Category: Theresa Anderson
Theresa Anderson develops interdisciplinary work through writing, performance art, sculpture, photography, video, drawing and painting. She explores concepts dealing with recitations on agency and inadequacy (protect-> soften-> make visible), and/ or, and oppositional/resolution of conflicting categorizations.
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PARADE
Artists: Theresa Anderson, Clay Yoga Sculpt (Andrew Castañeda, Erin Conyers, Casey Whittier), Fike & Harris, Tobias Fike, Ian Fisher, Matthew Harris, Daisy McGowan, Marissa Shell, Summer Ventis, Emily Blair Quinn, Rebecca Vaughan, Kathryn Wingard, Xi Zhang
The group exhibition, Parade, is a collaborative effort between Hyperlink Art Collective and local Kansas City creatives curated by Tobias Fike and Marissa Shell at Charlotte Street Foundation. Hyperlink’s mission as an art collective is to foster tangible connections with others through art while also dissolving the boundaries of what art can be and how it can be experienced. We are open to exploring new territory and the unknown.
As indicative of many of our projects Hyperlink sent out a prompt, “parade,” for each artist to explore through their own perspectives and creative practice. As artists started sending in ideas formulating the exhibition it became clear that much of the work was interpreting “parade” loosely and abstractly exploring wide and varied sensorial experiences, as well as a collective show of strength marked by a sense of community.
Parade includes works such as Rebecca Vaughan’s series of delicate ink/gouache umbrella drawings recalling the fabric of a bustling community at NOLA/Second Line parades (see artist’s essay).
A live collaborative performance artwork by Fike and Anderson was initially written to explore ideas around the momentum and cadence of participants in a parade.
“Through the honoring of the potential of the artwork to shift as we navigated the experience with the audience- other layers such as the weight of spaces between, (wait), awkward disruptions, fragility, and small moments of humor ensued.”-Theresa Anderson
Marissa Shell’s floating crocheted and felted green clouds that resemble floats morph and shift multi-dimensionally as well as referencing the meticulous labor that attends traditional community float building.
Interestingly four artists, Emily Blair Quinn, Tobias Fike and Matt Harris, and Xi Zhang interpreted the prompt of “parade” by evoking somewhat hallucinogenetically distorted faces evoke the feeling of being swept up in the constant flow of a parade- a remembering of sense of space but not distinct visual memories. As an example, Fike and Harris’ collaborative sculpture utilize distorted cloth faces that ooze off simple metal structures.
Summer Ventis’ parade of balloon monotypes asks us to consider the wonder of encountering a flow of similar objects entering our field of vision, the beauty of the detritus left on the street after a parade, and the picking up by hand each piece of litter.
Theresa Anderson’s sculpture, powerline (site conditioner) connects and disrupts space as would an abstracted rainbow ticker banner. Imagining future time where parade remnants on mainstreet are underwater or in a blizzard- powerline is made for grasping in blind space or standing on a tightrope.
Charlotte Street Gallery
3333 Wyoming Street
Kansas City, MO 64111
Exhibition Dates: June 27 – August 16, 2025
Opening Reception: Friday, June 27 6-9pm
Fike + Anderson performance live: Friday, June 27 8pm
Interchange: Social Practice in Conversation Saturday, August 9, 2025 programming from 2-6pm
Over the past year, 16 Interchange fellows have gathered to explore and develop the professional aspects of their socially-engaged creative practices. Fellows are completing the program with a regional network of peer artists and the strategic framework to manage enduring artistic careers. The Interchange program concludes with a public-facing event with fellows sharing their work and discussing the field of social practice.
This event will take place in person on Saturday, August 9, 2025 at the Charlotte Street’s Black Box Theater at 3333 Wyoming St., in Kansas City, Missouri, from 2:00–6:00 p.m.
Each fellow will give 5-minute individual WorkShare presentations that highlight their socially engaged creative practices from 2:00–4:00 p.m. Then, the Social Practice in Conversation panel discussion will follow from 4:30–5:45 p.m.
The panel discussion is an opportunity for artist reflection and connection across geographies and identities. Using their own practice as a starting point, Interchange artists and moderators José Faus, Kendell Harbin, and Justin Tyler Bryant will engage the audience in a broader conversation about social practice. This dialogue will explore how social practice unfolds across the Mid-America Arts Alliance six-state region, highlighting the specific challenges and rewards that come with an artistic social practice.
It is free and open to the public. RSVPs are encouraged.
Attendees are welcome to attend any portion or all of the event.
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inter/ loper
a small selection of film developed from the project, interloper
images taken by a viewer/ participant on displayed disposable cameras
Inter/loper is a performative installation by Hyperlink art collective developed for an experimental art fair hosted by Torrance Art Museum in a defunct medical office. The project was led by Theresa Anderson who asked her fellow Hyperlink1 members to respond to her prompt2, participate in person and/or send objects, images, textiles, paintings, light/projection, sound artwork, tape elements, etc. to activate the space and/ or be material for performance.Focusing on the idea of the camera, photograph/er as an interloper in culture, performance art, + contemporary art- Theresa Anderson, Alicia Ordal and Julie Puma wore greenscreen shirts and responded to our made environment. They interjected body in crevice, interceded between viewers and the work with the act of photography, redefined the space multiple times with tape elements and decidedly photographed and rephotographed the space and each other as part of the performance. Zines explaining the project and disposable cameras were available for viewers and as points of conversation.
