Project Description

Ingrid Calame’s Talking Drums is inspired by the streetscape surrounding Leimert Park Station. Calame collaborated with youth through the RightWay Foundation to create rubbings of the physical environment—from furniture and instruments to architectural elements such as doorways and signs, all found in the neighborhood. The resulting textural abstractions appearing in the subtly hued compositions on the glass panels of the station’s entrance pavilion evoke a sense of familiarity and imbue value on objects that are often overlooked or taken for granted.

In conjunction with her artwork, Calame also led an artist talk with local high-school students at Whitney Young Continuation High School.

 

Artist Statement

“[The artwork] takes the recording of the present as a moment in flux as its starting point. It will be a library of signs from the neighborhood”

 

About the Artist

INGRID CALAME (b. 1965) is best known for her tracings of cracked, stained and graffitied urban surfaces, from the Los Angeles River to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the State University of New York at Purchase and Master of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad and is held in such preeminent institutional collections as the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, to name a few. A recipient of many prestigious awards, her accolades include residencies and visiting artist grants from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Otis College of Art and Design, the Right Way Foundation, Savannah College of Art and Design, and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology.