Terminal 7-8 Connector 

This exhibition presents the visual art of Los Angeles artist Renée A. Fox and haikus, written in response to the artist’s work and the site of LAX, by young writers mentored by the nonprofit organization WriteGirl.

The exhibition’s premise is based on the concept of call-and-response: a form of communication in which the speaker’s “calls” are punctuated by the responses of the listeners. Call-and-response also appears in music as a succession of two distinct phrases where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary or response to the first. Finally, call-and-response in many cultures, particularly African, is a pattern of democratic participation—one that has extended from these cultures into public forums across the world, particularly at protests and demonstrations.

Songs of Freedom is a continuous and expanding circle—the young poets’ haikus are written in response to the “call” of the artist’s mural, but they are just as much “calls” within themselves—issued to all who move through the transient space of this airport terminal.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Renée A. Fox, feminist artist and muralist, creates work around natural subjects that take on female characteristics. She addresses how “feminine” identity is manipulated by delicate, taboo or cliché labels. Renée studied Fine Art with a focus on painting at the Corcoran School of Art and Design in Washington, D.C. and Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. Her mural Eve is in the permanent collection at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH) and her paintings are in numerous private collections across the U.S. Renée lives and works in Inglewood, CA.


ABOUT WriteGirl
Established in 2001, WriteGirl is a Los Angeles-based creative writing and mentoring organization that spotlights the power of a girl and her pen. Through one-on-one mentoring and monthly creative writing workshops, high school girls are given techniques, insights and hot topics for great writing from professional women writers in all genres. In 2013, WriteGirl received the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, the highest national honor awarded to such programs.


ABOUT THE CURATOR
Elizabeta Betinski is a writer and curator with roots transplanted to Los Angeles from Belgrade, former Yugoslavia. In 2014, she established bardoLA, a Los Angeles-based art nonprofit organization that premiered a group exhibition curated and produced by Elizabeta at the 2015 La Biennale di Venezia. In 2016-2017, she served as the Executive Director of the inaugural Desert X, an international contemporary art biennial featuring site-specific installations throughout the desert of the Coachella Valley. Elizabeta is currently at work on presenting with bardoLA a new major exhibition at the 2019 La Biennale di Venezia.