Los Angeles is home to the largest concentration of unsheltered and unhoused individuals in the country, and in 2020 the situation grew considerably worse. More than half of those that are unhoused are experiencing houselessness for the first time, and we are seeing spikes in unhoused youth and families. That the majority of these individuals did not migrate here from other states or cities, but rather are from Los Angeles County, highlights the tension in the relationship between home and shelter, and between place and belonging. This panel brought together artists working in a variety of formats--film, performance, and visual arts--to discuss how their work interrogates this tension through their interactions with the Los Angeles cityscape and its residents. Panelists discussed how creative practices can challenge social and political structures, and how they use representation and narrative to contribute to the discourse on housing insecurity.

The Panelists: 

Marike Splint is a Dutch French-Tunisian theater maker, based in Los Angeles and specializing in creating work in public space exploring the relationship between people, place and identity. She serves on the faculty of the Department of Theater at UCLA and is currently developing a new performance The Biography of a Home, about the history of the housing crisis in Los Angeles seen through the lens of one address: the century old home that she currently lives in. https://www.marikesplint.com/

Álvaro D. Márquez is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and researcher who works primarily with printmaking, installation, and sculpture. Their work explores historical and contemporary forms of displacement, with special attention to questions around the privatization of land as a commodity, and the effects this has on racial geographies and the natural environment. https://www.alvarodmarquez.com/

Jeremiah Hammerling is an Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaker who explores intimate personal stories that shed light on larger issues that affect us all. His work has been featured on CNN, CBS, VICE, PBS, ESPN and Al jazeera. http://endlesseye.com/  

The panel will be moderated by Rennie Tang, who is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Cal Poly Pomona and coordinator of the first year undergraduate landscape design studio. Her practice-based research includes the investigation of choreographic tools and human movement analysis as methods for landscape, urban and architectural design. http://www.rennietang.com/