Lynne Scott Constantine & Suzanne Scott Constantine (Interdisciplinary Artists)

2017 Gala

In “There is a Crack in Everything,” Lynne and Suzanne address the darkness, strife and chaos that can leave even the most committed optimist/activist in despair. From every direction, people in extremis and those who would help them encounter obstacles that exclude, impede, or shut down forward motion. Collectively, we hit the metaphorical wall.

Easy enough to critique the wall, curse the wall, fling ourselves against the wall in sheer frustration. But there is another approach: to learn from the wall. “There is a crack in everything,” Leonard Cohen says in his well-loved song Anthem. “That’s how the light gets in.” Art, poetry, music, dance investigate the places where the world splits open, where the wall’s cracks are visible, where the light leaks in. If we learn to see those cracks, those precious places of vulnerability and creativity, change can happen, and justice can rise up.

The artwork that accompanies the performance came together slowly over the last year, when many people were asking how hope can have meaning in a profoundly damaged world. Suzanne’s mixed-media compositions combine the Surrealists’ symbolic and dreamlike logic with the social-justice messages of the American Expressionists. Drawing on her research into social realities and on the inner realm of intuition, she creates maps of the locations where hope has taken refuge. Lynne’s media-based work derives from her curiosity about the nature of perception. She modifies her digital equipment so it can investigate the world at the edge of visibility, looking for oblique answers to otherwise unanswerable questions, and bringing into the frame the wonders that dance, almost unnoticed, in our peripheral vision.

Singer-songwriter Danny Carmelo contributes his musical vision to the performance, offering his original compositions and a stirring reinterpretation of “Anthem,” the song that inspired the work.

For more information:

Suzanne Scott Constantine  Website: http://suzannescottconstantine.com  Instagram: @suzannescottc

Danny Carmelo  Instagram and Snapchat: @DannyCarmelo  Facebook: dannycarmelo

BIOS

Lynne Scott Constantine is an interdisciplinary artist and Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts in the School of Art, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College and graduate degrees in English Language and Literature from Yale University.

Suzanne Scott Constantine is a resident artist at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA, and Professor of Integrative Studies in the School of Integrative Studies, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College and an MA in English from James Madison University.

Danny Carmelo is a songwriter and musician from New York City. His rich, soulful voice and his poetic compositions make him a favorite at classic New York music venues like the Bitter End. Listen to his music on Spotify, or download on ITunes: Train Tracks (released under the name Dan Torres), Life After Greenbrier, and his most recent release, Castaway City. When not on stage, Danny leads a media strategy group for Gamut, a digital media services company owned by Cox Communications.