STRONGROOM presents
Modupeola Fadugba: DEAR YOUNG ARTIST
BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF NEWBURGH
285 LIBERTY STREET, NEWBURGH, NY 12550
Opening November 20, 1- 5 PM, with performances at 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 PM
Timed entry for performances, you must reserve a time slot here: https://dearyoungartist.eventbrite.com
Performances will additionally be live-streamed on Instagram: @STRONGROOM.INC
Installation open by appointment 11-3 PM Thursday, Friday, and Saturday through December 18th
Email INFO@STRONGROOM.US to make an appointment
Closing performance December 18th, 2pm
No registration required
STRONGROOM is pleased to present a collaboration between artist Modupeola Fadugba and The Newburgh Performing Arts Academy. Modupeola will create a site-specific installation and series of performances on November 20th in an empty swimming pool at the Boys and Girls Club of Newburgh headquarters, further exploring an ongoing series, “Dear Young Artist.”
In her recent work, Modupeola has addressed themes of swimming through paintings and social engagement projects that explore the personal and collective swim stories of participants, especially in reference to the history of swimming in black communities. In Newburgh, the dancers, aged 14-16, led by Choreographer and Founder of the NPAA, Kim Turner, will interpret music and a letter scripted and recited by the artist, while navigating a red ball. The red ball, Modupeola warns, must be ignored - a metaphor for the young artist not to give in to the alluring distraction, and instead to “tread slowly.” Above all, Modupeola cautions, the young artist must stay in the pool, “you must continue swimming.”
Performed inside an empty swimming pool, the audience will be invited to enter the shallow end of the space, creating an immersive experience that asks viewers to additionally consider the history of community swimming pools, and who has access to such pools. Perhaps some of our local audience will have swam in this pool themselves. What is your swim story? Amongst a decaying space (the pool has been empty for 25+ years), the performance reasserts the swimming pool as a place of creativity and health for the young dancers as they confront life’s challenges.
Following the performances on November 20th, an installation of paintings will be on view inside the swimming pool site, along with a projection of the performance that occurred. The exhibition portion will be on view by appointment Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 12-5 through December 18th, with the exception of Thanksgiving week. You must email info@strongroom.us to make an appointment in advance.
This project is part of the artist’s larger global initiative called “The Artist’s Algorithm,” a new series of exhibitions, essays, talks, games, performances, mentorship programs, murals, and videos which aim to shed light on problems in education, politics, and governance through art. An algorithm, by definition, is a process or set of rules to be solved. The question for society is who controls the algorithm? How do artists win? The pieces of Fadugba’s algorithm– her rules to win by – include different symbolic motifs: synchronized swimmers, game theory, geographic wonders, national heroes, monuments, and more. These strategies aim to create and celebrate stories, both personal and national, born out of places of learning: pools, schools, museums, or home. For the artist, an avid lifelong swimmer and student, Fadugba has created swimming as a key narrative and visual tool for education and storytelling. “For me, swimming and painting swimmers is an act of love in the face of fear for many, who face tragedy and erasure when navigating contested waters.”
“The swim stories I create through art are rooted in education – my synchronized swimmers become role models of what’s possible. They represent a sort of ideal, about rationality, order, and harmony in the world. But the truth is that things fall apart. What algorithm can we use to restructure our stories – what would it take for us all to swim, to win?”
Modupeola Fadugba (born 1985 in Lomé, Togo) is a multimedia artist working in painting, drawing, and socially-engaged installation. Fadugba holds a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware, a Masters in Economics from the University of Delaware, and a Masters in Education from Harvard University. She lives and works in between Abuja, Nigeria and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her works explore cultural identity, social justice, game theory, and the art world within the socio-political landscape of Nigeria and our greater global economy. The People's Algorithm -- a game installation that fosters debate about how to improve Nigeria's education system -- was awarded El Anatsui's Outstanding Production Prize and a 2016 Dakar Biennale Grand Prize from Senegal's Minister of Communication. Her most recent exhibition, Dream from the Deep End, depicts swimmers exploring collaborative ways of being in the water together, set against the bleak backdrop of America's racialized -- and oftentimes tragic -- swimming history. The work was exhibited at Gallery 1957 in Accra, Ghana, and the following documentary was screened at the Brooklyn Museum, New York in 2019, and most recently at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York in September 2019. In 2020 Modupeola was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow.
Special thanks to Kevin White, Kim Turner, and Trish Halverson at the The Boys and Girls Club of Newburgh and The Newburgh Performing Arts Academy, and the performers:
Isobel Aviles Deliz, Leilani Bacchas, Edith Florencio, Nia Gilchrest-Spence, Leah Hall-Collins, Chantal Martinez, Daniela Moreno,
Ariya Nelson, Kiera O’Shea, Adrianna Ochang, Natalie Robles
This project is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by Arts Mid-Hudson; And the 2021 Sachs Public Art Grant, distributed by the Orange County Arts Council
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