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On the occasion of the exhibition Stars Shown in the East, Chicago-based filmmaker Paige Taul debuts her latest film, Full Contact (2024). Blending found footage with oral interviews, Full Contact offers a dive into an unseen student’s spiritual and bodily relationship with the Japanese martial art Judo. Also featured is the student’s sensei, who discusses their philosophical understanding of Judo. A conversation between Taul, Mandela Hudson, and curator Denny Mwaura follows the screening.

Paige Taul is an Oakland, CA, native who received her B.A. in Studio Art with a concentration in cinematography from the University of Virginia and her M.F.A in Moving Image from the University of Illinois Chicago. Her work engages with and challenges assumptions of black cultural expression and notions of belonging through experimental cinematography. Her interests lie in observing environmental and familial connections to concepts tied to race-based expectations and to expose those boundaries of identity in veins such as religion, style, language, and other black community-based experiences. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Mandela Hudson is an artist and designer whose multidisciplinary practice is rooted in photography and spans woodworking, ceramics, and design. His work has been exhibited at renowned venues such as the historic South Side Community Art Center, Kana Kawanishi Gallery in Tokyo, The Reference in Seoul, and TALA Chicago. Mandela’s work has also been covered by WBEZ and featured in the Japanese magazine Decades Vol. 1. Beyond photography, Mandela has developed expertise in fine art digital printing and custom framing. After years of creating museum-quality frames for leading galleries at CMM Framing, he founded Projection LLC in 2023, a specialized framing studio serving artists, design agencies, galleries, and museums.

Denny Mwaura is a Chicago-based curator, writer, and programmer. He is the Assistant Director of Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois Chicago. Exhibitions and public programs he has organized include Learning Together: Art Education and Community, The Mask of Prosperity, Reckless Rolodex, and Young, Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art and Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich: Speculative Archives at Conversations at the Edge. His writing has been published in E-Flux, Frieze, Boston Art Review, and New Art Examiner. Mwaura received his MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Tags: Chicago, Denny Mwaura, Full Contact, Mandela Hudson, Paige Taul, Stars Shown in the East, Tala Gallery, West Town