In the Loop
Alumni News : Apr 1, 2014

Shana Robbins featured in exhibition and performance

Gallery Protocol is pleased to present Waking Down, an exhibition and performance by artist Shana Robbins. The focus of the exhibition will be the presentation of a new performative work (by the same name) scheduled to take place on April 11, 2014 from 7:00-8:00 p.m. Conceived by the artist as a ritualized “rite of spring” or symbolic rededication of the gallery and its grounds, the work incorporates musical compositions, costumes, sculptural objects, and large-scale earthworks—all composed or created specifically for the event—and will be realized by the artist with the assistance of a team of musicians, dancers, additional performers, and willing members of the audience. The accompanying gallery exhibition, on view April 11-May 14, 2014, will feature a survey of objects and documentation from Robbins’ previous performances as well as residual objects and documentation from the performance event on April 11.

Shana Robbins is an Atlanta-based artist who combines studio with performance based practices to address traditions of shamanism through a contemporary lens. Focusing on roles, rites, and representations of the feminine within divergent spiritualist traditions, Robbins develops archetypes (characters) of female power which can then be enacted or invoked through the music, costuming and choreography of her intricate performances. These characters are specific - unique to Robbins’ private cosmology - yet infused by a sense of the universal as Robbins carefully mines cross-cultural sources in search of a feminist monomyth. What Joseph Campbell called “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, Robbins seeks to identify as the Heroine, or Healer with a Thousand Faces.

Shana Robbins: Waking Down
A performance and exhibition by artist Shana Robbins
with Alberto Roman, Scott Buck, Craig Martin Canedy, Anthony Walega, Orion Crook, and Stephanie Pharr
April 11 - May 14, 2014
Performance of Waking Down: Friday, April 11, 7-8pm
Opening Reception: Friday, April 11, 8-10pm