When I create new work and share it with people I open up a dialogue and build a community around different issues.
–
Eto Otitigbe is a polymedia artist who combines sculpture, video, installation, and performance to create illusions, sensitive spaces, and dynamic actions. His recent work questions involves the embodiment of loss prevention as ritual and cultural artifact. He writes: "I create work in many mediums that interconnect varied themes such as loss prevention and cultural hybridity. My most recent work investigates power geometries between people and the possible outcomes of these relationships. Throughout time human beings have had to struggle with each other to survive and sustain themselves. I am interested in the cultural by-products of struggle. Throughout my life I have learned to negotiate the various poles of my identity: Nigerian-American-Artist-Engineer-Designer-DJ-Musician, to name a few. At times my work is charged with political subject matter in response to current events; on other occasions I use my work to explore my curiosities."
View his website here: http://www.etosoro.com/. Eto holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Joint Program in Design at Stanford. He is an M.F.A candidate at the Transart Institute. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Inspired by Jean Toomer‘s experimental 1923 text of the Harlem Renaissance, CANE explores memories of African American sharecropping held by a technologically-devised canefield. Created by technologists, dancers, and visual artists, CANE suggests possibilities of shimmering mediated histories mixed in real-time via a specially-constructed responsive environment. Conceived and Directed by Thomas F. DeFrantz, Choreographed by Tanya Wideman and Thaddeus Davis, Performed by Tanya Wideman, Thaddeus Davis, Kalin Morrow, Amber Mayberry. Visual Design and Programming by Eto Otitigbe, Music by Tara Rodgers, Sound Programming by Jamie Keesecker, Additional Programming and Sound Discoveries by Jung-Eun Kim and Peter Whincop. Lighting by Jesse Belsky, Costumes by Marissa Erickson. Production Dramaturg Jules Odendahl-James, Production Management Shireen Dickson.
