Tavares Strachan’s artistic practice activates the intersections of art, science, and politics, offering us uniquely synthesized points of view on the cultural dynamics of scientific knowledge. He works in collaboration with organizations and institutions across disciplines, to promote a broader and more inclusive understanding of the work of both artists, scientists, and the systems and support networks that make their work possible. In conversation with poet Alysia Nicole Harris, Strachan will explore the cross-disciplinary aspects of his practice.
Registration is FREE for Nasher Members and students; $10 for non-members. In-person and open to the public. Advance registration required (limited seating available).
Strachan is perhaps best known for his work The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want (Arctic Ice Project), 2004-06, in which he extracted a four and half ton block of arctic ice and shipped it to his birthplace in the Bahamas, where it was exhibited in a specially designed freezer chamber that was solar powered. The work plays with the notions of displacement and interdependency, which are central both to the ecological systems which maintain the relative heat and cold of equatorial and arctic environments, as well as the cultural realities which define themselves in relation to these environments. Moving between these environmental extremes points to their interdependency, but also to the precariousness of the human experiences which hang in the balance.
About Tavares Strachan
Strachan was born in 1979 in Nassau, Bahamas, and currently lives and works between New York City and Nassau. He received a BFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003 and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University in 2006. Strachan’s work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions including You Belong Here, Prospect 3. Biennial, New Orleans; The Immeasurable Daydream, Biennale de Lyon, Lyon; Polar Eclipse, The Bahamas National Pavilion 55th Venice Biennale, Venice; Seen/Unseen, Undisclosed Exhibition, New York; Orthostatic Tolerance: It Might Not Be Such a Bad Idea if I Never Went Home Again, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge; among others. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including 2019-20 Artist in Residence at the Getty Research Institute, 2018 Frontier Art Prize, and the Allen Institute’s inaugural artist-in-residence in 2018, 2014 LACMA Art + Technology Lab Artist Grant, 2008 Tiffany Foundation Grant, 2007 Grand Arts Residency Fellowship, and 2006 Alice B. Kimball Fellowship.
About Alysia Nicole Harris
Alysia Nicole Harris is a poet, linguist, and teaching-artist. She received her PhD in linguistics from Yale University and her MFA in poetry from NYU. Alysia has spent a decade performing nationally and internationally, including at the UN, the US Embassies in Jordan and Ukraine, and The National Theatre. Her performances have garnered over 5 million views on YouTube. Her first chapbook, How Much We Must Have Looked Like Stars to Stars, won the 2015 New Women's Voices Prize. Cave Canem fellow, Pushcart nominee, and also the 2014 and 2015 Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize winner. Alysia has published work in numerous publications and several anthologies. Since 2016, Alysia has worked with an array of nonprofit organizations in program development and mission-based consulting. In addition to her new role as director of public programs for Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency in Corsicana, Texas, she also serves as arts & soul editor for Scalawag Magazine.