What does “community” mean to you and how do you center this in your art making and workshops?
Jess X. Snow: One of my recent inspirations is Ruth Wilson Gilmore, who said something along the lines of - “noticing and observing movements is a key part of organizing and revolutionary work.” Being strong observers and exercising our capacity to be compassionate listeners is the heart of community work. While I do engage with East Asian and queer immigrant communities, I also engage with communities that I'm not from.
A lot of my work involves working directly with Black, Indigenous and pan-Asian communities and thinking about ways to build solidarity with them. Only through the long-term work of listening and observing may we create a space where we can all collectively dream together as our full selves. This kind of work requires a lot of time and takes a lot of exposure to these communities. My work tries to depart from a focus on the individual, on identity and representation alone. Instead, I aspire toward a shared vision for a future that decenters the individual and moves toward collective care. It’s important to ask: what are the goals and visions that we all share? And then use art to come together around that vision.
What advice would you give to artists at Tisch who are interested in using their work to support social justice movements, particularly those related to climate change and environmental justice?
Jess X. Snow: I encourage Tisch artists to go outside of their comfort zone and take advantage of all the abundant resources at NYU outside of Tisch, which all deepened and inspired my artistic practice and my political journey toward climate justice. The Asian Pacific American Institute has been a community home for me, especially when I was their Artist In Residence in Fall 2021. Not only do they support a large breadth of APIA (Asian Pacific Islander American) scholars, artists, and activists, but they also uplift many Indigenous and Pacific Islander voices that are leaders in the global environmental justice movement. Check out their current outdoor exhibit at the Schwartz Plaza Vitrines: KŪKULU: Pillars Standing Together, co-curated by Native Hawaiian cultural workers; Pua Case and Lehuanani DeFranco that honors the pillars of Mauna Kea and the community that stands for the protection of the tallest mountain (from the ocean floor) in the world.
