Issue 35 February 2024

Issue 34 November 2023

Issue 33 August 2023

Issue 32 June 2023

Issue 31 February 2023

Issue 30 November 2022

Issue 29 August 2022

Issue 28 May 2022

Issue 27 February 2022

Issue 26 November 2021

Issue 25 August 2021

Issue 24 May 2021

Issue 23 February 2021

Issue 22 November 2020

Issue 21 August 2020

Issue 20 May 2020

Issue 19 February 2020

Letter from the Editor –Lindsay Preston Zappas
Parasites in Love –Travis Diehl
To Crush Absolute On Patrick Staff and
Destroying the Institution
–Jonathan Griffin
Victoria Fu:
Camera Obscured
–Cat Kron
Resurgence of Resistance How Pattern & Decoration's Popularity
Can Help Reshape the Canon
–Catherine Wagley
Trace, Place, Politics Julie Mehretu's Coded Abstractions
–Jessica Simmons
Exquisite L.A.: Featuring: Friedrich Kunath,
Tristan Unrau, and Nevine Mahmoud
–Claressinka Anderson & Joe Pugliese
Reviews April Street
at Vielmetter Los Angeles
–Aaron Horst

Chiraag Bhakta
at Human Resources
–Julie Weitz

Don’t Think: Tom, Joe
and Rick Potts

at POTTS
–Matt Stromberg

Sarah McMenimen
at Garden
–Michael Wright

The Medea Insurrection
at the Wende Museum
–Jennifer Remenchik

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Mike Kelley
at Hauser & Wirth
–Angella d’Avignon
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Issue 18 November 2019

Letter from the Editor –Lindsay Preston Zappas
The Briar and the Tar Nayland Blake at the ICA LA
and Matthew Marks Gallery
–Travis Diehl
Putting Aesthetics
to Hope
Tracking Photography’s Role
in Feminist Communities
– Catherine Wagley
Instagram STARtists
and Bad Painting
– Anna Elise Johnson
Interview with Jamillah James – Lindsay Preston Zappas
Working Artists Featuring Catherine Fairbanks,
Paul Pescador, and Rachel Mason
Text: Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos: Jeff McLane
Reviews Children of the Sun
at LADIES’ ROOM
– Jessica Simmons

Derek Paul Jack Boyle
at SMART OBJECTS
–Aaron Horst

Karl Holmqvist
at House of Gaga, Los Angeles
–Lee Purvey

Katja Seib
at Château Shatto
–Ashton Cooper

Jeanette Mundt
at Overduin & Co.
–Matt Stromberg
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Issue 17 August 2019

Letter From the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Green Chip David Hammons
at Hauser & Wirth
–Travis Diehl
Whatever Gets You
Through the Night
The Artists of Dilexi
and Wartime Trauma
–Jonathan Griffin
Generous Collectors How the Grinsteins
Supported Artists
–Catherine Wagley
Interview with
Donna Huanca
–Lindsy Preston Zappas
Working Artist Featuring Ragen Moss, Justen LeRoy,
and Bari Ziperstein
Text: Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos: Jeff McLane
Reviews Sarah Lucas
at the Hammer Museum
–Yxta Maya Murray

George Herms and Terence Koh
at Morán Morán
–Matt Stromberg

Hannah Hur
at Bel Ami
–Michael Wright

Sebastian Hernandez
at NAVEL
–Julie Weitz

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Alex Israel
at Greene Naftali
–Rosa Tyhurst

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Issue 16 May 2019

Trulee Hall's Untamed Magic Catherine Wagley
Ingredients for a Braver Art Scene Ceci Moss
I Shit on Your Graves Travis Diehl
Interview with Ruby Neri Jonathan Griffin
Carolee Schneemann and the Art of Saying Yes! Chelsea Beck
Exquisite L.A. Claressinka Anderson
Joe Pugliese
Reviews Ry Rocklen
at Honor Fraser
–Cat Kron

Rob Thom
at M+B
–Lindsay Preston Zappas

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age
of Black Power, 1963-1983
at The Broad
–Matt Stromberg

