At the Still Point of the Turning World: Solstice Esoterica & Queer Spiritualism

Celebrate Pride and the power of the Solstice with ‘At the Still Point of the Turning World: Solstice Esoterica & Queer Spiritualism for a Radical Democracy’. This series of workshops and performances channels the primal and the transcendent, blending queer spirituality, the energy of nature at this pivotal point of the year, and radical creativity to reclaim democracy through the senses. Please note: the Ruby Vartan + Kyoto & Yumi Workshops require separate admission from the performance.

SOLSTICE PROGRAMMING:

ALL DAY One-on-one performances by Marcus Kuiland-Nazario (this will be outside at 18th Street)

Marcus Kuiland-Nazario is presenting an excerpt from an interdisciplinary work in progress titled Threnody, which explores grief, loss, and funerary traditions. The larger work is comprised of one-on-one performances, materials created and gathered in public programs, cemeteries, workshops, and collaborations. For this event/function, Marcus will be conducting one-on-one performances with participants who wish to share about something they are grieving or have lost. Perhaps you’d like to share a tradition from your family or culture. Maybe you lost an object; they have power and hold memories. Sometimes losing things can hurt more than losing people. What’s funny about it, grief? We grieve former selves, friends, lovers. What does grief sound like? This is a one-on-one performance presented on a first come first served basis. Casseroles, alcohol, flowers, and tears are welcome. Threnody is funded in part by the Jackie Apple Foundation and the generous support of the MKE<->LAX initiative. Threnody is partially funded by the Jackie Apple Foundation, with support from the 18th Street Arts Center, Highways Performance Space, MKE<->LAX initiative, Golden Poppy Market, and Track 16 gallery.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Marcus Kuiland-Nazario is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and producer. Kuiland-Nazario’s works are long-term research-based cross-genre projects exploring extreme states of emotion such as grief, anger, and loss, all influenced by the cultural and spiritual traditions of the African Diaspora. His performances have been included in national and international festivals, including the Rapture Festival, ICA London, England; the Rompeforma Festival, San Juan, Puerto Rico; Pacific Standard Time LA/LA, Los Angeles, and The Queer Commons: Politics of Friendship, Love and affects in Skope, North Macedonia. Kuiland-Nazario received the 2020/2021 Santa Monica Artist Fellowship award and the 2022 Artists At Work Fellowship, a 2023 Coaxial Arts Foundation Residency, and is the inaugural recipient of the 2024 Jacki Apple Award for Performance.

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11 a

Embodying Light: A Summer Solstice Performance Workshop

Presenter: Ruby Vartan 

In celebration of the summer solstice—the longest day of the year and a powerful symbol oflight, energy, and renewal—this performance-based workshop invites participants to create fromthe body outward. Using large sheets of paper on the floor, we will begin by tracing the body orbody parts to capture presence and form. Through fingers, hands, and instinctual gestures, we’lladd vibrant layers of paint inspired by the sun, the season, and personal energy. Guided by music that evokes warmth, rhythm, and transformation, participants will beencouraged to tune into their breath, their movement, and the power of their creative presence. This is a ritual of embodiment—an intuitive journey into light, freedom, and expression. Materials Provided:

● Thick paper rolls

● Acrylic paints

● Optional brushes and gloves

● Towels and wipes

What to Bring:

● Comfortable clothing you don’t mind getting paint on

● A water bottle

● An open heart and a willingness to move and express

Open to all levels. No prior experience in art or performance is needed—just your body, yourcuriosity, and your energy.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Los Angeles-based artist Ruby Vartan was born in Beirut and classically trained at the Academie Libanaise des Beaux Artes. The strong use of color in her paintings, which reflects her Armenian heritage and identity, symbolizes her desires as well. She has exhibited in Southern California at Launch, Museum of Lancaster MOAH:CEDAR, Cactus Gallery, Ace/121 Gallery, and Studio Channel Islands. She has also shown in New York City’s Ace Gallery and numerous times in Yerevan, Armenia including its Museum of Modern Art and the Yerevan Art Expo. Also was one of the participants of the cultural exchange program in digital public art at the metro system in Gimpo city, South Korea.

