I Tried to Save Myself

Work from Representatives of Recess Assembly

October 28 – December 1, 2022

Recess Assembly youth fellows and program educators present a selection of work confronting ideas of identity, the body, and radical beauty, tied together by the thread of fraternity and community. I Tried to Save Myself is a space built by and for community engagement–centering nourishment, hope, reckoning, and reconciliation. The exhibit approaches diverse identities, histories, and methodologies with care, representing a variety of mediums including video, photography, printmaking, digital painting, and mixed media work. Through these works, the artists in I Tried to Save Myself contend that only community care can save us in a world where liberation must be attained through human connection and collective action.

KT KENNEDY’s digital portraits highlight and celebrate the multiplicity of Black queer expression by capturing community members in self-reflection and empowerment. JAY VENTURA’s dreamy editorial-style portraits depict figures adorned with silky fabrics and sparkling jewels that exude both luxury and a sense of play, daring us to imagine what might exist beyond the edges of the worlds he has created.

DARELL SANTANA’s analog photography depicts more subtle moments of community. One image captures a bedroom filled with friends each engrossed in their own tasks yet deeply connected, while another shows a residential street evoking a sense of familiarity and memory. In GLENN QUENTIN‘s works, community is imagined through fragments of form and color, depicting moments of intimacy that evoke the emotive power of memory. In Steve+Rita 4ever, KRISTEN LEACH captures a moment in space, rendering it in sharp detail. From a simple street corner doorway emerges a dynamic composition of materials, textures, and written messages—all of which invite us to look closer.

KRISTINA BIVONA creates immersive explorations of sex work, memory, sadomasochism, and trauma through various whimsical artist books. Her handcrafted sculptural pieces ask the viewer to reflect on the more profound relationships between the playful medium and gravity of sex work and its stigma.

SHAUN LEONARDO’s Memory/Cycle (The other side of that window…) is the result of a series of visual storytelling workshops with participants from four distinct groups, each with unique relationships to the prison system. In the video piece, corrections officers, legal advocates, formerly incarcerated individuals, and court-involved youth translate their personal narratives into performative gestures, expressing truth through the body, and finding shared humanity through unified movement.

SAINT JAMES’ Holding Back Words, approaches storytelling through the manipulation of written language and the use of voice. James’ video work plays with what parts of his story the viewer is privy to, making careful choices throughout the video that expose themes of self-expression, domesticity, violence, and the impact of carceral trauma on familial dynamics.

AMIR AKRAM’s interactive musical space and recording area highlight the throughline of this exhibition and the impact of Recess Assembly’s mission. By providing the space and facilities for improvisation and play, Akram allows us to experience firsthand the healing power of collective creativity.

When given the freedom to express ourselves through creative means, we are transported to the root of our humanity—but when given the chance to create in and with our community, we are afforded the valuable opportunity to slow down and reconnect to the humanity of others, which is especially rare in the fast-moving, industrial, increasingly policed backdrop of New York City. In this environment, individualism is valued over community, oftentimes to protect one’s own safety. The artists welcome guests into a space where safety is established through understanding and solidarity, without the use of coercion, policing, or violence. Works on view capture and nurture subtle revelations of care alongside bold expressions of being. Through these conceptual explorations, this community proclaims its existence in the present and creates hope for a path forward illuminated by art. Ultimately, these artists reveal to us that the path to saving ourselves can only be found in our willingness to connect deeply with others.

—Nina Osoria Ahmadi (BA ’22)

During the course of the exhibition, 3 workshops will be held in The Jerry H. Labowitz Theater for the Performing Arts to accompany I Tried to Save Myself. Find more information on the workshops page.

About Recess Assembly

Recess Assembly offers system-impacted young people, aged 18-26, an inroad to art and connections to working artists, while serving as an alternative to incarceration and its intersecting systems of oppression. Founded in 2016, Assembly is a core part of the Brooklyn-based art and community space, Recess, furthering its mission to reimagine a public for art. The curriculum of Assembly empowers young people to take charge of their own life story and envision a future through art. The program diverts both misdemeanor and felony charges and in 2020 expanded to include a peer-to-peer referral model, allowing the organization to broaden its reach.