All Together, Amongst Many: Reflections on Empathy
All Together, Amongst Many: Reflections on Empathy explores the cultural and sociopolitical issues currently defining the United States. Presented on the heels of the 2020 U.S. elections, the work of 21 artists takes various approaches to understanding empathy and aims to awaken shared beliefs in humanity during these polarizing times. The artists are based across the United States and Canada and through their diverse, unique perspectives broadly engage ideas centered on land rights and Indigenous rights, climate change and the environment, food justice, accessibility and healthcare, immigration and migration, systemic racism, LGBTQIA2S+ rights, the criminal justice system, police brutality, and violence on all accounts. This exhibition, while not an exhaustive survey, provides a snapshot of America’s turbulent society today.
Todxs Juntxs, Entre Muchxs: Reflexiones Sobre la Empatía explora los problemas culturales y sociopolíticos que definen actualmente a los Estados Unidos. Presentado inmediatamente después de las elecciones estadounidenses de 2020, el trabajo de 20 artistas toma varios enfoques para comprender la empatía y tiene como objetivo despertar creencias compartidas en la humanidad durante estos tiempos de polarización. Los artistas tienen su sede alrededor de los Estados Unidos y, a través de sus perspectivas diversas y únicas, involucran ampliamente ideas centradas en los derechos a la tierra y los derechos indígenas, el cambio climático y el medio ambiente, la justicia alimentaria, la accesibilidad y cuidado de salud, la inmigración y la migración, el racismo sistemático, los derechos LGBTQIA2S +, el sistema de justicia criminal, brutalidad policial y violencia en todos los aspectos. Esta exposición, aunque no es un estudio exhaustivo, ofrece una instantánea de la turbulenta sociedad estadounidense actual.
Cameron Granger; This Must Be the Place, 2018.; Digital video; 4:32 minutes; Courtesy of the artist.
Marcus Fischer; Untitled (Words of Concern), 2017; Tape recorder, tape loop, spindle, sound; 3:00 minutes; Courtesy of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Purchased with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee and the Director's Discretionary Funds; © Marcus Fischer; Photo: Jim Golden.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith; Trade Canoe: Making Medicine, 2018; Mixed media: pine, sinew, plastic, Styrofoam, paper, metal, paint; 22 x 132 x 18 inches; Courtesy of Beth Rudin DeWoody, the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, NY.
All Together, Amongst Many: Reflections on Empathy connects artists from across the country with local organizations in an effort to highlight their work focused on issues represented in the exhibition. These partnerships will result in a variety of public and private programs with the 13th & Leavenworth Garden: A Pop-Up Oasis, Asian Community and Cultural Center, The Big Garden, Big Muddy Urban Farm, Black and Pink National, Bluebird Cultural Initiative, City Sprouts, Douglas County Historical Society, Easterseals Nebraska, Great Plains Black History Museum, Green Omaha Coalition, Heartland Family Service, Heartland Pride, Immigrant Legal Center, KANEKO, Latino Center of the Midlands, The Lincoln Indian Center, Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, Nebraska Writers Collective, NOISE, No More Empty Pots, and RISE.
En Todxs Juntxs, Entre Muchxs: Reflexiones sobre la Empatía, Bemis conecta a artistas de todo el país con organizaciones locales en un esfuerzo por destacar su trabajo centrado en los temas representados en la exposición. Estas asociaciones darán como resultado una variedad de programas públicos y privados con 13th & Leavenworth Garden: A Pop-Up Oasis, Asian Community and Cultural Center, The Big Garden, Big Muddy Urban Farm, Black and Pink National, Bluebird Cultural Initiative, City Sprouts, Easterseals Nebraska, Great Plains Black History Museum, Green Omaha Coalition, Heartland Family Service, Heartland Pride, Immigrant Legal Center, KANEKO, Latino Center of the Midlands, The Lincoln Indian Center, Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, Nebraska Writers Collective, NOISE, No More Empty Pots, y RISE, entre otros.
The Beats Instagram Filter by Brendan Fernandes
For All Together, Amongst Many: Reflections on Empathy, Brendan Fernandes has expanded his work into the form of an Instagram filter, available for free on the app.
If we can’t be together, let’s dance with The Beats in solo solidarity!
Go to bemiscenter.org/thebeats on your mobile device.
Click “Open in Instagram”.
Make sure your sound is on.
Record and DANCE!
Add #beatsxbemis and tag @brendanfernandes and @bemiscenter.
Save the video to your phone (download arrow on top of screen).
Add to your Instagram Story!
Send the saved video to exhibitions@bemiscenter.org to be included in Free Fall 49, a performance by Brendan Fernandes at Bemis Center on July 23, 2021
In both a time of global political uprisings and faced with a global pandemic, we have had to learn to both self-isolate and maintain physical distance as well as re-imagine the ways we can gather, protest, and achieve critical mass. While restrictions are lifting, virtual platforms are still extremely relevant, especially in highlighting the power of a group. The filter uses historically significant patterns to tell stories of power, camouflage, and resistance. Evoking a sense of urgency and emergency, “dazzle” patterns, which were painted on warships to intercept their target, are coupled with purple and magenta plaid, which at once symbolizes British colonial rule in Kenya, a warning to predators in the wild, and the flashing of police lights.
Sound by DJ Karsten Sollors. Developed by Mingus New.
Christine Sun Kim; listen hear listen, 2017; Originally made as a postcard (10 x 15 cm) for Primary Information (2017); Courtesy of the artist.
A Counting is an ongoing series of linguistic portraits of the US featuring various spoken and sign languages designed by artist Ekene Ijeoma and his group Poetic Justice at MIT Media Lab. Created in response to the US Census which has historically misrepresented the ethnic and linguistic diversity of the US, A Counting serves as a meditation and speculation on what a truly united society would look and sound like. Each edition is created by crowdsourcing either phone or camera recordings of people counting to 100 in their languages, and remixing them into counts of 100 with a different person and language for every number. As a “language acknowledgment”, one is always in an indigenous language, if available.
Visit a-counting.us/oma or call 402.251.2426 to participate. The voice portrait of Omaha will be on view in this exhibition.
All Together, Amongst Many: Reflections on Empathy is generously supported, in part, by:
Support for Art in Practice: The Intersection of Poetry and Visual Art is provided, in part, by:
Support for Brendan Fernandes's Free Fall 49 is provided, in part, by the Omaha Community Foundation's Equality Fund for LGBTQIA+.
Support for Seitu Ken Jones's FoodJustUs: An intersection of food and art is provided, in part, by:
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