CATS+ Spring 2025
About
This residency session is part of the CATS+ program and runs from March to May 2025. The CATS+ Spring 2025 residents are Laura M. Cañas P., Seth Garrote, Brianna Jackson, Salome MC, and Diane Sung.
Residents
Laura M. Cañas P.
Laura M. Cañas P. (Medellín, Colombia, 1992) is an Artist and Journalist based in Austin, TX, with a bachelor's degree in Social Communication-Journalism. She is a self-taught artist and has participated in group exhibitions, artists groups, and received grants for creative projects. Laura develops work at the intersection between art and journalism, from her perspective as a Latina woman. Her main mediums are linoleum, comics, etching and digital illustration. With her art she explores the themes of the feminine, gender violence, the power to heal, resilience and relationships within nature. She is also interested in the relationship between Global North and South, decolonization, and alternative economies. @se.afilan.tijeras
Artist Wiki
Seth Garrote
Seth Garrote, stage name Solovino, is a trans masc, Mexican drag king, host, producer and multimedia artist based in Austin, Texas. Seth adopted the name Solovino almost as a love letter to himself. The name comes from a nickname people give neighborhood strays in Mexico, where he’s originally from. @sol0vin0
Artist Wiki
Brianna Jackson
Born in Houston, TX, Brianna Jackson moved to Austin in 2014 to become the first in her family to graduate from college. After three years as a biology major, one global pandemic, and a slew of run-ins with the TDCJ, Bre completed her BFA in studio art in 2022. Exploring themes of identity, aggression, and anti-authoritarianism, Bre’s art spans the realms of sculpture, drawing, and digital media. Bre has shown her work in a number of local showcases and studio tours. Her crowning achievement to date – the 300-lb welded steel sculpture, Spike, resides on permanent display outside of Sahara Lounge in East Austin. bjstudioart.com
Artist Wiki
Salome MC
Salome MC is a rapper, producer, video artist, and educator, recognized as Iran’s first female rapper where she helped shape its hip hop scene in early 2000s. In 2010 she moved to Japan after being awarded the MEXT scholarship, where she received an M.A. in audiovisual arts from Tohoku University of Arts and Design and expanded her storytelling mediums by combining music, performance art and audiovisual installations. After moving to Washington State in 2016, she founded Hip-Hop without Borders, a workshop series for visually impaired youth, later expanding it to include ESL students to explore themes of identity and belonging through hip-hop. In 2021, Salome launched Seven Climes, a non-profit collaborative music project celebrating the cultural and lingual diversity that exist within the various ethnic groups from the Middle East, amplifying the voices of the marginalized youth, and showcasing the power of hip hop as a tool for preserving languages and oral history.
Growing up in multiple Middle-Eastern countries, themes of identity, home, language and belonging is at the center of most of Salome’s work. Being born into the latter years of the Iran-Iraq war, and coming of age during the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, themes such as militarism, imperialism, and neo-colonialism are topics that Salome keeps coming back to. As a woman growing up within the theocratic system of Iran and currently living in Texas, the focus of her topics often tilts towards feminism, gender identity, patriarchy, and organized religion. salomemc.com
Artist Wiki
Diane Sung
Diane Sung is an artist based in Austin, TX and is currently a resident artist at the Dougherty Arts Center. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute. Her work is driven by the complexities of the human experience with language, which she seeks to explore through her narrative sculptures. Though her practice is primarily based in ceramic sculpture, she also works through drawings and claymation. Having grown up in a bilingual environment, her greatest passion outside of the visual arts is learning about other languages to further enlarge her perspective on the world. @sdiane__
Artist Wiki
Events
CATS+ Spring 2025 Resident Showcase
May 17, 2025 | 7pm–10pm
This spring 5 residents, a handful of mentors, and occasional visiting artists gathered for weekly sessions to explore ideas, technologies, and ways of working together.
Something between a showcase, open studio, and performance, the CATS+ Resident Showcase is an invitation for audiences to get curious, meet the artists, explore the projects they’ve been working on, and learn about their processes.
The CATS+ residents are Laura M. Cañas P., Seth Garrote (Solovino), Brianna Jackson, Salome MC, and Diane Sung.
Workshops
Stop Motion Animation Workshop with Sara Roma
April 10, 2025 | 7pm–8:30pm
Come play during our hands-on workshop about stop-motion and animation led by CATS+ alumni, Sara Aleyce Roma. Sara will give a brief overview of different forms and styles of stop-motion (including pixilation with human actors), basic animation concepts like onion-skinning, anticipation, ease, and frame count, and give tips on free software currently available for stop-motion. Lastly, we'll break off into small groups to make your own stop-motion animation!
All equipment and materials provided, no need to bring anything. If you're feeling inspired, you're welcome to bring costume elements, props, paper, wire or some other object or material (totally optional).
NETWORK ENTITY - Artist Talk and Performance with MSHR
May 1, 2025 | 6:30pm–9pm
Join us for an artist talk and performance of NETWORK ENTITY by MSHR. NETWORK ENTITY, is an ever-mutating composition of sculptural and sonic shapes. The video projection and 4-channel audio are created with handmade instruments including sculptural electronic interfaces and open source software paths which allow for real-time improvisation.
If you’re into or curious about creative collaboration, electronic music, digital fabrication, custom-made instruments, video synthesis, or open source softwares Blender and Supercollider, come hang out!
MSHR is Brenna Murphy and Birch Cooper. They collaboratively build and explore sculptural electronic systems as performances, installations, and audiovisual environments that babble with life-like current.
Presented by the Museum of Human Achievement for the Collaborative Art + Technology Situation (CATS+).
