Rodney McMillian is the subject of the latest film in the Getty Conservation Institute’s Artist Dialogues series, which engages Los Angeles-based artists in conversations exploring their materials and working methods, as well as their perspectives on conservation.
In the short film Rodney McMillian: Soot to Soil (2025), the artist reflects on how his work transforms commonplace materials—such as vinyl flooring, bedding, and furniture—into visceral explorations of history, power, and lived experience. Drawing on a wide-ranging practice that includes painting, sculpture, video, installation, and performance, McMillian interrogates political and social systems while embedding meaning into the fabric of his materials. The film highlights how ideas of value, change and the constructed nature of meaning are not only central to his practice, but also shape how his work should be conserved over time.
Following the screening, McMillian will be joined in conversation by independent curator jill moniz, whose practice centers around connecting art to community through frameworks of belonging, care, and cultural stewardship. With a background in cultural anthropology and visual culture, moniz has long championed artists whose work foregrounds personal narrative, material memory, and social context.
Together, McMillian and moniz will explore a wide range of topics including material as signifiers of artistic intent and social systems, and how artworks that incorporate post-consumer objects insist on relations of meaning and context. They will also consider how the concept of “unmaking” can be interpreted in display and long-term preservation.
Time will be reserved for audience Q&A. The event will be followed by a reception for in-person attendees.
