John Malpede

Artist’s Statement

I am interested in confusing the categories: performance is inserted into installation and then expert (journalistic or historical) presentation is inserted into the performative material. And bam, we are back in the fictive performance, then again in installation. This could all take place in a day, as in “RFK in EKY,” which re-created and deconstructed events of Robert F. Kennedy’s 200-mile 1968 odyssey investigating Appalachian poverty. Another example is a series of cross-genre activities (public art, theater, installation, outdoor movement and public education) that accumulate over years as with “UTOPIA/dystopia,” whose manifestations since May 2006 included: an outdoor movement performance, a week of REDCAT Theater performances, 10 neighborhood events that engaged community brain power to identify people (artists, poets, activists and inspirers) who had made positive contributions to Skid Row. The input led to the installation, “Skid Row History Museum,” at The Box Gallery, which included performance and public conversation events, to solicit further community input. This gallery show was the point of departure for a public art installation. With the Community Redevelopment Agency, LAPD is creating a “Skid Row Walk of Fame,” permanent public artworks, lamp-post plaques (to be in place by 2010) throughout downtown to commemorate 30 visionaries at the sites where they did their community building work. Next, I want to create “WALK THE TALK” a peripatetic performance (with brass band) that travels through Skid Row with performances at each plaque, to bring the history of the community to life and keep it alive. “WALK THE TALK” would be a culmination of my work of the past three years.

A huge percentage of residents would witness the performance, which would generate a thousand or more informed, enthusiastic, “community historians” or “docents on demand.”

Website: johnmalpede.info

Biography

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2009
Tricks of the Eye: History and Memory in a Shifting Social Landscape: Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I.

2008
Cruel, Unusual Outrages upon Personal Dignity, Punishment and Humiliating Degrading Treatment, Grand Performances, Los Angeles
Red Beard, Red Beard, Gennevilliers, France

2007
Utopia/dystopia, REDCAT Theater and Los Angeles Poverty Department, Los Angeles
Legal-Illegal, Gent, Belgium, Germany
just space[s], Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles

2006
Civic Performance, State university of New York, Stonybrook, N.Y.
Sleepwalking Democracy, Westergas Fabriek, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2004
Freedom of Expression National Monument #2, New York

2003-2005
The Real Deal, Highways Performance Space, Santa Monica, Calif.

2002-2004
An End To the Judgment of God, Vienna, Austria; Tate-Modern, London; Roma Europa Festival, Italy; Flemish National Theater, Brussels, Belgium; REDCAT Theater, Los Angeles; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco

2001-2004
RFK in EKY (Robert F Kennedy in Eastern Kentucky)

2001-2006
Agents & Assets, Los Angeles Poverty Department; Sidestreet Projects, Los Angeles; First Unitarian-Universalist Church of Detroit, Detroit; Cleveland Public theater, Cleveland; Compton Community College, Los Angeles

2000
Quintet of the Astonished, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; James Cohan Gallery, New York

Select Teaching

1995-1996 & 2000-2001
Faculty, DASARTS (de Amsterdamische School for Advanced Research in Theater and Dance Studies), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

1995
Visiting director, Department of Undergraduate Drama, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York

1994-96 & 2007
Visiting assistant professor, Department of World Arts and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles

1992
Visiting faculty, Interdisciplinary Arts Education, Columbia College, Chicago

1990
Visiting faculty, Performance, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Select Grants and Awards

2007-2010
Artist in Residence, 18th Street Arts complex, Santa Monica, Calif.

2008-2009
Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): Center for Advanced Visual Studies

2008
COLA (City of Los Angeles) Arts Fellowship

2008
Gaea Foundation residency fellowship

2003
Cornerstone Theater, Los Angeles, Bridge Award

EDUCATION

B.A., 1968
University of Wisconsin