Addiction recovery workshops led by artist Ventiko end in mask exhibition

A series of National Endowment for the Arts-funded workshops on addiction and recovery led by artist Ventiko brought participants together to make masks based on their personal experiences, with the series ending in a public exhibition and performance.

Ventiko, an interdisciplinary artist whose work has been shown at Garage Museum in Moscow and the Museum of the City of New York, made headlines in 2018 for trying to fly with her emotional support peacock named Dexter, two years before she began her own recovery.

For this project, she partnered with artist Lukas Felix Schooler and certified art therapist Benjamin Aquila to lead participants through weekly workshops in March at the Damien Center in Indianapolis.

The workshops for the “Masks of Resilience” project took place at Cafe Oztara, a coffee shop within the Damien Center, and ended with the April 4 opening of an exhibition of the masks created through the project. During the opening, the artist also gave a live performance of her ongoing performance work, titled Sylva Dean and Me.

Ventiko began her ongoing Sylva Dean and Me work in 2010, a durational performance art project to respond to her mother’s breast cancer. The project features silent, masked performers dressed in wearable sculptures made from thousands of repurposed milk containers.

Participant Pat Hunter said she was invited to a workshop by her daughter, Claire, a friend of Schooler. Though she was much older than most in the class, she said participants were all friendly and encouraging and she returned for a second week to finish her mask.

“I was excited about the opening of the ‘Masks of Resilience exhibit, knowing I would see some incredible finished masks,” she said. “The diversity of design was astonishing. ... There was not one mask that did not express something powerful.”

She said her own mask started off sad, grieving lost youth, but morphed into something “happy and confident” through the workshop.

Another participant, Nasya Holman, said she most appreciated a pre-workshop questionnaire that she said made her mindful of her own creative process.

“During the process I learned new things about myself. I also really loved connecting with the community,” Holman said. “The whole workshop made me feel comfortable being and expressing myself.”

Ventiko read excerpts from an unpublished memoir during the exhibition, according to her mother, Risé, who described the writing as “proof you can slide into the depths of hell and claw and fight your way back out into the light.”

“Ventiko is a believer, a believer in the power of art and its ability to build community,” Risé said. “Over the course of four weeks, I saw strangers sitting side by side doing the art of making masks develop into a supportive, mutually respectful community.”

The Damien Center, where the workshops and exhibit took place, primarily provides health care and other services for people living with or at risk for HIV. The center noted that Ventiko’s project followed ethical and confidentiality standards set by the Art Therapy Certification Board.

“The ‘Masks of Resilience’ workshop was introduced to our art therapy class,” said participant Conntonia Turner. “I, being an artist dealing with a plethora of emotional and physical struggles, was helped greatly by this experience. I hope to experience more artist and self-exploratory workshops.”

Hunter said what stood out to her the most was Ventiko's performance and the memoirs the artist shared, a sentiment shared by Turner. Hunter said she was particularly moved by the revelation, “I am that person you see on the street.”

“She taps into a vulnerability that is both brave and authentic,” Turner said. “It was a breath of fresh air, and I personally found it inspiring.”

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