Mark Bradford’s LA
Taking cues from the artist’s practice of pyscho-geography, it tells the story of Mark Bradford’s formative years amidst the merchant class, the compounded crises of AIDS and crack cocaine epidemics that decimated his community in the 80s, the 1992 riots, and what the city holds for him now.
“Maybe that's why I'm so interested in this archaeology of empire, of urbanness – where people have occupied space and are gone, the memory that's left behind. It probably does come out of this rapid loss that happened in the 80s.”
I wrote and directed Mark Bradford: An Artist Made in South Central LA to celebrate Avant Arte’s launch of Scorched Earth, a print edition of Bradford’s 2006 painting in collaboration with the Broad Museum in LA. The audio is clipped from my interview with the artist and paired with visuals of his artwork, personal photographs, and archival images of the city.