because you’re [mine.]
a
contemporary art exhibition
Courtney Kessel storäe michele
620 Wealthy Street
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503 United States
Cover Image: Still from “once upon a dream” short film directed by Courtney Kessel
Artist Bios
Exhibition Statement
Exhibition Photos Enchanté I Put a Spell on You once upon a dream Casting Occurs in This Space Fata Morgana you and me mama [rose.] [the listening heart] short films.
Courtney Kessel (she/her) is a mother, artist, academic, and arts administrator living and working in Athens, Ohio. Kessel exhibits and lectures on her work nationally and internationally including at the China Art Museum, Shanghai, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago Chile, the University of Alberta, Canada, Centre for Contemporary Culture Strozzina, Florence, Italy, and Exit Art, New York.
Through sculpture, photography, performance, video, and sound, Courtney Kessel’s work strives to make visible the quiet, understated, and often unseen love and labor of motherhood. In the annual performance piece, In Balance With (2010-present), Kessel presents a version of the maternal which investigates collaboration with her (now 19-yearold) daughter as a visible, changeable aspect of mothering. Other projects which reflect over a decade of research into the subjective maternal include: Mother Lode , Symphony of the Domestic, Cut From the Same, Fabric of Life and the video Sharing Space.
She is currently the Assistant Director for Experiential Design at Ohio University and a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Arts. She earned her MFA in Sculpture & Expanded Practices from Ohio University, and holds a BFA in Sculpture from Tyler School of Art.
storäe michele (they/them)—a self-given name speaking to the sacred act of storytelling— is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, poet, playwright, theologian and seasoned educator. their experimental films, performances, and choreopoems center black femmes, honoring their routes to authenticity— the reclamation of body, sexuality and personhood—which serve as reminders of how to create brave space as black queer wild + holy beings.
storäe returns to African diasporic folklore as a practice of story-weaving. by integrating archives of black folx, exploring ancestral accounts + documenting dreamworlds as transformative spells for healing, their art provides pathways toward future world-making.
their first film, [the listening heart] (2017), earned the Robert E. Seaver Award granted by Union Theological Seminary and has been officially selected by film festivals in Berlin, New York, Carbondale, Colorado and Cannes. their directorial debut was celebrated on the front cover of Women CineMakers, a digital magazine in Berlin.
storäe is a Lambda Literary Fellow (Playwriting Cohort, 2021) and their choreopoem, mama [rose], was nominated for the 2022 LGBTQ Drama Lammy Award. storäe is a fellow for the 2023 Baldwin for the Arts Residency and the 2023 Greenhouse Residency (SPACE on Ryder Farm). their upcoming performance piece [claustrophobia], is supported by Columbia University’s Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics & Social Justice as a Rapid Response grant recipient .
storäe has a Master of Professional Studies graduate in Creative Arts Therapy + Creativity Development, Pratt Institute (2008), also holds an Interdisciplinary Master of Divinity graduate of Union Theological Seminary (2017), and has earned a Master of Fine Arts in Performance + Performance Studies at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY (2021).
Exhibition Statement
At the heart of "because you're [mine.]" lies the exploration of self-possession as a radical act against the backdrop of a whitesupremacist-capitalist-patriarchy. This exhibition unveils the everyday magic in mundane gestures and the intentional magic hidden in plain sight—magic cast through mobiles, sculptural installations, and performative pieces that declare autonomy and presence.
The title, "because you're [mine.]," challenges the notion of possession, reclaiming it as a form of self-dedication and empowerment. It reflects a commitment to oneself, highlighting that no external entity holds dominion over one's body, spirit, or creative output. Drawing from storäe michele's roots in African diasporic folklore and Courtney Kessel’s introspective examination of motherhood, the exhibition fosters a dialogue about personal and collective identity, resilience, and the transformative power of art.
Inspired by Audre Lorde's assertion that "self-care is not a luxury," and propelled by the lived experiences of the artists, "because you're [mine.]" is an affirmation of self-care as a revolutionary act. It invites viewers to witness and engage with the layers of meaning and resistance embedded within the art, urging a reflective journey into the realms of autonomy and magical realism.
This exhibition is a spell cast, a claim staked, an invitation to see the magic imbued in every act of living and being—because we are, unequivocally, ours.
