For Immediate Release: September 22, 2020 - updated October 5, 2020 Media Inquiries: Emma Jacobson-Sive, [email protected]​, 323-842-2064

Womxn in Windows 2020 Windows along Chung King Road, Los Angeles, CA 90012 October 15–November 15, 2020

Los Angeles, CA—Womxn in Windows presents its second annual exhibition of video works by womxn filmmakers and video artists. The artists’ videos will be on view 24 hours a day from October 15 through November 15, 2020 in over 12 windows along Chinatown’s historic Chung King Road in Los Angeles. Guests can watch the films from the street, accessible to all, and tune in to the audio of each film via a QR code on the window.

Our first exhibition in 2019 was conceived in order to highlight the perspectives of womxn, and to encourage cross-cultural dialogue. Womxn in Windows 2020 showcases the film and video works of eight womxn artists who were invited to exhibit work that examines the intertwined relationships between culture, religion and society. These films remind us how womxn have relied on faith and on each other as well as on a desire for equality, understanding and the power to make the right choices for ourselves. We are here today because of the faith of our ancestors and because of every womxn who has believed in the power of good.

“This has been a heavy year for all of us in America and across the world. In the midst of a global pandemic, movements for Black lives and Indigenous sovereignty, environmental disasters, extreme income inequality, mass corruption, dictatorships across countries, religious injustices and ethnic cleansing, an impending election and a cultural revolution, it felt more necessary than ever to produce this year’s exhibition, support artists financially and to continue engaging with audiences not naturally inclined to seek such work out,“ says founder and curator Zehra Ahmed. “As an immigrant womxn, I am reminded that I have grown personally because of the people I have encountered, the values that I have

Images: (L-R) Install from WxW 2019 showing, The Ascension, by Arshia Fatima Haq in collaboration with Cassils. Image Womxn in Windows. A Still from, The Prophetess, by Sylvie Weber. Image Sylvie Weber.

Womxn in Windows - Chung King Road, Los Angeles, CA - womxninwindows.com learned along the way, and the multiple experiences I have had across cultures, societies, and faiths. These experiences have led me to believe that we all want the same thing; a just and free life where we can all receive equal rights, love and recognition because of who we uniquely are. We are all different and that is our strength.”

This year’s artists—Christine Yuan, Everlane Moraes, Ja’Tovia Gary, Kilo Kish, Kya Lou, Rémie Akl, Rikkí Wright and Sylvie Weber—come from backgrounds spanning the United States, Brazil, Lebanon, Taiwan, the Dominican Republic and Germany. The format of the exhibition allows for socially distant and safe viewing of the works, and they will also be streamed online for those who might not be able to visit the exhibition in person. Visitors are encouraged to do whatever is safest for them

Weber’s film, The Prophetess, is a story of two womxn who overcome psychological and physical trauma caused by sexual terrorism, and how the story of Kimpa Vita—the mother of African revolution in the kingdom of the Kongo (1390–1857)—continues to give strength to this community of womxn centuries later. Gary’s film,An Ecstatic Experience, examines the legacy of resistance and liberation through spiritual and ritualistic methods; she redefines the feminine gaze, focusing on the Black figure within the moving image. Yuan’s film, In Limbo, explores the space between life and death while paying respect to the feminine divine through movement.

Kish’s film, Blessed Assurance: a dream that i had, sees religion differently. As she says, “I wanted to explore belief in one’s art and the way it relates to religious faith and spiritual calling. Creative practice almost becomes a religion. And I think, through it, you become closer to God.”

Moraes’ film, Aurora, presents three Black Cuban womxn at different stages of their lives. All three womxn remind us that existential doubt transcends age and beliefs. They continue to explore their inner conflicts and sufferings at every stage in life and remind us that we must persist even when we feel displaced. Lou’s film, Eulogy, is an edited cut of three hours of family VHS footage. It considers family structures as formative to understanding how communities are informed by care, absence, belief and joy.

