From Beirut to West Philly: Tracy Chahwan’s exhibit at Studio 34

On one of the busiest avenues in West Philly at Baltimore Avenue there s a brown door with the number above it When you open it and climb a tall flight of stairs you ll find yourself on a bright open floor with a spacious lounge area on the left and multiple rooms on the right offering calm and quiet in the middle of a lively sometimes noisy street This is Studio a welcoming center for wellness and district As you climb the stairs at Studio you ll find announcements for new classes and updates on region meetups various of which haven t even made it to the website yet Natalia Sanchez Loayza Billy Penn If you head up those stairs any day in April or May this spring past flyers advertising new yoga classes meditation circles and craft nights the first thing you ll see is a new exhibition by Lebanese multidisciplinary artist Tracy Chahwan This marks Chahwan s first solo show up through the end of May titled Alien of Extraordinary Abilities which brings together over a decade of her work in various mediums such as posters textiles and comics The exhibition traces her journey from designing posters for Beirut s music scene in her country of origin to arriving in Philadelphia at the height of the pandemic In Lebanon Chahwan collaborated with the renowned Samandal and Zeez comics collectives publishing experimental comics and anthologies Although she had planned to move to France to continue her career a trip to the U S in March to visit her now husband left her stranded in Philly as global lockdowns began What was meant to be a short visit turned into a long stay in a country and city she hadn t expected to live in while her home country was still reeling from the protests Tracy Chahwan s exhibition opened earlier this month at Studio and will remain on view through the end of May Courtesy of Tracy Chahwan I had this life plan to go to France because I got an art residency there Chahwan announced I came to visit and then COVID happened and everything got cancelled On this continent there is this relationship with the U S that it s where you go to make more money or have a better future For us in the Middle East usually everyone goes to Europe so that s why I invariably thought I would end up in Europe rather than the U S Landing in Philly meant more than a change of address It meant adjusting to a different tradition a new pace of life and a new way of connecting with other artists It s been five years It took me a while to make my own connections Chahwan announced Now I like it because compared to other cities there is more of a population atmosphere in Philadelphia But you have to make stuff happen a lot on your own It s not like in New York where there s a ton of stuff all the time Here there is a lot happening but it s more underground really underground It s hard to figure it out In the exhibit you can feel how Chahwan processes that cultural shock with her signature bold dark lines vibrant colors and sharp dark sense of humor The piece promoting the show for example reflects on what the U S looked like in the year she arrived It s very cartoonish and exaggerated but I was out to go scan my drawing for a commission project and then I see all the broken shop windows and it wasn t as psychotic as this she commented I drew a humorous thing where I m here waiting for my green card and the riots the George Floyd protests really reminded me of the riots in Lebanon before I left So I just thought it was funny that I m in the middle of these things everywhere I go Tracy Chahwan s style has evolved over the years from more intricate detailed compositions to a more minimalistic and confident approach Still certain elements have remained constant shaping a distinctive recognizable voice in her work Natalia Sanchez Loayza Billy Penn The title of the exhibition is a nod to the nonimmigrant O- visa for Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement one that a large number of artists like Chahwan often pursue though she herself doesn t hold it The visa application process demands not only proving your talent but also navigating high costs and bureaucracy I think it s a very funny title Alien is already kind of a dehumanizing word but when you add extraordinary next to it I just thought it was perfect for a comic book title she mentioned A year ago Chahwan took part in a collective comic series centered around the theme of catastrophe For it she created a short comic about her arrival in the U S and the cultural clash she experienced which she titled Alien of Catastrophic Abilities The piece is included in the current exhibition Looking back at the life she started on another continent now tangled up with this country has also given Chahwan space to reflect on her creative path It was very intense I went in my old laptop But I think it s nice to revisit and see what you ve done where you are now how your style evolved she noted As she gave us a tour of the exhibit this week Chahwan pointed out several of the differences in her earlier work When I was much younger I used to add so various more details and hatching she stated And now I just can t be bothered In various options Chahwan s story is one familiar to plenty of immigrants it takes time to find your place in a new country and a new city For now that place is Philadelphia more specifically West Philly the neighborhood she landed in back in and where she still lives in the modern day Morgan Andrews the manager of the place he reached out because he saw a poster I did for the Peoplehood parade Chahwan disclosed He knew people at Fireball Printing and they decided to print my posters for free as a donation That was really nice because I had this vision to have the big wall but I was like It s going to cost me Studio takes pride in being a space where both Philly-based and international artists like Chahwan can come together to share connect and create Studio offers a common lounge where anyone is welcome to enter and even enjoy complimentary tea Natalia Sanchez Loayza Billy Penn A West Philly Healing Hub Stephen Fisher