The artists share the following -
"because you're [mine.] because self-possession is the antithesis to white-supremacistcapitalist-patriarchy. because our mundane gestures hold intentionality–our magic hides in plain sight. because our existence tells the story of dedication to one’s self, and as Audre Lorde has taught us, “self-care is not a luxury.” because we have mothered ourselves, nurtured our loved ones and still make time for selfpleasure(s). because we are ours. because you’re [mine.]"
Enchanté
2020 - present
60” x 24” x 96” installation and light drawing with household objects, mirrors, plants, glass, 35mm slides, gels, make-up compacts, crystals, candles, and light.
Enchanté is an investigation into what and how the objects “perform.” The studio lights or natural light coming in from the window transforms the objects from quiet and benign to ignited and illuminated, from pedestrian to extraordinary, from sculpture to drawing.
I Put a Spell on You 2020-19
36” x 24” x 24”
(series of four – 3 shown left to right – protection, prosperity, fertility), mobiles with a variety of objects.
Each one was a little spell for fertility, prosperity, protection, and good fortune respectively. Selected listing of objects include: crystals (multiple kinds), monopoly parts, a glitter-covered condom, herbs, bones, and more.
once upon a dream 2020 film, 3:02
Directed by Courtney Kessel, filmed and edited by Jacob Midkiff, with Chloe Clevenger
My first experimental film plays with color, light, and perspective to lure in and potentially capture the viewer in its spell. Images in the portfolio document the set which I saw as an installation similar to Motherlode and Fabric of Life. Selected for the Athens International Film + Video Festival, 2023.
Fata Morgana 2021 film, 6:56 collaboration with Erin Pfahler
mama [rose.]
2021 film, 58:07
written, directed & performed by storäe michele filmed by Charles Witherspoon
mama [rose.] is an afro-futurist queer, circular time-traveling performance piece following three familial relationships and their journeys toward acknowledging and addressing intergenerational wounds.
Through VHS archives of past-present-future times, an eighty-nine-year old trans archaeologist and oracle, Mama Rose, transmits indigenous wisdom and ways of knowing to her grandchild, a sixteen-yearold non-binary teen named Sid, as Sid navigates their own becoming and transforming relationship to their
mother, Delores.
Although this project was conceived as a live theatrical choreopoem, Covid-19 safety protocols returned storäe to film, re-exploring and completing the work as an experimental one-person performance. Each archive within the performance is a short film which expands on the breadth of Mama Rose’s practices of freedom-making while she traverses space and time.
[the listening heart]
2017 film, 25:40
written, directed and co-edited by storäe michele filmed by Chris “Cspins” Guzman
[the listening heart] is an Afro-Native Futuristic film about self-love and deep listening, bringing to life an original story rounded in Mayan and Yoruba cosmologies. Our protagonist, named after the Mayan Goddess Ix Chel, is a child healer who searches for the meaning of love. This story follows a common paradigm of women who are hurt when going against social norms—but in this film, reclaim their voices through self-healing.
(above)
“love ya flesh” and archival memory, #22”
2021 film, 3:30 performed by storäe michele (with additional casts) written, directed, and edited by storäe michele filmed by Elyse Ambrose
This poem expands on Toni Morrison’s infamous quote in her book Beloved:
“In this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it.”
In this film, Black women, femmes and non-binary folx film themselves caring for and loving their black bodies as a radical act of belonging to oneself.
(right)
tethered: awake within a dream,” 2021 film, 3:30 performed, written and edited by storäe michele filmed by Elyse Ambrose
Dreams are a significant part of storäe’s artistic practice and have often inspired their writing. This film details a recurring dream (which began in their adolescence), of being trapped inside a labyrinthlike haunted house.
storäe explores themes that relate to their childhood and are learning to adapt and heal from as an adult.
“hypno-sexual. a foreplay teaser,” 2021 film, 2:30 performed, filmed, edited by storäe michele
Black femme sexuality is often seen within the gaze of satisfying or fulfilling a fetish for another.
Here storäe plays within the context of Sadiya Hartman’s Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals, where Hartman uses critical fabulation to explore how black women and femmes reclaimed ownership of their bodies post-enslavement; often through sex work, these freedoms were lived within the shadows.
storäe practices freedom-making by filming themself for their own enjoyment: honoring the erotic, kink and the joys of becoming a sexual being.
Cultivate is an independent, artist-run arts organization based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We offer a contemporary art gallery, fine art education program, and artist resource center.
620 Wealthy Street
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503 United States