Join us for the publication release celebration of the Sinks: Places We Call Home exhibition catalog! The day of programming includes a drop-in workshop with the Self Help Graphics & Art BMAS team. Also, a Botanica del Barrio demonstration by Felicia Montes from Mujerez de Maiz, an alterNative mobile medicine cArt that aims to educate, dialogue and document wellness remedies, recipes, herb and plant uses and Mexican traditional medicine. Finally, learn more about the exhibition through a panel discussion moderated by educator, curator, and writer Bill Kelley Jr. with exhibition curator Marvella Muro and exhibition artists Beatriz Jaramillo and Maru Garcia. Workshops take place from 11-2:30pm and the panel discussion is from 2:00pm-3:00pm.
More about the publication:
Sinks: Places We Call Home is the catalog for the 2024 exhibition curated by Marvella Muro and presented by Self Help Graphics & Art (SHG) at the Luckman Gallery at California State University, Los Angeles, as part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time initiative, Art & Science Collide. This interdisciplinary exhibition catalog features essays by curators, scientists, and researchers on various topics, including environmental justice, community engagement and advocacy, visual arts, and mineralogy. Sinks presents research based works by artists Maru García and Beatriz H. Jaramillo that examine environmental justice through art and social practice,
The exhibition focuses on two case studies of contamination in South, South East and East Los Angeles along a toxic corridor of contamination that links black and brown communities. The first is the former Exide battery plant in Vernon and the Athens Tank Farm in Willowbrook, both of which have left toxic legacies on surrounding neighborhoods.
Artists Maru García and Beatriz Jaramillo present new works rooted in community research. García collaborates with the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum (NHM) to conduct soil testing and lead reduction research with community scientists in East and South East Los Angeles, while Jaramillo engages with the Willowbrook Community Garden through workshops that explore nature, art and healing.
The catalog is edited by Luke Aleckson and includes essays by Marvella Muro (SHG)), Dr. Aaron Celestian (NHM), Ana Guajardo (SHG), Lila Higgins (NHM), James MacDevitt (Cerritos College), Laura Pulido (University of Oregon), and Sam Tayag (NHM), and highlights the advocacy of a multitude of community members and organizations, offering diverse perspectives on art, science, and environmental justice.
