WE LIVE! Memories of Resistance brings together In Plain Sight artists that engage the contemporary stakes of historical remembrance and collective memory.
View 3D Exhibition Walkthrough
OXY ARTS and In Plain Sight present WE LIVE! Memories of Resistance, a group exhibition of 14 artists.
Participating artists: Felipe Baeza, Margarita Cabrera, Sonya Clark, Beatriz Cortez, In Plain Sight Coalition, Sky Hopinka, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Alberto Lule, Maria Maea, Karen Martinez, Guadalupe Rosales, Dread Scott, Tina Takemoto and Devon Tsuno.
Curated by Kyle Stephan and Paulina Lara
Over Independence Day weekend, IN PLAIN SIGHT, a national coalition of 80 artists, activists, and organizers, chartered a fleet of planes to type poetic and impactful messages in the sky over ICE detention centers, former government-run incarceration camps, border patrol stations, and immigration courts across the United States. Phrases such as “ABOLITION NOW,” “GOD BROWN AMERICA,” and “NOS VEMOS LIBRES” offered recognition and hope to detained community members while exposing the vast scale of our immigrant detention system that hides “in plain sight” beyond public consciousness.
WE LIVE! Memories of Resistance brings together In Plain Sight artists that engage the contemporary political stakes of historical remembrance and collective memory. Employing a diverse range of formally innovative creative practices, their artworks transport viewers through pasts, both real and imagined, to propose a future beyond white supremacy, settler colonialism, and the brutality of policing and punishment. Some artists manipulate materials or mine archival documents to expose the intergenerational reverberations of racism and state violence, while others invite community collaboration to reconstruct histories of resistance and to heal traumatic loss. Still others incorporate ancestral myths, histories, and knowledge to recognize the resilience of oppressed communities and to design speculative spaces of possibility, protection, and belonging.
By embracing memory as a living source of reinvention and transformation, these artists scrutinize the underlying conditions of immigrant detention to inspire acts of resistance that challenge our culture of incarceration and racial injustice.
Activity Guide
Recommended for 4th-8th grade students, the exhibition activity guide features three prompts to further engage with and reflect on the themes presented in WE LIVE! Memories of Resistance.
Download the activity guide or follow along online!
WE LIVE! Exhibition Activity Guide
Related programming:
ALL TIMES IN PST
Sept 17 | 6pm
Collective Memory and Intergenerational Music
Panel Discussion with Cumbiatón Collective
DJ Set with DJ Funky and DJ Sizzle
Sept 24 | 5pm
Another Dimension: Reinventing Public Art and Activism with Emergent Technologies
Artist Talk with Nancy Baker Cahill
Oct 8 | 11am
Healing Intergenerational Trauma with Internal Martial Arts
A workshop with Yunuen Rhi
Oct 13 | 5pm
Reimagine LA: Abolition on the Ballot with Justice LA
Community Organizing Workshop Series
Oct 15 | 5pm
Narcissister Organ Player (Dir. Narcissister)
Filmmaker Introduction and Post-Screening Q&A
Oct 20 | 5pm
Take Back Tech to Abolish ICE with Mijente
Community Organizing Workshop Series
Oct 21 | 5:30pm
Screening of The Infiltrators
Post Screening Q&A with Alex Rivera and Cristina Ibarra
Oct 22 | 5pm
Artist Talk and Discussion with Dread Scott
Oct 27 | 5pm
Mutual Aid Praxis with Ground Game LA
Community Organizing Workshop Series
Oct 28 | 5pm
Déjenme Gritar (Let Me Scream)
Performance by Dorian Wood + La Victoria
Nov 4 | 5:30pm
Artist Talk and Conversation with Sky Hopinka
Conversation with Sky Hopinka on his latest project, maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore
Nov 10 | 5pm
Alternatives to Police with CAT911
Community Organizing Workshop Series
Nov 12 | 5pm
Kenturah Davis in conversation with Felipe Baeza
Nov 20 | 7pm
Sama: The Divine Listening Room
Performance by Arshia Fatima Haq + Maral
This program is made possible by the Remsen Bird Fund and th
This program is made possible by the Remsen Bird Fund and the Arts and Urban Experience Initiative, which is generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.