Rémie Akl shares three videos. In a world full of religious propaganda, where a womxn is shamed for being Arab or too afraid to speak out, Akl is proudly and loudly informing us of her Arab identity. She reminds us that the current uprising in Lebanon has nothing to do with religion or political beliefs but is a war against corruption. Her films further highlight the notion that the ongoing revolution is to restore humanity and financial disparity, regardless of belief. Akl asks the question, are you A human, an animal or just a thing?

Rikkí Wright’s A Song About Love is a spiritual reckoning on the different forms of love in this world, from human to divine. Wright navigates the contrasts between real and redemptive love and the roots of enduring faith in the Black community.

Womxn in Windows Press Release (09-22-2020, updated 10-05-2020) page 2 This year, in addition to the exhibition in Los Angeles, the films will be screened simultaneously in storefront windows in New York City, London and Shanghai.

New York in partnership with the Wallplay Network - 321 Canal Street, Chinatown London in partnership with Protein Studios - 31 New Inn Yard, Hackney Shanghai in partnership with Bitter - Jing’an District

Womxn in Windows is a platform for the perspectives of womxn on culture, identity and society. What started as an annual public exhibition of womxn-made art films in storefront windows is now a mission to support global cross-cultural dialogue. Centered around the idea that individual differences advance societal strength, the platform believes that learning from one another’s cultures and experiences contributes towards a transformative humanity of equality, freedom and respect. By providing a forum for diverse and underrepresented voices and their stories, Womxn in Windows aims to inspire the next generation of thinkers and citizens.

Follow @womxinwindows on Instagram and Twitter. For further information visit womxninwindows.com

Opening Event: October 17, 2020 Chung King Road, LA, CA 5:00–8:00 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. All guests must RSVP ahead of time in order to maintain social distancing guidelines.

From 5–8 p.m. we will have 30-minute slots for groups of up to 10 people to book a walking tour with a guide to hear more about the exhibition and the artists.

A soundscape produced in partnership with dublab will play across the plaza for the event.

We will be handing out an exhibition zine and merchandise from our sponsors Reebok, Free People, Unbound Babes, Califia Farms and CANN.

Womxn in Windows Press Release (09-22-2020, updated 10-05-2020) page 3 IN LIMBO, 2017 BY CHRISTINE YUAN

ABOUT THE FILM In Limbo, by Christine Yuan, is a visual poem exploring the space between life and death. It is the space where the soul meets the body before we are born, the first moment we begin to feel, incubating while the spirit merges with its physical form. It is a remembrance of the feminine divine, the birth of the soul and the source of all life. Deeply meditative, as three womxn embrace and pay respect to the earth, water, and sun through movement. Feeling every drop of water, treading the earth softly and taking in every ray of sunshine. The parallel movement in nature conjures up life, reminds us to celebrate and make an example of it; to embrace this earth with spirit and vitality.

ABOUT THE ARTIST Born in Los Angeles, CA, Christine Yuan is an Emmy-award winning Taiwanese- American director. Known for her bold and playful style, and with an instinct for authentic performances that depict organic facets of youth culture and the female experience, she creates worlds that capture the imaginative quality of the human experience.

Yuan worked previously as a creative director for and has created visuals for Joji, Rich Brian, Summer Walker, GoldLink, to name a few. Her feature documentaries have won Best Culture/History Documentary at the 2018 LA Area Emmy, Best Documentary at the 2018 Golden Mike Awards, and Best Feature Documentary at the 2017 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. Her commercial work has been shortlisted for D&AD’s Next Director Award, 1.4 Awards Show, Young Guns 15 Awards, and Shoot’s Director’s Showcase. Commercial credits include Prada, Apple, Mercedes-Benz, Reebok, Zara, and Tiffany & Co, and more.

Womxn in Windows Press Release (09-22-2020, updated 10-05-2020) page 4 AURORA, 2018 BY EVERLANE MORAES

ABOUT THE FILM In Aurora, Everlane Moraes observes the existence of three Black women – from different spaces, contexts and ages – not concerned with the narrative, but with the essence of their characters. Without a single word uttered during the 15 minute film, with the exception of a final song, we experience and feel the existential doubt that transcends age and beliefs. Each womxn continues to explore her inner conflicts and sufferings at every stage in life and reminds us that we must persist even when we feel displaced. Our belief and desire for a truly free existence keeps us curious from the moment we are birthed to our last breath and beyond. Aurora communicates this in a most subtle and tender way.

