Peekskill Project 6

APT artist Elise Rasmussen is presenting CHECA, 2015 1, HD Video, 4:35 looping.  A new video work as part of Peekskill Project 6, on view at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art The work was curated by Clara Halpern and the exhibition runs from September 27 - December 31.

CHECA, 2015, explores theories of Russian constructivist design and the deployment of modernist art techniques for torture during the Spanish Civil War. The set reinterprets Alphonse Laurencic’s “checa” prison cell, which employed devices derived from artist Wassily Kandinsky’s philosophies, to psychologically torture prisoners. In Rasmussen’s work, performer Lauren Bakst, clad in a costume based on Varvara Stepanova’s constructivist designs, performs choreography influenced by this history. By reexamining the corruption of utopian notions related to modernism,

Rasmussen questions whether art can truly serve a social purpose that negates a capitalist agenda and whether in the age of market-driven practices, if art risks becoming a prisoner of itself?

HVCCA proudly presents the 6th edition of Peekskill Project, a public art festival devoted to bringing contemporary art out of the museum and into the community; specifically into spaces not normally used to present art. Using the city as a stage, Peekskill Project 6 will engage the urban environment and its inhabitants, through site-specific art exhibitions, performances and workshops throughout the city.