Lisa Karrer, detail, White Round Tents. Detail, White Round Tents, 2020. Ceramic forms with embedded audio narratives and video projection, 56 ½ x 80 x 44 in. (143.51 x 203.2 x 111.76 cm). Photo by Ann Sherman.. Photo by Ann Sherman.
SHELTER
April 25, 2024 - January 6, 2025Mary LeFlore Clements Oklahoma Gallery
Admission is always free; tickets are not required
SHELTER by artist Lisa Karrer explored the experiences of displaced peoples seeking shelter in refugee communities across different parts of the world through oral interviews and video projections, displayed within miniature ceramic structures inspired by global refugee camps. SHELTER invited viewers to consider the ways in which displaced peoples find homes and communities in unfamiliar places.
Featuring discrete “Stations” of miniaturized ceramic tents, huts, and buildings, SHELTER comprised regionally specific dwellings inhabited by those seeking refuge in the face of displacement. Each Station contained an embedded audio soundtrack, featuring refugees speaking in their native language or in English, sharing narratives of their memories from home. Intimate video scenarios, portraying individuals and families going about their daily lives, were also projected onto the interior walls of the ceramic forms.
Originally mounted at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Karrer’s hometown of Buffalo, New York, in 2020–2021, SHELTER illuminated the relationship between the city of Buffalo and its refugee organizations that help displaced peoples to resettle in local communities. Oklahoma Contemporary presented an iteration of the exhibition that was recontextualized for Oklahoma audiences, featuring audio and video recordings of residents in Oklahoma who experienced displacement and who, with generosity of spirit, gave voice to their respective trajectories.
They bore witness to their own stories that spoke of loss and sorrows, of struggle and courage, of painful chapters and new beginnings. The invocation of memory captured not only the massive disruption that war, climate disaster, or extreme poverty can trigger but also the source from which refugees draw strength, the roadblocks or hostility they face along the way, and renewed faith in humanity, bolstered by the embrace of welcoming support systems in their new communities.
Karrer designed all the table mounts in collaboration with sculptor Bill Hochhausen, who oversaw their construction. The interviews conducted in Oklahoma were coordinated in partnership with The Spero Project, a local non-profit organization that welcomes resettled refugees in Oklahoma City, along with Asian District Cultural Association, Latino Community Development Agency, and Sooner Hope for Ukraine.
Presented in partnership with Asian District Cultural Association, Latino Community Development Agency, Sooner Hope for Ukraine, and The Spero Project.
Watch the Artist Talk here
Learn about Colors of Freedom here. Presented in partnership with Sooner Hope for Ukraine.
April 25 | Artist Talk
June 8 | Second Saturday and Zoom with Lisa Karrer
August 17 | Community Conversation: Housing Challenges and Opportunities
January 6 | Meet and Mingle with Lisa Karrer
Lisa Karrer (b. 1957, Buffalo, New York) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work often incorporates visual, audio, and sensory elements, combining technology with narrative and hand-built ceramics to create immersive installations. Karrer’s work explores physical approaches to digital software, creating what she has termed “warm technology.” Karrer describes her own work as seeking to utilize technology as “a tangible, hands-on practice, aiming to enhance and emphasize, rather than obscure, the human condition in the digital age.”
This exhibition is presented by Kirkpatrick Family Fund, Allied Arts, and Oklahoma Arts Council.
This exhibition is also supported by George Records, The Kanady Family, Leslie and Cliff Hudson, Jodi and Ed Sanchez, Cindy and Lance Ruffel, Annie Bohanon, E.L. and Thelma Gaylord Foundation, the Chickasaw Nation, Inasmuch Foundation, Allied Arts, Oklahoma Arts Council, SSM Health, OG&E, Cox, Velocigo, and Anonymous.
Join our mailing list to learn about events, exhibitions, education and more at Oklahoma Contemporary.
