THREE EXHIBITIONS EXAMINE YOUTH-ON-YOUTH VIOLENCE
AT TRACK 16 GALLERY
Continuing its commitment to addressing issues of social and political importance, Track 16 Gallery will present Site: Santa Monica, three multi-faceted exhibitions that offer insights into and an examination of the consequences of youth-on-youth violence through the eyes of artists and others touched directly by it. The exhibition opens on October 3rd and continues through November 7, 1998.
On February 26, 1998, fourteen-year-old Shevawn Louise Geoghegan was murdered in an abandoned building in Santa Monica. Outrageous Fortune: Shevawn Geoghegan, curated by Shevawn's aunt Louise Cummings, is an exhibition created in collaboration with Shevawn's friends and parents, Eileen and Ed Geoghegan, to both commemorate her life and to open a dialogue around the serious issues that contributed to her death. Included in the exhibition are original art works created by Shevawn's friends, as well as a re-creation of the spontaneous memorial that was erected at the site of her death. Also included will be photographs by noted Los Angeles artist Anne Fishbein who recorded the Site: as it changed from day to day and "video poetry" by artists featuring young people's first-hand stories about their experiences with violence and its aftermath.
The second exhibition--The Killer in Me is the Killer in Youby renowned artist and activist Daniel J. Martinez--is a series of classical portraits of Shevawn's friends. Formal, elegant, and straightforward, the portraits capture the essence of each individual and challenge the viewer to see more deeply the human beings beneath the surface, the labels, the fear, and the prejudices attached to their outward signs of rebellion. Presented as large-format light box images, the portraits continue Martinez' interest in the deeper, psychological meaning of subcultures and their place in society--calling into question their marginalization as "other" and pointing to a more universal and humane perspective.
The final component--Good Mourning--is both an exhibition and a "work in progress" conceived by Ken Breisch and Michael Pinto, instructors at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in collaboration with The HeArt Project, an organization that provides multi-disciplinary arts workshops for Los Angeles teenagers. This installation will be the result of a dialogue between HeArt Project teenagers, whose lives have been touched by the issue of youth violence, and Breisch and Pinto. Through a series of discussions, ideas for a visual and architectural installation will be developed and presented at Track 16 on October 3.
The gallery installation will serve as an opening for continued dialogue on the serious issues surrounding youth-on-youth violence. HeArt Project students and the youth participating in the installation dedicated to Shevawn will discuss how this issue affects the many communities of the city. The collaborative engagement will culminate in a charette--an all-day, hands-on session of discussion and design led by Breisch, Pinto and the students to which the public is invited. The results of the charette will be on display at Track 16.