Anna Sew Hoy & Diedrick Brackens
at Various Small Fires
–Aaron Horst

Julia Haft-Candell & Suzan Frecon
at Parrasch Heijnen
–Jessica Simmons

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Shahryar Nashat
at Swiss Institute
–Christie Hayden
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Issue 15 February 2019

Letter From the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Letter to the Editor
Men on Women
Geena Brown
Eyes Without a Voice
Julian Rosefeldt's Manifesto
Christina Catherine Martinez
Seven Minute Dream Machine
Jordan Wolfson's (Female figure)
Travis Diehl
Laughing in Private
Vanessa Place's Rape Jokes
Catherine Wagley
Interview with
Rosha Yaghmai
Laura Brown
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring: Patrick Martinez,
Ramiro Gomez, and John Valadez
Claressinka Anderson
Joe Pugliese
Reviews Outliers and American
Vanguard Art at LACMA
–Jonathan Griffin

Sperm Cult
at LAXART
–Matt Stromberg

Kahlil Joseph
at MOCA PDC
–Jessica Simmons

Ingrid Luche
at Ghebaly Gallery
–Lindsay Preston Zappas

Matt Paweski
at Park View / Paul Soto
–John Zane Zappas

Trenton Doyle Hancock
at Shulamit Nazarian
–Colony Little

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Catherine Opie
at Lehmann Maupin
–Angella d'Avignon
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Issue 14 November 2018

Letter From the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Celeste Dupuy-Spencer and Figurative Religion Catherine Wagley
Lynch in Traffic Travis Diehl
The Remixed Symbology of Nina Chanel Abney Lindsay Preston Zappas
Interview with Kulapat Yantrasast Christie Hayden
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring: Sandra de la Loza, Gloria Galvez, and Steve Wong
Claressinka Anderson
Photos: Joe Pugliese
Reviews Raúl de Nieves
at Freedman Fitzpatrick
-Aaron Horst

Gertrud Parker
at Parker Gallery
-Ashton Cooper

Robert Yarber
at Nicodim Gallery
-Jonathan Griffin

Nikita Gale
at Commonwealth & Council
-Simone Krug

Lari Pittman
at Regen Projects
-Matt Stromberg

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Eckhaus Latta
at the Whitney Museum
of American Art
-Angella d'Avignon
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Issue 13 August 2018

Letter From the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Letter to the Editor Julie Weitz with Angella d'Avignon
Don't Make
Everything Boring
Catherine Wagley
The Collaborative Art
World of Norm Laich
Matt Stromberg
Oddly Satisfying Art Travis Diehl
Made in L.A. 2018 Reviews Claire de Dobay Rifelj
Jennifer Remenchik
Aaron Horst
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring: Anna Sew Hoy, Guadalupe Rosales, and Shizu Saldamando
Claressinka Anderson
Photos: Joe Pugliese
Reviews It's Snowing in LA
at AA|LA
–Matthew Lax

Fiona Conner
at the MAK Center
–Thomas Duncan

Show 2
at The Gallery @ Michael's
–Simone Krug

Deborah Roberts
at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
–Ikechukwu Casmir Onyewuenyi

Mimi Lauter
at Blum & Poe
–Jessica Simmons

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Math Bass
at Mary Boone
–Ashton Cooper

(L.A. in N.Y.)
Condo New York
–Laura Brown
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Issue 12 May 2018

Poetic Energies and
Radical Celebrations:
Senga Nengudi and Maren Hassinger
Simone Krug
Interior States of the Art Travis Diehl
Perennial Bloom:
Florals in Feminism
and Across L.A.
Angella d'Avignon
The Mess We're In Catherine Wagley
Interview with Christina Quarles Ashton Cooper
Object Project
Featuring Suné Woods, Michelle Dizon,
and Yong Soon Min
Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos: Jeff McLane
Reviews Meleko Mokgosi
at The Fowler Museum at UCLA
-Jessica Simmons

