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Project X Foundation and Armory Center for the Arts present:

What does art practice have to do with political activism?
with Danielle Bustillo, William Henri Lucas, Chandler McWilliams
Organized and moderated by Johanna Hedva,
current Project X Desk at Outpost@Armory resident

Tuesday, October 28, 2014
7 – 9 pm

Armory Center for the Arts
145 N Raymond Ave
Pasadena, CA 91103

What Does Art Practice Have to Do with Political Activism?

For artists, the question of practice vs. theory becomes especially relevant — and complicated — when asked in the context of the political. Artists who are interested in political questions, critique, and activism, must consider strategies for making that sit, sometimes uneasily, atop boundaries of multiple disciplines, ethics, obstacles, and goals. This panel brings together three artists from varied backgrounds and media, whose engagement with the political has taken distinct forms: from prankster gestures to philosophical inquiry. Moderated by Johanna Hedva, the artists will discuss the practical considerations of art-making in relation to political engagement.

Organized in parallel to the theoretical panel “How to Cite a Leaked Document: Civil Disobedience in the Digital Age,” hosted by the Aesthetics and Politics lecture series at CalArts in early October, this panel is the culmination of Johanna Hedva’s residency at the Project X Desk at the Armory. During her residency, Hedva was at work on a mythico-political novel that proposes Snowden and Manning as contemporary versions of Icarus and Dedalus.

About the Participants:

Willem Henri Lucas studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Arnhem in the Netherlands and did his post academic studies at the Sandberg institute (Rietveld Academy) in Amsterdam. From 1990 to 2002, he served as professor and chair of the Utrecht School of the Arts’ Graphic Design department. From 2009 to 2014, he was the chair of the Design Media Arts department at UCLA where he continues to teach. His works is mostly based in the fields of culture and art. He has won several book and poster design awards in the Netherlands and the US. Primarily a book designer (exploring sensibility of printed matter, in material as well as content), Lucas is interested in addressing social issues and bringing design back “to the street,” and “humanity” back into design, encouraging future designers to be a valuable part of their communities. His body of work deals with issues of “war” and “love,” and “the human condition.”

Chandler McWilliams is an artist and writer living and working in Los Angeles. His work uses sculpture, text, and performance to cope with ethics, space, perception, and thought. He has studied film, photography, and political science; and completed graduate work in philosophy at The New School For Social Research in New York City. In 2013, he received an MFA from the Program in Art at the California Institute of the Arts. He currently teaches in the Design Media Arts program at UCLA.

Danielle Bustillo:
+born in Miami, Fl to a French mother and Cuban father
+understood that to be a ‘communist’ was not actually a slur by the time she left the U.S. for France at age 9 and began to wear Che T-shirts and peace sign chokers
+attended 5 different institutions before finally completing a bachelors in art at Hunter College, NY
+received an MFA from the Art & Technology program at California Institute of the Arts
+interested in the dynamics of power and authority and in complicating authorship strategies
+a host and member of the Best Friends Learning Gang, a pedagogical initiative that explores collective, decentralized learning
+an organizer in neverhitsend, an artist collective that emerged in the wake of the first Snowden leaks in June 2013 that performs and discusses issues around communications ideology
+part of a cyberpunk reading club

Johanna Hedva (formerly Johanna Kozma) is a Los Angeles-based artist and writer. Her work has been performed at the Hammer Museum, Southern Exposure, PERFORM! Now, Machine Project, PØST, New Wight Gallery, Anatomy Riot, PAM, and in The Getty’s Pacific Standard Time. Her writing has appeared in PANK, Circle, InDigest, Rymden Magazine, and in the WHL Studio Reader series, of which she is a co-founder. She has been a visiting artist speaker at Art Center College of Design, Pomona College of Art, UCLA, and California Institute of the Arts. She holds an MFA in Art and a Master’s in Aesthetics and Politics from California Institute of the Arts.