Betty Nobue Kano, Tomorrow’s Garden, photo by Gene Ogami.
The California African American Museum (CAAM) and the Skirball Cultural Center are currently home to the show “An Idea Called Tomorrow,” an exhibition that asked artists to “imagine and create what a civil and just future looks like for them.” Curator Michele Lee invited the following 15 artists from a range of backgrounds to create new works: Abdelali Dahrouch, Joyce Dallal, Charles Dickson, Graham Goddard, John Halaka, Betty Nobue Kano, Sonia Bas Sheva Manjon, Yong Soon Min, Dominique Moody, John Outterbridge, and Ingrid Von Sydow. We asked Lee about how the show was conceived and what she hopes visitors will take away from the exhibition on view through March 7, 2010.
WHITEWALL: The exhibition includes works of fifteen artists who were simply asked to imagine and create what a civil and just future looks like for them. Given the prompt, how did you choose the artists?
MICHELE LEE: I’m an exhibiting artist also, and most of my friends are artists, so I just started asking around and getting referrals and looking at work and work processes that might be compatible with the theme and doing works in the type of exhibition space that we have at CAAM. I looked for artists who were up to the challenge of engaging such a space, not so much in a traditional object oriented way, but who would expand the language of what art is and thus continue to expand their dialogue and process.
I also wanted to make sure that there was a diverse representation culturally/racially/ethnically — those lines overlap often. I’m happy to say we have an exhibit, first and foremost of human beings, who have these cultural backgrounds — Moroccan, Palestinian, Korean, Japanese-Okinawin, Iraqi, Arab, Jewish, Global, being of African descent, Trinidadian, Dominican, Colombian, African Americans, African in America, African American-Polish Jew (bi-racial) — but really, they’re all global beings who were born in a certain geographic location into a particular culture and have traversed the globe since. Going into tomorrow, the issues of civil rights and sustainability must be an inclusive and global dialogue.
John Outterbridge, Flight of a Footnote, photo by Gene Ogami.
WW: Did the body of work of the artists you chose already deal with or relate to the topic of sustainability?
ML: Not necessarily. It was open and I didn’t direct them to work in that way. This is just what came out from everyone. The planet and creating a peaceful coexistence with all life is on our radar, whether that be with water, trees, renewable energy, other cultures, sharing resources. Some of the artists were thinking about how to integrate their sustainable lifestyles into their artistic practice and this was the perfect opportunity to begin working that out.
WW: Seeing now what the artists have come up with from this prompt, were there any particular work or ideas that really surprised you?
ML: One thing that did surprise me was the response to John Halaka’s statement about his work. John defines himself as a human being born into a Palestinian family Christians. He is a Palestinan activist and artist and professor at U.C. San Diego. There was serious concern about his statement that came from parts of the Jewish community, mostly about terms he used, such as “ethnic cleansing”. It was very tense there for a moment but we turned that it into an opportunity for dialogue and stressed that as we move into tomorrow that we must not silence the voice of opposing views but use it as a doorway to come to a greater understanding and peace. As a result, John and a representative from the Jewish organization that was very vocal about the statement, did talk.
WW: What sort of insight are you hoping visitors will walk away with?
ML: The possibilities for our future depend on us. We only need to have the courage to act on our ideas and passions. This is the world we live in. And, to be inspired by all the positive engagements that already exist to make our planet a better place.
Abdelali Dahrouch, Homo Sacer, photo by Gene Ogami.
