Underdonk

press release

Underdonk is pleased to announce Jasmine Murrell as our April/May Artist in Residence.  She will be working on an ongoing project of experimental video shorts during her residency, April 18th – May 10th. Please check @underdonk for residency-related events/open studios.

Murrell is currently working on a few different films. “Finding Medicine” reflects the multiplicity of historical constructs of people, things, and places while exposing the disembodiment of the true self. The film challenges us to reexamine perceptions of Detroit and its multifaceted history as well as ask: Who are the healers? Who are the savers? What history has been erased and what stories have been left untold?

Truth heals.  

The most recent work-in-progress video interactive installation will be part of a larger installation for New York Live Arts, The Motherboard Suite in collaboration with Saul Williams and several amazing dancers.  The installation is called Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self which is an interactive installation that includes material soil as a medium to conjure up modern and ancient interspecies communication as a method for healing and analyzing our humane purpose. The Possibility of building a space where all life matters in the present, past, and future. 

 The last work in progress documentary “Las Curanderas, Teatro para curar el susto” The healers, theatre for curing the fear, takes place with different Mayan women theater groups that use performance to confront domestic violence against women. The other film is on black medicine but they are video shorts around medicine and healing from rare points of view.   Underdonk will host an open studio and video screening showcasing what Murrell is working on in the area.  The residency comes at an important time to give Murrell space where she can prepare and explore her experimental video shorts.

Jasmine Murrell is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary visual artist that employs several different mediums to create sculptures, installations, photography, performance, land art, and films that blur the line between history and mythology. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally for the past decade, in venues such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bronx Museum, Museum Contemporary Art Chicago, Whitney Museum, African-American Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, International Museum of Photography, and non-traditional institutions.

Works have been included in the book MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora and The New York Times, Time, Hyperallergic, The Detroit Times, and several other publications.