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1 p

Step into the luminous heart of the year for an immersive, soul-nourishing journey into time, presence, and transformation. As the summer solstice marks a sacred threshold — when the sun stands still and the veil thins — artists Kyoko Takenaka and Yumi Sakugawa invite you to connect deeply with your past, present, and future self through art, ritual, and embodied healing. "I’m Here and I Love You" opens with a short solo performance and talkback by Kyoko Takenaka, in which they commune with footage of their past self performing to camera while undergoing chemotherapy. This offering explores healing across timelines — a meditation on memory, resilience, and the unbroken thread of selfhood that weaves through time and artistic practice. 

From there, we transition into a gentle guided movement practice rooted in Butoh and Qi Gong by Kyoko, honoring the Four Directions – embodying new possibilities, innocence, wisdom through experience, and our ancestors.

Yumi Sakugawa will lead a contemplative journaling and guided meditation session to help you integrate these themes into your own life and practice. Through timed prompts and image-based rituals, we'll collectively share a sacred container to connect with your wild self, lessons found in nature, and collective care.

This is an invitation to meet yourself — past, present, and future — with compassion, curiosity, and radical presence.

What to bring: a blanket, your journal, writing tools, a water bottle, and anything else that helps you feel grounded and comfortable.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Kyoko Takenaka (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist, director, filmmaker, butoh dancer, actor, musician, performance artist, and teacher based between Turtle Island and Japan. Their work explores themes of diasporic longing, nature's cycles, Japanese mythology, and the ethereal realm—centering the in-between as a creative space. Their name means “vibrations of sound child” in Japanese. Their work has been featured on Apple TV+, Hulu, Nowness, HBO, the LA Times, BOMB Magazine, and Far-Near, and has been performed at Lincoln Center and venues worldwide. Their self-directed short film Home gained viral acclaim in 2021. They have also released two collaborative albums, Planet Q and Wastewomxn, centering queer liberation and Afro-Asian unity with artists of the African and Asian diasporas.

Yumi Sakugawa (she/they) is a second-generation Japanese-Okinawan-American interdisciplinary artist and author. Their published works include I think I am in friend-love with you, Your illustrated guide to becoming one with the universe, The little book of life hacks, and There is no right way to meditate. Their multimedia installations have been exhibited at institutions including the Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building, the Japanese American National Museum, and the Peabody Essex Museum. Their practice integrates visual storytelling, meditative practice, and cultural heritage to explore personal and collective transformation.

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4:30 p

Community Art Spell Procession

Presenter: Edgar Fabian Frîas 

Join us for "Community Art Spell Procession", a unique workshop and procession hybrid where participants set intentions, create art, and take part in a vibrant procession. Through outfits, performances, and collective expressions, our art spells become a dynamic canvas, amplifying individual and group creativity.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Edgar Fabián Frías is a boundary-breaking multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles with degrees in Psychology, Studio Art, and an MFA in Art Practice from UC Berkeley. Their immersive works blend diverse artistic disciplines, challenging conventional categories. Frías explores animism, resiliency, and radical imagination through Indigenous Futurism, spirituality, and queer aesthetics.

