Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/01/2016
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location
The Armory Center For the Arts
Category(ies)
Radio Imagination: Artists in the Archive of Octavia E. Butler is a group exhibition organized by the Los Angeles-based not-for-profit organization Clockshop.
The exhibition debuts 6 new commissions inspired by the Octavia E. Butler papers at the Huntington Library. The exhibition is part of Clockshop’s year-long program throughout 2016 celebrating the life and work of Pasadena science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006).
Octavia E. Butler was a bestselling and award-winning author, receiving both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for her groundbreaking science fiction, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN West. She was the first Black woman to achieve international prominence in the genre, and is the first and only writer of science fiction to earn a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship. With Black female protagonists, radical notions of kinship, and a keen understanding of power dynamics, Butler’s writing revamped the conventions of the science fiction genre. Ultimately, her work suggested new ways of thinking and new models of working for generations of writers and artists to come. 2016 marks the 10-year anniversary of Butler’s death.
Radio Imagination debuts new work by Laylah Ali, Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade, Lauren Halsey, Mendi + Keith Obadike, Connie Samaras, and Cauleen Smith—contemporary artists working in performance, sound, installation, photography, drawing, and video. Forming an unprecedented collaboration with Clockshop, the Huntington Library in San Marino granted these artists access to work in Butler’s archive. The Octavia E. Butler Collection at the Huntington Library consists of 8,000 individually cataloged items and more than 80 boxes of additional ephemera. Materials range from Butler’s very first short stories, written at age 12, to manuscripts, photographs, and Butler’s collection of inspirational quotes. The commissioned artists comprise an intergenerational group of emerging and established artists, each with an affinity for Butler’s work and a long-standing interest in her oeuvre.
Radio Imagination includes related programming. Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade’s performance Star Choir will repeat twice on the opening night at the neighboring Levitt Pavilion at 8pm and 8:40pm. In addition, a tour of Butler’s Pasadena led by Butler biographer and founder of the Octavia Butler Legacy Network Ayana A.H. Jamieson will meet at the Armory on December 4, 2016. On October 19 an in-gallery talk will feature Radio Imagination artist Connie Samaras in conversation with writer Lynell George and on December 11 artist Lauren Halsey will talk with writer Fred Moten.
Additional Radio Imagination events happening this fall include a musical performance by Nicole Mitchell and a panel discussion on radical reproduction at the Huntington; and a screening of short films at REDCAT curated by Erin Christovale. For more info on this program please click here.
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