Macon
Reed

Who's Afraid of Magic?

Incorporating multiple video projections and works on paper in a wall-to-wall painted landscape, Who's Afraid of Magic? addresses extensive “witch” persecutions over a three hundred year period in Europe, drawing ties between these cruelties and the rise of early capitalism. Working from Silvia Federici's text "Caliban and The Witch," this multi-media installation questions notions of power as it relates to intelligence and bodies, fictions and realities, and the perceived threat of both imagination and magic. Video works include a ritual sacrifice of a human maypole and intimate, playful storytelling within a diorama of brightly colored small sculptures. Reed's DIY pop aesthetic mixes with painted images of medieval torture devices, asking us to connect the dots between historic and contemporary treatments of “other” and things we do not understand.

Who's Afraid of Magic? is made possible in part by a grant from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation

Macon Reed

Macon Reed works in sculpture, installation, video, radio documentary, and participatory projects to explore notions of belonging, the limits of optimism, and play as ritual transcendence from frameworks of evolving queer and feminist discourses. Her work has shown at venues including PULSE NYC Special Projects, ABC No Rio, The Kitchen and Wayfarer's Gallery in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the Chicago Cultural Center. Macon completed her MFA at the University of Illinois at Chicago as a University Fellow in 2013 and received her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007. Additionally, Reed studied Radio Documentary at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, Physical Theater at the Dah International School in Belgrade, and Art and Social Engagement at The Kitchen's Sidney Kahn Summer Institute. Recently Macon attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and is currently an artist in residence at both Eyebeam and Flux Factory in New York.

Spacecamp

Spacecamp creates temporary autonomous zones for the habitation of social and cultural activations. Spacecamp is an open source, curated community space for artistic projects in Baltimore. Spacecamp is governed by a group of 5 people who set the schedule and coordinate with potential collaborators who are interested in using the space. Spacecamp does not program the space for it’s own projects, but partners with organizations that will produce great shows with artists or groups of artists.

Documentation images by Holden Brown