The Potential Project and Souls Shot Portrait Project at ARTWORKS Trenton
This past Saturday evening about 200 people attended the opening reception for both the Souls Shot Portrait Project’s New Jersey exhibition and portraits created for The Potential Project at ARTWORKS, Trenton’s Visual Art Center, in Trenton, NJ.
Moms Demand Action and Everytown Survivor Network were instrumental in connecting us with this wonderful gallery and amazing sister project.
The Potential Project “is a multimedia exhibition that features portraits of Trentonians lost to violence. The exhibition uses augmented reality technology to create four-dimensional, multimedia pieces created by Bentrice Jusu and a team of five Trenton-based artists. The two -year project was funded by the Kresge Foundation ad hosted at Artworks, with administrative and programmatic support from Trenton Health Team.”
To get the full experience of the portraits included in The Potential Project, an app, Artivive, is downloaded on one’s phone and used to unlock various other components of each portrait. It may take you to the sister of the person in the portrait talking about them, or a poet reading the poem written in remembrance and appreciation of them, or a musical performance. Vibrant, animated graphics are also swirling through the virtual space. It is a truly immersive and respectful honoring of these victims.
While the Souls Shot Portrait Projects portraits and their accompanying commentaries from the families and artists are a more staid and traditional fine art viewing experience, attendees were nonetheless moved and appreciative of the artwork and what it represents.
Charlene Mokos Hoverter, sister of Diane Mokos Kriz, spoke at the reception about her experience of losing her sister to gun violence. The pages of her speech literally flew out of her hands as she spoke with incredible passion about our need to put an end to the senseless pain caused to loved ones by the perpetuation of the gun culture in our country.
Bentrice Jusu spoke about her love for the families she has worked with for her project. She is an amazing young woman who devotes her life to serving her community through her position as a Trenton firefighter and a dedicated, activist artist.
We are so grateful, again, to be in the same exhibition space with The Potential Project. We two projects are climbing the same mountain and reaching people on the plane that art inhabits; where the connections made through art can touch hearts, minds, and souls and further spur the movement to move towards peace.
Bentrice Jusu, second from left, with her firefighter colleagues.
Charlene Mokos Hoverter speaking to the crowd.
Attendees listening to Charlene Mokos Hoverter.
Attendees experiencing the Souls Shot Portrait Project portraits.