Norman M. Klein

Andy Campbell

Jennifer West

Chelsea Weathers

West's material experiments in film and art explore Southern California's changing geography This debut monograph brings together nearly a decade of "analogital" experiments in film, sculpture and installation by Jennifer West (born 1966)--one of the most committed artists working on the West Coast today. Saturated in a history of avant-garde and Third World cinema (not to mention HIV/AIDS activism and the incipient Riot Grrrl movement) since she was an undergraduate at Evergreen State College, West's work today treads similar ground: challenging the utopianism of new media adoptees as well as the nostalgia of analog-only film adherents. The 11 projects reproduced in the book, all produced between 2014 and 2021, fall under the heading of Media Archaeology, and reveal the historical and material promiscuity of West's experiments in film and art, often tied to the changing geography of Los Angeles and its surrounds.

Media Archaeology

This is a re-envisioned, fresh look at Agnes Martin, the enigmatic, influential, highly independent painter whose life (1912?2004) spanned much of the twentieth century and extended into the twenty-first. Martin?s abstract, deceptively simple paintings continue to resonate with contemporary artists and writers. In a series of essays commissioned especially for this volume, the contributors write about Martin?s influence on their creative lives and work, and offer new interpretations that defy stereotyped notions about Martin?s life. The result is a varied tapestry of voices, proving that Martin?s art still influences the contemporary world, and offering glimpses into modes of being and making that are still relevant nearly two decades after her death.00"I think we?ve fallen into an elaborate but beneficent trap that Agnes Martin has set for us. She gives the paintings these titles so that when you speak of them, you can say something like, ?I love Happiness? or ?I?m very moved by Innocence? or ?I came around a corner and saw Friendship.? She?s giving us language in an unembarrassed way, so that things can happen to us when we actually say those words." - TEJU COLE.

Chelsea Weathers

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