Next Generation Opens Lines Of Communication At NXTHVN

As viewers walk into NXTHVN gallery to view a new group exhibit, Sofia Carrillo’s contribution stands out as one of the only artworks not on the walls. Carrillo’s sculpture consists of two armchairs tied together by woven flags. Atop each chair rests a telephone. The chairs, Carrillo said, represent ​“the new versus the old generation.”

That’s a running theme in the new exhibition, titled From the Outside In. The show highlights the work of local high school apprentices who have been working with NXTHVN fellows over the past year.

Artists, fellows, parents, and community members gathered on Saturday to witness the opening of the exhibition

The goal of the student works on display: to provide a window into the experiences and perspectives of the artists and marginalized groups.

Carrillo, a recent graduate of Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School, reflected on her Hispanic-American identity in her piece, ​“Hispanic Identity: Between Two Words.” 

The first chair, tied to the American flag, represents her younger generation. The chair is damaged, but not in the same way as the second, Carrillo noted. The second, tied to the Guatemalan flag, is for the older generation, and appears more worn down.

Carrillo said that’s because members of the older generation ​“go through a lot of tougher things for their children.”

By weaving the flags, Carrillo has brought these two generations and identities into conversation with one another. The phones are the embodiment of this idea. Each telephone holds a recording of monologues written by Carrillo. The first is told in her voice, the second in the voice of her father. Listeners are brought into not only these two individual’s perspectives, but the conversation their experiences have with one another.

“As a writer, I want to hear my written work,” Carrillo noted.

Carrillo admitted that presenting her work Saturday was not easy. As a theater student, “[I’m] used to being on the stage and presenting myself,” she said. While it was challenging to let go of some control of her presentation, Carrillo said she grew through her time at NXTHVN. She learned ​“to put what I love to do on stage into a piece.”

Carrillo said ultimately she wants viewers to be left with this idea that despite differences, ​“you are still united in some way.”

Carefully placed along the worn-in chairs are family photos. These photos were placed onto her piece after founder and mentor Titus Kaphar noted a family photo in Carrillo’s original pitch to the NXTHVN creative team. ​“I like that picture of you and your family,” Carrillo recalled Kaphar saying.

Despite the varying experiences the photos depict, they are all of one family. ​“I wanted the chair to become one with the pictures,” Carrillo said.

Artist Ashlynn Topper also gave outsiders an inside look at familial dynamics in her works, mainly her collection of prints entitled ​“The Connections Between Me”. In this collection, Topper explores different relational dynamics between individuals of a family. The first print, however, is that of a single individual — the twisted body of a woman hovering between the night sky and the ocean. Topper said this piece catapults this idea that ​“not everything is perfect.” While the figure may appear fine, ​“on the inside [it’s] breaking,” noted Topper.

This idea extends to the other prints, which depict family members’ connections and ​“chaos in the household,” said Topper.

Topper said she was inspired by the legend of The Red String of Fate. In the prints with string, the red string represents connections, while the other colors represent personality. While it is clear that some connections are imperfect, Topper makes it clear that these imperfect connections are central to her work.

“There is beauty in everything — even in struggle,” Topper said. ​“You should find it and let that thing be what you look forward to.”

Coming to this conclusion was not easy for the Hamden High School rising senior: She had to ​“get comfortable with telling my truth. I wanted my pieces to feel as connected to me as possible.”

While some figures are inspired by personal family relations, Topper noted that she wants to keep some ​‘mystery’ so that viewers can insert themselves.

Recent New Haven Academy graduate Nelly Torres put a different spin on bringing the audience into her perspective. Her multimedia piece, ​“Faulty by Design,” depicts an artist observing their own work.

Torres said the piece should make the viewer ​“uncomfortable like something’s not quite right.” This discomfort is most intensely felt through the animation of the eyes playing as part of her piece. 

Torres, who will study animation at the Rhode Island School of Design beginning this fall, said that she wants viewers to ​“be okay with making mistakes and with the reality that art isn’t a linear process. Things won’t be perfect.”

“It’s okay to make things that you think are ugly — things that you hate. There are so many people who never had the courage to make anything,” said Torres.

After doubting herself in the beginning, Torres learned her NXTHVN fellow Africanus Okokon is a professor at RISD. Torres put self-doubt aside and applied to the school. 

Kaitlyn Higgins, another recent graduate of New Haven Academy, shared three paintings as part of a collection entitled ​“The Strangers Beside Me.” Higgins was inspired after finding a torn-apart copy of the Ann Rule novel following Ted Bundy’s life. In the first piece, Higgins oil paints on top of the pages of Rule’s book, where she highlighted words that ​“stood out to me” and blacked out Ted Bundy’s name.

Higgins said she wanted to make a commentary on how society ignores the victims while glorifying the serial killer himself. This is the main focus of her first painting. Her works all explore ​“losing autonomy” as a woman.

The second is a depiction of a mother; the third, a ripped-up self portrait; and the final piece, a painting of Higgins as a child. The self-portrait explores Higgins’ perspective of the male gaze watching her. ​“These figures were jumping out at me,” Higgins said.

The final piece, also a depiction of herself, invites viewers to explore how she felt as a child and how she believes other women have felt as children, ​“forced to grow” because of the perceptions of society.

“I want people to walk away with more empathy,” Higgins said.

Artist and Hillhouse High School student Sereen Amezzane also highlighted the perspectives of the vulnerable in her piece ​“American Child.” Another sculpture, Amezzane’s work includes a school desk with her poetry inscribed onto the top in permanent marker.

Amezzane, who attends ACES’ Education Center For The Arts, was previously used to producing art in the form of music. ​“But I was like, ​‘I’m going to step outside of the box,’ ” Amezzane said of her apprenticeship.

Elements of her musical affinity as a songwriter appear in the poetry component of her work. The poems describe the experiences of children who grow up in a society where gun violence is normalized.

Amezzane said her interest in these tragedies was sparked by her own experiences at school, recalling her friends discussing how to escape if there was a shooting.

Amezzane was unnerved that her friends felt the need to do this ​“instead of taking time to learn”.

The recent shootings in Texas actually prompted Amezzane to change her work just before the show. The poems now reflect the tragedy in Uvalde.

Death is also a theme in Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School graduate Lauren Wiedenmann’s work. Wiedenmann highlights POC individuals’ relationships with mortality through her six-minute-and-six-second video installation ​“ARE YOU READY?”

In the video, five POC actors perform monologues chosen by Wiedenmann from August Wilson plays. The monologues, excerpted from the plays Gem of the Ocean, Fences, and Seven Guitars, all center around the concept of mortality.

Wiedenmann wants people to be reminded that ​“there’s so much spontaneity to life”, and that we should ​“live presently” amid uncertainty.

A second audio-visual piece in the gallery was done by Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School student Jaiden Shoulders. His piece explores another important idea regarding perspectives.

In his five-minute video, ​“Life from the Hidden”, Shoulders blends a montage of his own photos with original music to highlight the contrasts he finds in New Haven and Yale. Through his relationship with homeless people through the city, Shoulders gained a passion for observing this contrast between the two worlds.

Juliana Webber, a student at New Haven Academy and friend of Higgins and Torres, noted her appreciation for the work of her peers: ​“It’s so crazy to see how much they’ve grown up. Now they are these full blown artists,” Webber said.

Patrick Quarm, a studio fellow from Ghana who worked with Higgins, said he observed her natural talent from the beginning. Throughout the process he wondered, ​“How can you maintain her voice?”

Applications for the fourth cohort of NXTHVN are currently open.