From the Ground UP

December 1, 2023 - March 31, 2024

From the Ground UP activated the gallery with a series of events amidst an evolving installation by Ann Street Gallery Artist Researcher in Residence, Jean-Marc Superville Sovak. The project was dedicated to imagining and collectively creating memorials for honoring African-Americans buried in, and disinterred from, Newburgh’s “Colored Burial Ground”. The exhibition included a shifting presentation of archeological documentation and historical records, an installation inspired by burial shrouds and conjuring bundles, a growing display of community offerings and messages, and the exhibition of commissioned artworks by regional artists responding to Superville Sovak's research and speculation on the Burial Ground.

The exhibition was curated by Superville Sovak and Gallery Director Alison McNulty and included works by Lillian Alberti, Michelle Corporan, Stevenson Estime, Donna Francis, Shani Richards, and Edwin Torres. Also on display was a collection of books from A Little Light Bookstore and Educational Center for Culture, History, and Freedom by Que Bey-Ali. Our Open Reading Room & Media Space featured documentation of From the Ground UP lectures and performances as well as a Curated Reading List of Superville-Sovak’s residency project research materials within our library of curated resources from previous exhibitions.

Exhibition Materials:
Promotional Video
Exhibition Checklist
Curated Reading List

The image gallery to the right corresponds to the Exhibition checklist.

All From the Ground UP programming was free and open to the public.

Jean-Marc Superville Sovak

From the Ground UP was a convergence of local community stakeholders and artists led by Ann Street Gallery’s first Artist Researcher in Residence, Jean-Marc Superville Sovak.

The project brought Superville Sovak’s creative research and practice together with community members dedicated to imagining, rendering, and presenting collaboratively-designed visions for remembering and honoring African- Americans buried in, and disinterred from, Newburgh’s “Colored Burial Ground” through conversation and the arts.

Superville Sovak’s project sought to engage histories that have been erased from dominant historical narratives, specifically Black lives during the period shortly after the gradual abolition of slavery in New York State (1827) and the Civil War, a period that coincides with the Newburgh “colored” cemetery’s usage.

The project asks: How can collectively inspired memorials truthfully function? How should the dead, once desecrated, now be honored? What were the lived experiences that intersected with the segregated cemetery? What is the reparative capacity of art? How can the arts and spaces designed for the exhibition of art facilitate community conversation, healing, imagining, and creativity? From the Ground UP is conceived as an open-source feedback loop to display a diversity of ideas and creative forms of what publicly-inspired and collaboratively-designed memorials could look like, including stories, offerings, speculative proposals, performances, readings, discussions, and more.

_{Jean-Marc Superville Sovak is a multidisciplinary artist and teaching professional whose work represents silent histories of multi-racial identities that make up the DNA of this country as well his own. His “a- Historical Landscapes” involve altering original 19th-century landscape engravings to include images from Anti-Slavery publications. His public artwork includes organizing a “Burial for White Supremacy”, retracing steps on the Underground Railroad at Hudson Valley historic sites, monuments to Afro-Dutch pioneers in Rockland County, and a memorial to the earliest Africans to arrive in Rhode Island. A graduate of Bard College (M.F.A. Film/Video), Jean-Marc is the 2023 recipient of Art Mid-Hudson’s Empowering Artist Award and an Individual Artist Commission. Jean-Marc’s art has been exhibited at RecessArt, Brooklyn, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Arts Westchester, Socrates Sculpture Park, and the Katonah Museum of Art. Jean-Marc has been a guest curator at the Dorsky Museum and has been Visiting Artist at Bard College, SUNY New Paltz, Columbia University and Vassar College.}

^{http://www.supervillesovak.com}

^@supersovak

^@FTGU2024

From the Ground UP (Detail of Vellum no. 1)

From the Ground UP (Detail of Vellum no. 2)

From the Ground UP (Detail of Copper Nails)

Talking to the Bones, after David Mills (Detail no. 1)

Talking to the Bones, after David Mills (Detail no. 2)

Talking to the Bones, after David Mills (Detail no. 3)

Lillian Alberti

From this brief entry in the Alms House Examiner’s log book, I imagined Margaret Johnston was an obscure indentured woman whose voice was never heard. I depicted her life as I imagined it through an article of clothing imposed upon her, beginning in childhood.

The smaller white pinafore represents Margaret’s innocence; displaying evidence of small tasks she performs as a child in a household where I imagine her indentured.

The second pinafore is soiled with more responsibilities, as Margaret grapples with the reality that she labors while the other household children are free to play.

The first apron from the left exhibits how, as a young woman, Margaret carries the shame, burden, and hardship of her daily life.

The second apron, torn and deeply stained, reveals the life Margaret endured, accepting the fact that old age offers her no comfort.

The diaphanous fabric symbolizes the eternal peace and rest that comes in death: she is free at last.