“My personal interest in the idea of an interloper in contemporary art has two main levels- my personal issues of often feeling as if I don’t really belong anywhere- and through years of working on performance art projects as a means to explore ideas, feelings, spaces, objects. As such I am typically not interested in making a performance work for the resultant document- it is for the moment where everything in my mind slows down and I rest with and feel the work outside my body. In many of my projects I thought that the camera was intrusive and disruptive as it was not written into the work in a meaningful way. Perhaps inter/loper pokes serious fun at our current cultural obsession with internet photography while allowing myself to explore in a performative work all the ways photography makes me uncomfortable? I am still thinking about the ramifications on my work but continue to be inspired by Ralston Farina who “called his work “Zeitkunst” (Time Art), directing it not to the audience’s perception but to their memory of what was perceived.3 “”
-Theresa Anderson
1 http://www.hyper-link.org/
2 inter/ loper {[inter- between, among] loper- run, leap} person, plant, building, planet, idea, object interjected into something establishedcontemporary art is an interloper [a lover/ my lover]
{{photography as an interloper in performance}}
that sprouts, abstracts,
interjects, intercedesdisrupts something perceived as stable
folding back and forth between object, performer, sound, light, photographer, performer each fold back and forth defy definition
I sent a call
let’s be real
fear of fairy
gardens
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quasi-objects (objects for safety objects for target practice)
Theresa Anderson
2012-13
quasi-objects (objects for safety objects for target practice), 1 of 7
assorted straps, nylons, protective devices aka pillow stuffing, plastic flowers, floral foam, expandable foam (aka butter/ lard), diaromatic grass, paint, soft pastels, carpet fibers and fake fur
performance documents/ sculptural components from from all flesh is grass/ brown grass/ things I want to know/ wigs as armor/ fur extensions/ introduce seditious acts/ pranks in the
context of chaos quasi-objects (the objects inside that you hold outside yourself) (the things I want to know) 2012-13
textiles, paint, assorted straps, the performance pedestal, archived ritual dance objects made by the artist’s father (assorted furs, quills and feathers collected from his hunts, assorted bells, felt and commercial feathers), a dozen orange roses, one performer wearing a slight mask made of paint, another wearing a paper mâché mask each stand and wait on separate platforms for the arrival (or rejection) of a third performance partner who was selected to have control over whether the performance was activated.
Upon arrival of the third performance partner, an assortment of squishy, soft, round, organic and/ or long objects were attached to the core of the body making present the objects inside that is held outside self. If the third performance partner had rejected the proposal the two performance partners, would have continued their series of poses, lounging for a designated period of time and then the performance abruptly ends
time variable, unlike other performance works this is intended to be given to other groups of people to create experiential platforms, similar to most of my performative work this was not practiced beyond giving slight instructions to the participants. The work is intended as a slowing down mechanism and introduction of experiences that may produce affect for both the viewer and participant.
2013- ongoing
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Until We Meet Again
Artists: Theresa Anderson, Sonya Bogdanova, David Lee Csicsko, Fike & Harris, Ian Fisher, Donald Fodness, Donovan Foote, Tali Halpern, Daisy McGowan, Miller & Shellabarger, Summer Ventis, Kathryn Wingard, Xi Zhang
LOVE REDEEMS. DESPITE all the lovelessness that surrounds us,
nothing has been able to block our longing for love,
the intensity of our yearning.– bell hooks, All About Love: New Visions
Until We Meet Again is the second phase of the artist-run exchange project between the nebulous collective, Hyperlink, located in Denver and Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago. The two artist groups find commonality in alternative artistic experiences, practices, opportunities, and the expansion of community. Hyperlink formed as an alternative space in Chicago’s Zhou B Art Center and has since moved from a brick and mortar space, electing instead, to work with various institutions and exhibition spaces in different regions. The links created through that experiment grew like roots sprouting new tendrils. Hyperlink, in its present iteration, aims to collapse geographic isolation and foster tangible connection through the arts by relationship-building in the national and international artistic community, having arranged exhibitions in Los Angeles, Nashville, Denver, Chicago, and China, among others.
The artists selected for Until We Meet Again at Tiger Strikes Asteroid in Chicago, were tasked with reflecting on longing. This group exhibition includes artworks such as the intricate tapestries by Chicago artist Tali Halpern whose oil-slicked black piece, anxious-avoidant trap, references the cycle of a toxic relationship – almost a phantom limb that when gone leaves you aching for more.
Additional works include long-time collaborators, Tobias Fike and Matthew Harris’ two-channel video, Confined: both a humorous and concerning exploration of the deep need for humans to feel connected. Created during the COVID lockdown, they recorded a synchronous zoom performance where they cut through layers of fabric constraining their heads.
