Detail from “Our Abyssal Kin.” [ArtCenter]
An opening reception will be held Thursday, Sept. 18 from 5 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the gallery, located on ArtCenter’s Hillside Campus at 1700 Lida Street. Admission is free.
The large-scale installation features four-channel video, glass and ceramic sculptures, and curated animal and mineral specimens. It invites viewers to reflect on the ecological and political consequences of deep-sea mining, spotlighting what the artists describe as the “more-than-human”—a framework that draws attention to relationships between species, elements and forces over human-centered narratives.
At the heart of the exhibition is “Stray Dog Hydrophobia” (2024), a four-channel video work that critiques the commodification of the ocean amid rising global demand for seabed minerals used in electric infrastructure and consumer goods. The installation challenges dominant narratives that treat nature as an extractable resource, instead proposing that it is “inextricably and interdependently linked to human life,” according to Chang and Kelley.
A one-night-only live musical performance and film installation of “Stray Dog Hydrophobia” will be presented by LACMA Art + Technology on Thursday, Nov. 6 at 7:00 p.m. at the Smidt Family Plaza, adjacent to the museum’s new David Geffen Galleries at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard.Filmed in and off the coast of Jamaica, as well as in London, Southampton and Oxford, England, the performance surrounds audiences with four synchronized projections and live narration. A chorus of vocalists, percussionists and horn players will perform composer Yasna Yamaoka Vismale’s score, which blends ethereal vocals, Afro-Jamaican drum rhythms, free jazz, West African influences and Maroon music with diegetic film audio.
Dramatic narrators will accompany the live performance, weaving together music and storytelling in a multisensory meditation on oceanic histories. The work resists violent histories and present challenges while carrying a note of hope for the ocean’s future.
For more information please visit https://www.artcenter.edu/connect/events/our-abyssal-kin.html
