To Be—Named

As more than just labels, names encapsulate how we recognize ourselves and each other. They shape how we navigate our sometimes-multiple world(s) and interactions with others. Moreover, naming is entangled with the production of different modes of knowing and being in the world—different names for same/similar referents are not just linguistic differences, but representative of the plurality of systems of knowledge and diverse ways of being in and engaging with the world.

To fully explore these different ways of knowing and communicating, as well as the dynamics between aural and visual, textual and linguistic relationships, the To Be—Named project includes a multi-sited, multidisciplinary exhibition. Through this exhibit, artists, curators and scholars from around the world have been cross-pollinating ideas via these different modes for conceptualizing how names are created and used to shape, reshape, and sometimes mis-shape, our worlds and identities.

To date, the curatorial team for To Be—Named led by

Krista Caballero

(Bard College) has worked with six venues for a traveling portion of the exhibition, as well as with two communities sharing their exhibits online. Each version of the exhibition is designed around a core series of artworks (curated by

Krista Caballero

Christian Ayne Crouch

Marta Ostajewska

, and

Bently Spang

) that have or will travel to the locations listed below to be in conversation with regional artworks and artists exploring naming practices within their local contexts. Each venue is considered an iteration of the previous one, so that selected local artwork, where possible, has been added to subsequent ones. Collectively, the exhibit attempts to contend with how naming practices reveal ways that personal experiences are either shared or collide with mutual ones, creating our multifaceted political, cultural, and ecological realities.