Part of the Getty Museum’s survey exhibition of California video art from 1968 to the present, Hotbed presented eighteen artworks in the lush Getty Gardens outside the pavilion. Artists included Valerie Soe, Harry Gamboa, Meena Nanji, Portia Cobb, and Bruce and Norman Yonemoto with Mike Kelley. The installation showed the works in a circle representing the continuum between nature and culture, allowing different interpretations and experiences depending on which way the viewer traveled.
From critic Holly Willis’s essay accompanying Hotbed:
“The videos collected here span more than twenty years and are a testament to the ongoing struggle to establish the terms by which we will define ourselves and our world—both now and in the increasingly shorter horizon of the future. They are also a testament to the rich legacy of video production in the 1980s and 90s, a time well before the current fascination with amateur and DIY media practices. While earlier work was often cheerfully “amateur,” it was also tactical—that is, it was often motivated by a passionate urgency and made use of the tools at hand rather than waiting for better equipment or larger budgets or someone’s permission. This is powerful, volatile, courageous work, produced at a moment when the culture wars demanded a response, not just in terms of giving voice to disparate communities and points of views but in formal terms as a radical message that demanded radical form.”
Freewaves is currently deepening and reorganizing our archive of 35 years of public art in Los Angeles. Check back in 2025 to explore more of our history.
