The New Commons is a series of online screenings, virtual live collaborations and discussions around the imaginaries of the homeland as they are shaped by digital communication technologies, such as instant messaging apps, video calls, social media and the constant exchanges of videos and images whether personal or throughout the internet. In pairing works from diasporic artists and those from their homeland, the series seeks to portray the active and collective imagination around the construction of place and sense of belonging while revealing deeply embedded social and political disparities across the world. Historically, the term 'commons' is used to refer to natural resources, belonging equally to a community, a nation, a culture.
The 'new commons' designates the common digital space of the internet that has become the new foundation of our global transnational and transgenerational culture. This series is created and presented by our 2023/2024 Curatorial Fellow, Prima Jalichandra-Sakuntabhai.
ALEJANDRA R. BOLAÑOS and FRANCIS ALMENDAREZ
Watch the final segment of The New Commons artists Alejandra R. Bolaños and Francis Almendárez. They presented a performance lecture followed by a Q&A focusing on the necessity and importance that mobility plays on both their artistic production and their constructions of home.
PRERNA and PRIYANKA RAM
Watch the third installment of this series The New Commons, featuring Prerna and Priyanka Ram, recorded on March 2, 2024. The episode features Minnesota-based artist, Prerna, followed by a conversation with Priyanka Ram, artist, and musician, based in Los Angeles, CA.
SUCHART WANNASET and MAYTHISA YENCHIT
Watch the second installment of The New Commons' featuring Maythisa Yenchit and Suchart Wannaset presenting "Feeling at Home Away from Home." This collaborative project explores expatriate life and friendship through a 10-minute video followed by a live performance. Anchored in the belief that "it does matter where you are".
SHAGHAYEGH CYROUS
Watch a recording of our first event in The New Commons BROADCAST series featuring Iranian-American artist Shaghayegh Cyrous, now based in Los Angeles. Cyrous explores cross-cultural communication and the expatriate experience shaped by geopolitics. Her art spans various mediums, including video and interactive installations. In this episode, she uses digital tech to maintain connections to Iran. Collaborating with her mother and featuring Women, Life, Freedom movement footage, her work reflects on the diaspora's role in advocating for change. After the screening of videos like "Walk in the Future of my Past" and "Golden Hour," join us for an artist presentation and Q&A. Don't miss this chance to delve into Cyrous's impactful art and discuss the diaspora's advocacy.
2023 - 2024 Curitorial Fellow - Prima Jalichandra-Sakuntabha
Prima Jalichandra-Sakuntabhai is a transdisciplinary artist and curator, working across performance, video and installation, currently based in Los Angeles. Their research-based practice explores ways for identity and sense of belonging to remain undetermined while questioning dominant narratives of history and nationalism. They were born in Bangkok, Thailand, before their family moved to Europe where they spent their formative years. They came to the US in 2011. They received their Visual Arts Degree from the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Nantes Metropole and a License in Film Studies at the Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3. They hold a BFA from the School of the Arts Institute of Chicago and a MFA from the California College of the Arts, in San Francisco. They are a recipient of the SOMA Summer Award, Mexico City in 2016 and the Emi Kuriyama Spirit Award in 2020.
They curated the MAHA Pavilion at the Bangkok Biennial 2020 and Tactics of Erasure and Rewriting Histories at Craft Contemporary in 2022 and at ReflectSpace Gallery at the Glendale Central Library in 2023.
Photo Courtesy of Alan Nakagawa