Cooking Memory Remembrances is reactivation of a 2017 performance called Cooking Memory where Lia Garcia returns broken ceramics to their home in Elsewhere’s kitchen. The performance creates an intimate space to reflect on creating resistance to the violence against trans lives, what exists outside of hegemonic femininity, what it means to touch, and what stories are told in the kitchen.

Chris Omni (Tallahassee, FL) | Exchange (Kansas City) | October 2021

Chris Omni explored her artist identity through found objects from North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. This piece represents her growth process of moving from a 20+ year career in public health into a new, August 2020, identity as an artist. Being * Becoming * Growing is in direct communication with her second piece, Isolation * Invitation * Inclusion; however this piece speaks to her extroverted side. A side that has been traditionally front, center, and literally on stage. Omni created this site specific installation as a reminder of how we present to others and how we even frame our identities, even if it is not who we are at the core. Through this introspective creation, Chris Omni discovered a new dimension of herself and weaved it into the piece while dancing with the energy of the sacral chakra mantra, “I love all dimensions of myself. I delight in weaving the creative tapestry that is my life.” Being * Becoming * Growing invites YOU to look at your journey and grow in the direction that breathes life to your soul. Ase.

Chris Omni (Tallahassee, FL) | Exchange (Kansas City) | October 2021

Chris Omni explored her artist identity through found objects from North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. This piece represents her growth process of moving from a 20+ year career in public health into a new, August 2020, identity as an artist. Being * Becoming * Growing is in direct communication with her second piece, Isolation * Invitation * Inclusion; however this piece speaks to her extroverted side. A side that has been traditionally front, center, and literally on stage. Omni created this site specific installation as a reminder of how we present to others and how we even frame our identities, even if it is not who we are at the core. Through this introspective creation, Chris Omni discovered a new dimension of herself and weaved it into the piece while dancing with the energy of the sacral chakra mantra, “I love all dimensions of myself. I delight in weaving the creative tapestry that is my life.” Being * Becoming * Growing invites YOU to look at your journey and grow in the direction that breathes life to your soul. Ase.

Richard Moreno (Miami, FL) | October 2021

The Coffin of Curiosities was inspired by the artist's body of work. Moreno's practice explores elements of diy culture, community, and mysticism through the lenses of Metal and Punk cultures. A coffin shaped bench was found in the third floor of the museum, and transformed into a musical instrument and cabinet of sorts with installed shelves and speakers. Stairs were built to raise the bench up and allow the audience to climb up and sit on it, as well as pull pieces from the museum collection to fill the shelves and stairs. Knives and paint markers were also provided for the residents and visitors of Elsewhere to deface and carve into the piece making it their own.In this piece Richard flips the normal process of viewership, allowing the audience to be both performer and artist, creating a space for experimentation, and interaction. Absolving ownership he hopes the piece to have multiple lives and iterations.

As an artist with with an art history PhD, Franco makes the discipline itself his primary medium. For PICTURES ELSEWHERE, he considered the pivotal art historian Michael Baxandall's particular approach alongside his inheritance as an Elsewherian, the space and materials ultimately passed down from Sylvia Gray. This resulted in three new works: a performance for video, a book, and a live performance.

Cooking Memory is a performance by Mexican artist Lia García that deals with tenderness and love as spaces of resistance. In times of violence towards trans lives, where does the resistance come from? What does it mean to touch? What stories are told in the kitchen? Broken lives are important and it is time to talk about ourselves in a space of intimacy, memory, and affection.