“A trio of musicians desert their sincere but ultimately uninspired creative endeavors after answering an inexplicable call to action by time-traveling revolutionaries. What unravels is a provocatively efficient assassination plot that reveals the status of the artist for what it is, a particle embedded within some of the sustained injustices of our time: wanton surveillance, drone warfare, toxic masculinity within libertarian ranks, and the enduring inaccessibility to a secure sense of culture, place, and identity by displaced populations living in the United States.

“With the intention of creating a science fiction film set one week into the future, EMPTY METAL is an unselfconscious projection of the furthest political imagination stretched and shared by its directors.”*

LACMA‘s one-night-only presentation of EMPTY METAL—directed by Bayley Sweitzer and 2019 Whitney Biennial artist Adam Khalil—is co-presented with The Autry Museum of the American West, which will screen Khalil’s INAATE/SE/ on Friday, June 7, at The Autry.

“In politics, you’re either a terrorist or a freedom fighter… [With EMPTY METAL, we attempted to] create a Trojan horse for ideas of insurrection.” — Adam Khalil, at LACMA

EMPTY METAL*

Thursday, June 6, at 7:30 pm.

Bing Theater, LACMA

5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.

See Pamela Cohn on Empty Metal.

From top: Pvssyheaven in Empty Metal (2018); Sam Richardson; King Alpha; Austin Sley Julian; Richardson,; Sley Julian; Alpha and company. Screen images courtesy the filmmakers and Steady Orbits.