Life is in the things around you; you speak and respond to them, just as they respond to you.

In his book, “How forests think”, Edward Kohn describes his first night in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The local Quichua people ask him to sleep with his face up. If the Jaguar came at night, he would be seen as someone with consciousness. However, if he slept with his facedown, the jaguar would see him as aicha or prey, as someone without consciousness.“How other beings see us matter”. How we see each other matters.

In this studio session, we will explore these relationships through call and response, mimicry, and considerations of—as well as movement through—material and environment. We will reexamine, rejig, and step beyond our initial reference points.

Kushala Vora is a dreamer, community organizer and an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture and drawing. Her practice is guided by the impulse to let go of exerting power or ego upon others, oneself and the landscape. She does this through a practice rooted in observation and reconciliation of her learned habits.

Kushala is currently a Jackman Goldwasser Resident at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. She has been a resident at Skowhegan School of Painting and Drawing, Anderson Ranch Art Center, Chicago Artist Coalition, Søndre Green Farm Norway and ACRE Residency. Her work has been exhibited at Museum of Fine Arts, Nagoya, Japan; Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit; Mana Contemporary, Chicago; Harvard University, Cambridge; Chicago Artist Coalition, National Indo-American Museum among other places.

This session is scheduled for Fridays, August 4, 11, 18, 25 from 10am - Noon PST (that’s Los Angeles time).

Registration is $250 and includes all four sessions.

Participants gather via Zoom.