ABOUT THE ARTIST Born in Bahia, Brazil and raised in Sergipe, Brazil, Everlane Moraes is a producer, director and documentary filmmaker. She makes films that move between fiction and documentary, investigating socio-cultural issues of the Black diaspora, in the search to portray the identities and subjectivities of her characters, combining different formats and genres from video art to cine-essay.

Moraes’ films have been exhibited at the 20th Sundance Film Festival 2020, the2019 Rotterdam Film Festival, 2019 Documenta Madrid, 2014 Bresil en Mouvements, Prise and the 2019 BFI London Film Festival among many others in Brazil and Internationally. She was awarded the William Graves Film Fund on Firelight Media this year. Everlane is a graduate of the Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV (EICTV/Cuba).

Womxn in Windows Press Release (09-22-2020, updated 10-05-2020) page 5 AN ECSTATIC EXPERIENCE, 2015 BY JA’TOVIA GARY

ABOUT THE FILM An Ecstatic Experience is an experimental meditation on transcendence by Ja’Tovia Gary using archival material, montage editing and analogue animation techniques. Gary is concerned with challenging the notion of cinema and the role of the artist working with the scope of the medium. Her films examine the legacy of resistance and liberation through spiritual and ritualistic methods, animated by repetitive mark making carried out directly on the filmstock to represent notions of craft and gendered labor practices. Interlaced with scenes from historical events, Gary redefines the feminine gaze; focusing on the Black figure within the moving image.

ABOUT THE ARTIST Born in Dallas, Texas, Ja’Tovia Gary is an American artist and filmmaker whose work seeks to liberate the distorted histories through which Black life is often viewed, while fleshing out a nuanced and multivalent Black interiority. Through documentary film and experimental video art, she charts the ways structures of power shape our perceptions around representation, race, gender, sexuality and violence. The artist earned her MFA in Social Documentary Filmmaking from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

In 2017 Gary was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Filmmaking. Her award-winning films, An Ecstatic Experience and Giverny I (Négresse Impériale) have screened at festivals, cinemas, and institutions worldwide including Edinburgh International Film Festival, The Whitney Museum, Anthology Film Archives, Atlanta Film Festival, the Schomburg Center, MoMa PS1, MoCA Los Angeles, Harvard Film Archives, New Orleans Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival and elsewhere. She has received generous support from Sundance Documentary fund, the Jerome Foundation, Doc Society, among others. She was a 2018-2019 Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University. Gary is a 2019 Creative Capital Awardee and a Field of Vision Fellow.

Womxn in Windows Press Release (09-22-2020, updated 10-05-2020) page 6 BLESSED ASSURANCE: a dream that I had, 2019 BY KILO KISH

ABOUT THE FILM ‘When I started interviewing the artists, I was so inspired by their willingness to suffer for a calling they found pure. Their audacity made them saintly to me. I wanted to explore belief in one’s art and the way it relates to religious faith and spiritual calling. Creative practice almost becomes a religion. And I think, through it, you become closer to God. I’m happy to explore the act of making as its very own reward. Its very own promise and certainty.’ - Kilo Kish Originally presented as a multi-room installation, Blessed Assurance: a dream that i had takes on a new life as the six visual pieces are framed in six windows. The captivating visuals mix recorded video, overlaid with punchy low-fi graphics and an animated church reminiscent of a two-bit video game - with accompanying ambient sounds, accessed through QR codes, and transport the viewer to their own physical and spiritual dimension, somewhere between the space Kish imagines and the sky above. ABOUT THE ARTIST Born in Orlando, FL, Kilo Kish is an American multidisciplinary artist, songwriter, and singer who has recorded with the , The Internet, , Childish Gambino, and among others. Her work focuses on personal identity, communication, technology, and the internet. Starting as a student of design at Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, she has been heralded for her cross-medium approach as an artist.

Her work has been reviewed by the New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Magazine, Vogue, W, Fader and The Village Voice. Kish has also exhibited films, installation work, performance art and music technology projects. She is currently working on her sophomore LP in Los Angeles.

