Artistories on KXCI – April 27, 2020
Adam Cooper-Terán — Multimedia Designer and Performer
2012 portrait of Adam Cooper-Terán by Denise Uyehara
In this episode of Artistories, we hear from Adam Cooper-Terán, Multimedia Designer and Performer. We go deep into the world of grief, loss, art and spirit in the times of COVID-19. Cooper-Terán talks intimately about how art has helped them process the way death and grief have touched their life. We also talk about their identity as a first gen Tucsonan decendent of Mexican, Yaqui and East Coast Jewish lines. Grappling with “home land” becomes the subject of ANNIA JEKKA where Cooper-Terán takes on connecting this land’s (the Tucson Mountains) past and present by mashing up representations of different historical moments in a mediatic collage. Generational trauma is a thing here; a present day example involves for-profit detention facilities to house immigrant children. There’s currently a petition circulating to restrict their presence after it was announced that VisionQuest is moving into The Dunbar Pavilion. We discuss going back in time to bring generational trauma to bear when there is so much denial in mainstream society; denial about things ranging from this country’s history of slavery, to a brown migrant underclass to the reality of mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex…Cooper-Terán answers the question why they you running into the fire that everyone else is running away from?
