USC Roski School of Art and Design
Watt Hall 104
University Park Campus
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0292
roski.usc.edu
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The USC Roski School of Art and Design MA Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere program announces three projects by the 2017 MA candidates:
Seduction of a Cyborg
Curated by David Evans Frantz, Hannah Grossman and Simone Krug
Exhibition dates: October 7–23, 2016
Human Resources Los Angeles
410 Cottage Home Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Wednesday–Sunday, noon–6pm; free to the public
Seduction of a Cyborg is a group exhibition that explores intimacy, sex, and desire as related to technocratic fantasies of futurity, (re)production of bodies, and fractured selfhood in the digital age. The fictional and the virtual intersect, exposing narratives that activate, transform, and deconstruct our understanding of the networked and plugged-in subject. It was inspired by Lynn Hershman Leeson’s work, particularly her film Teknolust (2002) in which a female bio-geneticist downloads her own DNA to produce cyborgnetic clones that act as internet “portals” to fulfill user’s fantasies.
The exhibition presents historical and contemporary works that call on critical ideas of and around techno-feminism, queer theory, and disembodiment. The erotic innuendo inherent in the politics and possibilities of nascent technologies and a longing for an era of low-fi and analogue, mark points of interest that extend from the 1990s to today. Other works realize fantastical and futuristic (gender) identities, presenting body parts that have been biotechnologically produced and avatar identities that assume mutable identities online. In the realm of the virtual, the imaginary knows no limits.
Artists include: Sadie Benning; Hannah Black; Johanna Breiding; Shu Lea Cheang; Linda Dement; Ricardo Dominguez, Francesca da Rimini, and Michael Grimm; Deanna Erdmann; Lynn Hershman Leeson; Faith Holland; Juliana Huxtable; Martine Neddam (Mouchette); Alexei Shulgin; Vertical Blanking (Kim McKillip and Michael J. Masucci); and Pinar Yoldas.
Dirty Talk: Art / Environment / Action
Curated by Karen Hinchcliffe, Rachel Keller and Carly Warhaft
October 28–November 20, 2016
Opening: Thursday, October 27, 6–9pm
Closing event: Sunday, November 20, 6–9pm
Gayle and Ed Roski MFA Gallery Graduate Fine Arts Building
3001 S. Flower Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
Hours: Wednesday–Saturday, noon–6pm
Dirty Talk: Art / Environment / Action presents documentation of historical environmental art projects from the 1970s to the 1990s in dialogue with more contemporary works by artists from Los Angeles.
The early environmental works, made by artists involved with conceptual and performance art, provide an historical lineage for the contemporary works that are socially engaged and pedagogically focused.
These artists inform audiences about specific challenges in the city and encourage them to participate in an action in response to a particular ecological problem such as guerilla gardening, planting urban trees, saving water or providing research about environmental degradation to better inform the public. By providing intellectual, pedagogical or physical tools, the artists invite viewers to directly engage with specific environmental concerns facing Los Angeles today.
Artists include: Mel Chin; Commonstudio (Kim Karlsrud and Daniel Phillips); Encyclopedia Inc. (Googie Karrass, Nicholas Korody, and Carlye Packer); Fallen Fruit (David Burns and Austin Young); Jenny Kane, Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison; Bonnie Sherk; and Joel Tauber.
Roundhouse at Taylor Yard
Curated by Noémie Despland-Litchtert
2780 W. Casitas Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90039
[email protected]
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Roundhouse is a curatorial platform for public engagement that aims to investigate urban change by facilitating engagement with site specific histories and by activating ephemeral spaces for creative intervention and discussion. Three participatory urban labs will explore the history and current changing state of Taylor Yard a former rail yard in Glassell Park active from the 1920s to the 1980s, that will soon be re-purposed as a park, its changing landscape a sign of urban heterogeneity.
Politics of Plants
Sunday, October 23, 2–5pm
Explore and learn from Taylor Yard’s self seeded vegetation and weeds. Discover the close relationship between the site’s biodiversity and its history. Participants will collect, draw and press weeds to create an herbarium in collaboration with landscape architect and plant expert, Jerry Taylor.
Surveying the Land
Sunday, November 6, 2–5pm
Join us to explore the past, present and future of Taylor Yard through found objects and documentation in various media. Participant will collect samples and engage in a design challenge. In collaboration with architect and designer Brendan Shea.
Psychogeographies
Sunday, November 20, 2–5pm
Join us to learn about the history of this industrial site. Participants will explore the site, document their experience in a field booklet, and engage in a creative cartography exercise.
These projects are part of the Curatorial Practicum led by curator Karen Moss, Roski Adjunct Faculty.
About the MA Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere
The MA Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere is an intensive Master’s-level program in the practice and history of curating studied through the lens of critical theory and the history of art. During two years of full-time academic study, students explore modes of curatorial practice in a curriculum combining seminars and professional training. Courses are led by USC Roski’s acclaimed faculty, which includes renowned artists, scholars, critics and curators. For questions about the program, please contact [email protected].
