Shelter In Place

January 27 – March 8, 2023

Closing Reception: March 6, 5:30-8 pm

Artist Talk: March 6, 6-6:30pm

Community Discussion: March 6, 7pm

Shelter in Place is an immersive environment originally created by Adam W. McKinney that deconstructs elements of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot to inquire into the effects of anti-Black racial violence and historical trauma, and the possibilities of liberation through art and ritual. The work began with McKinney's learning of the 1921 racial terror lynching of Mr. Fred Rouse, whose murder at the hands of a white mob in Fort Worth, TX has largely been forgotten. With few historical archives to draw upon, the artist collaborated with Diné photographer Will Wilson and Director Daniel Banks to stage tintypes wherein McKinney dressed as Mr. Rouse in traumatic sites associated with the atrocity.

These images become the locus of documenting injustices of the past and the means for initiating transformational civic change. The viewer witnesses McKinney dancing in a film manifesting the sukkah's protection; he circles and spirals as a representation of the Shechinah and the Biblical clouds of glory. In celebration of Sukkot, the sukkah is inverted, bringing the secrecy of historical truths to light; the images, film, text, and dance are on full display. A nod to the latticed roof of the sukkah, Shelter in Place gathers a visual archive that feels less like finding shelter and more like yearning for it. DNAWORKS’s multimedia exploration is an artistic response to history that is re-embodied as a prayer for justice.

Shelter in Place has been shown at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Bridge Projects (Los Angeles, CA), and Project Row Houses (Houston, TX).

About DNAWORKS

DNAWORKS is a Fort Worth, Texas-based arts and service organization dedicated to dialogue and healing through the arts. Founded in 2006 by Daniel Banks and Adam W. McKinney, DNAWORKS centers on Global Majority and LGBTQQ2SPIAA+ voices to create more complex representations of identity, culture, class, and heritage in dance, theatre, film, and writing.

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