Multimedia artist Pablo Gimenez-Zapiola presents Eastext: a series of three live, mobile projections performances of poetry throughout Houston’s East End. These upcoming events will take place outdoors in different parts of the district. Each event will feature text projections on to the environment (houses, warehouses, buildings, etc.) from a moving vehicle, followed by an artist talk, recitations by participating Houston poets, and additional projections in a gallery space.
Acknowledging the attention the East End area has received in the last few years, Gimenez-Zapiola believes that this art project will provide expanded exposure to it. By literally using the East End as a canvas for poetry, he seeks to promote the integration, engagement, and ultimate enrichment of this community with its various cultural identities.
By developing the project in public places Gimenez-Zapiola aims to involve people in an interactive way, providing an opportunity for dialogue between the community, the artist and the poets -drawing people to appreciate the project in multiple ways, creating a positive, public, visual statement in the community. Through the interaction of text over the environment the projections become something like an ephemeral or harmless graffiti, which only exist for fractions of a second. The words literally travel over the projected surfaces, and the viewer travels along, in some degree becoming part of the statement, and to some extent; of its meaning.
Scheduled events:
Thursday October 13 – 6:40p – 8:40p – Venue: El Rincón Social – 3210 Preston St, Houston, TX 77003
Thursday October 20 – 6:30p – 8:30p – Venue: Gallery HOMELAND – 3401 Harrisburg Blvd, Houston, Texas 77003
Thursday October 27 – 6:30p – 8:30p – Venue: Box 13 – 6700 Harrisburg Blvd, Houston, TX 77011
The events are free
Events Timeline:
1 – Audience meets at the venue at opening time to receive the itinerary of the projections.
2 – Moving projections are performed during 45 minutes on streets around the venue.
3 – After the moving projections public gathers at venue for artist talk, poetry recitations and additional projections.
About the artist:
Pablo Gimenez-Zapiola was born in Argentina and received his Bachelor of Architecture degree at Universidad de Belgrano in Buenos Aires. Currently residing in Houston, he primarily works with photography and video. He is an active member of the art community in Houston, often performing video projections in local events and happenings. In 2010, he was selected one of the ten “Discoveries of Fotofest Meeting Place”; and he has been twice awarded a City of Houston funded Individual Artist Grant via the Houston Arts Alliance: in 2011 and 2016.
His work has been exhibited in galleries in Argentina; Espacio Buenos Aires, Fundación Hampatu, Centro Cultural Recoleta – Buenos Aires, and the US; Schneider Gallery, Chicago – Museum of Contemporary Arts, Redline Gallery – Denver, Colorado – LeHigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania – Contemporary Arts Museum, De Santos Gallery, Anya Tish Gallery, Lawndale Arts Center, Labotanica, Houston Center for Photography, Project Row Houses, Diverse Works, Talento Bilingüe, Houston, Texas – ArtHouse, Austin, Texas – Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, Oregon – LACDA, Los Angeles, California – Museum of Transport, Off Festival, Bratislava, Czech Republic. His work has been featured in art and photography blogs, and is part of private collections in Argentina, UK and the US, including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and Le High University Art Gallery. Awards: Finalist of Big Show, Lawndale Art Center, 2016. 1st, 2nd place and Honorable Mention in three categories in Moscow International Photo Awards. Finalist of the Lumen Prize, London, UK, 2014/2013. Honorable Mention – Dave Bown Projects, USA, 2013. Finalist Bienal de la Imagen en Movimiento, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2012.
About the participating poets:
Eloísa Pérez-Lozano: grew up bilingual and bicultural in Houston, Texas. She graduated from Iowa State University with her M.S. in journalism and mass communication and her B.S. in psychology. She is a long-distance member of the Latino Writers Collective in Kansas City, and a member of the Gulf Coast Poets. Her poetry has been featured in The Texas Observer, aaduna, Diverse Voices Quarterly, and The Acentos Review, among others.
John Pluecker: writer, interpreter, translator and co-founder of the language justice and literary experimentation collaborative Antena. He has translated numerous books from the Spanish, including Antígona González (Les Figues Press, 2016) and Tijuana Dreaming: Life and Art at the Global Border (Duke University Press, 2012). His book of poetry and image, Ford Over, was released in 2016 from Noemi Press.
Vanessa Torres: Writer and anthropologist, she has been developing a body of work projecting Hispanic culture through radio, theater and digital journalism. Her poetry appear in some Latin-American magazines as a Circulo de Poesia- Mexico, and her poetry book project “Fuego del Aire” was released in 2015 by independent publisher Ediciones Bookanero in Houston Texas.
Holly Lyn Walrath: Her poetry has appeared in Abyss & Apex, Silver Blade, and Vine Leaves, among others. She is a freelance editor and the associate director of Writespace, a nonprofit literary center in Houston, Texas.
Gwendolyn Zepeda: Born in Houston, Texas in 1971, attended the University of Texas at Austin. She was the first Latina blogger and began her writing career on the Web in 1997 as one of the founding writers of entertainment site Television Without Pity. Since that time, Zepeda has published three critically acclaimed novels through Hachette, four award-winning children’s books through Arte Publico Press, a short-story collection, and two books of poems. She was Houston’s very first poet laureate, serving a two-year term from 2013 to 2015.
Videos:
https://vimeo.com/150625137
https://vimeo.com/150625134
https://vimeo.com/150625136
Pablo Gimenez-Zapiola is a recipient of an Individual Artist Grant Award. This grant is funded by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.
