VIRTUAL- 2020 Open Studios Series: Drea DiCarlo and Michelle Chan

Originally scheduled for April 2020, Charlotte Street Foundation’s Open Studios series is back as an online-only program series! Featuring over 15 studio residents of all practices from dance to painting, this Zoom series provides insight and reflection on how Charlotte Street Studio Residents have reacted (or not reacted) to the critical year of 2020.

The third edition of 2020 Open Studios features a Q&A discussion between studio residents Drea DiCarlo and Michelle Chan. This episode will also feature a flamenco dance and spoken-word poetry from Melinda Hedgecorth.

The Q&A streams live over Zoom on Wednesday, December 2nd at 6:30 PM. Attendees will receive a Zoom link upon RSVP confirmation.

About Drea DiCarlo (@dicarlotomboy on Instagram) I am interested in the way that images function as signs that inform our understanding of our world. Each image has layers of meaning—the literal, the personal, the cultural—and in combination with various contexts imposed on them, different meanings can occur; the image becomes a hieroglyph. In a practical sense though, these signs become abbreviations for complex social and personal mythologies. I am interested in the history of these images and the way that they have affected and do affect real people. I look to the way that queer and non-white bodies have been codified through controlling images—the way these bodies are stereotyped and assigned characteristics—and how that it has affected the dominant culture’s narrative of The Other in American consciousness. I see my practice as a means of processing information, both researched and lived experience, and finding message and meaning through making.

About Michelle Chan (@mishapsofmishi on Instagram) Growing up, I have felt like a perpetual foreigner both in the United States and towards my Chinese heritage; with the expectation of only representing one or the other. Since childhood, I have collected toys and objects to navigate through my cultural experiences. My practice explores the relationship between American and Chinese consumerism through the use of found objects, mixed media , inflatables and fiber processes. I recreate popular consumer objects such as toys or snack foods on an exaggerated scale to show the blurring of identity through culture and labor practices. Inflatables are of particular interest since they evoke connotations of celebration and advertising, while carrying a sense of loss and fragility through the transience of inflation and deflation. I seek to understand my place and voice within the Chinese diaspora, hoping to highlight the stories of those who came before me and those currently struggling with belonging.

About Melinda Hedgecorth (@Flamenkcmo on Instagram) I am a bailaora – flamenco dancer. Onstage my motivation is to become transparent. Each night I shed my shell, put away my mask, and expose what I keep hidden in my corners and secret passageways. Flamenco means revealing yourself and interacting in the most honest way possible. Utilizing the codes and signals, which make up the flamenco language, I engage the audience by becoming vulnerable. I become a mirror where they can see that transparent and vulnerable nature in themselves. That is the core of my art.

About Charlotte Street Foundation’s Studio Residency Program In its seventeenth year, the Studio Residency Program provides free studio and rehearsal spaces to exceptional young, emerging, and/or already accomplished artists in need of workspace in which to create and to develop their creative processes, professional practices, and peer networks. Through the program’s offerings—which include studio space, monthly meetings, presentations, studio visits, mentorships, public programs, exhibitions, and access to a multidisciplinary network of artist peers—Charlotte Street’s Studio Residency Program encourages creative production, artistic experimentation and collaboration, professional development, and community building.