Merging the inspirational community with the conference room, 80 chapters of CreativeMornings around the world address one topic every month. On May 9 at 8:30 a.m., downtown contemporary art gallery, PRIMARY will take on “Freedom” in a 20-minute talk with prolific artist Asif Farooq.
Best known for showcasing more than 300 guns made using recycled cardboard, glue and an x-acto knife during Art Basel Miami week in 2012, Farooq has since been building his largest endeavor yet: a monumental cardboard-crafted aerodynamic vessel – the behemoth MiG-21 BS. In breaking from this impossibly daunting sculpture to present with CreativeMornings, the artist explains how freedom is both the force that compels him to create without limits and the thing that binds him to expectations beyond his own esteem.
For audiences, it is perhaps the duality inherent to his subject matter that pairs most noticeably with the topic; but Farooq is quick to dispel that line of thinking. He reiterates that his work isn’t political and that he has little interest in addressing what is right or wrong. “These guns aren’t really guns, but pieces of cardboard made into the shape of guns. People always ask ‘what does your work mean?’ when it’s about what it doesn’t mean.”
CreativeMornings audiences will also be privy to Christina Pettersson’s new body of work in “The Castle Dismal,” the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. A window into Pettersson’s undying fascination with Southern Gothic through drawing, installation, sculpture and performance, a series of weekly events will unfold through June 20 in further contextualizing her esoteric connection to the Deep South.
CreativeMornings’ Miami chapter is organized by Malik Benjamin and is free and open to the public; to RSVP for this event, visit https://creativemornings.com/talks/freedom. PRIMARY is located at 151 NE 7th Street in Downtown Miami.
