Distinguished Lecture: Artist Gala Porras-Kim
"The weight of a patina of time"
October 6, 2023: 11:00 – 12:00 Pacific Time
RSVP: https://ucla.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Oe1YBpUGR8-GJguqYJ5sKA#/registration
Dear Colleagues,
I have been looking for years for an artist who deeply engages with conservation issues. I finally found one – Gala Porras-Kim. Our program will host a lecture by her this Friday. I am excited to hear her take on "conservation patina." If you can't join the Zoom lecture, it will be recorded and posted on our website: UCLA/Getty Conservation Program.
Gala will speak about The weight of a patina of time, an exhibition featuring works emerging from conversations with Fowler Museum conservators and curators about Mexican archaeology and conservation. Her in-depth explorations of the uncertain histories of ancient objects and their conservation reimagine their pasts while charting new possibilities for their present and future. The works on view reflect the artist's affinity for fragments, conflicting histories, undeciphered texts, and other instances of uncertainty within the space of the museum and conservation lab. They additionally address the challenges of maintaining knowledge over centuries in shifting institutional contexts.
Gala Porras-Kim (b. 1984, Bogotá; lives and works in Los Angeles/London) received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2009 and an MA in Latin American studies from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2012.
Gala Porras-Kim. 254 offerings for the rain at the Peabody Museum. 2021 ã Gala Porras-Kim. Photo Paul Salveson.
------------------------------
Glenn Wharton
Chair/Professor, Art History Department
UCLA/Getty Interdepartmental Program in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage
------------------------------