Farmlab Public SalonChristina UlkeFriday, March 20, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

About the Salon Join Christina Ulke for a reflection on collective cultural resistance practices in the Americas and beyond. She will talk about her work with the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, collective identity and representation and some of her public art work.

About JOA&P Issue 6, i love to we:
In this time of political transition the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest offers a vital portrait of creative and critical ideas driving at the grassroots. 8 years of failed and erratic leadership underlies the new issue of the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest. Issue 6 is three books in one: In three acts of contemporary analysis (“i love to we”, “Antiwar Survey”, “Insurgent Theory”*) the issue attempts to capture voices and projects crucial to artists, activists and other exploratory practitioners. The laboratory of social and political media produced during this decade has been explosive. The seeds from this eruption have spilt every which way.

In “i love to we”, editor Christina Ulke has chosen to look at projects taking root and becoming members of deep forests, rather than just a gaudy spring time show. Leaving cold war inspired practices of resistance behind, often characterized by short interventions and tactical play, this section of the Journal theorizes art and cultural practices that generate change through the means of conscientious infrastructure building--and their political potential. Contributors: Amy Franceschini, Fritz Haeg, Bonnie Fortune, Brett Bloom, Juliana Parr, Charlotte Sáenz (aka Lozeh Luna), Kelly Marie Martin, Aviv Kruglanski, Kate Rich, Ben Schaafsma, Aimee Le Duc, Mark Chamberlain, Lisa Anne Auerbach, Veronica Wiman, Town Hall Meetings (Daniel Tucker, Nato Thompson and LA Participants).

*West Coast Antiwar Survey edited by Robby Herbst and Insurgent Theory, Marc Herbst Editor.


About the Salon Speaker
Christina Ulke is a public artist and theorist; co-editor of the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, co-founder of joaap.org and co-publisher of the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest Press. Joaap’s activities include the production of discourse around artists and activists’ practices in form of a printed and online Journal, public lecture series, curatorial work, art projects, and the Journal Press. Its serial publications are distributed nationally, internationally and are available online (http://www.joaap.org/6/issue6.htm). With the editorial collective of the Journal (current members include Marc Herbst, Robby Herbst and Christina Ulke. Past members also included Ryan Griffis, Cara Baldwin and Lize Mogel), she has contributed to the 2008 California Biennial; Democracy in America: The national Campaign, Creative Time 2008; Civic Matters, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions; Fine Print: Alternative Media, P.S.1, New York; and the documenta 12 Magazine Project Archive, Kassel, Germany. Ulke has presented in numerous museums, art schools, universities, and conferences, including Transitory Público at the UCLA Labor Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. She has created permanent and temporary public artworks, including a bus stop poster project for A Los Angeles Llegaron y por Hollywood se Pasearon during the Mexico City Book Fair and Amigo Studios Revisited, a permanent parking lot installation commemorating a legendary recording studio in North Hollywood. Her most recent public art project, twenty-two thoughts meeting at a corner, was a commission for the Silver Lake Branch Public Library. She currently serves on the faculty of the Graduate Public Art Studies Program (Art in the Public Sphere) at USC.

Image: “Das Ende Einer Ankündigung”:
California Herbs and Spice Company (Christina Ulke& Marc Herbst) with Gardenkunst Netz, Radio Ligna, Projekt Gruppe, and participants. Hamburg Germany, 2008