A “season finale,” of sorts, for the brainchild of the Springdale based CACHE creative team premiered on Feb. 17. Episode 15 of OZCast brought to a close nearly four months of assembling artistic minds — not confined to or exclusive of any specific classification — for a multidisciplinary, online variety show to celebrate and support artists. What started as a way to get artists some paid work in the grim throes of the pandemic blossomed into a catalyst for relationship-building, collaboration, inspiration and even hope.
Just in this first season, more than 75 local, regional and national artists were commissioned to create new works or had their work licensed for the project. New connections between Northwest Arkansas filmmakers, graphic designers and copy editors were established. Fifty new works were created. And support for artists even extended beyond the OZCast episodes: A curated episode of OZCast was screened for the Walton Family Foundation Conference in February, and the Bentonville Chamber and Northwest Arkansas Community College have expressed interest in licensing work from or contracting OZCast artists for upcoming virtual events.
“I feel like right now we’re calling people because we need something from them, and it was nice to call people with an opportunity to be creative, to make a little bit of money, to process this world around them in whatever way they need,” reflects Blake Worthey. “It just felt so important; it felt like such a necessary thing to have happen, and for them to want me to be a part of that team was just really, really cool.”
Worthey is an artist liaison with CACHE (Creative Arkansas Community Hub & Exchange) and a dance-theater artist himself. Worthey thinks back on his assistance in curating the OZCast lineups as empowering because, he shares, he was helping people he didn’t even know — helping them to get equipment, learn to promote their work in writing, and fostering excitement for creating work in spite of fraught times.
That network-building was one of the primary goals of the series, Jesse Elliott told What’s Up! after the series debut in October. Elliott is the director of creative ecosystems at CACHE and was instrumental in OZCast’s development, alongside Executive Director Allyson Esposito, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and documentarian Mario Troncoso and OZCast project manager, editor and animator Lisa Marie Evans.
Presenting artists with the means and opportunity to continue flourishing would also certainly benefit the community at large as well, Elliott said of the project’s third goal.
These objectives, he explained, “basically say, ‘Hey, we as a society really need inspiration right now. In some ways, we need creativity and writers and thinkers and dreamers and visual artists and graffiti artists — we need it more than ever.’ And yet, the economy to support that obviously has dried up in a lot of ways,” Elliott said.
“So the idea is to see how our creative folks, our artist folks, are responding to these really crazy times, and hopefully lend some insight and some comfort and some imagination and all that to the rest of us.”
Dancers and musicians, designers and animators, poets and chefs, tattoo and experimental and performance artists blend their visions and their voices around a loosely structured theme for each episode, making each a truly unique and unexpected viewing experience. The CACHE team is working toward a second season and is already seeing new collaborations and projects between artists grow out of OZCast.
The Artists
This piece is the continuation of a series of interviews with artists involved with OZCast’s pilot season. Here, dance-theater artist Blake Worthey, “flesh-centric” content creators Milk and Honey, and choreographer and dancer Robyn Jordan reflect on their inclusion in Episodes 2 and 3 of OZCast.
Blake Worthey
On working to change perceptions around art:
As a human being, but also as a liaison with CACHE, I think a big part of what we’re doing is trying to kind of re-brand art-making. That art-making isn’t just for the elite and its products aren’t just to distract and just to escape, but art-making can be a place for folks to convene.
We want to remind people about its power and its potential that it already has in folks’ lives; this isn’t something that we’re trying to sell and make up. Like, could you imagine trying to get through this pandemic without Netflix? Absolutely not. Could you imagine trying to get through this pandemic without going to a grocery store, that some artist had to design?
Not to be one of those people, but art is an inextricable part of our everyday lives, and I think we want to point that out to people — that it’s already here, and you’ve already brought it to yourself. We’re just kind of facilitating it.
On inspirations for his dance-theater short film “The Privilege of an Ending”:
I personally don’t have many talents in videography, but I do really like to watch movies. And some of my favorite movies are where either, one, the camera is kind of invisible, or, two, the camera is a character. I chose the second route — in my episode, the camera is a character, so that way the audience is complicit with the theme that they’re watching.
I feel like that is something we don’t really actively think about — how being an audience member is a role that you play. As I am the performer, which is a role, you as the audience member is also a role that you’re playing. And I feel like a lot of times, we bear witness to things that we should not be just simply bearing witness to, or allow to happen.
So this work was born out of the idea of the warping nature of, in my experience, the straight white gaze, which is a tool that turns, for example, young Black boys into monsters, into a big scary Black man. That was the defense, like when they killed Tamir Rice, the police officer thought he was 18 years old with a real gun and he was 12 years old with a toy gun. That is the force I’m trying to talk about: Who decides if something is a performance — the performer or the audience?
