Texts from your Bro: Talking to Cara Lewis of Diaz-Lewis

The collaborative Diaz Lewis (Chicago/Cuba) formed in October 2012 when the couple Alejandro Figueredo Diaz-Perera and Cara Megan Lewis received an unexpected invitation from the National Ballet of Cuba to participate in a group exhibition marking the anniversary of the Cuban institution. In the following year, Diaz and Lewis worked together across the divide, Diaz in Havana and Lewis in Chicago.

Their photo book, “SMS: Simultaneous Moments of Silence” documents a year apart moving simultaneously through life in their distinct positions; Lewis is a gallery director of a prestigious Chicago contemporary art gallery and Diaz is an emerging artist.  While they have performed private art actions on beaches and cemeteries from Varadero, Cuba to Hong Kong, Rapid Pulse 2014 will mark their first public performance together. This summer, the couple will begin curating art exhibitions in the parallel sky lights of Lewis’ home studio and in September 2014, their individual artworks will be featured in a two-person exhibition at Antena Space in the Pilsen District of Chicago.

 RP14 PROJECT:  “The Other’s Voice” June 15 @ 4-7pm Electrodes

Nabeela Vega  (Bangladesh/US) is an artist & writer invested in the orientalist/anti- orientalist lens and notions of the other. Their most prominent projects include “Visiting Thahab”: a study of the muslim woman’s presence as an object in contemporary, domestic and foreign spaces. The purpose is to observe and excogitate on the identity of a muslim american woman in the post 9/11 South Asian diaspora.  Vega is also exploring practices that go beyond the veil within the context of a digital realm and how othered bodies & queer experiences translate in such mediums.

VIDEO: “Purging” June 14 @ 7pm Nightingale
part of Disjointed Realities

Recognizing a connection between “SMS” & their own gestures in digital intimacy — A dialogue is created through Vega’s ongoing series of text based correspondence “Texts from your bro” :

Nabeela Vega is an artist & writer originally from Dhaka Bangladesh. Vega migrated to Virginia four days before September 11th 2001 at the age of eleven. Experiences following this event are what fuel their interest in the orientalist/anti- orientalist lens and notions of the other. Their work has been exhibited nationally and featured in publications such as the Washington Post & The Aerogram.