Each stain, each rip, was strategically placed and layered onto the apron to indicate specific and difficult tasks that Margaret may have struggled with on any particular day. Each mark was indelible, not just on the surface of the garments, but, deeply, as I imagined them, into the fabric of her life.

_{Years ago, as a fashion student at Parsons School of Design in New York City, I happened upon an “Art” doll displayed in Tiffany’s storefront window. That chance discovery instantly drew me to the art of doll making, and I've been creating one-of-a-kind Art dolls ever since.

Throughout my years at Parsons and while working in the fashion industry, I taught myself the art of doll making, working mainly with Cellu-Clay papier-mâché. I left the industry after fifteen years to be a stay-at-home mom and while at home, I immersed myself in my craft. I created whimsical figures with coarsely-textured faces and large heads. Using tricks of the fashion trade, I designed and made their costumes, even knitting sweaters and creating shoes with real laces! My intention has never been to imitate realism, but rather to add a whimsical touch to the beauty that is often found in imperfection.

In recent years, experimenting with heavy gauge wire has taught me that a well- proportioned armature is crucial to creating a successful doll. I explored the new contemporary paper clays available today and worked on developing more expressive hands. Now my dolls, while no less exaggerated in detail, have evolved dramatically: smoother surfaces, enlarged feet and delicate hands. I now favor rich fabrics and enjoy an opulent look.

After years of refining my craft, I was inducted as a juried member of the Original Doll Artist Council of America. The excitement in reinventing myself, the thrill in creating, and the joy of teaching doll-making workshops across the country has made my doll-making journey more fulfilling than ever!}

^{https://www.a-lil-whimsy.com/}

^{https://cottagehill.wordpress.com/}

Entry from Newburgh Alms-House Commissioners’ “Examination” Log, Examiner’s Findings 1853 to 1858:

_{July 13 1856 Entry for Margaret Johnston}

_{(Colored) [Born 1786]}

_{Born in Orange Co aged}

_{70 yrs has been intemperate for many years}

_{She has resided in New Windsor until}

_{about 1.5 yrs she has worked D Stewart in}

_{this town made application for burial}

_{relief granted}

_{Margaret Johnston (Colored)}

Michelle Corporan

Amorphous shapes were conjured from the site. I allowed the energies to channel through me and I transferred them onto paper through my brush. I envisioned energetic fields of shapes circulating and moving hidden within the darkness and cracks of light around the site.

From the ground up, through the cracks there was light, they were found, exhumed, and set free, at last. This is what I am depicting in this work, this is what I conjured and channeled from the site.

_{Michelle Corporan (b. 1984, Dominican Republic) is an artist based in New York. Her artistic exploration revolves around the interplay of dark and light through multimedia, works on paper, and moving visuals. Through an interdisciplinary practice, Michelle’s oeuvre Investigates self-representation, time, place, and infinity. Michelle primarily utilizes rice paper and dark Sumi-e painting techniques, highlighting negative space, as a way to deconstruct the human psyche from the dualities and perceptions of time and place.

Michelle pursued design at Parsons School of Design in 2010 and currently runs her creative agency, MCCreative. In 2016 she undertook five years of Sumi-e training with Koho Yamamoto in Soho, New York City. Michelle has resided in Newburgh for the past four years.

Michelle recently participated in the Ann Street Gallery Emerging Artist Fellowship and exhibited her project in fellowship exhibition, “Re:Manifest” (2023). She has performed at White Box Gallery, NYC (2017) and shown work at Space776 Gallery, Brooklyn (2017). In April 2023 Michelle did art website design, and communication design for “Koho Yamamoto’s 101 Springs” at The Leonovich Gallery, New York City. Michelle is actively expanding her artistic endeavors as she delves into various aspects of her practice, including film, moving visuals, audiovisuals, and landscapes.}

^{https://michellelcorporan.com/

@mc.imgs}

From the Ground Up, Through the Ground There was Light

From the Ground Up, Through the Ground There was Light (Detail)

Stevenson Estime

In response to the city of Newburgh's 2008 acknowledgment of the Newburgh "Colored" Burial Ground and recent research and attention to the site surfacing through the project, “From the Ground UP”, I created a series of images to memorialize and symbolically depict factual historical information. The cube-like forms and grids in this artwork reference the evidence of coffins uncovered under the Newburgh City Court House, which was previously the Broadway School, and before that, the Burial Ground.

The shapes and forms symbolically and literally represent the contributions of black bodies to America's development and foundation. The white majority rule, coupled with the threat of violence and lack of Black advocacy, facilitated propaganda to conceal, obfuscate, and wipe out the acknowledgment and contributions of Black Americans. These commissioned pieces help visualize historical Black accounts and the burial sites found underneath 300 Broadway in Newburgh, New York. It is never too late to acknowledge inaccuracies and correct injustices to show decency and respect.

