Past

Witch’s Kitchen Presents: Shana Lutker in Conversation with Liz Glynn

Witch’s Kitchen: Part One presents a series of online events hosted by Shana, taking up themes and strategies put in play by Valeska Gert. The second program in the series turns to Los Angeles, seeking out the histories of the spaces and folks that existed at the intersection of cutting-edge performance and the underground. Liz Glynn features prominently in this research: In 2012, Liz created a temporary performance venue called Black Box. Open only for eleven days in an empty warehouse in Hollywood, Black Box hosted dozens of performances and programs at an important moment when the city was seeing itself, finally, as an art scene with considerable history and international prominence. The project stemmed from Liz’s interest in the Public Spirit Festival (1980), a performance series spearheaded by a group of artists that included Barbara T. Smith and Paul McCarthy. Black Box was an homage to the artist-driven performance in Los Angeles that came before these practices were embraced, framed, and canonized by art institutions. Both Black Box and Public Spirit are case studies for Witch’s Kitchen.

Taking as its starting point a revisiting of Black Box and the Public Spirit Festival, this program offers a window into Liz and Shana’s shared fascination with the past and appreciation that history that is full of examples of the deeply intertwined innovations and failures of human civilization—as well as the importance of awkwardness, eating cake, and darkness.

About the Artists

Shana Lutker
Shana Lutker is a Los Angeles-based artist. Shaped by the archives of psychoanalysis and surrealism, her interdisciplinary work in sculpture, performance, writing, and installation foregrounds an unstable relationship between subjects, memory, and history. Recent exhibitions include Current LA:FOOD, the LA public art triennial; Virginia Woolf: an exhibition inspired by her...
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Liz Glynn
Liz Glynn lives and works in Los Angeles. She received an MFA from CalArts in 2008 and a B.A. in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard University in 2003. Her major permanent installation, Terra Techne, recently opened to the public in the newly remodeled Harvey Milk Terminal at the San...
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About the Series

Witch’s Kitchen is a two part roving cabaret of conversations, screenings, performances, and culinary experiments. Organized by artist Shana Lutker in conjunction with The Feminist Art Coalition, Witch’s Kitchen expands on the generative intersection of performance, exile, and communal nourishment through the legacy of performer Valeska Gert (1892-1978).

Credits

This program was made possible in part through the generous support of the Active Cultures Board of Directors; Founders Circle members Mehran and Laila Taslimi; and the Wilhelm Family Foundation.

Event Details

DATE: October 30, 2020

LOCATION: Online

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