Lara Davis: Tuesday Conference Report
Submitted by Steve on October 22, 2015
GIA 2015 Conference blogger Lara Davis shares her notes from Tuesday at the Los Angeles Conference:
Tuesday morning’s Idea Lab of artists was on point, my people. I was particularly struck by Rosten Woo, who in a nutshell, produces communication art. Putting “interpretation” at the center of his work, he creates things like aesthetically-designed and clearly legible pamphlets on zoning so that street vendors know their rights, and glossies that highlight art and cultural occurrences in neighborhoods that, “due to racism, or the mere fact it takes place in someone’s backyard,” are not recognized as cultural staple within a community. I’m a fan. crystal am nelson’s visual and spoken artwork was stunning, and affirming. It invokes “historical trauma combined with pleasure as complicity”, naming society’s collective involvement in the violence and de-humanization of the Black body. This is a mirror we need right now.
Over lunch, the remarkable author and thinker Claudia Rankine shared her thoughts on the work of arts funders and decision-makers in an original poem. She posed myriad questions for everyone across all identities, privileges and oppressions to consider, to take to heart, including:
- Do you ever find yourself mistaking critical response, when it is really prohibition?
- Do your race politics shape and inform the things you do?