The Julia Stoschek Foundation presents the European premiere of Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation, the first major retrospective of the work of groundbreaking video and performance artist Ulysses Jenkins. A pivotal influence on contemporary art for over fifty years, Jenkins—who was born and lives in Los Angeles—has produced video and media work that conjures vital expressions of how image, sound, and cultural iconography inform representation.
Using archival footage, photographs, image processing, and soundtracks, Jenkins interrogates questions of race and gender as they relate to ritual, history, and the power of the state. The exhibition is co-curated by Erin Christovale, associate curator at the Hammer Museum, L.A., and Meg Onli, former Andrea B. Laporte Associate Curator at ICA Philadelphia, where the exhibition was previously on view. The Julia Stoschek Foundation presentation is coordinated by Lisa Long with curatorial assistance from Savannah Jade Thümler.
Organized closely with the artist—including the digitization of a sprawling archive and conversations with Ulysses Jenkins and his collaborators—the exhibition encompasses a broad range of over fifteen videos and almost sixty works in total that showcase his collaborations, mural paintings, photography, and performances, revealing the scope of Jenkins’s practice.
