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You are here: Home / LACE / 2015-2019 / Natalie Bookchin

Natalie Bookchin

Photos by Joshua White.

In 2012 LACE commissioned Natalie Bookchin to produce a new work titled Now he’s out in public and everyone can see, an 18-channel video installation that weaves together found fragments from online video diaries in which vloggers recount a series of media scandals involving African American men. The multiple stories, originally shared via viral circulation and inflamed by media networks, participated in a dialogue surrounding themes of racial and class identity while exploring popular attitudes, anxieties, and conflicts related to the perception and construction of race. The montage produced by the multiple monitors in the gallery mirrored the composite story of a racialized subject under scrutiny. Where the typical viewer of online video is a single person in front of her screen, the installation produced an active social space wherein multiple viewers navigated through a physical media environment, piecing together a fragmented and layered narrative told across space and time.

Now he’s out in public and everyone can see was developed over the course of two and a half years and is indicative of a large body of work in which Bookchin re-purposes videos made and circulated online, thereby giving new social context, shape, and form to individual expressions. Previous video works in this series also addressed current social events and phenomena including joblessness, mood-stabilizing drugs, and DIY dance videos. Bookchin’s Now he’s out in public and everyone can see is spatially and conceptually complex, weaving together many videos, sounds, voices, narratives, and perspectives into a three-dimensional space. This evolution of form reflects and explores the multitude of struggles and conflicts in contention within the stories we as a society today construct about who we are, what we aspire to be, and how we represent our selves.

 

 

ABOUT NATALIE BOOKCHIN
Natalie Bookchin’s work addresses the ramifications of mass connectivity and the digitization of daily life and its milieu. Her multi-channel video installations sift through expanding digital databases comprised of the shared stories, rants, confessions, and gestures that travel, multiply, and flood global networks. These installations challenge the viewer and attempt to make meaning and sense of seemingly random data and disparate individual parts. By visualizing the constant fluxuation of identities and narratives performed online, Bookchin’s installations uncover repeated language and tropes constructed in makeshift cultural artifacts and provisional self-portraits. These artifacts reveal tensions between the collective and the individual, as well as the homemade and the mass produced. In an era of over-produced digitally enhanced images, Bookchin’s work finds beauty and paradox in the found digital DIY image with its clumsy imperfections and traces of the human touch.

Natalie Bookchin is current a serving as a faculty member of the Photography and Media Program at CalArts in Los Angeles, CA. Her work has been featured and exhibited in many gallery, museum, and cultural intuitions including: LACMA, MOCA, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, and others. Bookchin’s is the recipient of numerous grants and awards from various institutions, foundations, and fellowships including: The Durfee Foundation, the California Arts Council, the MacArthur Foundation, and others.

To learn more about Natalie Bookchin’s work, visit www.bookchin.net.

SUPPORT
Support for Now he’s out in public and everyone can see has been generously provided by the James Irvine Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Filed Under: 2015-2019, Installation, LACE Tagged With: 2012, Natalie Bookchin, Now he's out in public and everyone can see, practice sessions, Video Installation

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We’re grateful to everyone who joined us at “T We’re grateful to everyone who joined us at “This Home, Forever,” curated by 2025 LACE Emerging Curator Nahui Garcia. The two-day event featured performances by: @0ll668 @perras.bravas @lapovertydepartment  @michelelorusso @pacoimatechno @jakioeoeo

These performances took place during a fraught weekend for Los Angeles, with sirens and helicopters heard across downtown Los Angeles. On Sunday, @perras.bravas performed “Borderland Feelings,” a piece that seeks to shed light on and gather testimonies about the experiences, emotions, and demands that emerge when crossing the border. Participants were invited to share their border-crossing experiences by writing or illustrating them on a butterfly. These butterflies were later read aloud during the performance and placed on a body, symbolizing how the border becomes a scar that marks those who cross it.

This performance, along with the rest of the program, felt especially significant on that day. LACE remains committed to presenting socially-engaged projects and was founded as an experimental artistic space for freedom of expression and art that is socially and politically engaging. 

We’re glad to have shared space with LACE friends, collaborators, and colleagues, as well as new friends. 

Photos by Angel Origgi. (@angeloriggi)
Please join us in welcoming two new members to the Please join us in welcoming two new members to the LACE team! 

 🌟 LACE’s new Communications + Event Coordinator, Ida Tongkumvong is a Los Angeles-based arts administrator and marketing professional with a passion for expanding access to the arts and fostering inclusivity within creative spaces. She holds a B.A. in Communications from UCLA. Her previous roles with Sounding Point, the LA Phil, and CAP UCLA deepened her commitment to broadening arts access through strategic partnerships, inclusive programming, and dynamic storytelling. With a keen interest in public art and community-based initiatives, Ida brings a thoughtful and collaborative approach to audience development and creative event planning within L.A.’s contemporary arts landscape. Outside of work, you’ll often find her at a flea market or estate sale, always on the hunt for a one-of-a-kind find.

 🌟 LACE’s new Production + Operations Coordinator, Johnny Young began making his mark on the Los Angeles arts scene as Gallery and Programming Manager for the Juicy Beats Artist Exchange Lounge in 2000. He has worked with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), where he played a key role in production and management for their First Fridays program; he was also selected for the prestigious Diversity Apprenticeship Program (DAP) at The Broad, a competitive initiative aimed at training the next generation of museum and gallery professionals from underrepresented communities. Johnny brings a sharp eye for detail, a commitment to equity in the arts, and a dedication to amplifying voices that challenge the boundaries of convention.
Did you get your tickets for “This Home, Forever Did you get your tickets for “This Home, Forever” happening this weekend? “This Home, Forever” is a stage, a forum, and a dynamic workshop nurtured by a group of artists and activists devoted to and inspired by Los Angeles. Learn more and get your tickets at the link in our bio. 

Held on the rooftop of the historic Bendix Building, performances will be presented with a 180 degree view of downtown Los Angeles. See performances by: @0ll668, @perras.bravas, @lapovertydepartment, @michelelorusso, @pacoimatechno, @jakioeoeo. 

Behind-the-scenes photos by @andreuuua  @selene__preciado and @abwyman
We’re still reminiscing about “ENDURANCE,” w We’re still reminiscing about “ENDURANCE,” which took place Saturday and Sunday, May 16–17. The series celebrated elder artists and their longstanding committment to their practices, through both performances and interdisciplinary work. Swipe through to see portraits from the two evenings, taken by Ray Barrera (@dreamfishcommuter).

Support LACE’s future, free public programs by making a donation at the link in our bio.

Performers pictured, in order of appearance: Hirokazu Kosaka, Awilda Sterling-Duprey (@awildasterling), Sheree Rose (@msrosebush), Sharon Kagan (@sharonkagan), Anna Homler with David Javelosa and Jeff Schwartz, Gloria Enedina Álvarez, Oguri, The Dark Bob, Barbara T. Smith and Ulysses Jenkins, Alice Bag (@alice_bag), Kid Congo Powers (@kidcongopowers), and Kamau Daáood.
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