Recess Activities, Inc. Presents Kara Hearn: Tremendous. On March 27, 2010, Kara Hearn will begin 10 weeks of work at Recess. Hearn will complicate the roles of spectator and performer, inviting visitors to play an active part in the construction of a 60-90 minute video.

Recess invites resident artists to use its storefront as studio, exhibition venue and grounds for experimentation; under Hearn’s direction, Recess will become the set as well as the production studio for her work. During public hours, Hearn will call upon members of the public to participate as actors or subjects for her video. Upon entering, visitors will have the option to take part in a series of actions at fixed stations. Each station will offer a prescribed activity that may be performed in front of a video camera. Members of the public will also have the option to watch the work at various stages of production and suggest new scenes or scenarios.

Implementing tropes from deadpan comedy and the Theater of the Absurd, the final video will be composed from a variety of sources, blending genres of narrative comedy, drama, and documentary film. The piece will feature material ranging from interviews, reenacted scenes from television and movies, as well as repeated quotidian actions. Hearn’s work often evokes the comically absurd, while quietly approaching serious questions about trauma and valor, feelings of loss and of being lost. At Recess, Hearn will investigate the nature of courage and the loss of control in the face of emotional or physical challenge.

Kara Hearn recently moved to Brooklyn after finishing a Core Followship at the Museum of Fine Art, Houston. She received her MFA from the University of California, Berkeley in 2007 where she was awarded the UC Berkeley Eisner Award for the highest achievement in the Creative Arts. In addition, Hearn completed an MA in Interdisciplinary Arts Education in 2002 and received her BA from University of California, Santa Cruz. This past year, Hearn was featured in two solo exhibitions, Hunger Makes a Fine Sauce at Art Palace in Austin, Texas as well as One Thing After Another at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Hearn’s work has also been featured nationally and internationally at venues including White Columns, The San Francisco Museum of Art, the Luckman Gallery, the Walker Art Center, BAMcinématek, Women in the Directors Chair International Film and Video Festival, and the Festival Tous Courts International Festival of Cinema.