Other works such as Theresa Anderson’s sculpture sack/ 13, made from tights, dragon skin and pigmented pillow soft foam use materials that physically appeal to the senses or conceptually tickle a point of interest. In the words of writer Mardee Goff, her work uses “the body as a point of departure, then through a process of layering and subtracting materials…ultimately arrives at work that leaves only a shell or skin haunted by the presence of a form that was once intimately involved but has since moved on.”
Until We Meet Again captures the complexities of longing and connection. Through forging new relationships and reconnecting with past ones, this exhibition offers a rich exploration of human experiences through the works of diverse artists. Real relationships are both shown and created within this collaborative project, bringing together artists from across the country to share their unique perspectives and deepen our understanding of physical and emotional connections, highlighting the profound impact these bonds have on our lives.
About HyperlinkHyperlink, formed in 2014, is a nebulous artist collective dedicated to alternative artistic experiences, practices, opportunities, and expanding community.
The internet has collapsed geographic isolation for many artists, opening floodgates to easily disseminate creative work. Yet even with ubiquitous internet use and travel, the physical limitations of geographic distance is often still a real limitation to a tangible, and meaningful, connection through the arts. Hyperlink dissolves those boundaries, as well as the boundaries of our own minds as it relates to the potential for what art can be and how it can be experienced.
Hyperlink artists connect to artists in their home page/city via critical dialogue, curated exhibitions, and collaboration. Hyperlink also works with emerging figures in the art world such as writers, curators and critics. We are open to exploring new territory and the unknown.
*Images credit: Tom Van Eynde
- the space between you and me
- PARADE
- inter/ loper
- quasi-objects (objects for safety objects for target practice)
- Until We Meet Again
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SOFT SUBVERSIONS
Co-curated by Cortney Lane Stell and Amber Cobb
Artists: Theresa Anderson, Jason Below, Abby Bennett, Jaime Carrejo, Tobias Fike, Matthew Harris, Irene McCray, Dmitri Obergfell, Nikki Pike, Bruce Price, Zach Reini, Laura Shill, Rebecca Vaughan and Xi Zhang
Exhibition Dates: February 8-24, 2013
For 33 years, Pirate: Contemporary Art has maintained a tradition as being one of Denver’s edgiest artist run galleries. Denver’s artist community is uniquely served by Pirate and a variety of spaces that support and encourage high quality art making and conversations of an experimental/ experiential nature.
SOFT SUBVERSIONS Excited by new conversations happening in the now and real, member Theresa Anderson invited Amber Cobb and Cortney Lane Stell to co-curate an exhibition that continues the conversation from the Stuff(ed) exhibition at Laundry on Lawrence. Stell and Cobb’s co-curated exhibition, Soft Subversions, focuses its attention on the ability of artworks made of soft materials to quietly subvert our understanding of the world around us.
The title of the exhibition comes from Felix Guattari’s “Soft Subversion”, a culmination of essays, texts, and interviews from 1977-1985. Soft Subversions uses concepts from Guattari to investigate the discursive opportunity provided by artworks, which through their material are innately approachable. The artworks in the exhibition take advantage of the many associations with the concept of “Soft,” from the benign to the grotesque. These artworks have the unique power in their ability to softly suggest freedom from a mass-marketed, over produced, over socialized, capitalist society.
“Production for the sake of production – the obsession with the rate of growth, whether in the capitalist market or in planned economies – leads to monstrous absurdities. The only acceptable finality of human activity is the production of a subjectivity that is auto-enriching its relation to the world in a continuous fashion.” ~ Felix Guattari, Chaosmosis and Difference and Repetition 21
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power fully placid
POWER FULLY PLACID. The displacement of the missing person was deceptively easy.
Theresa Anderson2011
faithful faithful place with wooden shutters and yellow roses and crows on ladders and soggy ground squishing under feetFound photograph (bold crude fragile flower), minimalist watercolor (blue rolls of fabric), three king kong photo-collages, books and magazines on reading bench and lamp, 8 constructivist paintings of home cut out collected from Kevin Curry’s discards from his PlatteForum Artist Residency cut up and reassembled hung salon style on ready pasted sculptured and textured vinyl English wall covering, acrylic, dowels, string, wire, wood, metal, squishy red yarn, 12 bags of your collected memorials disassembled into a crazy quilt, an old wooden lamp base
Similar to encountering the remnants left to distinguish and memorialize a missing person –the objects in the exhibition become a new placeholder of reminiscences. Initially painting a large diagrammatic of “the missing person” her special collection of objects are intensified with daily repetitive motions. The accumulation of marks inherent in basting, painting, medicating, dripping, tying, draping, drilling, cutting, and sewing temporarily disguise a once taut linear narrative.
HAPPY SOFT DEMURE TEXTURED CRAZY PLUSH RED INTERRUPTION QUILT SMALL FRAMING ANGULAR BRILLIANT ANGRY HOME DISCARDED SIGNATURE EDGES FLOPPY PRECISE COVERING MINIMAL SLIGHT PRETTY TOUGH BRIGHT TRICKY SNARKY NARROW RICH FLOWERY PRECIOUS SLICK ELOQUENT WRY