Locust Projects Kicks off Miami's Fall Arts Season with Immersive Installations
Miami, FL - September 10, 2022 - More than 300 guests joined Locust Projects in celebrating the opening of the three new commissioned exhibitions featuring a new immersive gaming installation by Miami-based artist Leo Castañeda with Otro Inventario; a sculptural sound and light installation by Brooklyn-based artist Zac Hacmon; and a video series guest-curated by art writer, administrator, curator and collaborator Heike Dempster featuring videos by Ania Freer, Ambrose Rhapsody Murray, and Helina Metaferia.
Guests of all ages were invited to become one with the immersive VR sci-fi environment of Herrmaientas (Levels and Bosses), a transmedia gaming prototype by Miami-based multimedia artist Leo Castañeda in collaboration with arthouse video game studio Otro Inventario. The immersive installation invites visitors to play the videogame's prologue, premiered in an environment that echoes the development of the game itself and traces the evolution of the game through oil paintings by the artist, virtual reality experiences, sculptural gaming furniture, immersive video, wall drawings, and more.
Mia is an interactive immersive installation consisting of sculpture, video, and sound by Brooklyn based artist Zac Hacmon. The viewer enters a dark atmosphere filled with massive sculptures resembling air ventilation shafts and the sound of voices emanating from speakers within the shafts. Mia is the culmination of a two-year socially engaged project by the artist that comprises urban research, social work, and a one-year collaboration between Hacmon and Alexa, an asylum-seeking transgender woman who is currently waiting for her immigration status trial in New York City. Originally from Nicaragua, Alexa fled to the U.S. due to political reasons after the 2018 protests in her country. \
Sound, Stories is the sixth in a series of guest curated video exhibitions in Locust Projects’ Screening Room that launched in fall 2019 and guest curated by Heike Dempster, art writer, administrator, curator and collaborator. The exhibition explores ancestral realms and engaging in the process of rewriting histories/herstories, moving across the oceans that connect the African Diaspora featuring videos by Ania Freer, Ambrose Rhapsody Murray, and Helina Metaferia. The exhibition poses the questions: What is contained in the language of the people? What are the narratives, sounds and identities inhabiting the landscape? This series of videos engages in layers of epistemological considerations and renegotiated perspectives of relation between cultural identities and space—moving from the Jamaican countryside to the waters of North Carolina and the contemporary gallery space—where we meet to contemplate the power of narrative and heritage and addressing power structures and celebrating community.
Attendees had the opportunity to meet the artists and be the first to see their exhibitions while enjoying conversation over drinks from Locust Projects’ new beverage sponsor, Unseen Creatures Brewing & Blending.
Bookleggers Library is in our Mobile Studio with a curated selection of books related to the exhibitions! Bookleggers Library is a nonprofit mobile library that expands access to free books as a way of building community. Come through, grab a book, enjoy a free cup of coffee, and sit a spell!
The shows are on view through SEPT 10 - NOV 5, 2022, Wed-Sat | 11am-5pm in the Miami Design District.
Locust Projects 2021-2022 exhibitions and programming are made possible with support from: The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Diane and Robert Moss; The Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, The Children's Trust; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Ruth Foundation for the Arts; The Miami Foundation; Susan and Richard Arregui; Florida, Department of State; Hillsdale Fund; The Albert and Jane Nahmad Family Foundation; The National Endowment for the Arts Art Works Grant; VIA Art Fund | Wagner Foundation Incubator Grant; Funding Arts Network; Diane and Werner Grob; Kirk Foundation; and the Incubator Fund Supporting Sponsors and Friends.