Amid the unpredictable and ongoing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the performing arts scene is still struggling to survive the impacts of this virus. For many artists, being able to perform to live audiences was critical to their craft. Not just for the financial aspect, but for being able to connect to their community as well. There has been loss and grief, isolation and fear. I’d even venture to say many of us, if not everyone, has at one point reflected on themselves and the world around them during this pandemic. If you were paying attention, how could you not?
Interloper (n) — a person who becomes involved in a place or situation where they are not wanted or are considered not to belong.
—Oxford English Dictionary
Interloper is a network of art exhibitions, community engagement events, and a conversation podcast all centered around rotating themes of controversial topics. Interloper’s current show, “THIS IS(NT) FOR YOU,” which premiered on March 29 in the Ravenna neighborhood, is a pairing of two solo exhibitions, each with an artist making work for their own community — communities alienated in different ways by language, location, and class expectations. By constructing the exhibitions using language and coded signifiers of the communities the work is for, each artist creates dual viewing experiences that immediately confront the viewer with a sense of (not) belonging.
The show asks the following questions: Who controls the narrative? Who is art for? Who is left on the outside looking in?
![Photo of people gathered around a white textboard with black text that reads "YO'O KUNCUKA CU[obscured letter]E"](https://i0.wp.com/southseattleemerald.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/THIS_ISNT_FOR_YOU_openingMarch_29_courtesy-of-Tiffany-Danielle-Elliott_cropped.jpg?resize=1038%2C576&ssl=1)