_{I’m a collage artist and painter from New York. I sample content from a wide range of sources and employ a freewheeling cut and past aesthetic in my process. I enjoy design and composition, and source material is plentiful, the world is saturated with images -- I sample and juxtaposition those images to highlight dichotomies, similarities, and ironies I perceive. The previously mentioned helps me determine which images I choose to work with. I work with physical materials, paint supplies, and digitally to make a wide range of two-dimensional artwork inspired by history, popular culture, Hip-Hop, and identity.}

^{http://stevensonestime.com/

@stevensonestime}

Donna Francis

The works on display in From the Ground UP are part of a larger series of nudes taken from the late 70’s through the early 90’s. Wrapping the figure was part of my experimentation with form and texture. Some of the figures are wrapped in gauze, others in chiffon. The figures are reclining or seated on burlap fabric, wrapped like mummies. The play of texture and form makes it hard to discern what is top, bottom, front or back of each figure presented here. These figures are printed on Kodak Ektalure Series X paper. I chose this particular paper because of its texture, and slightly sepia tonal range. Sadly this paper is no longer manufactured.

The very large printed figure was shot on a black background, wrapped in chiffon, and printed on a textured cotton fabric roughly 3.5’x7’. What intrigues me most about this particular photograph is that the figure appears to be floating.

The portraits of Adriene, I feel is still an unfinished work. As you can see I tried different techniques, but I haven’t found one that in my mind works. She is here, she is obscured, she is blurred. But none of these really work. I know this one I will have to come back to.

_{(American, born 1952) I was born and raised in New York City’s Lower East Side, which at that time was a very diverse neighborhood, and offered many opportunities to explore different ways of expressing oneself. As a child I was exposed to painting, writing, carpentry, puppetry, and leatherworking. I always knew I would be an artist, so It was great to be given the chance to explore. Upon graduating from Seward Park H.S. I was lucky enough to be accepted to attend the School of Visual Arts in the fall of 1970. At SVA I focused on fine art until I was exposed to photography sometime during the end of my first year. This was a pivotal moment in my development as an artist. I think that because I had been exposed to so many different ways of seeing, and understanding art I am a more contemplative photographer. I take my time. I try to understand the shot in front of me, and the eventual finished piece.}

^{https://www.donnafrancisphotography.com/

@dfrancis2000}

Shani Richards

Counting has been central when it comes to the number of African burials in what was historically known as the Newburgh “Colored” Burial Ground: 115 individuals’ remains, 108 burial sites excavated, 99 exhumed - how many remain?

Abacus is a hand-operated calculating tool which was used from ancient times in the ancient Near East, China, Russia and Africa. An Abacus commonly consists of a two-dimensional array of slidable beads.

The Archaeological report on the Burial Ground contains lists of artifacts and materials found in the excavated sites with the bones of those laid to rest. Beads were one of the materials found that intrigued me. Beads were commonly worn by Africans, even babies. Beads are present in life and in death.

Hair is political and Black African hair such as braids, dreads, and kinky hair is still discriminated against. This is an abacus made with materials that asks a question: how many remain?

_{Shani Richards was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. She received a BFA in metalsmithing at the University of Akron and MFA in metal from the State University of New York, New Paltz. Afterwards Shani returned to her hometown Akron, Ohio. In 2018 she was awarded a Community Fellowship with The League of Creative Interventionists. With the year-long fellowship Shani developed a youth project called Akron’s Growing Chefs and partnered with non-profit community organization The W.O.M.B. In 2020 Shani was awarded art residency with The Akron Soul Train. Shani was one of six artists selected to be a part of The Sculpture Center 2022 Emerging Artists Solo Exhibition Series. In 2023 Shani was a visiting craft fellow at SUNY New Paltz and was selected for a six month fellowship at Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, NY. In 2024 Shani was awarded a New York Council of the Arts Grant.}

^{https://www.shani-richards.com/

@shani.richards}

Abacus: Black bodies here (Detail no. 1)

Abacus: Black bodies here (Detail no. 2)

Edwin Torres

Burial Chant is a two-channel audio piece where two vocal recordings are heard at the same time. The effect is to use the audio medium to mobilize anxiety for the listener while honoring long lives left undiscovered. On one channel a poem is recited which uses the log entries from the Newburgh Alms House; the poem reconstructs the language used for the lives portrayed, subversively removing names while repeating basic facts, further removing a people's identity while questioning our own. On the other channel a list is recited which uses language from the burial descriptions in The Archeological Records. The recitation is purposely cold and emotionless presenting the materiality of the gravesites as rhythmic grids, tombs as linear metrics. The intertwined paths of both recordings in one headspace reflects upon a sense of claustrophobia and incompletion evoked from the lost history of the burial ground.

