This Week: Art Buzz returns on Friday, February 15 at 5:30pm with a #happyhour tour of Maryam Jari’s exhibition ‘I Drank the Kool-Aid But I Didn’t Inhale’ in the Project Room + photographer Lucas Blalock will be in conversation with ICA LA Curator @jamillahjames on Sunday, February 17 at 3pm in conjunction with his exhibition ‘An Enormous Oar’ @theicala (pictured - ‘Emile, Man of the Future’, 2016-17) Admission FREE | #maryamjafri #lucasblalock #icala

- Dispatches from Abroad: Innsbruck - by Maryam Jafri 🌍 “‘Model 500’, (2019) is a metal and vinyl sculpture focusing on music and politics, specifically on Detroit Techno, a genre of music I have long enjoyed. It´s my latest work, commissioned by Taxis Palais Kunsthalle Tirol in Innsbruck, Austria on occasion of my solo show at Taxis Palais, opening today. ‘Model 500’ is configured as a 10x10 grid in the guise of a crossword puzzle. However the black squares typical of a crossword puzzle are replaced with vintage 1980s #Detroit #Techno LPs mounted on metal plates. The puzzle is made up of 100 metal plates (12x12 inches each) strung together like a net. The #music and the #culture of techno reflect an elaborate artistic and technological response to the transition from industrial to post-industrial world, as well as the possibilities of modern machine technologies and their application to music. The artwork resembles a minimalist #sculpture, an LP display structure, and a metal fence or urban barrier but more than that, it is also functional - it is an actual solvable crossword puzzle, created in collaboration with the crossword puzzle constructor and music historian Ben Tausig. Clues are written onto a wall nearby. A take away of the puzzle is available to visitors who wish to solve it. Answers are available upon request. The title for the work refers to the name used by Techno pioneer #JuanAtkins which in turn is of course a riff on Ford’s Model-T” - Innsbruck, Austria, February 8, 2019 | #comingsoon #maryamjafri #icala

- Dispatches from Abroad: Oslo - by Maryam Jafri 🌍 “Sometimes one work leads to another work, that was the case with ‘Generic Corner’, 2015, the work that followed ‘Product Recall: An Index of Innovation’. ‘Generic Corner’ focuses on the phenomenon of generic products in the USA during the 70s and early 80s. Generic products were everyday household items that appeared in supermarkets in the late 1970s across the United States. The typical package #design was a white label with black text merely identifying the contents - “Beer” for beer, “Black Pepper” for black pepper etc. The idea was that by eliminating all design, marketing, and advertising costs, the savings could be passed directly onto the consumer. The generic items occupied an aisle of their own and were 25-45% cheaper than their branded counterparts. Shopping in the generic section was considered somewhat of a stigma and I have yet to find anyone who will admit to it. However given the contemporary resurgence of text in high end package design, these vintage generic items now look quite cool rather than low brow. These beer cans were introduced in 1976 during the US bicentenary. When I show this work, critics correctly make the connection to #EdRuscha’s word paintings or #JasperJohns’s beer cans but they’re more than that - the text printed on the back of one of the cans is particularly instructive, it starts off with the phrase “Wake Up America” and speaks of the looming crisis in US manufacturing. Here are two images, one from the front, the other from the back” - Oslo, Norway, January 31, 2019 | #comingsoon #maryamjafri #icala

Ahead of the opening of ‘Maryam Jafri: I Drank the Kool-Aid But I Didn’t Inhale’, organised by ICA LA Curator @jamillajames, the museum is excited to release a series of dispatches from Jafri’s travels through Europe. Each dispatch serves to contextualise the artist’s practice and installation ‘Product Recall: An Index of Innovation’ opening in the Project Room on February 10. Today we travel to Copenhagen, Denmark where the artist has a studio 🌍 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “I have two books in my studio by two great photoconceptualists of different generations, approaches, nationalities, and genders. One day quite by accident I picked up one of the books, thumbed through it and put it down. Half an hour later, I picked up the other book, thumbed through it and put it down next to the first one. I came back the next day to my studio and realized that on my table I had made an accidental collage of the two books. Both books are ones I frequently consult for both inspiration and pleasure. For the work I will show @theicala, ‘Product Recall: An Index of Innovation’, you will see the subtle influence of both artists, specifically in the use of found, vernacular photography (#HansPeterFeldmann) and in the juxtaposition of framed texts and photographs with the text being equal rather than subordinate to the image (#SophieCalle). But I also rebelled against them like any good kid - I am of a different generation and nationality and I employ a different approach, more cultural anthropology than autobiography. This photograph is titled ‘Lineage’, (2018) and it exists as a multiple in print form for my project with @_editions_michel_obultra_” - Copenhagen, January 25, 2019 | #comingsoon #maryamjafri #icala

After completing his studies @calarts in the 1980s, B. Wurtz explored the idea of the self-portrait that took the shape of drawings and paintings made with articles of clothing - t-shirts, socks, shoestrings - and sculpture made from packaging materials. Explore the artist’s fascination with the minutiae from daily life in ’This Has No Name’ @theicala through February 17 | #thishasnoname #bwurtz #icala 📷Brian Forrest

‘B. Wurtz: This Has No Name’ curated by @jamillahjames continues @theicala through February 17 | #thishasnoname #bwurtz #icala 📷Brian Forrest