The Holder, The Story
Curated by Bella Anastasio
Artists: Julie Bena, Julia Haft Candell, Moko Fukuyama, Melissa Lohman, Adeola Olakiitan, Maria Duran Sampedro
April 2021
Storytelling is an interface for translating and harboring experience, as well as a tool by which to measure and understand ourselves in the world. Stories ground the way we make sense of life, but can also limit our understanding of what life can be. The Holder, The Story presents works by Julie Bena, Julia Haft Candell, Moko Fukuyama, Melissa Lohman, Adeola Olakiitan and Maria Duran Sampedro that explore what has been lost and what stands to be gained through storytelling traditions that often measure worth and humanity according to violence and achievement. Some works in The Holder, The Story reveal the consequences of these traditions, while others investigate the potential role of storytellers as nurturing healers for collective and individual psyches. What do we inherit from storytelling traditions? And how might we be an expansive link in a narrative chain?