Stack for Martha's Sisters

Dani + Sheilah ReStack

Fort Worth Contemporary Arts

September 10 - October 23, 2021

The Art Galleries at TCU are pleased to present Stack for Martha’s Sisters, an exhibition of new work byDani + Sheilah ReStack.Thisexhibition will be on-view from September 10 – October 23, 2021 at Fort Worth Contemporary Arts. A reception for the artists and an outdoor screening event featuring the project Shameless Lightwill be presented on the evening of October 20^th. More details to be released soon.

As partners and collaborators, Dani + Sheilah ReStack make video and photographic installations that explore connections between the domestic and the feral in contemporary life. Their approach weaves together real and mythical understandings of family, intimacy, place, desire and ritual. They often employ aspects of social practice and performance as a means to examine queerness, site-specific histories and human-animal relationships.

Stack for Martha’s Sistersis a queer feminist imagining of alternative spaces of being, family and creation. The video installation is intended as a portal of fragmented imagination – through contemplation of past women’s communities, and channeling a horizontal possibility of influence, history and making. The Sanctified Sisters of Belton, Texas was founded by Martha McWhirter in the late 1860s after she had a dream in the kitchen of separating from her husband and making community with women similarly interested. The history of the Sanctified Sisters infuses the installation at Fort Worth Contemporary Arts as the artists used this historical legend, which exists without physical trace except for a plaque in the town of Belton, as inspiration.

The artists returned to their home state of Ohio and visited the Susan B Anthony Womyns Land in Athens, Ohio. The Susan B. Anthony Land was founded in the 1970’s and continues to serve a queer population interested in living or camping rurally. The filming for Stack for Martha’s Sistersoccurred in the outdoor kitchen and Star cabin at the Susan B. Anthony Memorial Land (Subamuh) in summer of 2021. The artists, Dani + Sheilah, and their children are part of the creation and interaction with the space of stacking, feral domestic possibility and alternative queer family collaboration. 

AlongsideStack for Martha’s Sistersthe artists also present Shameless Lightat Fort Worth Contemporary Arts. This is an ongoing project where invited queer identified participants submit love letters that are then read aloud under two red, neon funnels. At TCU, the artists are hosting an open call for love letters by queer identified people to be included in an anniversary publication of the projectin 2022. Letters can be submitted by email to the artists directly (sheilah.restack@gmail.com) or through The Art Galleries at TCU (theartgalleries@tcu.edu). Alternatively, letter writers are invited to submit hardcopies in person to staff at Fort Worth Contemporary Arts. 

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ReStack collaborations have shown at the 2017 Whitney Biennial, Iceberg Projects Chicago, Toronto International Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Images Film Festival, Lyric Theater, Leslie Lohman Project Space, Gaa Wellfleet and The Columbus Museum of Art. They have received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and Ohio Arts Council, and they have been residents at The Headlands in Marin County, MacDowell and Visual Studies Workshop. https://danirestack.com/sotd

Dani + Sheilah ReStack have embarked on an artistic relationship that is formally and emotionally adjacent to their domestic lives, a quotidian zone they share with their young daughter. Both artists have established careers on their own. Neither Dani’ video work or Sheilah’s multimedia performance and installation work could exactly prepare us for the force of the women’s collaborative efforts. – Michael Sicinski, Cinema Scope, 2017.

Dani ReStackis a multidisciplinary artist whose works investigate sensorial and emotional states by juxtaposing individual narratives and exploring intersectional stories. Her video work has been screened and exhibited at numerous national and international venues including Radclyffe Hall, Glasgow, UK; Gaa Gallery, Wellfleet, MA; Chapter Cardiff, Cardiff, UK; the 2017 Whitney Biennial; Rotterdam International Film Festival; The Ann Arbor Film Festival; and, UnionDocs, MoMA PS1. She has received awards from the Kazuko Trust, the Eileen Maitland Award and the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice Visual Arts Grant, and is also the recipient of a Wexner Film/Video Residency Award. Dani ReStack is an Associate Professor of Art at Ohio State University. www.danirestack.com

Sheilah ReStack uses documentary materials to offer new inhabitation of family, time, history, narrative, desire. Her work has been exhibited at numerous national and international venues including Museum of Fine Arts of Santa Fe; Columbia College Chicago; Whitney Museum of American Art; Antioch College; and Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand. ReStack has completed residencies at Headlands Center for the Arts; Banff Center for the Arts; MacDowell, and the Visual Studies Workshop. She is the recipient of the Howard Foundation Fellowship for Photography, and has received several Canada Council Project Grants. Sheilah ReStack is an Associate Professor of Art and Chair of Studio Art at Denison University, Ohio.

 www.sheilahwilsonrestack.com

About Fort Worth Contemporary Arts

Fort Worth Contemporary Arts (FWCA) is a satellite exhibition space located a few blocks from the School of Art, on the edge of the TCU campus. Situated on West Berry Street, a busy urban corridor, this 2,000-square-foot gallery is TCU’s public-facing art venue. It offers a great opportunity for students, faculty, staff and alumni to engage with the Dallas-Fort Worth community. At FWCA, the curatorial focus revolves around national and international artists at different stages of their career. It often includes work that has never been shown before or that is made on-site during a residency period, with direct support from the Art Galleries at TCU. This concentration means students have close access to high-quality art and can critically engage with artists on a one-on-one basis in the gallery.

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Fort Worth Contemporary Arts is located at 2900 W. Berry St. and is open Wednesday – Saturday 12 – 5pm. Admission is free. The gallery is now open to the publicand in step with TCU Covid-19 protocols we ask that visitors follow these guidelines:

• All visitors (students, faculty, staff and general public) must wear masks in the galleries, maintain 3ft social distancing and sign-in for contact tracing purposes. A gallery attendant will be on hand if you have any questions or forget your mask.

• If you would like to bring your class or a group to the galleries, please contact us by email to arrange ahead of time theartgalleries@tcu.edu. To meet our occupancy guidelines we may need to split large classes or groups depending on which gallery you visit.

These guidelines are subject to change, and we will circulate updated guidelines for visiting the Galleries if needed. You can also follow all of TCU's Covid-19 updates here: www.tcu.edu/protect-the-purple/

For more information about this exhibition, images for press, or details about other activities of The Art Galleries at TCU please visit the Galleries website www.theartgalleries.tcu.edu, email theartgalleries@tcu.edu, or call 817-257-2588.

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