Chris Kraus
at Chateau Shatto
- Aaron Horst

Ben Sanders
at Ochi Projects
- Matt Stromberg

iris yirei hsu
at the Women's Center
for Creative Work
- Hana Cohn

Harald Szeemann
at the Getty Research Institute
- Olivian Cha

Ali Prosch
at Bed and Breakfast
- Jennifer Remenchik

Reena Spaulings
at Matthew Marks
- Thomas Duncan
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Issue 11 February 2018

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Museum as Selfie Station Matt Stromberg
Accessible as Humanly as Possible Catherine Wagley
On Laura Owens on Laura Owens Travis Diehl
Interview with Puppies Puppies Jonathan Griffin
Object Project Lindsay Preston Zappas, Jeff McLane
Reviews Dulce Dientes
at Rainbow in Spanish
- Aaron Horst

Adrián Villas Rojas
at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
- Lindsay Preston Zappas

Nevine Mahmoud
at M+B
- Angella D'Avignon

Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960- 1985
at the Hammer Museum
- Thomas Duncan

Hannah Greely and William T. Wiley
at Parker Gallery
- Keith J. Varadi

David Hockney
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (L.A. in N.Y.)
- Ashton Cooper

Edgar Arceneaux
at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (L.A. in S.F.)
- Hana Cohn
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Issue 10 November 2017

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Barely Living with Art:
The Labor of Domestic
Spaces in Los Angeles
Eli Diner
She Wanted Adventure:
Dwan, Butler, Mizuno, Copley
Catherine Wagley
The Languages of
All-Women Exhibitions
Lindsay Preston Zappas
L.A. Povera Travis Diehl
On Eclipses:
When Language
and Photography Fail
Jessica Simmons
Interview with
Hamza Walker
Julie Wietz
Object Project
Featuring: Rosha Yaghmai,
Dianna Molzan, and Patrick Jackson
Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos by Jeff McLane
Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA
Reviews
Regen Projects
Ibid Gallery
One National Gay & Lesbian Archives and MOCA PDC
The Mistake Room
Luis De Jesus Gallery
the University Art Gallery at CSULB
the Autry Museum
Reviews Cheyenne Julien
at Smart Objects

Paul Mpagi Sepuya
at team bungalow

Ravi Jackson
at Richard Telles

Tactility of Line
at Elevator Mondays

Trigger: Gender as a Tool as a Weapon
at the New Museum
(L.A. in N.Y.)
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Issue 9 August 2017

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Women on the Plinth Catherine Wagley
Us & Them, Now & Then:
Reconstituting Group Material
Travis Diehl
The Offerings of EJ Hill
Ikechukwu Casmir Onyewuenyi
Interview with Jenni Sorkin Carmen Winant
Object Project
Featuring: Rebecca Morris,
Linda Stark, Alex Olson
Lindsay Preston Zappas
Photos by Jeff McClane
Reviews Mark Bradford
at the Venice Biennale

Broken Language
at Shulamit Nazarian

Artists of Color
at the Underground Museum

Anthony Lepore & Michael Henry Hayden
at Del Vaz Projects

Home
at LACMA

Analia Saban at
Sprueth Magers
Letter to the Editor Lady Parts, Lady Arts
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Issue 8 May 2017

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Kanye Westworld Travis Diehl
@richardhawkins01 Thomas Duncan
Support Structures:
Alice Könitz and LAMOA
Catherine Wagley
Interview with
Penny Slinger
Eliza Swann
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring:
taisha paggett
Ashley Hunt
Young Chung
Intro by Claressinka Anderson
Portraits by Joe Pugliese
Reviews Alessandro Pessoli
at Marc Foxx

Jennie Jieun Lee
at The Pit

Trisha Baga
at 356 Mission

Jimmie Durham
at The Hammer

Parallel City
at Ms. Barbers

Jason Rhodes
at Hauser & Wirth
Letter to the Editor
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Issue 7 February 2017

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Generous
Structures
Catherine Wagley
Put on a Happy Face:
On Dynasty Handbag
Travis Diehl
The Limits of Animality:
Simone Forti at ISCP
(L.A. in N.Y.)
Ikechukwu Casmir Onyewuenyi
More Wound Than Ruin:
Evaluating the
"Human Condition"
Jessica Simmons
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring:
Brenna Youngblood
Todd Gray
Rafa Esparza
Intro by Claressinka Anderson
Portraits by Joe Pugliese
Reviews Creature
at The Broad

