A Maritime Haunting

Freya Powell creates ensemble performances, immersive sound installations, and essay videos. Drawing on fields such as forensic anthropology, feminist and affect theory, and literature her projects make connections between the individual and collective, and addresses issues of ambiguous loss and grievability. She creates opportunities for her audience to vicariously witness lesser known political events or ideas such as a mass grave of undocumented migrants or Prevention Through Deterrence, the US border policy. Collaborating with actors and singers, she explores the expressive capacities of the voice. She has performed, screened, and exhibited her work nationally and internationally at institutions including, MoMA PS1, Videotage, Art in General, Queens Museum, Duke Arts, Arts Santa Monica, and Socrates Sculpture Park, among others. She has received grants from NYSCA, Queens Council on the Arts, and NYFA. Her work is in the collections of the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Powell holds an MFA in Combined Media from Hunter College and a BA from Bard College and is Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art Practice at Parsons, The New School.