EscapeRoom, Curated by Kim Bobier and Marisa Williamson
February 23 - March 29, 2024
Press Release
Panel Discussion: Friday, February 23, 3 - 4:30 pm
Opening Reception: Friday, February 23, 5 - 7 pm
University of Virginia (UVA) is a site of reckoning. The legacies of slavery and white supremacy reverberate throughout its built environment. EscapeRoom confronts frameworks of injustice that contemporary audiences inhabit and inherit in relation to this UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its title evokes “edutainment” formats, such as museum period rooms and escape room games, which immerse visitors in scenes of the past. Yet, rather than reproducing one historical container or master narrative, EscapeRoom charts critical routes through a maze of predatory systems. It showcases recent works by artists who operate across temporalities, geographies, and disciplines to hack the master’s tools and harness radical alternatives.
CURATORS
Marisa Williamson, Assistant Professor of Studio Art at University of Virginia with a research focus on Blackness and Kim Bobier, Adjunct Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute’s Department of History of Art and Design
ARTISTS
Chotsani Elaine Dean | Sue Jeong Ka | Alma Molina Carvajal | Yanique Norman | Amina Ross | Mauricio Vargas | Carrie Mae Weems | Lauren Williams | The Unsettling Grounds Artist Collective | UVA’s Fall 2023 Introduction to New Media students
Supported by the UVA Arts Council and the UVA Department of Art