CCI featured on my work with creative entrepreneurs in LA

The Center for Cultural Innovation recently published an interview with me, where I talk about my work in Los Angeles as part of the Creative Industries Incentive Network (CIIN). I talk about my perspective as an artist coming to Los Angeles from San Francisco, and how the community-centered energy I found here in the experimental performance scene led me to build a career around exchange and collaboration. I also talk about how, contrary to the current narrative that Los Angeles is “finally” coming into its own as a major Artworld player, that we’ve long been a generator of culture and we are more accurately “continuing to be strong”. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that big commercial galleries moving into places like the Arts District and Boyle Heights are contributing to massive displacement of low income communities: “Displacement and cultural divide is something that L.A. has always had to deal with. A lot of times art is happening in response to that. A lot of our [Creative Economic Development Fund] grantees [with whom I work at CCI] are very much embedded in these areas of potential conflict.” READ MORE…

I gave an interview for The Void Academy.

Karina Vahitova, co-founder of The Void Academy, interviewed me about being a performance artist in Los Angeles, supporting other artists, and balancing my performance work with my multiple work roles. I talked about my preference for collaboration over competition, and not being an asshole in the art world. Read the whole thing here.

Encounter fundraiser at Human Resources

Encounter has been invited to perform in REDCAT's International Festival of Live Art and Performance as part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA in January 2018. 6 Latin American and European artists will fly to Los Angeles, joining 13 local artists in 8 hours of unscripted collaborative performance.

Join us at Human Resources Gallery in Chinatown, Los Angeles, for a special fundraiser performance. We're asking $20 suggested donation, or pay what you can. Info here.

Participating artists:
Mariel Carranza
Paul Outlaw
Sebastian Hernandez
Allison Wyper
Rebeca Hernandez
Carol McDowell
Douglas Green
Doran George
Rochelle Fabb
Rossen Ventzislavov
Dorian Wood
John Burtle
Samuel White

The film "Same Difference: Equinox to Equinox, a global performance convened by Bbeyond" will be screened.

A few of my favorite LA artists

I just added a page of my curatorial projects. Check out some of my very favorite Los Angeles artists making amazing site-specific and interactive works!

"this is what i call the light of god" premieres in San Francisco

[NOTE: THIS PIECE HAS SINCE BEEN RE-TITLED BIRTHING A NATION. LEARN MORE ABOUT IT HERE. -AW]

Erika Katrina Barbosa and I premiered a new media/performance work at the stARTup Art Fair earlier this month. We kept having to explain to attendees that, yes, in fact, we are an art piece... and no, we are not actually pregnant!

Above is a photo (by Mido Lee) with stARTup founders Ray Beldner and Steve Zavattero. The wonderful Justin Charles Hoover curated interactive/performance works.

It's title a direct quote from a police officer describing his weapon, "this is what I call the light of god" is a participatory performance ritual for an age of police violence. Found sound of real U.S. officers, NRA members, and gun enthusiasts, activated by touch sensors, are embedded in the wombs of the performers: Our Ladies of Peace, vessels of the patriarchy, police brutality madonnas for the 21st century. 

This media art/performance collaboration combines my work with vulnerability and participation, with Erika's interrogation of police violence through the objects officers carry.

More photos, by Mido Lee:

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The next night, we were invited to POW!POW!POW!POW! action art festival by founder and co-curator Guillermo Galindo, at the Fort Mason Center:

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