Sam Pulitzer & Peter Wachtler
at House of Gaga // Reena Spaulings Fine Art

Karl Haendel
at Susanne Vielmetter

Wolfgang Tillmans
at Regen Projects

Ma
at Chateau Shatto

The Rat Bastard Protective Association
at the Landing
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Issue 6 November 2016

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Kenneth Tam
's Basement
Travis Diehl
The Female
Cool School
Catherine Wagley
The Rise
of the L.A.
Art Witch
Amanda Yates Garcia
Interview with
Mernet Larsen
Julie Weitz
Agnes Martin
at LACMA
Jessica Simmons
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring:
Analia Saban
Ry Rocklen
Sarah Cain
Intro by Claressinka Anderson
Portraits by Joe Pugliese
Reviews
Made in L.A. 2016
at The Hammer Museum

Doug Aitken
at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

Mertzbau
at Tif Sigfrids

Jean-Pascal Flavian and Mika Tajima
at Kayne Griffin Corcoran

Mark A. Rodruigez
at Park View

The Weeping Line
Organized by Alter Space
at Four Six One Nine
(S.F. in L.A.)
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Issue 5 August 2016

Letter form the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Non-Fiction
at The Underground Museum
Catherine Wagley
The Art of Birth Carmen Winant
Escape from Bunker Hill
John Knight
at REDCAT
Travis Diehl
Ed Boreal Speaks Benjamin Lord
Art Advice (from Men) Sarah Weber
Routine Pleasures
at the MAK Center
Jonathan Griffin
Exquisite L.A.
Featuring:
Fay Ray
John Baldessari
Claire Kennedy
Intro by Claressinka Anderson
Portraits by Joe Pugliese
Reviews Revolution in the Making
at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel

Carl Cheng
at Cherry and Martin

Joan Snyder
at Parrasch Heijnen Gallery

Elanor Antin
at Diane Rosenstein

Performing the Grid
at Ben Maltz Gallery
at Otis College of Art & Design

Laura Owens
at The Wattis Institute
(L.A. in S.F.)
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Issue 4 May 2016

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Moon, laub, and Love Catherine Wagley
Walk Artisanal Jonathan Griffin
Reconsidering
Marva Marrow's
Inside the L.A. Artist
Anthony Pearson
Mystery Science Thater:
Diana Thater
at LACMA
Aaron Horst
Informal Feminisms Federica Bueti and Jan Verwoert
Marva Marrow Photographs
Lita Albuquerque
Interiors and Interiority:
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Char Jansen
Reviews L.A. Art Fairs

Material Art Fair, Mexico City

Rain Room
at LACMA

Evan Holloway
at David Kordansky Gallery

Histories of a Vanishing Present: A Prologue
at The Mistake Room

Carter Mull
at fused space
(L.A. in S.F.)

Awol Erizku
at FLAG Art Foundation
(L.A. in N.Y.)
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Issue 3 February 2016

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Le Louvre, Las Vegas Evan Moffitt
iPhones, Flesh,
and the Word:
F.B.I.
at Arturo Bandini
Lindsay Preston Zappas
Women Talking About Barney Catherine Wagley
Lingua Ignota:
Faith Wilding
at The Armory Center
for the Arts
and LOUDHAILER
Benjamin Lord
A Conversation
with Amalia Ulman
Char Jansen
How We Practice Carmen Winant
Share Your Piece
of the Puzzle
Federica Bueti
Amanda Ross-Ho Photographs
Erik Frydenborg
Reviews Honeydew
at Michael Thibault

Fred Tomaselli
at California State University, Fullerton

Trisha Donnelly
at Matthew Marks Gallery

Bradford Kessler
at ASHES/ASHES
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Issue 2 November 2015

