June 10 - July 22: Documents: alternative guide to dc underground at The Gallery at Vivid Solutions

When: June 10 - July 22, 2011, reception June 10, 6-8pm

Where: The Gallery at Vivid Solutions, 2208 MLK Jr. Ave SE,  Anacostia, Washington, DC, 20020

On June 10th, Ayodamola Okunseinde & Yulia Graham’s collaborative project DOCUMENTS: alternative guide to dc underground will open at The Gallery at Vivid Solutions.DOCUMENTS investigates subjects of identity through photographic and physically interactive portraits. Based on the likenesses of artists from the DC metro area, the objective of this project is to chronicle connections between artists, their environment, personalities and work through portraiture. By exploring "subject" and "environment" interactively, the artists hope to reveal previously unseen elements of creativity and personal connections that hold the DC area arts scene together.

Ayodamola Okunseinde is a well known media artist (aka Cultural Mixologist), who also has a day job at the IMF. His works deal primarily with the exploration of identity through interactivity. Formerly of Dissident Display, Ayodamola has deep roots in the Washington, DC arts community and plays an active role with cultural exchanges and programming, working with the Embassy of Finland. "I'm very into the idea of appropriation and re-contextualization of images and sound and the possibilities of 2.0 technology," says Okunseinde. "I also like the concept of mixing cultures and theories. So I can take, let's say, dance theory, and apply that theory to music, or apply musical theory to visual art and then apply that to culture and cultural understanding. I find that, in mixing those ideas, you arrive at a new understanding of the world." More recently he worked with Kristina Bilonick’s Pleasant Plains Workshops on Georgia Avenue NW.  

Okunseinde’s collaborator is no stranger to the DC arts scene either. Born in Yaroslavl, Russia, Yulia Graham currently lives in Washington DC and is an award-winning graphic artist. Graham is a Senior Graphic and Web Designer with The Chronicle of Higher Education. She also works as a Senior Graphic Designer with AQUENT. Currently Yulia is pursuing MA in Graphic Design at Savannah College of Art and Design. Yulia has been photographing the DC arts scene since 2008. Her self-created challenge was to connect with individuals engaged in creating the dynamic and diverse cultural life of Washington, DC. Her focus is larger scale portraits of DC-based artists, musicians, writers, friends and acquaintances: people who were born, chose to live, got stuck or waylaid in DC and now work and create here.

The pieces in DOCUMENTS range from black & white digital prints to installations where the audience in directed to play a part in the presentation of the portraits. Okunseinde’s interactive portraits included in the collection utilize physical interactivity sensors and microprocessors to blend elements of the subjects personality, likeness and voice with their photographic representation with the aim of moving deeper into the subjects character and work. The artists believe and hope that these collective works will also serve as a selected educational archive of the dc underground art scene at its current state. 

DOCUMENTS: alternative guide to dc underground opening reception is Friday, June 10th from 6-8pm. Also opening the same night at our sister gallery, Honfleur, is an exhibited curated by microWave project, Wavelengths from 7-9pm. DOCUMENTS will be open to the public from June 10 thru July 22, 2011. Gallery hours are 12-5 Tuesday through Friday and 11-5 on Saturdays.