Womxn in Windows Press Release (09-22-2020, updated 10-05-2020) page 7 EULOGY, 2020 BY KYA LOU

ABOUT THE FILM In Eulogy, Kya Lou splices together a three hour VHS tape passed down two generations. The tape itself consists of 8mm footage chronicling the personal lives of the filmmaker’s maternal lineage in the 1960s. Using the footage as a point of departure, Eulogy considers family structures as formative to understanding how communities are informed by care, absence, belief and joy. The presentation of this work sits between the one year anniversaries for the untimely passing of the artist’s aunt Gwendolyn (March 1948 - September 2019) and grandfather Robert Francis Baxter (November 1939 - November 2019). ABOUT THE ARTIST Born in San Diego, Kya Lou is an artist, editor and color grading specialist based in Los Angeles. Her work is at the intersection of ancestral memory, community, landscape and identity. She currently dedicates her time to running COLORED ONLY, a color grading studio focused on conjuring colors that exceed the frame and trouble the truth.

Lou’s work has been shown at the Institute of Contemporary Art - Los Angeles, Museum of Photographic Arts - San Diego and the Residency Art Gallery in Inglewood, among others. She has worked with Kahlil Joseph (BLKNWS), Sophia Nahli Allison (A Love Song For Latasha) and Rhea Dillon (Black Angel) to name a few collaborators. She is a graduate of the School of Arts and Architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Womxn in Windows Press Release (09-22-2020, updated 10-05-2020) page 8 I AM ARAB, 2019 A HUMAN, AN ANIMAL OR A THING, 2020 HI, I KNOW YOU MISSED ME, 2020 BY RÉMIE AKL

ABOUT THE FILMS Rémie Akl is bold and unapologetic. She says, “...while most of us are ashamed or afraid to say it out loud because of the foreign propagandas, I am raising my voice. I am Arab. And this video is my debut.” Arab, an identity usually associated with being Muslim and long held as a reason for shame in the Western world, is being dismantled in these videos. Akl wants to hold men accountable for their attitudes towards womxn and remind them that they are not needed if they want to curb our existence. In this visually captivating series of videos, Akl reclaims her Arab femme identity, talks about the sufferings of a Lebanese girl lacking a proper nation - knowing that it’s the people who build a nation - and remarks on friends from her country doing very little to encourage progress; merely accepting the situation they’re living in. These videos, Akl states, are a call for change; for a stable, conflict-free and independent Lebanon, where basic human rights and freedoms are secured for all. ABOUT THE ARTIST Born in Beirut, Lebanon. Rémie Akl is a rising and unapologetic storyteller. She conceptualises, acts and directs her own works. Her work is a call to action, especially against the corrupt government structures of Lebanon. Her videos capture the political unrest and explain further the reasons for the current revolution in Lebanon. She speaks out against the patriarchy and the diminishing rights of womxn in the Middle East. Through her work, she brings awareness to the global propaganda against the Arab identity and boldly claims the same identity that has been a reason of shame to so many for so long. Her work has been featured on Nowness and ArabAd and has garnered a large following on social media.

Womxn in Windows Press Release (09-22-2020, updated 10-05-2020) page 9 A SONG ABOUT LOVE, 2019 BY RIKKÍ WRIGHT

ABOUT THE FILM Rikkí Wright sets the tone for A Song About Love instantly, as the film opens with the words of Bell Hooks and transitions into the song Say You Love Me. In this spiritual reckoning on the different forms of love in this world, from human to divine, Wright is navigating the contrasts between real and redemptive love and the roots of enduring faith in the Black community. She is exploring the complex relationship between sexuality and religion; the same religion that has given her and her ancestors strength, music and peace in the most difficult of times, but has not fully accepted her existence. Beautiful and moving, with striking transitions between interviews, music and Wright’s own body, this film is a reminder of the power of faith, the beauty that can come from pain and the search for oneself and our place in society. ABOUT THE ARTIST Born in Tuscaloosa, AL. Rikkí Wright is a photographer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, CA. Her work explores notions of community, family and sisterhood, especially among Black womxn, and looks at the way a community can mold or expand ideas of strength and beauty. Wright grew up with two older sisters who were her best friends and her source of support through life’s trials and tribulations, beginning with the loss of Wright’s mother at the age of two. Her sisters taught her the power of having womxn by her side who she could be real with and depend upon, and her work seeks to capture this sense of power. Her work has been featured in the NYTimes, i-D, LALA, Refinery 29 and many other publications. Her film has been shown at Black Star Fest and her clients include girlgaze, Outdoor Voices, Warby Parker and No Sesso.