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
Hot Tears Carmen Winant
Slow View:
Molly Larkey
Anna Breininger and Kate Whitlock
Americanicity's Paintings:
Orion Martin
at Favorite Goods
Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal
Layers of Leimert Park Catherine Wagley
Junkspace Junk Food:
Parker Ito
at Kaldi, Smart Objects,
White Cube, and
Château Shatto
Evan Moffitt
Melrose Hustle Keith Vaughn
Max Maslansky Photographs
Monica Majoli
at the Tom of Finland Foundation
White Lee, Black Lee:
William Pope.L’s "Reenactor"
Travis Diehl
Dora Budor Interview Char Jensen
Reviews Mary Ried Kelley
at The Hammer Museum

Tongues Untied
at MOCA Pacific Design Center

No Joke
at Tanya Leighton
(L.A. in Berlin)
Snap Reviews Martin Basher at Anat Ebgi
Body Parts I-V at ASHES ASHES
Eve Fowler at Mier Gallery
Matt Siegle at Park View
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Issue 1 August 2015

Letter from the Editor Lindsay Preston Zappas
MEAT PHYSICS/
Metaphysical L.A.
Travis Diehl
Art for Art’s Sake:
L.A. in the 1990s
Anthony Pearson
A Dialogue in Two
Synchronous Atmospheres
Erik Morse
with Alexandra Grant
SOGTFO
at François Ghebaly
Jonathan Griffin
#studio #visit
with #devin #kenny
@barnettcohen
Mateo Tannatt
Photographs
Jibade-Khalil Huffman
Slow View:
Discussion on One Work
Anna Breininger
with Julian Rogers
Reviews Pierre Huyghe
at LACMA

Mernet Larsen
at Various Small Fires

John Currin
at Gagosian, Beverly Hills

Pat O'Niell
at Cherry and Martin

A New Rhythm
at Park View

Unwatchable Scenes and
Other Unreliable Images...
at Public Fiction

Charles Gaines
at The Hammer Museum

Henry Taylor
at Blum & Poe/ Untitled
(L.A. in N.Y.)
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Distribution
Central
1301 PE
Anat Ebgi (La Cienega)
Anat Ebgi (Wilshire)
Arcana Books
Artbook @ Hauser & Wirth
as-is.la
Babst Gallery
Baert Gallery
Bel Ami
BLUM
Canary Test
Carlye Packer
Charlie James Gallery
Château Shatto
Chris Sharp Gallery
Cirrus Gallery
Clay ca
Commonwealth & Council
Craft Contemporary
D2 Art (Inglewood)
D2 Art (Westwood)
David Kordansky Gallery
David Zwirner
Diane Rosenstein
dublab
FOYER-LA
François Ghebaly
Gana Art Los Angeles
GAVLAK
George Billis Gallery
Giovanni's Room
Hamzianpour & Kia
Hannah Hoffman Gallery
Harkawik
Harper's Gallery
Hashimoto Contemporary
Heavy Manners Library
Helen J Gallery
Human Resources
Hunter Shaw Fine Art
ICA LA
in lieu
JOAN
Karma
LACA
LaPau Gallery
Lisson Gallery
Lowell Ryan Projects
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
M+B
MAK Center for Art and Architecture
Make Room Los Angeles
Matter Studio Gallery
Matthew Brown Los Angeles
MOCA Grand Avenue
Monte Vista Projects
Morán Morán
Moskowitz Bayse
Murmurs
Nazarian / Curcio
Night Gallery
Nino Mier Gallery
Nonaka-Hill
NOON Projects
O-Town House
OCHI
One Trick Pony
Pace
Paradise Framing
Park View / Paul Soto
Patricia Sweetow Gallery
Praz-Delavallade
Regen Projects
Reparations Club
r d f a
REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater)
Roberts Projects
Royale Projects
Sean Kelly
Sebastian Gladstone
Shoshana Wayne Gallery
SHRINE
Simchowitz
Smart Objects
SOLDES
SPRÜTH MAGERS
Steve Turner
Stroll Garden
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
The Box
The Fulcrum
The Hole
The Landing
The LODGE
The Poetic Research Bureau
The Wende Museum
Thinkspace Projects
Tierra del Sol Gallery
Tiger Strikes Astroid
Tomorrow Today
Track 16
Tyler Park Presents
USC Fisher Museum of Art
UTA Artist Space
Various Small Fires
Village Well Books & Coffee
Wönzimer
Outside L.A.
Libraries/ Collections
Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, MD)
Bard College, CCS Library (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY)
Charlotte Street Foundation (Kansas City, MO)
Cranbrook Academy of Art (Bloomfield Hills, MI)
Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles, CA)
Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (Los Angeles, CA)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, CA)
Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore, MD)
Midway Contemporary Art (Minneapolis, MN)
Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, CA)
NYS College of Ceramics at Alfred University (Alfred, NY)
Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, CA)
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY)
University of California Irvine, Langston IMCA (Irvine, CA)
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN)
Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY)
Yale University Library (New Haven, CT)

