Betye Saar took me through the depths of my cultural being and revealed to me that my search was no more than becoming still within myself, to realize that answers had been with me all along. — Ulysses Jenkins*
On the occasion of the Hammer Museum exhibition ULYSSES JENKINS—WITHOUT YOUR INTERPRETATION, join curators Erin Christovale and Meg Onli, author and UC Irvine professor Bridget R. Cooks, and Getty Research Institute curator Glenn Phillips for a discussion about the artist and his work.
Afterward, Jenkins will join the conversation during a Q & A. See links below for details.
ULYSSES JENKINS—HISTORY OF A VIDEO GRIOT
Thursday, March 17, at 7:30 pm
Billy Wilder Theater
Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles
ULYSSES JENKINS—WITHOUT YOUR INTERPRETATION
Through May 15
Hammer Museum
*Ulysses Jenkins, “The Allegory of Self-Empowerment,” in Doggerel Life: Stories of a Los Angeles Griot (Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania; Los Angeles: Hammer Museum, 2021), 43. Jenkins attended Otis Art Institute in 1978–79. Betye Saar was one of his instructors. (Charles White was also an instructor at Otis.)
See Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation, edited by Erin Christovale and Meg Onli (Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania; Los Angeles: Hammer Museum, 2021). In addition to curatorial essays by Christovale and Onli and a 150-page section of film still plates, the exhibition catalog includes writing, reflection, and discussion by Aria Dean, Ikechúkwú Onyewuenyi, Senga Nengudi, Maren Hassinger, Kellie Jones, Kerry James Marshall, May Sun, Cauleen Smith, David Hammons, C. Ian White, Greg de Cuir Jr., Michael Boyce Gillespie, Chrissie Iles, and Alessandra Raengo.
Watch the Hammer Channel documentary Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation, directed by J.J. Anderson.
Ulysses Jenkins, from top: Two Zone Transfer (1979), Jenkins (foreground), Kerry James Marshall, Greg Pitts, and Ronnie Nichols, still of video transferred to DVD, color, sound, images © Ulysses Jenkins, courtesy of the artist; Two-Zone Transfer performance, 1978, Jenkins (right) with Kerry James Marshall, Greg Pitts, and Ronnie Nichols, photograph by Ilene Segalove, courtesy of Ulysses Jenkins and the Hammer Museum; Centinela Valley Juvenile Diversion Mural Project documentation, 1976, Boulevard Market, Lennox, California, image © Ulysses Jenkins, courtesy of the artist; Two Zone Transfer (1979), image © Ulysses Jenkins, courtesy of the artist.
