Panel: Lastgaspism: Art and Survival in the Age of Pandemic
Channel: San Francisco Public Library
Date: 2022-07-18

Dan Wang (co-editor), Kimberly Bain, Ph.D. (author/artist), Pato Hebert (Artist) and Cheryl Derricotte (Artist) discuss artistic practice, the pandemic and the new book, Lastgaspism.

Lastgaspism: Art and Survival in the Age of Pandemic is a collection of interviews, critical essays and artwork that consider matters of life and death having to do with breath, both allegorical and literal. Bringing into mutual proximity the ecological, public health, political and spiritual crises that came to the fore in 2020, this book considers these compounding events and how they impact one another and asks with critical optimism what can happen in this moment of transition.

Kimberly Bain, Ph.D.’s most pressing and urgent scholarly and critical-creative pursuits have consolidated around the history, theory, and philosophy of the African diaspora, race, gender, environmental and medical racism, the Anthropocene, and Black arts and letters. 

She is currently working on two scholarly monographs. The first, entitled On Black Breath, traces a genealogy of breathing and Blackness in the United States. Her second book, Dirt: Soil and Other Dark Matter, digs into soil for understanding how Blackness has shaped global considerations of the Anthropocene and refused the extractive relations of racial capitalism. 

Dr. Bain regularly teaches survey and specialized courses on 19th century through contemporary Black and American arts and cultures, literary and critical theory, and Black feminist and queer thought. She joins Universtiy of Britsh Columbia from Tufts University, where she was the John Holmes Assistant Professor in the Humanities.

 Dan S. Wang is an artist currently living in Los Angeles. He was a founding keyholder of Mess Hall, an experimental cultural space in Chicago, and currently works in the collaborative vehicle Now-Time Asian America. Recent projects include commissioned works for the Station Museum (Houston) and Asian Arts Initiative (Philadelphia). He exhibited A Ragbox of Overstood Grammars, a retrospective of eighty-plus letterpress prints at Fonderie Darling (Montreal) in 2020. His art writings have been published internationally in book collections, museum catalogues and in dozens of artist publications. He is an artist in residence at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica. He holds an undergraduate degree in religion.

Cheryl Derricotte is a visual artist and her favorite mediums are glass and paper. Originally from Washington, DC, she lives and makes art in San Francisco, CA. Derricotte has an extensive background in the arts and community development. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), a Master of Regional Planning from Cornell University and a B.A. in Urban Affairs from Barnard College, Columbia University. Derricotte is represented by re.riddle, San Francisco. 

Patrick "Pato" Hebert is an artist, teacher and organizer, who splits time between Los Angeles and New York. His work explores the aesthetics, ethics and poetics of interconnectedness. He works across a range of media including photography, installation, sculpture, language, light, temporality and graphic design. Progressive praxis, spatial dynamics and the spirit of social topographies are of particular interest.