On feeling the act of creating:
I think the biggest thing that this has done for me is allowed me to question, literally, ‘What the hell am I doing?’ We are living through one of the largest civil rights moments in our lifetime; there’s a pandemic outside; an actual autocracy is knocking on our door, fascism is knocking on our door; and I’m going to make art? Like, how dare I?
I’ve been really thinking about what does it mean to make art worthy of this time? That, if I’m going to spend my time making art right now, with all of the privileges that I have, I need to say something that is important. I feel like this time that we live in requires a response, not a reaction. I think this time that we live in requires an acceptance of its complexity, and not just some sort of watering it down just into good and evil, good people and bad people. Because if we water it down, the good and bad also becomes more muddied. And if you allow things to live in its complexity, you will be able to see better what side of history you want to be on.
Milk and Honey
On being part of OZCast:
At the time [we were approached] Ashley Kaye was finishing graduate school and Robert Gordon had to give up their studio because of financial trouble due to the pandemic, so the money was very helpful. Collaboration is at the heart of our practice, and our work has really evolved during quarantine, so to be a part of this new project that was also born out of this chaotic time felt like a great fit. Our work ended up being perfect for the theme “Inhabit,” not only because we are making the work in our apartment, but are at times responding directly to the domestic.
On their inspirations for their piece “Cultivating Mass”:
Rob was inspired by a quote from “How We Fight for Our Lives,” the memoir of poet Saeed Jones, about how homophobia becomes an internalized structure in your body, “something to hang all that meat on.” The bologna, Rob’s childhood favorite, in the context of the video, becomes a stand-in for anxieties around body image and self-expression. We had experienced sexism in the context of our collaborative work and the work of others, and knew that we wanted to obscure our identities behind the beige suits, and behind the name Milk and Honey. Rather than defaulting to the patriarchal reading of the work as Rob’s work that Ashley’s helping with, as well as challenging assumptions around making such as the use of textiles as being feminine, adding fantastical elements helps create a space where expression of identity, gender and creativity can run amok.
On other works that have actualized in the past year:
We had a piece at Paradise Palace in Brooklyn, N.Y., for their exhibition “Primordial Soup,” on view through Nov.
- Our work was featured as part of the digital Inverse Performance Festival at the Momentary Nov. 13-15. We also have images in Soft Lightning Vol. 2, a zine of contemporary photography. We are also working on a few items that we will sell on our website including bags, small sculptures, prints, etc.
Find Milk and Honey’s current projects, and their individual work, at MindofMilkandhoney.com , AshleyKaye.net , Robertpgordon. com , and on Instagram @mindofmilkandhoney, @ashkaye8, @robgordon87.
Robyn Jordan
On her involvement with OZCast:
The conversations that I had with the operators at CACHE were very fruitful and productive. They caused me to feel excited and inspired, not only because I felt seen, being chosen to share my gift of dance and music, but because I had been waiting so long for a resource to propel creatives forward in Northwest Arkansas. I felt supported, and I felt like each person I spoke with understood the challenges I faced when developing this project. What I submitted was a good fit in my opinion because it is a raw, authentic piece and the message “Made To Be Great” is an affirmation that I feel we must all affirm, especially Black people and people of color.
On her piece “Made To Be Great”:
I had a bunch of ideas that I wanted to explore; however, I had criteria to meet like using music/content that would prevent us from getting into copyright issues. Seeing that as a minor obstacle to execute my original vision, I remembered I had written a song a few years ago and knew I had the rights to use it. I wanted to stay true to who I am and saw the message in the song was the right fit. After listening to it a couple times I knew that I could put together something special and organic with the message to strive for greatness through the vehicle of dance. Accompanied by two talented dancers, I wanted each person’s individuality to be displayed and also show the power and joy in unity.
On participating in a new and collaborative outlet:
As an artist in Northwest Arkansas and especially during this time, it confirmed to me that this is only the beginning. To be seen and blessed for my talents has been a long-term vision for me. Though this was super beneficial during this time of several national crises and a global pandemic, my gratitude runs deep to be acknowledged and so importantly, compensated in this way. As I said, I have been waiting for a platform to act as a resource for artists and creatives in Northwest Arkansas. I am thankful that I stayed grounded here to see and experience it.
Follow Jordan’s next moves at her Instagram @rhythymrob.
FAQ
OZCast Variety Show
WHEN — Season 1 finale debuted Feb. 17; Season 2 in the works
WHERE — ozcast.art; videos remain available after initial publication
COST — Free
INFO — ozcast.art, nwacouncil.org/cache