Dustin Wong & Gregory Uhlmann on the LA River
This World Water Day, join us for a special twilight gathering of ecological performances on the concrete banks of our dear friend Paayme Paxaayt (LA River). Lauren Bon of Metabolic Studio will lead a collective offering of reparation to the river, Sharon Chohi Kim will share voice with water-based instruments, and Nina Sarnelle will premiere their new music / video project Mouth Noise at nightfall.
This evening has been coordinated in caring conversation with Nina Sarnelle. It is co-presented with Black Cube Nomadic Museum and Spectra Studio, and supported by a grant from Community Engagement.
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Access info: The bike path is accessible by wheelchair and other mobility devices from Ripple St. (the ground is a bit uneven when approaching from the Gilroy St. side). Performances will be visible from the bike path, but optimal seating is lower down the concrete embankment, which has a steep slope (not wheelchair accessible).
Nina Sarnelle (Mouth Noise) makes research projects, participatory performances, music composition, video and sculpture; their work interfaces with sites of neocolonialism(s), ecological destruction and labor exploitation in strange and intimate ways.
They earned a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University. Their work has shown at the New Museum (NY), Whitechapel Gallery (London), Hammer Museum (LA), Getty Center (LA), Ballroom Marfa (TX), MoMA (NY), Istanbul Modern (Turkey), Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (Berlin), Museum of Art, Architecture & Technology (Lisbon), Black Cube (Denver), Southern Exposure (San Francisco), Recess (NY), UNSW Galleries (Sydney), Project 88 (Mumbai), Mwoods (Beijing), Human Resources (LA) and others.
Sharon Chohi Kim’s work as a performing artist and composer includes immersive experimental opera, performance art, improvisation, electronic sound art and site-specific space activation through movement and voice. In her practice of improvisation, she explores human and non-human states of being, enthusiastically discovering new ways in which her voice can sound.
She recently presented her new performance work, Fiber, at the Geffen Contemporary at MoCA. Chohi has performed with the LA Philharmonic, Getty Center, Hammer Museum, Human Resources LA, Industry Opera, Getty Villa, the Broad Museum, LA Master Chorale, LA Opera, in tunnels, mountains, gardens, and in water.
Lauren Bon is the director of Metabolic Studio, which navigates critical social and environmental issues by identifying systemic loopholes and developing emergent strategies for transformation. In 2005, her project Not A Cornfield transformed a vacant industrial 32-acre site in downtown Los Angeles into a living sculpture of corn, challenging land use policies and reimagining urban ecologies.
Since then, Metabolic Studio has been working to reconnect this same floodplain with its historical water source (the Los Angeles River) through Bending the River, a 20-year project that circumvents conventional infrastructure to create alternative water systems. Bon’s work disrupts entrenched frameworks to generate new possibilities for land, water, and public agency.
She has created major works for Desert X, Getty’s PST Festival, Honor Fraser Gallery, collateral events of the 59th edition of La Biennale di Venezia, LACMA, The Hammer Museum, The Exploratorium, DePaul Art Museum, The George Eastman Museum, MASS MoCA, The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MoCAD), Les Rencontres d’Arles in France, and The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.