Kirjahaku

An anthology on the interdisciplinary and the collaborative toward a total work of art This volume anthologizes the textual contributions from the Hammer exhibition titled Lifes. These texts formed the starting point from which choreographers and composers, theater directors and dramaturgs, and performance, video and installation artists contributed to the overall project. The publication documents the exhibition’s fostering of interdisciplinary conversation toward a “total work of art.” In addition to scholarly contextual essays by Shannon Jackson, Aram Moshayedi and Greg Tate, the book includes texts commissioned for the exhibition and publication by philosopher and ecologist Fahim Amir; writer and director Asher Hartman; artist and poet Rindon Johnson; and novelist and poet Adania Shibli. An oral history compiled and edited by Nicholas Barlow documents the many conversations among contributors; and illustrations by artist Olivia Mole are interspersed throughout.

The sixth iteration of the Los Angeles biennial, highlighting themes of the vernacular, the urban, the performative and the collective Taking its cues from the ethos of the city and situating art as an expanded field of culture that is entangled with the everyday, community networks, queer affect and indigenous and diasporic histories, Made in L.A. 2023 proposes a network of artistic affinities through intergenerational constellations. These artists suggest art can be an act of preservation and memorialization as well as a space for playfulness, satire and sheer wildness. Artists include: Marcel Alcalá, Michael Alvarez, AMBOS, Jackie Amézquita, Teresa Baker, Luis Bermudez, Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Jibz Cameron, Melissa Cody, Emmanuel Louisnord Desir, Victor Estrada, Nancy Evans, Jessie Homer French, Pippa Garner, Ishi Glinsky, Vincent Enrique Hernandez, Dan Herschlein, Akinsanya Kambon, Kyle Kilty, Young Joon Kwak, Kang Seung Lee, Tidawhitney Lek, Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, Maria Maea, Erica Mahinay, Mas Exitos, Dominique Moody, Paige Jiyoung Moon, Esteban Ramón Pérez, Page Person, Roksana Pirouzmand, Ryan Preciado, Devin Reynolds, Miller Robinson, Guadalupe Rosales, Christopher Suarez, Joey Terrill, Chiffon Thomas, Teresa Tolliver.

Rashid Johnson, Cauleen Smith and others pay tribute to a truly extraordinary figure in 20th-century American jazz This volume unpacks the cultural legacy of musician, spiritual leader, wife and mother Alice Coltrane. Accompanying the eponymous exhibition at Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum, the book takes its title from Coltrane’s 1977 autobiography and devotional text, Monument Eternal, in which she reflected on her newfound spiritual beliefs and the path to healing and self-discovery. Coltrane was "ahead of her time," as her son, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, says: she was "one of the first people to move outside the mainstream, and certainly one of the first female, Black, American jazz musicians to record her own music in her own studio, and to release music on her own terms." Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal explores themes including spiritual transcendence, sonic innovation and architectural intimacy. The project juxtaposes works from 19 contemporary American artists with pieces of ephemera from Coltrane’s archive—including handwritten sheet music, unreleased audio recordings and rarely seen footage—to honor her cultural output and practice. Alice Coltrane was born in Detroit in 1937 and took up music at an early age, beginning piano lessons at seven years old. In 1967 her husband, saxophonist John Coltrane, gifted her a harp, on which she went on to record seminal albums including Journey in Satchidananda and A Monastic Trio, making her one of the very few harpists in the history of jazz. Coltrane moved to Southern California in 1972 and founded the Sai Anantam ashram. She lived and worked in Los Angeles, where she died in 2007 at age 69. This book was published in conjunction with Hammer Museum

Sixteen international artists at the forefront of feminism This book focuses on a selection of midcareer international artists whose oeuvres are informed by the legacies of feminist thought. Each artist adds to the feminist discourse, whether by reclaiming women’s marginalized creative histories, using gender discrimination as a method of institutional critique or creating alternate research methodologies that confront patriarchal norms. The book includes sculpture, painting, video, installation and performance art, and features lesser-known projects or entirely new commissions that recast sociopolitical realities throughout the world. In addition to extensive illustrations, the book includes essays by Anne Ellegood and Connie Butler, curators and art historians whose practices have also been dedicated to a discussion of women’s rights. Artists include: Leonor Antunes, Yael Bartana, Pauline Boudry / Renate Lorenz, Candice Breitz, Shu Lea Cheang, Minerva Cuevas, Vaginal Davis, Every Ocean Hughes, Bouchra Khalili, Laura Lima, Teresa Margolles, Otobong Nkanga, Okwui Okpokwasili, Lara Schnitger and Beverly Semmes.

Artists defy Western conceptions of the “human” The term “no humans involved” emerged shortly after the 1991 beating of Rodney King, when it was discovered that the Los Angeles Police Department was using the term as a shorthand for casework that involved Black and Latino men and sex workers. In 1994, Jamaican scholar and theorist Sylvia Wynter challenged her academic colleagues to consider how they themselves might be contributing to the cultural mindset that gave rise to this exclusionary definition of human. In particular, Wynter highlighted the strong influence the notion of race has on the definition of the human and the social hierarchies and injustices that result from this link. No Humans Involved collects works by contemporary artists that serve as a response to Wynter’s prompt. Among the artists featured are Eddie Aparicio, who uses large-scale, rubber casts of trees to document social and economic relationships between Latin America and the United States; Tau Lewis, a multidisciplinary artist who creates portraits out of culturally relevant found objects and recycled materials; and Wilmer Wilson IV, who investigates the marginalization of Black bodies in social relations through performance, sculpture, photography and other mediums. This collection of artworks from a diverse group of artists provides a contemporary response to Wynter’s call to action, addressing the social divisions present today and exploring opportunities for social unity. Artists include: Eddie Aparicio, Tau Lewis, Las Nietas De Nonó, Sondra Perry, Sangree, Wangshui and Wilmer Wilson IV.