Artist’s Statement:
Whitney Sparks likes to imagine herself an illustrative Scheherazade, composing perpetual fractured fairy tales in mixed media assemblage. In her work, mass culture transforms into a kind of visual compost, nurturing the seeds of future revolutions. Responding to various events and places, working with found things and chance, Sparks makes observations through collecting print images, cutting periodicals, drawing, writing, and recording. She edits her findings to reveal another reality. Where imaginary lands grow, root, and weather, tangled beasts engage in unknown rituals. Choreographing perspectives on the female body, natural phenomena, and elements of spiritual iconography, Sparks reorganizes information over a range of media, from paper to wood to web. Her installations weave together myriad coincidences of society and texture, beguiling viewers to learn a quixotic cartography of the human condition.
Exhibitions:
–> COMING SOON:
#GrowingUpBlack at Houston Museum for African American Culture (HMAAC),
Opens November 20, 2015
Art Spa installation No. 1: Reflection Pool at The Solution., Prague Czech Rep. 9-14 May 2015
Tribute to Eleusis – a documentary art film by Whitney Sparks debuted at Kykeon Bar & Cafe in Elefsina, Greece
MiXeD-MesSsGE Postcards for sale at Atlantis Books in island paradise– Oia, Santorini (GR)
FLYING SAUCER VIDEO-MAGAZINE – Get your fix!
Nefertiti Escapes! – OUT NOW: Order a copy
Feast of the Body ~ By invitation, location to be disclosed…
RECENT:
Film and live performance at the International Film Poetry Festival, Athens (GR), 28 November 2014
Nefertiti Escapes! + The Riddle of the Sphinx @ Signs of Dexterity Art Fair Berlin (DE)– 3-5 October, 2014
Performance/Reading/Book-signing @ Shakespeare & Sons bookstore – Berlin, 18 September 2014,
<BLUR THE HOUSE DOWN ~ 24 Feb. 2014 @Station 21, Zureich, CH
“Bed-Floating Day” ~ performance debut! 20 Feb. 2014 @ Köpi Geburtstag, Berlin, DE
“Flag Fire” short film debut @ International Film Poetry Festival, December 2013 – Athens, GR
Le Twist Sans Frontieres ~ @ Roxy, Oct, 13-Jan. 14 – Prague, CZ
“Embodied” installation @ The Divo Institute
Á la recherche de la bohéme perdue | Czech Republic
Summer Solstice 2013, Bohemia
SPACE TAKER + SWEET REBELLION | where the two rivers meet | Zurich University of the Arts Master of Fine Arts degree exhibition 2013 | 29 May – 15 June 2013 | Förrlibuckstrasse 180, Zürich, Switzerland | + MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE @ tunneltoknowhere.tumblr.com
PAST:
Total Freedom World Tour
APRIL 5-6-7 / 2013
from Athenas / Ἀθῆναι → Zürich / Zu reich
WE WILL NOT LIVE LIKE SLAVES!
3 Day International Experimental Art Festival//Anarcho-Symposium
→ a political encounter between philosophy & art
Void Network + A4 Anarchist Print Shop @ LOCH / with support from ZHdK
“Kali in the Hole” 12h live-collage @ Dear Catastrophe group show ~ 20 January, 2013/ 12-12 ~ LOCH, Zürich
“Unearthed” @ Die Werbefläche – 5 January – 2 February, 2013 – Kiosk Quellenstrasse, Zürich
FREE / MISSING / WANTED – live collage with sound by Nora Düster, December 10, 2012 – One Night Only Gallery, Zurich
The Riddle of the Sphinx – 12-20 October 2012 – K-Set Archiv für selbstgemachte Publikationen, Zürich
The Riddle of the Sphinx — NOW IN PRINT! via Amsel Verlag
Work Discourse in the Woods (ZHdK) – May 2012 – Zürichberg, Switzerland
“The Kitchen Communion” @ Instant Favelas – April 2012 – Gessnerallee, Zürich
NO EXIT (with Milenko Lazic & U5) – January 2012 – Uwaga Kollectiv, Zürich
Fox Hollow – August 2011 – Houston
Sattal Ashram – April 2010 – Sattal, India
Yale Undergraduate Art Dept. Final Show – May 2007 – Yale University
“Who is a Princess?” (short film) – debuted May 2007 – Yale University
“No Memory” (film) – debuted April 2006 – Yale University
V-Day/”The Vagina Monologues” (city’s debut director and organizer) – March 2002 – Houston
the “parasite book” project (ongoing)
MFA Zürcher Hochschule der Künste/Zurich University of the Arts – Zürich, Switzerland – 2013
BA Yale University – New Haven, USA – 2007
Phillips-Andover School Year Abroad – Zaragoza, Spain- 2003
High School for the Performing and Visual Arts – Houston, USA – 2002
Experience:
Quintessentia Collection – Curatorial Assistant – 2013
Vermont Studio Center – Artist in Residence – January 2011
Sphere Magazine – Creator/Editor-in-Chief – 2004-2006
Further credentials:
Solitary Solidarity:
Sailed upcycled yacht, Freedom Challenge, along the Pacific Coast from Tierra del Fuego to the Bering Straight (1989 – 1993)
Advanced Collaboration:
Recognition:
