accompanying digital archive for Pur·suit. The archive will expand upon and preserve narratives of queerness and the many evolving identities queerness encompasses. It will develop along two axes: an in-gallery portraiture studio and interpersonal data collection. Artist talks, a game night, and a reading room for rest and repose will catalogue a community in realtime. Interviews with Pur·suit participants on queer love, friendship, and chosen families will be Green’s data sources.

Green’s practice is rooted in placemaking, constructing sites of comfort, leisure, and power outside of traditional homespaces. As such, the Session space will be a home for research, reading, and cataloguing. Throughout the Session, the public will be invited to read, rest, and to have their portraits added to a collective archive, which will serve as a reminder of vibrant queer experiences, play, and presence.

Session invites artists to use Recess’s public platform to combine productive studio space with dynamic exhibition opportunities. Sessions remain open to the public from the first day of the artist’s project through the last, encouraging sustained dialogue between artists and audiences. Due to the process-based nature of Session, projects undergo constant revision and the above proposal is subject to change.