Curatorial Practicum

Each cohort of students in the M.A. program is responsible for collaborating on the conceptualization, research, and organization of an exhibition project that addresses public space, the city, and/or conditions of the public sphere. This process takes place within the context of a multi-term Curatorial Practicum class in the first and second years of the program, during which students examine specific exhibition histories and curatorial models, as well as the critical and theoretical literature around exhibition making.

Between Bodies, 2013

April 20 - May11, 2013
Opening Reception: April 20, 6-9pm

1516 S. Flower Street

Los Angeles, CA 90015
Free and open to the public
Tuesday-Saturday, 12pm-6pm

About the Exhibition
Between Bodies is a group exhibition that assembles artworks
whose meanings can be drawn out through the idea of translation.
The selected works propose translation as an alternative process for negotiating economically, socially, and culturally dominant narratives. Within this exhibition translation is defined as mediation between the artists represented, between artist and viewer, and between publics, through the very act of representing bodies, physical as well as ideological. The possibility of communication to illuminate meaning is counterbalanced by the frustration of knowing that there is no neutral language or transparent view. To articulate, or translate, between languages and cultures is to navigate between continually changing fields or bodies.

Between Bodies brings together historical works from the 1970s and 1980s with more recent works; all of these negotiate encounters of difference and exchange. The participating artists, Eleanor Antin, Artur Barrio, Juan Downey, Ghana ThinkTank, Melanie Gilligan, Simon Leung, Andrea Longacre-White, Evan Meaney, Adrian Piper, and Gala Porras-Kim, have all worked in the decades following political events of catastrophe and dissent, including the start of a two-decade long military dictatorship in Brazil, the worldwide student uprisings of 1968, the U.S.-sponsored Chilean coup d'etat of 1973, and, more recently, September 11, 2001, and its political aftermath in the United States. These historical ruptures coincide with technological transformations, including the introduction of the Portapak, the first battery-powered video recording device, in 1967; the development of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s; the accessibility of MiniDV home editing software, and the proliferation of "smart" mobile technology and touch-screen tablets starting in the 2000s. Utilizing various representational modes, with an emphasis on time-based media and technologies of reproduction, these artists take on subjects that surround us but whose narratives often remain invisible.

Radio-Break, 2012

The culminating exhibition of this year's curatorial practicum, entitled "Radio Break—Two Weekends of Artists' Low-Power Radio Transmissions & Live Performances," features works by Lincoln Tobier, Brendan Threadgill, Lucy Raven, 2 Headed Dog, and others.

Radio Break is an exhibition on the air, presenting twelve artworks in locations throughout Los Angeles conveyed through low-power radio transmissions during two weeks and live events held on two consecutive weekends. Radio Break connects participants with the ambient sounds of the city, inviting them to tune in to its history, noise, narratives, and music.

For more about the exhibition, please visit radio-break.com.