Project: We Are Here / Here We Are with Durden and Ray
Durden and Ray presents We Are Here / Here We Are, a Los Angeles County-wide exhibition of 100 artists that explores our innate desire for connectivity through sensation. Due to the constraints of the COVID-19 lockdown, the artists in this exhibition have chosen public spaces to display their work — from Santa Monica to the East Side and from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach. The location of each piece will be posted on a Google Map that allows the exhibition to be explored virtually or in real life.
We are here.
While the world turns inward more than any other point in our lifetimes, we are paradoxically more connected with each other than ever through the use of social media, digital technology, video conferencing, and telecommunication. But as the streets remain empty, the restaurants and coffee shops remain closed, and the houses of social engagement remain shuttered, we are rediscovering “real life” through our homes, our neighborhoods and ourselves. As the digital world feeds our need to connect through sight and sound, we are experiencing a severe disconnect from the other sensory functions of touch, taste, and smell, yearning for experiences that happen through tactility, sensation, randomness, and place, which are currently only possible in real life.
Here we are.
The artists in the exhibition have chosen unorthodox alternatives to a traditional gallery setting, using a wide variety of media interventions in neighborhood alleyways, yards, trees, bushes, on rocks, fences, telephone poles, and other publicly accessible areas, while honoring social distancing mandates. The works in We Are Here / Here We Are are ephemeral in nature: vulnerable to the elements and to those who might destroy or confiscate them. Their resilience shows an innate desire to be present in the real world and to be seen as an individual amongst a larger collective peer group, despite all odds.
Participating artists include: Luciana Abait, Kim Abeles, Abel Alejandre, Sophia Allison, Ismael de Anda III, Susan Arena, Carl Baratta, Maura Bendett, Andrea Bersaglieri, Arezoo Bharthania, Dave Bondi, Gavin Bunner, David Buckingham, Jennifer Celio, Chenhung Chen, Fritz Chesnut, Helen Chung, Dave R. Clark, Andrew Philip Cortes, Sydney Croskery, Joe Davidson, Dani Dodge, Jeanne Dunn, Marielle Farnan, Roni Feldman, Susan Feldman, Cia Foreman, Sarajo Frieden, Josh Friedman, Steven Fujimoto, Kiyomi Fukui, Yvette Gellis, Makenzie Goodman, Mark Steven Greenfield, Kio Griffith, Jennifer Gunlock, Jenny Hager, Stephanie Han, Michelle Carla Handel, Pete Hickok, Carmine Iannaccone, Bryan Ida, Brenna Ivanhoe, Nancy Ivanhoe, Kiel Johnson, Juri Koll, Cody Lusby, Constance Mallinson, Joel H. Mark, Anne Martens, Ryan McCann, Amanda Mears, Cynthia Minet, Megan Mueller, Thomas Müller, Michael Nannery, Hagop Najarian, Khang Bao Nguyen, Rebecca Niederlander, Dakota Noot, Sean Noyce, Labkhand Olfatmanesh, Duane Paul, Snezana Saraswati Petrovic, Elizabeth Preger, Mei Xian Qiu, Jenny Rask, Jaklin Romine, Colin Roberts, Michael Rollins, Liza Ryan, Stephanie Sabo, Samuel Scharf, Sonja Schenk, Greg Schenk, Kristine Schomaker, Adam F. Scott, Stephanie Sherwood, Dimitra Skandali, Marla Smith, Adam Stacey, Curtis Stage, Katie Stubblefield, Ami Tallman, Camilla Taylor, Chris Trueman, Katya Usvitsky, John Waguespack, Ryan Russell Ward, Curtis Weaver, Ann Weber, Tracey Weiss, Julie Whaley, Valerie Wilcox, Steven Wolkoff, Alison Woods, Paul Woods, Jody Zellen plus many more.