KRISTEN MUELLER | DATE 8/13/2022

Artbook @ MoMA PS1 presents Rachel TonThat and Irene Lee launching 'Six Endings and Some Beginnings'

Saturday, August 13 at 3 PM EDT / 12 PM PDT, Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Bookstore presents Rachel TonThat and Irene Lee, the duo collaborating as Oreades Press, celebrating the publication of Six Endings and Some Beginnings in person and livestreamed on Instagram at @artbookps1. The books are a limited edition of 43 handmade artist books responding to the environmental crisis. Pre-order signed copies here.

Working from fears surrounding the radically changing climate and influenced by ancient tales of the destruction of the world by the elements, the book contains three stories by each author inspired by different ancient myths, as well as three illustrations by Rachel TonThat, two photographs from TonThat’s The Sensual World series, and two booklets within the book with the original myths for reference.

To bring the book into the world, Irene and Rachel have invited writers who are working with related environmental and mythic themes to read from their work along with readings from Six Endings and Some Beginnings. The reading will provide relevant connective influences to the book to uphold the publication along with the inspired writing that is already being produced around these themes.

READER BIOS:

Rachel TonThat is a Zurich based conceptual artist and writer working with narrative structures around the themes of climate change, memory, and space-time. She is part of the art book duo, Oreades Press, with Irene Lee and was selected this year for the inaugural SWHNM writing mentorship through the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network. Her project, Impermanent Earth, received funding from the 2022 International Project Fund of ZHdK, where she recently completed an MA in Fine Art.

Irene Lee is a writer, publisher and educator dedicated to storytelling and the places where land and imagination meet. Irene’s writing has appeared in Visitant, The Rumpus, The Brooklyn Rail and more. She is founder of the small press, ilylali, and co-founder of Oreades Press with Rachel TonThat and Boar Hair Books with Debo Mouloudji. She organizes with the Brooklyn Women’s Writing Group. Irene holds an MFA in Writing from Pratt Institute. She is teaching herself to dance on unceded Lenapehoking, Brooklyn, NY.

Bria Strothers is an educator, amateur DJ, orator, and sonic storyteller based in the Bronx, NY. Her current work involves blending speculative prose with storytelling soundscapes along with developing a Black mythological webcomic series. She holds a BA in English from George Mason University as well as an MFA in Creative Writing from Pratt Institute. She has appeared in Apparition Literary Magazine’s Issue 5: Resistance and has been featured in the 2022 Speculative/Horror issue of midnight & indigo literary journal. You can also find her work in the fourth and fifth edition of Pratt Institute’s physical publication The Felt.

Amanda Monti is a trans-disciplinary poet based on Lenape-land/Queens. Projects alternate between performance, pedagogy, sound, translation and collaboration. Their poetics are currently devoted to vowel sounds and wormholes. Amanda's poetry collection Mycelial Person (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2021) has been adapted for radio as SporeRadical at Montez Press Radio. They are an assistant editor with Litmus Press and sell ice creams, books and knickknacks in Ridgewood.

Pitchaya Sudbanthad is the author of the novel Bangkok Wakes to Rain, selected as a notable book of the year by The New York Times and The Washington Post as well as finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. He has received fellowships in fiction writing from Civitella Ranieri, MacDowell and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and currently splits time between Bangkok and Brooklyn.