_{Edwin Torres is a lingualisualist born in New York City and author of 15 poetry collections including; Quanundrum: i will be your many angled thing (Roof Books, awarded a 2022 American Book Award), Xoeteox: the infinite word object (Wave Books) and Ameriscopia (University of Arizona Press). He is also editor of The Body In Language: An Anthology (Counterpath Press). Poetry fellowships include; Arts MidHudson, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The DIA Foundation, and his current multi-disiciplinary ecopoetics project, "Feel Recordings In The Evershift," received a 2024 NYSCA Individual Artist Grant. His collaborations with cultural nomads from The Guggenheim Museum, The Bowery Poetry Club, The Coney Island Ferris Wheel, and countless venues globally and at home, have contributed to the development of his bodylingo poetics. Anthologies include; The Difference Is Spreading: 50 Contemporary Poets on Fifty Poems, New Weathers: Poetics from the Naropa Archives, Poets In The 21st Century: Poetics of Social Engagement, Kindergarde: Avant Garde Poems & Plays for Children and Aloud: Voices from The Nuyorican Poets Cafe. He teaches poetry at Columbia University and is currently living in Beacon, NY.}

^{https://brainlingo.wixsite.com/edwintorresbio/about
@brainlingo_}

Burial Chant: did you in your life leave any wonder behind

Link to audio transcription

Alison McNulty

Alison McNulty consults with Artist Researcher in Residence, Jean-Marc Superville Sovak during a community gathering

Community Offerings

The public is invited to bring small offerings, letters, or message for the ancestors buried in, and disinterred from, the Newburgh “Colored” Burial Ground. These offerings will be displayed in/around Superville Sovak’s burial shroud/conjuring bundle installation, documented, and can be returned upon request. The community is encouraged to contribute and engage with the project in the following ways:

Coat Collection: As a participatory and durational form of memorialization, the gallery requests donations of gently used winter coats to distribute in the vicinity.
Conjuring Bundles: Visitors to the exhibition are invited contribute to Superville Sovak’s sprawling burial shroud-inspired web of woven reclaimed fabric in a contemporary interpretation of what archaeologists refer to as “conjuring bundles”, or offerings left at burial sites by mourners. While these “bundles” have historically included such items as the last used or favorite objects of the deceased (pottery, pipes, lamps, buttons, coins, seashells), visitors are invited to contribute their own message or devotional object to the deceased in anticipation of the eventual reburial of those disinterred from the burial site in 2008 during the construction of the Newburgh City Courthouse in 2008.
Visioning Ceremonies: Superville Sovak is using the gallery as a space of reflection and invites artists, musicians, performers, healers, writers, poets, and other creative individuals to collaboratively discuss, imagine, and literally or metaphorically sketch with him visions and propositions for remembering and honoring those buried in and disinterred from the Burial Ground.

Ann Street Gallery thanks [names]. From the Ground UP is funded in part by a Humanities New York Action Grant.

Francois Deschamps

Since 2010, in the extended project Photo-Rapide, Deschamps has been giving, rather than taking, photographs. Free collaborative portraits are printed on the spot and placed in a frame of the participant’s choice from a selection of frames based on cultural interests. In the Photo-Rapide work produced during From the Ground UP, Deschamps sought to bear witness to the sense of community that emerged from Saturday events at the Ann Street Gallery. The result is a community of images that reflect the lived community created by the exhibit.

_{Deschamps taught photography and related media at the State University of New Paltz from 1980 to 2020. He has received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as three fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2010 he was awarded a Fulbright grant to Mali and in 2018 another Fulbright grant to Czech Republic. He has published over 15 artist books with the Borowsky Center at University of the Arts, Nexus Press, Visual Studies Workshop Press, State University of New York Press, and Auckland University Press, to name a few. Most recently, Model Theory was published by Visual Studies Workshop Press in 2023. Photo-Rapide: Francois Deschamps was a one-person show at the Dorsky Museum in 2013.}

^{https://francoisdeschamps.net/}

^{@francoisdeschamps}

Photo Rapide: From the Ground UP, Newburgh
Digital archive and prints, dimensions variable
2023-24

Evolution of the Gallery Space & Exhibition

Hosted by Ann Street Gallery, From the Ground UP is hosted by Ann Street Gallery and consists of three fluid project phases. The first phase launched in October 2023 with a series of community gatherings, presentations, and events that will continue through February 2024. The second phase of the project transforms the Gallery space into a lab, workshop, and exhibition space for Superville Sovak’s research, his socially engaged art practice, his creative output, and the display and performance of commissioned works from other interdisciplinary artists and cultural producers. The third and final phase of the project includes creating digital and analog archives of the project to record the public’s interactions, the artist’s research and process, and the developments of the project in the form of a website and printed materials. The project archives aim to serve as a model for collective forms of memorialization, a resource, and symbolic form of restorative justice for the City of Newburgh.