Artist / Educator, Six Moons Over Oaxaca
Lila Wallace Readers Digest-Arts International 18 month Residency
Artists Space, New York, NY, USA and Galeria Arte de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico 1993 – 1995
Facilitated international cultural exchange about death as a part of cycle of life with 12 New York and Oaxacan artists, inspired by Dia de los Muertos. US artists – Robert Christie, Tennessee Rice Dixon, Isabel Dominquez, Penny Hall, Sarah Luddy and Allyn. Mexican artists – Gerardo de la Barrera, Miriam Ladron de Guevara, Abelardo Lopez, Cecilio Sanchez, and Filemon Santiago.
Allyn made bi-cultural presentations for and about US and Mexican artists dealing with death due to AIDS, cancer, urban and domestic violence, natural and ecological disasters and war. Participating artists created limited edition, hand-printed, bilingual, fold-out postcards first exchanged by mail, then exhibited in site-specific installations that Allyn designed.
The Artist also developed, organized and produced a day-long symposium with scholars synthesizing artist discussions and research that reflected a comparative analysis of philosophical underpinnings about how these two country’s deal with the cycle of living and dying. Participants included Gerardo de la Barrera, Ondine Chavoya, Julia Hertzberg, Susanna Torruella Leval, Tomas Ybarra-Frausto and Victor Zamudio-Taylor who made presentations at host sites: Artist Space and El Museo del Barrio. The day included a screening of La Ofrenda by independent filmmakers Llordes Portillo and Susana Munoz.
Photo Documentation Jerri Allyn