At the ICA Los Angeles, curators Marcelle Joseph and Legacy Russell have assembled 25 artists whose practices engage with the construction of identity and the self as subject –or, as Judith Butler puts it, The Condition of Being Addressable. This international and intergenerational group of artists present overlapping and diverging approaches to subjectivity and self-imaging that considers the relationship between the body and language and complicates the distinctions between signifier and signified. Language takes many shapes throughout the show–projected in song, layered over images, uploaded onto screens, or in the case of Mary Kelly, embedded in lint.

Approaching the entrance to the exhibition, I quickly notice the number of installations involving sound. Overlapping voices leak through the walls of the gallery, pushing and pulling for my attention as if competing to be addressed. In the distance, I hear E. Jane’s version of the No Doubt song “Just A Girl” which quickly infiltrates my millennial neuro pathways. I hum along. Oh, I’m just a girl, living in captivity. Your rule of thumb makes me worrisome. The show is not installed in chronological order which allows for surprising and exciting moments of dialogue between artists. A work from Ana Mendieta’s Silueta series is situated next to a photograph by Tiona Nekkia McClodden, who creates their own silhouette as it relates to Black embodiment. In another installation, Lynn Hershman Leeson prompts the viewer to take on the role of voyeur, while in the next room, Aria Dean places the viewer under a “dummy surveillance camera.” In her book Self/Image, Amelia Jones notes the importance of retaining a kind of tension between the subjective and objective, which allows for “images of the body that are immersive rather than safely contained, bounded, and thus potentially trapped by an external gaze.” Placing these artists in dialogue emphasizes this tension and addresses shifting modes of communication and representation. Feminist and Queer theories and histories intermingle in new and immersive ways, creating opportunities for reflection and dialogue.

Artists included in the exhibition: Hannah Black, Judy Chicago, Aria Dean, Anaïs Duplan, Caspar Heinemann, Lubaina Himid CBE, E. Jane, Clotilde Jiménez, Miatta Kawinzi, Mary Kelly, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Ana Mendieta, Ad Minoliti, Troy Montes Michie, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Athena Papadopoulos, Imran Perretta, Sondra Perry, Tschabalala Self, Lorna Simpson, Sin Wai Kin, Diamond Stingily, Jessica Vaughn, and Zadie Xa.

Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
1717 E 7th St
Los Angeles, CA 90021
On view through September 2, 2022