Second State Press is pleased to announce our 2024 National Open Call, dis(place)ment, curated by artist Peri Law.
Displacement. To be removed and replaced. Unwillingly. Forcibly.
In art we can move beyond time and place to exist beyond our present being. The multiplicity of print reflects the multi-locatedness of diasporic experiences.
Yet we exist within a system that tries to divide us with imaginary borders. Who has a right to claim a place as their own? Imperialism drives the search for new land to steal and, in response, the ongoing efforts to fight back grow. We see it in Black Bottom, Philadelphia; in Chinatowns across the United States; and in Palestine. This millennia-long struggle swells and expands, as more and more gets taken away from the people.
As artists, it’s our responsibility to protest, to critique existing power, and to call attention to inequity. Our current reality isn’t the only possibility; we can show what can and should be real. Printmaking has long been a tool of protest, of critique, and of imagining. How can the production of multiples fight back against displacement? How can diaspora make new claims to place and create new thriving communities? What borders define someone as an alien/refugee/immigrant versus native/heritage to the land? How has print evolved to meet the changing demands of protest? How can critiques of displacement create active change? What can we do to fight back against capital power to assert what is rightfully ours? What imagined realities can we create as real?
Artists whose work critiques the impacts of displacement, through personal memories, community stories, and/or protest are strongly encouraged to apply. Artists who are immigrants, refugees, or have been personally affected by displacement are also strongly encouraged to apply.
Applications due May 31st, 2024 at 11:59pm. There is a sliding scale application fee of $5-$30.
Selected applicants will be notified by June 14th, 2024. Accepted work must arrive at Second State Press no later than June 27th, 2024. The exhibition will be on view July 6th - August 1st, 2024.
SSP will accept one submission per applicant.
Meet our guest curator: Peri Law
Headshot courtesy of the Fabric Workshop and Museum
Peri Law is a printmaker and teaching artist living in Philadelphia. Her art is focused on multiracial identity, Asian diaspora, domesticity, and multigenerational memory. She is a youth organizer in Philadelphia’s Asian American community and previously worked as a teaching artist in an elementary school in the Philadelphia School District. She is also on the board of The Soapbox Community Print Shop, a teaching artist with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BFA in Studio Art and Art History. Her art has been exhibited throughout the United States, including at the Way Center (Philadelphia, PA), Woskob Family Gallery (State College, PA), Charlotte Street Foundation (Kansas City, MO), Kent State University (Kent, OH), VAE Raleigh (Raleigh, NC), and the Levine Museum of the New South (Charlotte, NC) and is in the collection of the Library of Congress.