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730 p

Ghost Trees

Presenter: Meghan DeRoma + community

Ghost Tree is a sculptural installation and ambient performance piece. It is an honoring of felled friends, Eucalyptus, Olive Trees, and Pine Trees that were cut down in Los Angeles, CA. Visages of the original trees have been ceremonially reconstructed as a burial gown for each tree. In the performance, community members sit and sew the burial gowns slowly, meditatively, with care, to the stump. The Eucalyptus and the Olive are non-native species and were introduced to Southern California. This approach of care after passage considers themes of our allyship with nature beings, animism, sentience, honor, death, and rebirth.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

• Meghan DeRoma is a visual artist from Los Angeles, CA, working in mixed media, installation, sculpture, and curation. DeRoma received her BFA in sculpture from Miami University, OH. Employing paint and pigment, found materials, and natural ephemera, DeRoma explores her relationship with nature, her inner journey, animism, mythology, and wanderings in the wild in her work. DeRoma is the co-founder of Dorado 806 Projects, an experimental art space in Santa Monica, CA.

Opening Ceremony

Presenter: Andre Atkins

ABOUT THE ARTIST

André Atkins is an LA-based interdisciplinary Fine Artist and Musician working in Sculpture, Installation, Performance, Sound Design, and 3D Graphic Arts.

Poetry Reading

Presenter: Ari Salka

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Ari Salka is an LA-based artist who primarily works through writing, painting, and drawing. Salka holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2016) and MFA in Painting from UCLA (2019). In addition, Salka studied at the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art and received the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship in Norfolk, CT (2015).

Pradagurl Presenter: Jeshua

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Multidisciplinary artist Jeshua is a 2-spirit musician + conceptual artist creating in Southern California. They are known for their doomful, esoteric, alt soundscapes with powerfully poetic lyricism that reflects their experience as a transgender-indigenous person existing in colonized, patriarchal spaces. Jeshua is shifting paradigms in the music and art space by defying the rules of what gender + indigeneity can look like. Jeshua weaves a new arc in their storytelling by creating striking visual components to their music + soundscapes. The artist is creating a sound rooted in the darkest parts of the soul as a vocalist, songwriter, vocal producer, creative director + producer in Los Angeles CA.   

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CURATORIAL STATEMENT

At the Still Point of the Turning World brings together artists who have surrendered to the seduction of the wild, who dare to embrace what our post-everything era often dismisses: the profound entanglement of flesh and spirit, ritual and identity, nature and gnosis, Self and the natural world.

In late June, the sun will rise, arching over the northern hemisphere and almost pausing in the center of the sky at midday before journeying towards the sea. This is the summer solstice. The flowers and leaves unfurl to their fullest stretch, soaking in the warmth of the longest day and radiating vibrant hues in heliotropic celebration. 

The profound connection of this cyclical point of the year to embodiment practice lends an intrinsic grounding to our human experience. There is an inherent tension in the pause in the sky— between stillness and wildness. A scintillating energy, and a burst of life in an ephemeral moment, lest we dare wonder around.

"At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is"

- T.S. Eliot from Four Quartets

The confluence of ritual and transcultural, spiritual energy extends to all corners of the globe and throughout all time. A common thread of ancient civilizations. The Solstice is a celebration of the bounty of nature, and the thinning of the veil. A crux point for the alignment of sacred places and sun worship. It’s the peak of nature's spiritual energy between celebration, ritual, the death of the dark, and the rebirth of all the goodness brought by the sun.

At the Still Point of the Turning World: Solstice Esoterica & Queer Spiritualism for a Radical Democracy performance explores the tactile, the sensory, and the primal relationship with the natural and spiritual worlds, and our own animalistic nature. Together contemporary interdisciplinary practitioners will explore a transcultural evolving relationship with the summer solstice by engaging with the energy of nature and fluidity of spirituality as a reclamation of democracy.

Artists:

Ruby Vartan Kyoko Takenaka & Yumi Sakagawa Edgar Fabian Frias Meghan DeRoma & Community

Ari Salka Marcus Kuiland-Nazario Kyoko Takenaka  & MA Tiesenga  André Atkins Pradagurl

Curators: Steve Galindo (aka The Style Guyde) and Meghan DeRoma of Dorado 806 Projects

There will be a companion show of the performance artists' physical work at Dorado 806 Projects, opening 6/12 6-9pm and running through 6/22. See dorado806.com for details.