Fall of Freedom: Democracy in the LACE Archive
Friday November 21, 2025, 12–5 PM | Walk in, no RSVP needed
The Intimate Theatre at The Luckman, California State University, Los Angeles
5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90032
Parking is available on the top deck of Structure C, located directly in front of The Luckman.
Know Before You Go | Digital Program
On Thursday November 21, LACE is participating in Fall Of Freedom, a nationwide cultural movement uniting artists, institutions, and communities in celebration of creative expression and solidarity. Joining together through this two-day initiative, artists, galleries, museums, and more are using our voices, art, and energy to stand against censorship and celebrate freedom.
For Fall of Freedom, LACE presents a selection of video works and performance documentation from the organization’s archive that address freedom, censorship, and interrogate fallacies around American identity. Featuring projects by 011668, Jackie Amézquita, Cassils, Ulysses Jenkins, The Dark Bob, and Perras Bravas, Democracy in the LACE Archive will show on loop in the Luckman’s Intimate Theater at Cal State Los Angeles. Our current exhibition A Tender Excavation will be on view at the Luckman Gallery next door.
ABOUT FALL OF FREEDOM
Fall of Freedom is an urgent call to the arts community to unite in defiance of authoritarian forces sweeping the nation. Our Democracy is under attack. Threats to free expression are rising. Dissent is being criminalized. Institutions and media have been recast as mouthpieces of propaganda.
This Fall, we are activating a nationwide wave of creative resistance. Beginning November 21–22, 2025, galleries, museums, libraries, comedy clubs, theaters, and concert halls across the country will host exhibitions, performances, and public events that channel the urgency of this moment. Fall of Freedom is an open invitation to artists, creators, and communities to take part—and to celebrate the experiences, cultures, and identities that shape the fabric of our nation.
Art matters. Artists are a threat to American fascism.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
011668 [b. 1995 Whittier, CA] is an American interdisciplinary artist exploring spirituality, mythology, and cosmogony through the digital age. Acknowledging industrial forces as our modern pantheon, 011668 unravels a contemporary creation myth while fusing elements of butoh dance, tokusatsu, and film noir.
Jackie Amezquita (b. 1985) is a Central American artist based in Los Angeles, California. Amézquita was born in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, and migrated to the United States in 2003. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from ArtCenter College of Design and an Associate degree in Visual Communications from Los Angeles Valley College. She recently completed her Master of Fine Arts in the New Genres program at the University of California, Los Angeles (2022).
Cassils (Los Angeles/ NYC) is a Canadian transgender artist who makes their own body the material and protagonist of their performances. Cassils’ art contemplates the history(s) of LGBTQI+ violence, representation, struggle, and empowerment. For Cassils, performance is a form of social sculpture: Drawing from the idea that bodies are formed in relation to forces of power and social expectations, Cassils’ work investigates historical contexts to examine the present moment.
Ulysses Jenkins is a video/performance artist with an MFA in Intermedia-Video/Performance Art from Otis Art Institute. Los Angeles, CA in 1979 where he earned a MFA. His undergraduate degree is from Southern University in Baton Rouge Louisiana, where he earned his BA degree in Painting and Drawing. Previously Jenkins taught video production at UC San Diego and Otis College of Art, and performance art at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He currently is an emeritus Professor from the University of California, Irvine; in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, from the Department of Art (1993–2022). His video and media work examines how image, sound, and cultural iconography inform representation. Combining archival footage, photography, digital collage, and music soundtracks, Jenkins constructs an “other” history that questions issues of race and gender as they relate to ritual, history, and state power. Source
The Dark Bob (Francis Shishim). As a founding member of the conceptual art team Bob & Bob, The Dark Bob is widely acknowledged as a pioneer in the Los Angeles performance art scene dating back to the mid-70s. He recently released a double album of tribute songs to artists, performed by many of LA’s favorite musicians, and is currently producing a documentary film about the history of Los Angeles performance art with Michael Masucci of EZTV, while simultaneously preparing for a retrospective exhibition of Bob & Bob drawings slated for 2026 at the Craig Krull Gallery. His works are in many public collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Getty Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He has been inducted twice into the Smithsonian Institute’s Archives of American Art for both his solo work and his collaborations as half of the Bob & Bob team.
Perras Bravas is a border-based collective in Ciudad Juárez created in 2020. Through urban arts we made installations, community murals, and creative spaces for self-expression that bring attention to the complexities of life in our territory. Our work addresses issues such as migration, violence, and community empowerment from an anti-patriarchal and anti-capitalist perspective.
