THE KITCHEN TABLE is a reprise of the series of conversations organized by Eugenia P. Butler in 1993 at the ART/LA art fair.

Situated within the College Art Association Conference at the same LA Convention Center that was the site for the ’93 talks, we will bring together a group of articulate cultural thinkers of our time—primarily artists—seating them around a table, perhaps the oldest cultural institution.

To create the deepest discourse possible about the powerful impact of art on society. Their focus will be to better understand our present, and, by using the visionary tools of the artist, to begin to visualize our future.

Watch live feed of the conversations on a monitor at the College Art Association Conference, or see it online here:  http://www.livestream.com/xtraevents

TALK 1

Thursday 12:30 pm

Faith Wilding
Miles Coolidge
Kerry Tribe
John Tain
Ana Prvacki
Cindy Smith
Shana Lutker

TALK 2

Friday 12:30 pm

Ashley Hunt
Marie Shurkus
Mark Lee
Charles Gaines
Lita Albuquerque
Gabriel Ferrer
Corazon del Sol &
Karen  Dunbar

TALK 3

Friday 3pm

Marcos Lutyens
Bob Bates
Barbara T. Smith
Dana Duff
Leila Hamidi

Most integral to this event will be the invited guests. The participants will be drawn from the local and the international community, having been carefully chosen for their qualities as human beings and artists. They are characterized as deep and catalytic thinkers who also have the ability to enter and move into a dialogue. They will be fed and housed within the community—in effect serving as bio-implants into Los Angeles. As the city itself sits poised for change, aware of its shadow while gazing at the horizon, THE KITCHEN TABLE examines the power of art to affect culture, using discourse as a social tool.

During the conference, inside a secret room—a metaphor for the soul of a society—there will be three “meals.” The 40 x 11 foot space will reflect the essence of a kitchen, setting up with delicious food and drink, the ideal atmosphere to engage in such a dialogue. Because each meal involves different guests, with each guest reflecting a different background, experience, and ideology, THE KITCHEN TABLE, like life, will be collaborative and its outcome mysterious.

This ‘meeting of the minds’ will be enlightening and entertaining. A video documentary will be made of the event. Video monitors will be placed within the Convention Center to broadcast the dialogues and they will be live streamed on the internet.

More information on the original Kitchen Table talks: http://eugeniapbutler.com/
Read excerpts from the Talks in X-TRA

Thanks to the College Art Association for making this event possible.

Become a part of the Kitchen Table and email us your questions to editors@x-traonline.org with “Kitchen Table Question” in the subject line.

Your questions will be credited and included in the documentation of the Kitchen Table.

Notes to Eugenia made to herself a few months before embarking on THE KITCHEN TABLE:
Make something to listen to the utter sound of the self… holding a form while also changing and transforming. Listen to it. Make something to enlarge the ability to hear.
The acuity and aliveness of the Gap…passing through that gap…electricity…mining the interstices. MATRIX
A Matrix of power rather than a hierarchy of power
Make art which has the ability to act in the real world
Mix art and non art context
Connect art and mundane life
Find a way to inject its expression into the global discourse
The interweaving of the visible and the invisible
The possibility of tapping into that order of reality that is behind the world of appearances
The reflexive relationship of knowledge and nature
Observed patterns of matter are reflections of patterns of mind
Every marksman knows that if a bullet misses its target, the gun was not aimed correctly