Interview with
Amia Yokoyama

Leer en Español

Photo: Jonathan Chacon.

“I have recently learned about Planaria, a small animal species that self-reproduces and regenerates. You cut off a piece of these simple creatures and they grow a new piece all-together. Once the piece has been cut off there is an electric charge which goes out in the shape of what is to be regrown, this diagram is then filled by the fat of regenerating tissue—do you hear what this means? Until we can conceive the shape of what has not yet been we cannot fill it. Until we can feel beyond what we have been given what we have been given, what we have found, what we have been told is right and so forth, until we can feel a need and desire for what does not exist, how can we decide over a future or even think of providing it? This is the function of poetry. This is the function of dreaming. Our ideas follow our needs and desires, our ideas follow vision.”

–Audre Lorde1

During a recent conversation, I was read the above quote by Amia Yokoyama, a sculptor, animator, and friend. Throughout our friendship, I’ve been awed by her sense of scope and by her thirst to observe and understand the depths and heights of the universe. This is clear in what she makes and how she makes it. While Amia works within a cohesive language of form and color, she intersperses nuanced personal reflections and dialogue into her exhibitions, constantly keeping me guessing what might show up next. She recently created a series of untitled holographic works—Untitled (green) Ed 1 (2022) pictures a holographic cluster of her familiar, fluid ceramic figures. The image is lined with a thumby and elaborate ceramic frame that resembles fossilized plant matter. I am struck by the juxtaposition between what is clearly there— the weight of the frame, its textures and scale—and what appears, but what is not quite present. As much of her work takes either the form of sculpture or video animation, the medium of the hologram—a kind of screen that cradles an image of a physical sculpture—feels like a perfect marriage between these two mediums. It acts as an inquiry into a more immaterial place, seeking a connection to worlds beyond the one we all share here and now. 

Yokoyama’s new hologram works allowed me to approach some of my favorite of her previous works with fresh eyes—namely, her 2020 installation at the Brand Library & Art Center, Initial Conditions, a two-channel animation featuring objects that wriggle and remake themselves in a kind of alien non-space. With these revelations in mind, we picked up on our ongoing conversation about hybrid materiality, the theory of the holographic universe, and how to imagine new possibilities. 

Yves B. Golden: As I understand it, your sculptural work comes from a lot of research—from religious iconography to scientific quandaries—while also reflecting and refracting your past and present experiences. Where do you typically start in the studio? 

Amia Yokoyama: I definitely think about religious iconography, but additionally, cosmology, and mythology. What could be called “real science” as well as science fiction [both] influence my work, partially because I think something that they have in common is the way they attempt to explain what seems to be unexplainable. Within those attempts to try to explain, there’s a lot of falling short, a lot of failure. There [are] a lot of breaking points in that space that I find to be fertile ground for my practice. 

YBG: What propelled the leap to holograms? 

AY: The two main branches of my practice have always been ceramic-based sculpture and animation. Then there’s the stop motion and 3-D CGI animation—working within three dimensions but in a digital space. When I began making work, I was interested in how the 3-dimensional physical sculptures, for example, [can] be uploaded into the digital plane, and how imagery from the digital plane can be exported out. I am interested in this pushing and pulling back and forth through two very different manifestations of 3-dimensional being.

