FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Margaret Crane
+1 (661) 222-2787, mcrane@muse.calarts.edu (do not publish)

Kara Walker Activates Her Redcat Installation With Live Shadow Puppet Performances on 9.2.05 and 10.23.05

View the exhibition

L.A. Premiere Of Walker's New Film ...Possible Beginnings Or The Creation Of African-America A Moving Picture By The Young, Self-Taught, Genius Of The South K.E. Walker

Kara Walker, Darkytown Rebellion 2001, Cut paper and projection on wall, Installation view, Brent Sikkema, New York, Courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

Kara E. Walker's Song Of The South
September 3 - October 23, 2005
Opening reception: Friday, September 2, 6-9:00 pm
Closing reception: Sunday, October 23, 6-9:00 pm
with performances by the artist at 7:00 pm at the opening and closing receptions

Los Angeles, August 1 -- REDCAT presents new work by Kara Walker. Best known for her work reducing representation to its base with her use of black silhouettes, Walker will expand upon some of her more recent experiments into projected light and shadow, live performance, and film and video.

Kara Walker's "historical" shadow dramas depict unseemly acts of sex, birth, dismemberment and play that accentuate the slippery separations between dominance and desire, fantasy and fear. The artist's installation at REDCAT continues her recent experiments with projection and shadow, live performance, animation and film including her 2004 installation and performance at the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia, Fibbergibbet and Mumbo Jumbo: Kara E. Walker in Two Acts. For her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles since 1998, Walker carves out a clearing among a façade of moody trees and darkness. Into this makeshift set she injects variations on projected light: a new 16mm film, overhead projections, a shadow puppet performance. The exhibition features the premiere of the film ...Possible Beginnings or the Creation of African-America A Moving Picture by the young, self-taught, Genius of the South K.E. Walker. Walker will "perform" in the Gallery at REDCAT at her opening on September 2 as well as at her closing reception on October 23, 2005.

Kara Walker received her M.F.A. in painting/printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. Her work has been exhibited at the Drawing Center, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Kunstverein Hannover; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In 1997, she received a MacArthur Foundation Award, and in 2002 she represented the U.S. at the São Paulo Biennale, Brazil. Walker recently completed a permanent installation at The New School for Social Research in New York. She was born in Stockton, California, and lives and works in New York. KARA E. WALKER'S SONG OF THE SOUTH is the artist's first solo exhibition in Los Angeles.

This exhibition is made possible in part by the generous support of Steve Martin, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and V. Joy Simmons.

KARA E. WALKER'S SONG OF THE SOUTH

Opening reception: Friday, September 2, 6-9 pm, with a performance by the artist at 7pm

Closing reception: Sunday, October 23, 6-9pm with a performance by the artist at 7pm

Exhibition dates: September 3 -- October 23, 2005

Gallery hours: noon to 6 pm or curtain, closed Mondays

UPCOMING AT REDCAT

DAMIÁN ORTEGA: THE BEETLE TRILOGY AND OTHER WORKS
NOVEMBER 4, 2005 - JANUARY 16, 2006
Opening Reception: Thu, November 3, 6-9pm

For this project, Damián Ortega will present The Beetle Trilogy as well as develop a new work that expands on his fascination with conceptual practice, social organization, and humor. In collaboration with the exhibition at REDCAT, MOCA will present Cosmic Thing, the first episode of The Beetle Trilogy, created in 2002 and featured in the Venice Biennale in 2003. REDCAT will present new works from the two remaining components of the trilogy: Moby Dick, a heroic action involving the artist's Beetle, a live band, ropes and pulleys, and Beetle '83 Escarabajo, a ritual return to the vehicle's place of birth. A bilingual catalogue will be available in December featuring writings by novelist Hari Kunzru, REDCAT curator Eungie Joo, MOCA curator Alma Ruiz, and the artist.

AN IMAGE BANK FOR EVERYDAY REVOLUTIONARY LIFE
FEBRUARY 4 - APRIL 3, 2006
Opening Reception: Fri, February 3, 6-9pm
Guest curators: Lauri Firstenberg and Anton Vidokle

This exhibition presents contemporary artists' responses to a virtually unknown aspect of the artistic practice of David Alfaro Siqueiros--his massive photographic archive. Well known for his activism and politically charged public murals both in and out of Mexico, Siqueiros had a special interest in photography's critical impact on both painting and politics. For this project, the archive, housed at the Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros in Mexico City, has been digitized and for direct access by commissioned artists. Participating artists include Carlos Amorales, John Baldessari, Daniel Buren, Mircea Cantor, Minerva Cuevas, Daniel J. Martinez, Ruben Ochoa, Martha Rosler, and Anri Sala, This project is a collaboration with Sala Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City.

These upcoming REDCAT gallery programs are made possible by the generous support of The Jumex Collection; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Etant Donnés, the French-American Fund for Contemporary Art; e-flux; CONACULTA; kurimanzutto; and The Puffin Foundation.

Admission to the gallery is always free
Visit www.redcat.org or call +1.213.237.2800 for more information

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