We Are Close in Distance
University of Southern California | MA Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere Thesis Exhibition
We Are Close in Distance considers how physical, temporal, and archival space has the power to unite, as well as to divide, through the excavation of interpersonal, intergenerational, and spatial intimacies. The participating artists comprise a diverse and multigenerational group of artistic voices. Working across media including painting, photography, poetry, performance, video, sculpture, and zines, the exhibition's artists explore how intimacies are constructed, broken down, and reclaimed in a culmination of the continuously unfolding present and lingering past. By investigating the poetics of fleeting closeness from personal and cultural perspectives, the exhibition excavates the contested nature of legacies and diasporas. Challenging conceptions of our relationships with one another and between generations, We Are Close in Distance considers how art can illuminate often overlooked relationalities. The exhibition spans two spaces at the USC Roski Graduate Building in the Los Angeles Arts District. Gallery North foregrounds video, poetry, installation, and pictorial mediums, while Gallery South primarily houses zines, as well as malleable and ephemeral forms. The exhibition’s spatial breadth complements the expansive range of media present and serves as a comprehensive site of interactive opportunities for viewers. We Are Close in Distance empowers participants to question how one can care for and nourish their communities through art, performance, and ephemera.
We Are Close in Distance Introduction. Co-authored by Storm Bookhard, Adrianne Ramsey, and Jonas Short.
Exhibited artists: Sadie Barnette, Edwin Bodney, Tonya Ingram, Amanda Gentry, Carl George, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Ross Laycock, Ozzie Juarez, Vishal Jugdeo, Jose Guadalupe Sanchez III, Anna Sergeeva, Ron Tarver, Joey Terrill, Xirin, and Diana Zeng.
Venue: USC Roski Graduate Gallery at the University of Southern California
Dates: November 4, 2022 - December 2, 2022
Exhibition posters designed by Emma Renhung Luke Welch.