Mercedes Dorame on Creation and Collaboration

For the inaugural Rotunda Commission, Mercedes Dorame drew upon her Tongva heritage to create her first large-scale installation, titled Woshaa’axre Yaang’aro (Looking Back). Her project invokes the original caretakers and inhabitants of Tovangaar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands) to, in her words, “immerse the viewer in the realm of abalone, creating a sense of kinship, reciprocity and balance with the natural world.” In this conversation, Dorame joins Richard Rand, associate director of Collections, and Michael Mitchell, head of Preparations, to discuss the collaborative creation and installation of her artwork.
About the Artist:
Mercedes Dorame calls on her Tongva ancestry to engage the problematics of (in)visibility and ideas of cultural construction. Dorame’s work is in the collections of the Hammer Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Triton Museum of Art, Allen Memorial Art Museum, de Saisset Museum, Montblanc Foundation Collection, and the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum. Her work was in the Hammer Museum’s 2018 Made in LA exhibition and she was recently honored by UCLA as part of their centennial initiative “UCLA: Our Stories Our Impact.” She is currently a visiting faculty member at CalArts.
This program was presented at the Getty Center and Online on Sunday, October 29, 2023, www.getty.edu/visit/cal/event..., and complements the exhibition "
Mercedes Dorame: Woshaa’axre Yaang’aro (Looking Back)," www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions....
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