The third iteration of Time of Now—MASS MoCA’s annual festival of thought and performance—explores themes of fragility, community, and repair through pop-ups, performances, talks, and film screenings by artists, musicians, dancers, designers, and thinkers, including exhibiting artists Lily Cox-Richard and Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Helga Davis, Treya Lam, and more. All Time of Now events are free with museum admission.

We have lived through two years of a pandemic that has isolated us, exhausted us, and often divided us while forever changing the way we live and work. At the same time, we’ve witnessed a long-awaited awakening across the culture at large about racism, its relationship to capitalism, and the deeply entrenched inequities that both systems produce. This day of events provokes questions about our current state of well-being, our interdependence, and our desire for communion and collective action as we emphasize the need to better care for ourselves and others. Time of Now celebrates the museum as a safe haven and a place to come together, where the creation and experience of art can be restorative acts.

SCHEDULE

10:15am–4:30pm
SCREENINGS OF VIDEOS
by MASS MoCA Performing Artists
Club B10 (Building 10, 3rd floor)

OK by Helga Davis and Anouk De Clercq
(10:15am, 11:15am, 12:15pm, 2:15pm, 3:15pm)
Made in response to Davis’ experience in New York City during the Summer of 2020 with the pandemic, pending election, and Black Lives Matter protests, the short film explores what “OK” even means in these tumultuous times.

otherland: part i by treya lam and Jason Chew, with movement by Marie Lloyd Paspe
(10:20am, 11:20am, 12:20pm, 2:20pm, 3:20pm)
Performed and filmed at the museum during the pandemic in —and in response to—sculptor Ledelle Moe’s exhibition When, otherland: part i uses song and movement to explore grief, migration, and liberation.

Fragility Etudes by Yuka C. Honda with music composed by Susie Ibarra
(10:35am, 11:35am, 12:35pm, 2:35pm, 3:35pm)
Filmed during a residency at the museum, Fragility Etudes captures Ibarra’s studies of a world of sound that reflects humanity’s interdependence and mutual existence alongside the natural environment. The score explores polyrhythms and concepts based on the physics of glass.

10:30am-12:30pm
ASSUMING BREAKAGE
A Talk/Workshop with Lily Cox-Richard
Lily Cox-Richard exhibition (Building 4, floor 2)
What happens when we expect things to fall apart with use, rather than seeing it as a material defect? How does this reframe our attempts to hold it all together? During this convening, artist Lily Cox-Richard—whose exhibition Weep Holes is on view now—will discuss knots and friction, participants will experiment with tieing and mending, and together we will contemplate relationships between resilience and fragility.

11–11:30am
CREATING IN A PANDEMIC
Panel Discussion with artists Helga Davis, William Binnie, and Mary Lum
Prow (Building 6, floor 2)
Artists Helga Davis, William Binnie, and Mary Lum discuss fragility, creativity, and the ways in which their practices and relationships to community shifted over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

12:30–1pm
ARTIST TALK: KELLI RAE ADAMS
Prow (Building 6, floor 2)
Artist kelli rae adams discusses her installation Forever in Your Debt which translates an abstract student loan debt into a more tangible form while emphasizing the need for collective action to address the issue.

1:30–2pm
OTHERLAND: PART I FILM SCREENING WITH Q&A
A film by treya lam, Jason Chew, and Marie Lloyd Paspe
Club B10 (Building 10, 3rd floor)
treya lam, Jason Chew, and Marie Lloyd Paspe introduce their short film otherland: part i and stay for a Q&A with the audience. Performed and filmed at the museum during the pandemic in—and in response to—sculptor Ledelle Moe’s exhibition When, the film uses song and movement to explore grief, migration, and liberation.

2:30–3pm
ARTIST TALK: AMY HAUFT
Prow (Building 6, floor 2)
Artist Amy Hauft, who recently opened the exhibition 700,000: 1 | Terra + Luna + Sol , will discuss the concepts behind the show and its construction as well as what it means to make embodied installations that call for both interaction and introspection.

3–4/4:15pm
RESTLESS ANIMAL KINGDOM
Gallery Performance
Ceramics in the Expanded Field exhibition (Building 4, 1st floor)
In Restless Animal Kingdom, four dancers perform in sculptor Jessica Jackson Hutchins’ wearable ceramics, which are on view in the exhibition Ceramics in the Expanded Field. Exploring the messiness of daily life and relationships while connecting our own existence and search for meaning—along with the restlessness felt acutely in the pandemic—to the animal kingdom of the title. Cello music keeps things just civilized enough. Watch a preview of the performance on MASS MoCA’s YouTube channel.

5–5:30pm
TALK BACK: RESTLESS ANIMAL KINGDOM
Conversation with Jessica Jackson Hutchins & Dancers
Club B10 (Building 10, 3rd floor)
Conversation with Jessica Jackson Hutchins and performers Nami Yamamoto, Myssi Robinson, Sarah White-Ayon, Lauren McKeon, and cellist Lottie Malkmus, moderated by Senior Curator Susan Cross.

Time of Now is free with museum admission, which can be purchased here. Museum admission is always free for members. Not yet a member? Become one here.

Jessica Jackson Hutchins. Restless Animal Kingdom, 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen. Photo by Peter Kaiser.