Arien Wilkerson

Performance, Installation

Arien Wilkerson/Tnmot Aztro considers that the complexities within art derive from the alienation of objects, identities, the body, sounds and humans and is rooted in repurposing and redefining meanings of “fine art” and its attachment to colonialism, white supremacy and institutionalized racism. Their practice articulates epistemology and ontology by the production of large-scale performance installations in which audiences, public mass or viewers are submerged within an immersive experience that populates multiple meanings, multiple engines.

Their discipline spans performance, immersive installation, lighting, sculpture and experimental video, while collaborating with classical and noise musicians. Wilkerson’s sold-out performances, online lectures and events have taken place at art galleries, institutions and incubator spaces such as University of Pennsylvania, Slought Foundation, Vox Populi Gallery, Icebox Project Space and SPACE Gallery, Philadelphia; Yale School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut; University of Connecticut, Storrs; Judson Memorial Church, New York City; Rhode Island School of Design and AS22O, Providence; Trinity College and Real Art Ways, both in Hartford, Connecticut; Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut; Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield, Connecticut; and Martin E. Segal Theater at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Wilkerson has received funding from FCA Emergency Grant (2023), Penn Treaty Special Services District (2021), Illuminate the Arts Grant (2021–2022), Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts (2020–2021), The Velocity Fund (2021), The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation (2020), Arts Council of Greater New Haven Artist Workforce Initiative Sponsorship (2019), Connecticut Artist Fellowship (2019), National Endowment for the Arts Big Read (2018) and Connecticut Office of the Arts project grant (2018).