Cancelled Without Prejudice

posted by Ismail Farouk at Sunday, November 02, 2008

THE MAK URBAN FUTURE INITIATIVE PRESENTS:
Cancelled Without Prejudice by Ismail Farouk
Part Two of Exhibition Series Locus Remix. Three Contemporary Positions

Opening Reception: Wednesday, November 5, 7 - 9 pm
Artist Walkthrough on MAK Day: Saturday, November 8, 2 pm
Exhibition Dates: November 6, 2008 - January 4, 2009

MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles
Schindler House
835 North Kings Road
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Please join us on Wednesday, November 5 for the opening of Cancelled Without Prejudice, a survey of the work of UFI fellow Ismail Farouk, an artist and urban geographer from Johannesburg, South Africa. Through video, photography and performance, Farouk documents patterns of spatial injustice and explores a variety of interventions aimed at producing a more just urban landscape. With Cancelled Without Prejudice, Farouk examines the contradictions of mainstream urban development in Johannesburg and Los Angeles, revealing a common narrative unfolding in both cities: the privatization of public space and the criminalization of poverty.

Cancelled Without Prejudice includes a selection of video installations that illustrate Farouk's varied approach to circumventing the mechanisms of injustice, such as a series of surveillance videos documenting police corruption and abuse of undocumented migrants. In the video "Rock Sale," Farouk challenges Johannesburg's ban on street vendors by setting up his own sidewalk enterprise and attempting to sell rocks and piles of sand - items of no monetary value. Farouk's video and photography bare witness to similar patterns of injustice in Los Angeles, particularly in Skid Row.

Cancelled Without Prejudice will be on view at the Schindler House from November 6, 2008 - January 4, 2009. The opening reception, which is free and open to the public, will be on Wednesday, November 5 at 7 p.m. Farouk will lead a walkthrough of the exhibition as part of MAK Day, on Saturday, November 8, at 2 p.m.

The MAK Center presents Cancelled Without Prejudice as the second part of Locus Remix. Three Contemporary Positions, a three-part exhibition featuring the work of Katie Grinnan, Ismail Farouk and Dorit Margreiter. In a rapidly changing world where complexity, uncertainty and instability are givens, it is increasingly important to combine precise focus with diverse points of view. Locus Remix features three artists who work with place, meaning, and representation. In each case, the artist is drawing from cultural iconography, the poetics and the politics of space, and the sacred and profane in architecture. In three distinct ways, the act of cultural interpretation is questioned and problemitized. Locus Remix is organized by MAK Center Director Kimberli Meyer.

Labels: events, Exhibitions, Ismail Farouk, LA, Los Angeles, UFI, Urban Future Initiative