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Thank you to @sshutan and @hkelyasin of @somethingprojectsct and @ecoca_nhv for having me yesterday for this in depth conversation about Prey Drive, fascism, resisting the cisgaze, trans ecologies, interspecies resilience, privilege, and what we can learn from mealworms about collectivity, biodiversity, and finding purpose in intergenerational, collaborative struggle. These are not easy times and this work does not pretend otherwise, but it felt good to be alive and feeling through our resiliency and grief together. The full talk is available on ECOCA’s IG page for those who missed it. ➕🚨🪱 And for those who are in the region, Prey Drive is on view through this Sunday @ecoca_nhv in New Haven, CT. I will be there this Sunday from 2-4, if anyone else wants to connect inside this speculative chapel of predation, prey(er), improvised exorcisms, and plastic trans-substantiation.

Join me next Wednesday June 18th at 2pm EST / 11am PST for a talk about my solo show Prey Drive with curators @sshutan and @hkelyasin of @somethingprojectsct . We will be streaming from Prey Drive’s multisensory world of predation, protection, metamorphosis, and ritual, and connecting a lot of the threads. What does it feel like to be hunted and how do we reconcile the prey drive that is terrorizing trans people, immigrants, and other scapegoated people with the pray drive or the drive for ritual, sacrament, and communion? How are these patterns of violence and oppression, devotion and fear connected? How do we survive together in a sea of red? For those who are close by, the talk will be live and open to the public. Come see red with me and spend some time inside this world of grief, confrontation, repentance, and survival. For those who are further away, we will also stream the talk on IG Live. Repost from @ecoca_nhv • Stop by next Wednesday June 18th at 2pm for Prey Dive an artist and curator talk with Ashton Phillips, Suzan Shutan, and Howard el-Yasin. You can also watch the event live on our Instagram @ecoca_nhv . Follow @somethingprojectsct and @ashtonsphillips for more.

PREY DRIVE is now live @ecoca_nhv through June 22nd. +++++ Prey Drive transforms the gallery into a multi-sensory site of contemplation, mourning, and trans-substantiation - part requiem for the hunted, part call for atonement in a time of mass betrayal. Using red hunting flood lights, a haptic soundscape of chewing, scratching, burning, and dripping, a site-specific installation of 527 ashen +’s, and a live colony of 20,000 plastic-metabolizing insects, Prey Drive imagines a world where everything is shifting and everyone is a potential target. Here, the languages of law and science, legibility and control, give way to a language of smoke and ash. Ashes to Ashes. Dust to dust. Frass to Frass. And you are invited to the pyre. +++++ Thank you to everyone who came out and spent time with this work and all of its depths and resonances yesterday. Special thanks to @hkelyasin of @somethingprojectsct for all of his care and nurturing helping to bring this exhibition into being. Thanks, too, to his curatorial partner @sshutan believing in the work and doing so much to give it space to live and breath. Gallery Director Aimee Burg of @ecoca_nhv also worked so hard into the night to help me realize the full depth and breadth of this vision. Thank you, Aimee, for all of the solidarity, trust, and sweat equity. This show would also have been impossible without emergency support from the Foundation for Contemporary arts. Thank you @foundationforcontemporaryarts for your support and belief in the urgency of this work. I will be back on June 18th for an artist talk and hope to share this work with more of you in the flesh then. Or come on your own in the meantime. If you would like to meet up with one of the curators during your visit, reach out and let me know. I’m happy to facilitate guided tours from near or far. 🖤➕🪲

