JOINT STATEMENT TOGETHER WITH ALIEN RACE EXHIBITING ARTIST: JAKLIN ROMINE
We have gotten to know the life and work of Jaklin Romine through engaging the artist’s story and artwork within this exhibit. ACCESS DENIED, a work of performance and video by Romine that would otherwise be turned on for this exhibit, has been left intentionally turned off, though its facilitating architecture still remains: A 38 x 52” monitor, and its folded slab of packing foam base.
ACCESS DENIED follows the artist to various art spaces in Los Angeles. Stationed in the middle of the frame with her back turned to us, we see Romine still, but gazing forward as she confronts a flight of stairs as the only access way to enter each space she encounters. The starkness between the artist facing a backdrop of a stairway (or stairwell) is heightened as people move in, out and around her and the tensions become unequivocal. Through this, the stillness is held by Romine, who brings viewers into the range of what can felt. This piece is vulnerable in its confrontation.
In learning about Romine’s life and work, we invited Romine to take part in this exhibit on view here in Little Tokyo. The exhibit also extends to our Brewery Arts Complex space. Having only one space which is accessible to wheelchairs and not the other for the artist to access is regrettable due to a lack of planning and a failure of consideration to the reality of the artist’s life and work.
Our assistive lift, installed at the Brewery on October 15th of this year ultimately was chosen from an able-bodied perspective, and without consultation to the artist or from another dependable source. The Brewery space’s inaccessibility was not announced before or upon inviting the artist to exhibit.
The artist came to find out about the Brewery space being inaccessible during the exhibit, by arriving in the same way that occurs in ACCESS DENIED. In this moment, life and art collided. To lack the foresight and consideration to have not incorporated accessibility successfully into our mission is what caused harm.
Through this experience, we are made to see our own role in inaccessible spaces. It has compelled our organization to take steps toward complete accessibility. We encourage you to reach out regarding our progress to make the Brewery accessible. We apologize to the wheelchair users everywhere and promise to do much better to bridge the gaps of inaccessibility and our role within our ableist culture.
This statement was a generative collaboration, and a generous gesture by the artist, to allow her work to stay in the exhibit, although modified to be turned off, and with the incorporation of this statement. Together, this is an exercise in mutual solidarity toward accessibility and a more accessible future.