Organized by curator Hunter Shaw, The inaugural program celebrates artists bringing new perspectives to “real life”applications such as infrastructure, building, land use, and environmental stewardship. To commence, Carmen Bouyer will engage the audience in a participatory, multimedia, storytelling experience. This site-specific adaptation of her Stewardship Stories project is intended to awaken within the participants pre-existing, though perhaps dormant, connections to the natural environment of the Los Angeles area, and the non-human forms of life and intelligence that surround us every day. Following the event, Carmen will also lead a walk by the Los Angeles River. Colleen Hargaden will present a performative lecture related to Tiny House, a conceptual sculpture project in which the artist designed and built a fully-functional “tiny house” from scratch. The work is an exercise in self-reliance: a practical adaptation of the American Dream within contemporary constraints - economic, ecological, etc. Additionally, Idea for a Clay Fired Brick, by Aaron Meyers, will be on view. The brick, invented and designed by the artist, is based on a rotational symmetry so that it interlocks and distributes forces. The schematic drawing that accompanies the object suggests several possible uses - “an arch can be constructed without cutting” - and invites the viewer to discover their own unique applications for it.

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Carmen Bouyer received a Master in Design from Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, FR and participated in the Environmental Studies program at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City. Since 2015, Bouyer has worked with Pioneer Works Art Center in Red Hook, Brooklyn to develop local organic food access and environmental education programs, in addition to landscape stewardship and environmental art installations in and around Red Hook. In 2017, she developed storytelling and environmental arts activities for the University of Coahuila, Saltillo, MX, the activist group Works On Water, and the STEW-MAP (Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project) in New York City.

Colleen Hargaden received a BFA with Distinction from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena CA and is currently completing an MFA at Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College, NY. Recent solo exhibitions include Tiny House (End of Build), Deep End Ranch, Santa Paula, CA (2016); Tiny House (Mid-Build), and Tiny House (Pre-Build), both at Fine Art Gallery, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA (2015). Recent group exhibitions include EX-CORPSE, AWHRHWAR booth at Other Places Art Fair, San Pedro, CA (2018); and GROUP SHOW VIDEO SHOW, Henderson’s House, Los Angeles, CA (2017). Hargaden is also the co-owner of Roger’s Office, an artist-run gallery in Los Angeles, CA.

Aaron Meyers received an MFA in Sculpture and Extended Media from The University of Texas at Austin, and a BS with Honors in Mathematics from Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include (L,W,H), Big Medium at Fusebox Festival, Austin, TX (2015); and Alex.Chitty Aaron.Meyers, Permanent.Collection, Austin, TX (2014). Recent group exhibitions include Strap Your Hands Across My Engine curated by Camille Schefter and Thomas Linder, Tin Flats, Los Angeles, CA (2018); and I Will Go On…, Montserrat College of Art Gallery, Beverly, MA (2016).