States of Matter: Artist Talk by Raúl Romero

Transformer celebrates the 10th year of its Siren Arts Summer Artist Residency Program & Public Performance Art Series in Asbury Park, NJ by highlighting diaspora, immigrant, and 1st generation US citizen artists. Presented in tandem with, and sharing the title, States of Matter - a sound & sculptural installation by Philadelphia based artist Raúl Romero on view at Siren Arts exhibition space - Siren Arts’ 2026 summer residency program artists and their performance art works explore how culture and language traverse a diversity of physical and metaphorical waters themes of identity, our bodies as vessels of spatial and political inquiry, labor, rituals of healing, the wisdom of nature and our interconnectedness with all living things, ecology, memories, and spiritualities: the participating Siren Arts’States of Matter artists incorporate elements of performance art - a time-based visual art form where artists use their own bodies, actions, and presence as the primary medium - to build connection and understanding within themselves, and with the communities they engage with their work summer’s roster of superbly innovative and visionary artists was selected for States of Matter through a curatorial collaboration with Art in Odd Places (AiOP), the independent New York City project renowned for placing experimental visual and performance art into unexpected public spaces. Special thanks to AiOP Founder and Director Ed Woodham (and Siren Arts alumnus), and to Arantxa Araujo and Pancho López, co-curators of AiOP 2026: UTOPIAS, the 21st edition, taking place September 26–27, 12-5pm along 14th Street in New York City. artinoddplaces thanks to the City of Asbury Park for their continued support of this unique public art program!