Choreographing Care: A Conversation between Jody Wood and Dionisio Cruz,
Moderated by Rubin Foundation Artistic Director Sara Reisman
Thursday, July 21, 2016
6 to 8pm
Jody Wood, In the Black Box (Looking Out), 2016. [Image Description: A film still of a split screen with one image on the left and one on the right. On top of the split screen there is a black bar, and one on the bottom as well. The image on the left is of a man laying back with the back of his head resting in a woman’s hand. He has black hair and she wears black pants, a black cardigan, and a white, long sleeve shirt. The image on the right is of a woman in a blue shirt, light blue pants, and a brown jacket speaking from a black box placed in the middle of a field. Grass, brush, and bushes surround the black box and woman. Behind her and the black box is a hill to the lift and a blue sky throughout.]
Multimedia artist Jody Wood and social worker Dionisio Cruz discussed the direct and indirect effects of the overburdening of social workers, the intangible aspects of care and empathy, and the need for self-care in the caregiving community. The conversation centered on Wood's Beauty in Transition (on view in the exhibition In the Power of Your Care), her film project In the Black Box (Looking Out) which features Dionisio Cruz, and a series of workshops entitled Choreographing Care. Due to many factors such as the increased bureaucracy of care institutions and decreased salaries, constraints on social workers are becoming tighter, and secondary trauma is simply attributed to the 'cost of caring' while recent studies have shown that social workers and caregivers often experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Bios
Dionisio Cruz is a bilingual, bicultural social worker. He has created, developed, and directed programs with populations of all ages, from the very sick to the very healthy, at venues from community-based organizations to hospitals including St. Vincent’s, where he coordinated an AIDS program. He is rooted in a tradition of empowerment through education, information, and mutual respect, grounded clinically in family therapy and systems theory. He has consulted for The Spanish Action League of Onondaga County (La Liga) in Syracuse, NY. He is currently Director of Social Services and clinical coordinator at a NYC homeless shelter for people over 50 with mental and physical challenges. He has also played percussion for theatre, dance classes, and art installations for over 45 years.
Jody Wood is an artist whose work is time-based and performative, utilizing video, installation, performance, and community organization to engage with socially charged content. Primarily focusing on transitional experiences of death, trauma, and social isolation, she aims to unpack and meaningfully interpret these issues by working one-on-one with members of her community. Wood has been supported by organizations including Brooklyn Arts Council, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. The first iteration of Choreographing Care was supported by Esopus Foundation. She was a participant in the 2014 Open Engagement Conference at Queens Museum, and has presented collaborative community-based projects in NYC at El Museo del Barrio and in Seoul, South Korea at Temporary Space Artist Residency, Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, One-Circle Community Theatre, and the Senior Welfare Center of Seoul. Wood is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Pace University.