Artist Talks #4: Kirsten Batten Leach and Nikhil Kumar || ancient://technology by 5x5 Collective

​Join us for artist talks from Kirsten Batten Leach and Nikhil Kumar. Each artist will discuss their works, their ongoing practices, and the vision ahead for 5x5 Collective.

​Kirsten Batten-Leach is an interdisciplinary artist who makes ephemeral sculptures, video and 2D works about care-taking and bodily autonomy. Her background as a ballet dancer and domestic worker informs the physical rigor of her object-making practice. Often drawing from these two polarized forms of labor, she critiques the effects of social stratification in the United States. In particular, examining power imbalances that occur as she navigates in a femme-presenting body and the subsequent impulses to conceal, collapse in on or control herself.

Nikhil Kumar is a nondisciplinary artist often exploring sound, biological forms, and metaphysics. He's fascinated by non-human scale and uses his art to explore subjects from unconventional perspectives, often synesthetically mixing media forms and scale, art and science. He is the co-founder of 5x5 Collective and likes learning how to make the things he consumes.