Very pleased to share this announcement for Prey Drive opening this Sunday, 1-3pm, at the Ely Center for Contemporary Art (@ecoca_nhv ), curated by @somethingprojectsct (@hkelyasin and @sshutan ). Come through Sunday to say hello and experience this multisensory installation with new video, performative, and sculpture works, and plastic ash-eating mealworms in the flesh. . +++++++++ Repost @hkelyasin and @ecoca_nhv The Ely Center of Contemporary Art is proud to present Prey Drive, a solo exhibition of LA based artist, Ashton Phillips curated by SomethingProjects (Howard el-Yasin & Suzan Shutan.) We are living in a capitalocene era where everyday objects are fetishized as an effect of mass production, things are made to become quickly disposed of. But once they become waste, do they cease to matter? As vibrant matter, mundane objects also participate in the histories of human and non-human ecology. Who writes our histories and scientific methods, and for whom, has always determined what gets erased (white washed) versus the (often pathologized) epistemologies we’re taught to remember. The anti-wokeness of our current social-political environment, is a reminder that history repeats itself, as does the cycle of life. Prey Drive explores the interconnectedness of humans, non-humans, and thing power. Jane Bennett’s theory is that all matter possesses intrinsic vitality, which can potentially influence events. As well as advocacy for trans visibility, inclusion, and change, Prey Drive reminds us that self-care is a survival instinct; and Phillips reminds us that “our bodies contain waste and toxicity of the past and present … Purity is impossible. We are all plastic now.” -Phillips +++++++ Exhibition Dates: May 4 - June 22, 2025 Opening Reception: May 4, 1-3pm Artist Talk: June 18, 1pm +++++++ For more information visit: elycenter.org/ashton-phillips-prey-drive Produced with support from @foundationforcontemporaryarts

Thank you to curators: @howardelyasin And @sshutan (@somethingprojectsct ) for including my work, “Seeing Through Blue” in the wonderful exhibition, A Way of Seeing Everything and Nothing” with 22 remarkable artists @elycenter @newhavenconnecticut and thank you to @brianslattery75 for the terrific review of the exhibition in the @newhavenindy /article/somethingprojects_ecoca_nov_2023 . . . . . . #artistsoninstagram #somethingprojectsct #elycenterofcontemporaryart #newhavenindependent #twocoatsofpaint #painting #serenabocchino #artcurators #artcuratorsofnewyork #artgallery #abstractpainting #waysofseeing #johnbergerwaysofseeing

Haven’t made it in to see the the exhibitions yet? Take a sneak peak at “A Way Of Seeing Everything & Nothing” curated by @somethingprojects showcasing over twenty artists working through abstraction! Up through January 14th, 2024 @lbloom.meg @serenabocchino @rbottwin @callanderseth @ellencareyphotography @patriciacarriganstudio_ !!re_email!!_see.y.cooper #HyunsukErickson @gordonfearey @mike.filan @gregory_patrick_garvey @ahna_girshck @dangries @heatherbirdharris @yokoiwan #MischaJohnson @bkaspr @rebeccamurtaugh @dpailesfriedman @allison.panzironi @sylviaschwartz.art @rossie_stearns @zachzecha #ctart #ctartists #ctartgallery #connecticutart #connecticutartist #nyartists #newenglandart #newenglandartist #newhavenarts #newhavenartists #sculptureart #sculpturepainting #paintings #worksonpaper #artprint #abstractphotography #abstractartist #abstractarts #digitalartwork

If you haven’t had a chance to see our latest shows yet perhaps these articles will entice you to come! Thank you @newhavenindy & @dailynutmeg_newhaven for the lovely reviews! #newhaven #arts #worksonpaper #photography #sculpture #abstractart #collage #painting

A great collaboration for sure! #somethingprojectsct, #somethingprojects, #BranfordCT, #Connecticutzines, #JenPayne, #Manifestzine, #threechairspublishing, #artzine, #ctzines

LAST DAY OF THE EXCHANGE…thank you to everyone who visited the Blackstone Library to check out HEROICALLY FOUND! xoxo #somethingprojectsct, #somethingprojects, #BranfordCT, #Connecticutzines, #JenPayne, #Manifestzine, #threechairspublishing, #artzine, #ctzines

Love to see you @amfabarts this SAT-SUN, 10-5, NOV 12-13 at Amfab Open Studios! #201 1069 Connecticut Avenue, Bridgeport, CT -Part of @bridgeportarttrail I’m hosting a #JELL-O social called #EATINGFLAG - an #interdisciplinary #interactive #installation - videos by @ladylabor.art @somethingprojectsct Artwork on view #flagdigitalprints #solarplateintaglio #wonderball #prints #bioplastic #jellis #edibleart #jellosculpture #celebratingtheflag #democracy #veterans #color #diversity #joythrujello