Two Christmases and a Half-Birthday

The complexities of tradition, of being situated within or without it, differ for every individual. The artists of Two Christmases and a Half-Birthday challenge notions of stability associated with the image of “The Home,” taking ownership over and embracing liminality within identity, not belonging to one side or the other. Each artistic process becomes ritualistic­—cataloguing pattern in reference to memory, recreating sacred objects as a means of activating cultural spaces, challenging the value and sentiment of a commodity, and manipulating physical space and light to confront a queered personal history—as means of understanding the positions they hold in these spaces.

Two Christmases and a Half-Birthday is organized by Center Space Project, the student arts organization of the VAC, which oversees Center Space, an exhibition space within the VAC that showcases the artistic and curatorial work of undergraduate and graduate students at The University of Texas at Austin. Generous support for Center Space Project comes from Robin and Trey Hancock.

Participating Artists

Kendall Bradley
Haley Parsa
Jessilee Shipman
Dana Suleymanova