Books of Nourishment I-X
was created for the group exhibition
auxilium continuum: reframing
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Honfleur Gallery presents auxilium continuum: reframing, a group exhibition (re)constructing support as a fluid and matriarchal practice that relies on collaboration and generativity.
For this exhibition, five contemporary women-identifying artists practicing in the greater Washington DC area were each provided stipends to create an artwork of their choosing – without any creative, conceptual, or practical limitations – in exchange for their participation in unfiltered conversations about their experiences with support (and lack thereof), inequality, and discrimination in their art careers, and how they imagine/desire art spaces and publics to evolve in the future. Curated by Marta Lola Staudinger, auxilium continuum: reframing is both a seed and a field study. It initiates dialogue around under-investigated aspects of feminine energy (creation, intuition, fluidity) in the arts marketplace by gifting the participating artists time, space, and financial compensation to create freely. As a result, with deep reverence for practice and process, artists Ceci Cole McInturff, Rania Hassan, Jean Jinho Kim, Leah Lewis and Nicole Salimbene respond using a variety of media to present individual expressions of current needs and/or themes in their practices. Concepts that intersect across the artists’ artworks and the exhibition’s composite offering include radical unity, hospitality, nourishment and collective care, rest and regeneration, matriarchs and mother lines, traditions of craft (predominantly created by women), resilience, women gathering, exchange, and the need for boundaries and protection. |
"From its inception, this project has been, and continues to be, a radical act of hospitality. It welcomes and invites, greeting me at the door with questions to put me at ease, take me in, consider what I might need, or what I might not want, and asks "what would best nourish and hold you as an artist?"
It has been a gift. In response to this gift, I have constructed this series of artists' books, to share some of what has nourished me as an artist and some of what I hope for all artists. I have been circling the artist book from my start as a visual artist. While I have used image, text, and poetry in sculpture and installation, until now I have never fully leaned into the form. I think the spirit of support from this exhibition has provided an encouraging space to face the page and allow me to playfully experiment. It has welcomed me to receive what I need." -Nicole Salimbene |