Womxn in Windows Press Release (09-22-2020, updated 10-05-2020) page 10 THE PROPHETESS, 2018 BY SYLVIE WEBER

ABOUT THE FILM In Weber’s film, The Prophetess, the narrative is twofold. The story follows two womxn, Furaha and Venantie, who - in spite of having been violated, victimized and employed as weapons of a male conflict - use their tender friendship as the source of ultimate strength; a strength so great that it empowers their entire community of womxn to set out for a different future. In doing, so they reclaim their own narrative, ability to control their present and write their futures - devoid of societal pressures. In parallel, Weber weaves through the mythical story of Kimpa Vita—the mother of African revolution in the kingdom of the Kongo (1390–1857)—who continues to give strength to this community of womxn centuries later. Weber says that “as a female director, I wanted to make a statement to global sisterhood, that legions of womxn stand beside our sisters in the DR Congo, who are being silenced systematically, who carry the weight of a nation on their shoulders.” ABOUT THE ARTIST Born in Southern Germany, of German-Dominican descent, Sylvie Weber was confronted with questions around identity that have motivated her exploration of humanity, its virtues and weaknesses, on film. Studying in India opened the door to greater depth in both her film work and her approach to life. Weber’s focus has been the empowerment of womxn and the elevation of Black and brown stories, especially those that highlight and rework historical injustice and inequality. In line with her passion, she embarked on a journey with Journalists For Human Rights in the DR Congo where she completed her debut award-winning short The Prophetess. She continues to collaborate with local run École Technique du Journalisme in Bukavu to train and mentor aspiring filmmakers to cover and promote their own stories.

Womxn in Windows Press Release (09-22-2020, updated 10-05-2020) page 11 Women in Windows is open from October 15 - November 15, 2020

LOCATIONS: Los Angeles - Windows along Chung King Road Annie Frasier Studio, Automata Arts, Brain Dead, Burgeoning Architects, Chungking Studio, Heavens Market, Imprint Projects, The Institute for Art and Olfaction, Poetic Research Bureau, Preen Inc., Press Friends, Tierra Del Sol. New York - Wallplay Network - 321 Canal Street, Chinatown London - Protein Studios - 31 New Inn Yard, Hackney Shanghai - Bitter - Jing’an District

CREDITS

(Main Images) L-R) Install from WxW 2019 showing, The Ascension, by Arshia Fatima Haq in collaboration with Cassils. Image, Womxn in Windows. A Still from The Prophetess, by Sylvie Weber. Image, Sylvie Weber.

(Artist Pages - left to right) Still from Aurora, 2017 by Everlane Moraes Portrait of Everlane Moraes by Natália Medina Still from In Limbo, 2018 by Christine Yuan Portrait of Chritsine Yuan by Devyn Galindo Still from An Ecstatic Experience, 2015 by Ja’Tovia Gary Portrait of Ja’Tovia Gary by JerSean Golatt Still from Blessed Assurance: a dream that i had, 2019 by Kilo Kish Portrait of Kilo Kish by Andrew Arthur Still from Eulogy, 2020 by Kya Lou Portrait of Kya Lou courtesy of the artist Still from I Am Arab, 2019 by Rémie Akl Portrait of Rémie Akl by Aline Ouais Still from A Song About Love, 2019 by Rikkí Wright Portrait of Rikkí Wright by Rikkí Wright Still from The Prophetess, 2018 by Sylvie Weber Portrait of Sylvie Weber by Caroline Mackintosh

Womxn in Windows Press Release (09-22-2020, updated 10-05-2020) page 12