Hammer Museum + The Huntington's Collaborative Biennial "Made in LA 2020: A Version"
In March 2020, as the country shut down to brace for the pandemic, the plans for the fifth iteration of the Made in LA biennial began to transform—but the unifying aim remained the same: to highlight the work of 30 artists. Curators Myriam Ben Salah, Lauren Mackler and Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi started to reimagine the show, and usher artists though the process at the same time. In addition to the original site at the Hammer Museum in Westwood, Made in LA 2020 was also scheduled be exhibited at The Huntington Library, Museum and Gardens in Pasadena. Now, the show can be viewed on each museum’s website and in site-specific activations throughout LA.
Larry Johnson / Hammer installation "While The Huntington and Hammer await the chance to invite the public inside to see the show, COOL HUNTING was given a masked, distanced tour of what is now called, Made in LA 2020: a version. We also spoke with Mackler and Onyewuenyi to learn about the mission, the transformation and the results.
Through the two sites, Made in LA 2020 was designed to bracket the city with west and east locations, and activations between. “The Huntington has a very different sensibility. When the artists visited, they wanted to ensure what they placed there would resonate with the place in some way, be it the architecture, the works in the collection, or the space itself,” Onyewuenyi tells us.
Adaptability became a requirement. “There is a real joy as a curator when you work with an artist that, in challenging themselves, comes to appreciate a new medium,” Onyewuenyi continues, voicing genuine admiration. One such example is the art of Ligia Lewis. “My heart was stolen by her performance work transforming into a film,” Mackler says. “She ended up making a work for the proscenium on a screen. It was her first time doing that. She pushed herself and her collaborators to produce something that really embodies the moment.”
Onyewuenyi also points to Diane Severin Nguyen‘s contribution as particularly inspiring. Nguyen’s photographs reveal her mysterious, experimental sculptural works capturing ephemeral moments with transient light sources. In both exhibition locations, Nguyen has used large architectural elements with color to transform the space. “She initially proposed to us water falling on the window of The Huntington,” explains Onyewuenyi. “Now the red vinyl across all of the windows is made to look like water coming down. She made something different that is just as amazing.”
Several of the artists collaborated with scholars that work at The Huntington. Kandis Williams and Jeffrey Stuker looked to the institution’s collection of research and ephemera focused on animals—from invasive species to butterflies. While Monica Majoli, Patrick Jackson, Jill Mulleady, Buck Ellison and Christina Forrer made pieces that center on The Huntington’s permanent collection."— Julie Wolfson, Dec. 22, 2020
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the COOL HUNTING website.
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