Holograms are this “futuristic” technology from the 1940s that embodied the potential to achieve the impossible—albeit an illusion.2 [It was] like a photographic fad, I guess you could say. It’s related to photography in that it is a print, and there is a capturing of an image happening. Holograms are a way to capture 3-dimensional space on a 2-dimensional surface, and in animation, I’m constantly in that sort of language, [thinking about] how to describe 3-dimensional space or a to fully [flesh out a] 3-dimensional world within a 2-dimensional surface like a screen or a projection. With this technology, rather than capturing a singular light field, we are capturing an entire light field of a 3-D object and basically communicating or recording that higher dimensional information onto a 2-dimensional surface.

YBG: What is higher dimensional information? 

AY: So, 2-dimensional information is confined to a plane, a screen, or a 2-dimensional surface, while 3-dimensional information is up, down, left, right. Then, 4-dimensional concepts are where things get extra freaky.

YBG: For sure. So when you mentioned that you digitize all your sculptures, you said that the programs you use allow you to think in new ways about scale and more. How else does that process of archiving your work impact making new work?

AY: Essentially, every sculpture that I make I scan with basic 3-D scanning technology. What happens when I scan the object is this “wow” factor. Like, oh my gosh, I just captured this 3-dimensional thing in the digital sphere! Additionally, there’s all the places where the software kind of fails to capture it and glitches out. It can’t quite capture reality as we perceive it. The software brain has to invent what would go there, filling in its own blanks. I like pushing software into a place where it fails. These moments of failure become liberated spaces for us to flourish.

When I transfer something from the physical to the digital, I can play with the scale or the other basic things you can change within a digital animation software. When you open it up, you have scale, position, rotation, and opacity—those are the basic building blocks for how to manipulate an image or an object digitally. So, by increasing the scale or the rotation, or even the opacity, I can go inside and explore the interior spaces of these sculptures. And in some ways, they can become entire landscapes or entire worlds within themselves.

YBG: This process feels so collaborative and spontaneous. It’s so resourceful. Do you think that working at the margins of technological, but also scientific, error evidences something larger about how you perceive the world and what’s possible? Observable? You take the sculptures back into the digital realm and now you’re into holograms. There just seems to be something driving this exploration further.

AY: I’m playing with a lot of materials and technologies, but also [with] theories like the [principle of the] holographic universe. This is the theory that our reality, as we can perceive it, is a projection from a lower dimension. Like I said, a hologram captures the full light field of a physical object and embeds it into a 2-D surface. The theory of the holographic universe is saying that this is actually happening, and that this very well may be what our world is—what we are experiencing as three dimensions is actually a projection or recording from [another] dimension. I love playing in these spaces that attempt to explain something so, so, so big. So, yes, imagining beyond this dimension and creating these worlds in my art influences how I interact with everything.

The world can feel like so much more and sometimes feels like so much less than what it is giving.

Amia Yokoyama, Untitled (green) Ed 1 (2022). Ceramic, glass, holographic print, wood, and epoxy, 24 × 19 × 4 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Sebastian Gladstone.

YBG: Now there’s a fridge magnet!

AY: Right?! I love when science [gives us] a really poetic way of describing something huge. There’s that kind of breakdown of hierarchies where feelings, perceptions, quantum physics, etcetera—they’re all happening at the same time. They’re intertwined.

YBG: In what ways do your reproductions of the self or your experiences go beyond the figure?

AY: The figures [in my work] represent a human and are hyper-feminized, but they actually behave more like a fungus or a virus. They are these kind of borderless, or semi-solid, oozing beings. They seduce their prey, absorb, and destroy human beings by feeding on their bodily fluids. Then they reproduce in aromantic ways. It’s similar to the way a virus can multiply and take over, or the way a fungus can grow on the surface of a decaying body. I also use some animals and iconography from different Japanese myths. I incorporate this and weave it into internet myths. I enjoy remixing or almost collaging different levels of mythologies or fictions with reality in my sculptures. 

