Richland College will present a pair of art events to commemorate the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
On Nov. 21, Richland will host a lecture by Chicago-based artist Lou Mallozzi on his latest exhibit, Peers. The live-performance piece is comprised of Lee Harvey Oswald’s statements made from the moment of Kennedy’s assassination until the moment of his own death. The 33-minute text is recited by 12 people in unison -- “a stand-in for the jury Oswald never had.” The performance will take place at 6 p.m. on Nov. 22 at the artist-run space Beefhaus and will coincide with the exhibition “The Artists’ Commission” on display at Gray Matters Gallery. Mr. Mallozzi will discuss Peers at 3 p.m. on Nov. 21 in Room WH103 of Wichita Hall at Richland College.
On Nov. 22, Richland College will open an installation in the Brazos Gallery by Los Angeles-based artist Vincent Ramos entitled, Plum Pudding Peanut Island (Gilligan’s Squaw Fire Island II). The work is inspired by the collective sense of loss and confusion surrounding President Kennedy's assassination. Mr. Ramos recruited volunteers from the Richland College student body to "utilize dialogue, movement and various character and plot lines" from a handful of network television shows that were preempted as a result of the Kennedy assassination. The performance piece will be intertwined within a site-specific installation inspired by various facets of Kennedy’s biography. Mr. Ramos describes Plum Pudding Peanut Island as "a body of work steeped in a disjointed pictorial and verbal language: a labyrinth of non-linear actions, narratives and emotions." The exhibition opens on Nov. 22 and performances will take place at various points during its run through Dec. 20.
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About the artists
Lou Mallozzi is a sound artist based in Chicago who makes performances, installations and recorded works. He is on the faculty of the Sound Department of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is executive director of Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago.
Vincent Ramos received a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design in 2002 and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2007. Mr. Ramos lives and works in Los Angeles. Mr. Ramos' solo and two-person exhibitions include, Motown Took Us There and Motown Brought Us Back, Crisp London/Los Angeles. Group exhibitions include, Made in L.A. 2012, Hammer Museum and LAXART, and, In the Good Name of the Company, ForYourArt, Los Angeles and See Me Gallery, New York.