KOLAJ LIVE ONLINE
Folklore
Tuesday, 18 November 2025, 7PM EST (0000 UTC) on Zoom
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After an almost year-long gestation period, Kolaj Institute’s Folklore Project is roaring back to life again with new publications, artist residencies, and an exhibition. The project considers the role artists play in activating, transmitting, and celebrating folklore in communities as a form of cultural expression and a strategy for community resilience. At this Kolaj LIVE Online event, Ric Kasini Kadour will introduce the project, share its history, and where it is going. Kadour will be joined by Emily Denlinger whose project, “Gain of Function: New Mutations/Old Traditions/Collective Effervescence” speaks to the role of art, ritual, and resilience. Kadour will also preview the upcoming Big Orange Monster book which, although it was conceived as part of Kolaj Institute’s Politics in Collage project, drew in a number of artists whose work was speaking to folklore. Those in the audience will also get a sneak peek at Folklore Collage Society, a printed journal dedicated to diffusing collage and folklore. In its pages, stories, statements, essays, field notes, poetry, and song lyrics mingle with collage art that shows how collage artists are thinking about the folklore. If you are new to folklore, use folklore in your collage practice, or are curious about the upcoming residencies (the virtual residency, Folklore & Collage, and the in-person residency in New Orleans, Carnival as Folklore) this is the Kolaj LIVE Online for you.
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ABOUT THE FOLKLORE COLLAGE SOCIETY
Folklore Collage Society emerged through a series of artist residencies in Sanquhar, Scotland; Knoxville, Tennessee; and online, where artists considered how, during a time when folklore is devalued by economic systems and dismissed by political power, artists play an important role in calling attention to and celebrating these important elements that shape community identity and reinforce communal ties. In times of crisis and collective trauma, these stories can be key to a community’s sense of resilience and ultimate survival. These residencies resulted in the exhibitions, “Mythical Landscape: Secrets of the Vale” at the Knoxville Museum of Art and “Word of Mouth: Folklore, Collage, & Community” at A’ the Airts in Sanquhar, Scotland and the publication of Folklore of the Upper Nithsdale. LEARN MORE
ABOUT BIG ORANGE MONSTER
At the heart of this exhibition at Kolaj Institute Gallery in New Orleans was collage made and sent to the gallery in response to an open call to artists: “You mix fear (yellow) and anger (red) and you get a Big Orange Monster. What’s the emergency? There are a lot of Big Orange Monsters on the loose. Monsters only have power if you are afraid of them. So let’s create a space where we can slay our fear of Big Orange Monsters. Art helps us exorcise our demons. Monsters can be glorious and wonderful or horrible and evil. Let’s not cast aside the good Big Orange Monsters because some other Big Orange Monsters are well…unpleasant.” Artists sent 128 collages from 13 countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, and the United States. Nine artists from New Orleans contributed works to the exhibition. We asked visitors to the gallery to take care and not feed the monsters, some of which were installed behind a protective iron gate for everyone’s safety. We are now working to turn the “Big Orange Monster” exhibition into a book. LEARN MORE
ABOUT GAIN OF FUNCTION
This project led by Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA-based artist Emily Denlinger speaks to the role of art, ritual, and resilience. Building on her own work, Denlinger engaged with thirty-nine artists at the 2025 edition of Kolaj Fest New Orleans to make locative collage photographs in an artist-created landscape inspired by global masking traditions. The resulting artworks are presented as a zine published by Kolaj Institute; a short film produced by Denlinger that will debut at Kolaj Fest New Orleans in 2026; and a collection of photographs available for exhibition. “The project functions as 21st century folklore with each character potentially representing a magical creature or masked performer in some yet-to-be-imagined ritual,” wrote Kolaj Institute Director Ric Kasini Kadour. “Like the odd, creature-like figures of early 20th century Surrealists, they, too, are a response to deeply troubled times and offer us the opportunity to find a collective effervescence to see us through them.” LEARN MORE
ABOUT EMILY DENLINGER
Emily Denlinger has worked as Area Head and Professor of Digital Arts, Photography and New Media at Southeast Missouri State University since 2009. Originally from Ohio, she holds BFA in 2D Art with a Concentration in Photography from Bowling Green State University, and an MA in Digital Art and an MFA in Photography and Digital Art from Maryland Institute College of Art. Her collages have been exhibited across the USA and are held in collections internationally. Denlinger’s collage animation, Angel Baby vs. Drone Eagle, was part of Collage on Screen program at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2024. She also took part in Kolaj Institute’s Collage on Screen Artist Residency in 2023 and the Collage & Illustration Residency: Frankenstein. In addition to her gallery practice, Denlinger creates accessible wearable art that is created for commissions or sold in the local community at boutiques and fundraising sales. In her free time, she works with the Cape Girardeau County Clerk’s office to promote voting and voter registration and as an election judge. Learn more at the Kolaj Magazine Artist Directory and www.emilydenlinger.com.
ABOUT RIC KASINI KADOUR
Ric Kasini Kadour, a 2021 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Curatorial Fellow, is a writer, artist, publisher, and cultural worker. He is the director of Kolaj Institute and one of the founders of Kolaj Magazine. His curation work includes exhibitions in Vermont at S.P.A.C.E. Gallery, the Vermont Arts Council, and the Southern Vermont Arts Center. He was also the Curator of Contemporary Art at Rokeby Museum in Ferrisburgh, Vermont, USA in 2019 and 2020. In conjunction with Kolaj Fest New Orleans, which he founded, and LeMieux Galleries, he has curated seven exhibitions focused on critical issues in collage. Other exhibitions include “The Money $how”, co-curated with Frank Juarez, at the AIR Space Gallery at Saint Kate-The Arts Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (April 10-September 12, 2021). For Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival in Birr, County Offaly, Ireland (August 13-20, 2021), he curated “Empty Columns Are a Place to Dream”, which traveled to the Knoxville Museum of Art in January-February 2022. At 516 ARTS in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Kadour co-curated with Alicia Inez Guzmàn two exhibitions: “Many Worlds Are Born” (February 19-May 14, 2022) and “Technologies of the Spirit” (June 11-September 3, 2022). In 2023 at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Kadour curated “Where the Sun Casts No Shadow: Postcards from the Creative Crossroads of Quito, Ecuador” (January 9-February 16, 2023) and “Mystical Landscape: Secrets of the Vale” (March 17-May 28, 2023). In September 2023, he curated “Word of Mouth: Folklore, Community and Collage” at A’ the Airts in Sanquhar, Scotland. Since the opening of Kolaj Institute Gallery in 2024, he has curated ten exhibitions, most recently, “Joy and Grief: An Exhibition of Collage” (April 12-May 31, 2025), “Collage As Art Movement” (June 14-August 31, 2025), “Big Orange Monster: An Emergency Collage Exhibition” (September 10-October 18, 2025), and “Trash as Material” (October 25-November 29, 2025).
Kadour is the editor and publisher of Kolaj Magazine. He has written for a number of galleries and his writing has appeared in publications including Hyperallergic, OEI, Art New England (where he was the former Vermont editor), and Wissenschaft und Frieden (forthcoming). Kadour maintains an active art practice and his photography, collage, film and sculpture have been exhibited in and are part of private collections in Australia, Europe and North America. In January-February 2020, he was artist-in-residence at MERZ Gallery in Sanquhar, Scotland. He holds a BA in Comparative Religion from the University of Vermont. Kadour splits his time between Montreal and New Orleans. www.rickasinikadour.com