YBG: I love how your figures mirror natural functions at their most abstract level, because when I look at them, I see something very extreme and primordial in the glazing and the textures. There are no real hierarchies between the organic and technological parts of your practice. Specifically, with the oozing femme figures, you’re playing with what their bodies signify—like a shorthand. On a surface level, they’re just fetishy, but adding this layer of the macrophage-like life cycles they have—or their colors or textural qualities—makes them so superficially inviting, and also very dangerous. 

AY: Right! Another thing I feel ties the holograms to these slime girl figures is [their] cellular qualit[y]. Also, similar to mythology and tradition, the more mythology reproduces itself by being told over and over and over, the more potential there is for it to change and evolve slightly. If a hologram is fragmented or broken up into little pieces, each piece will hold the image of the whole object. The best example is like if when you shatter a mirror, you could still see a full reflection in each piece, just smaller.

YBG: I want to go back to something that you said just now about your sculptures, about their bodies, the oozing boundlessness…

AY: The fluid’s not really one thing in particular, but it can be. It is evading being named at all times, and it embodies this kind of unstable, ever-changing abstraction that we’re all made up of, or that I feel made up of.

YBG: Is the fluid we’re talking about the “gender” fluid?

[Laughter] 

AY: The femmes I create are made of something that performs self-regeneration. There [are] many of them and they are literally multiplying as I make them. They’re growing out of themselves, cloning themselves. Sometimes, there might be a clump of them together, and that mass equals the same scale as a singular one in another sculpture. Their self-regenerative properties are what I really like about them. On a cellular level, they can absorb another body, and this is where they get their vital life force from. It’s like osmosis, a macrophage, or a planaria.

YBG: It seems like there’s such a play in your work and in how you think about wholeness. We spoke about how the whole is composed of many singulars and this idea of the shard of a hologram being able to codify the whole image, the entire light field of an object. I can tell you’re toying a lot with this macro-to-micro lens. You’re always bouncing from the whole to the parts and back again.

AY: Yes! The original attraction to holograms came from the fact that they are physical objects that embody functions of the digital: a 3-dimensional thing that you can see but is not there. I love that they encode light in such a way that they can be fractured and each piece still contains information of the whole—so, thinking about a whole or a truth that cannot be destroyed through breaking or fracturing. I love a process that can assemble and disassemble and assemble again. 

I feel like a huge part of my practice is me just wanting to sharpen my tools of imagination. In Audre Lorde’s quote, and in talking about the planaria, she describes wanting us to imagine deeper, to project what isn’t there so that it can be possible. We need imagination and we need vision and we need dreaming and we need poetry in order to fulfill anything, in order to build anything new.

Amia Yokoyama is a multimedia Los Angeles-based artist who works with experimental animation, video, sculpture, and installation. The imagery in Yokoyama’s work stems from her speculation about the future and exploration of the duality between wonder and horror. Yokoyama seeks to ensure that her work evokes a playful, otherworldly feeling while creating a style that is suggestive of the future and the past.

This interview was originally published in Carla issue 30.

Amia Yokoyama, Initial Conditions (video still) (2018). 2-channel video with CGI and stop-motion animation, 4 minutes and 55 seconds. Image courtesy of the artist and Sebastian Gladstone.

Amia Yokoyama, Initial Conditions (video still) (2018). 2-channel video with CGI and stop-motion animation, 4 minutes and 55 seconds. Image courtesy of the artist and Sebastian Gladstone.

  1. Audre Lorde, “Black Women’s Poetry Seminar, Session 3, May 10, 1984,” in Audre Lorde: Dream of Europe: Selected Seminars and Interviews: 1984-1992, ed. Mayra A. Castro Rodríguez and Dagmar Schultz (Chicago: Kenning Editions, 2020), 33–34.
  2. “History of Holography,” Holography, accessed October 16, 2022, http://www.holography.ru/histeng.htm.

Yves B. Golden is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, DJ, and organizer. Her work explores visibility, dignity, and the sacred bond that exists between memory and physical objects. In May 2020, Yves co-founded the Herbal Mutual Aid Network, an expanding nonprofit initiative working to bring care and resources to Black, Trans, Indigenous, and Disabled individuals. 

More by Yves B. Golden