ISCP TalkNovember 29, 2011
Salon: Eamon Ore-Giron and Travis Somerville
Los Angeles-based artist and musician Eamon Ore-Giron will present two videos that capture encounters between cultural memory and trauma through the use of both ritual and performative aspects. These works create the appearance and disappearance of a hallucinatory narrative leading to a psychological sound experiment. Ore-Giron’s practice takes multiple forms, from painting to video, sound and performance. His inspirations range from the graphic elements of punk flyers to the folk traditions of Latin America; he is interested in re-contextualizing folk traditions and contemporary art.
Travis Somerville will discuss his solo exhibition Dedicated to the proposition . . . at the Otis College of Art and Design in 2009. This exhibition explored the complex inheritance of a nation trying to live up to the challenge of being truly “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” as Abraham Lincoln stated in his historic Gettysburg Address during the Civil War. Somerville’s large-scale oil paintings and collages present images of political and cultural icons associated with the history of the south. His paintings, drawings, sculpture and installations explore the complexities of racism and serve as a point of departure for discussion about US oppression and colonial attitudes abroad.
Eamon Ore-Giron’s and Travis Somerville’s residencies are sponsored by Artadia.