Angela Norris and James Peniston founded Studio in Aside from a brief pause between and late during the height of the pandemic the space has remained an functioning hub in West Philly offering yoga classes workshops arts and cultural sessions and gathering circles all centered around one idea wellness The idea of wellness and healing is not just going to the physician When you re looking for alternative modalities of healing sure yoga is a thing We host wellness providers like massage and talk therapy and acupuncture but the arts are also a healing modality We listen to music or go to the theater or we look at paintings to make sense of the world whether that s on an emotional political or intellectual level noted Andrews Andrews is the art curator behind Studio s arts initiative Arts He s been involved with the studio since its first year first as a learner then as a theater tutor performer and yoga instructor earning his certification right here at the studio He sees wellness and healing not just as routine care or problem-solving but as creating space for joyful enriching experiences that nourish people emotionally and spiritually If our body was a house he suggests as a metaphor it wouldn t just need someone to take out the trash every week or fix a leaky roof There s a third kind of maintenance which is like wouldn t it be nice if I had a hot tub It would be really nice to have a roof deck or plant a tree that has beautiful flowers on it in the front yard he declared It s also the things that give us ecstasy Studio offers a common lounge where anyone is welcome to enter and even enjoy complimentary tea Natalia Sanchez Loayza Billy Penn Beyond its layered vision of wellness what makes this space special is its intentionally accessible pricing Studio is an open welcoming space where you can come and connect to public where cost isn t a barrier announced JJ Tiziou an artist massage therapist and organizer of Walk Around Philadelphia He s also a block captain in Spruce Hill the neighborhood where the studio is located There s a lot of yoga studios that will rent you a mat sell you a water bottle and charge you twice as much for a class Where Studio will have an affordable cost and a sliding scale membership fee and a work-trade option and they re going to loan you all their mats for free and then they re going to let you fill your bottle from the water dispenser and offer you a free cup of tea And in fact invite you to come up into that lounge and have a free cup of tea and read your book on their couch in their beautiful light-filled space without giving them any money he noted That is like a real district operation That same philosophy extends to the arts The studio offers open free meetups in the lounge drawing circles and poetry groups And you can pay something or you can pay nothing And then all our arts events also are pay what you can Andrews mentioned We would never turn anyone away for an arts event Andrews job is demanding I get so a great number of emails every day and it s a lot of work just making sure to respond to everyone Sometimes I m having to say no to people Our calendar is full through May and I m starting to book the Fringe Festival in September he commented The West Philly neighborhood benefits from this steady flow of artists Beyond Chahwan s exhibit new months have featured the renowned performer Jungwoong Kim who s as of now in residence offering performances and workshops for the region There s also the current Philadelphia Youth Poet Laureate Malaya Ulan who has already held two performances at the studio as part of Philly Theatre Week and will lead poetry workshops twice a month on Wednesday evenings A Neighborhood s Third Space The steady presence of Studio in the neighborhood has sparked conversations about the importance of third spaces What I m hearing from people because they tell me directly is This is really a third space that you ve created noted Andrews The first space is your home It s where you live It s where you go back to where you sleep It s likely where you eat bulk of your meals It s the place you have to maintain Then your second place is your place of work It s the place where you have to go Maybe you want to maybe you don t want to but it s the place where you engage in commerce a way that you sustain what you can maintain But then a third space is neither of those things It s the place to be that s extra that sustains you in another way that can be just as central he explained Tiziou also refers to Studio as a third space and emphasized its importance We need spaces for social services and we need space for society connection We need a place to have a meeting to get out of the house and not be a commercial space where you have to pay money A coffee shop is one thing but you shouldn t have to spend money because then not everyone can be part of it and then we re still doing more class divides At Studio a diverse group of people gathers every week and everyone has their own hope for what the space can be Andrews invites people to keep coming back I m unfailingly trying to get more people to come We re called Studio because we re named for the trolley he mentioned The idea of that and the people who created Studio was Come take the trolley down to our space And for several like Tiziou this kind of place opens to a larger invitation I think that every neighborhood should have a place like Studio he reported If there s a takeaway for your readers it s not Let s all go to Studio if we live on the far side of town It s How do we make a space like this right where we re at Studio is located at Baltimore Avenue It is usually open from a m to p m Accessibility note The entrance involves a steep flight of stairs and is not wheelchair accessible Posters from Tracy Chahwan s exhibit are available for purchase To inquire or place an order email her at chahwanov gmail com On May Studio will launch a fundraising campaign Details will be shared soon on their website The post From Beirut to West Philly Tracy Chahwan s exhibit at Studio appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY