Kori Newkirk is the current Transformative artist in residence. Newkirk's installation is a playful experiment and use of our space. Here, he is working out ideas and thinking about his relationship to his/our neighborhood. All the  materials used here are collected from within a 1.5 mile radius of Transformative Arts and Newkirk's home around the corner. 

Newkirk's residency is an homage to Toy and Garment Districts of downtown Los Angeles. These spaces long ignored by people in power but populated by salt of Los Angeles are now vulnerable to developers and gentrification that threatens to reshape our in an image we must resist.

These confluences have shifted Newkirk's vision, if only for the moment. There is a thread in Newkirk's practice that trends towards the subtractive. This installation is not that. The residency gave him the opportunity to try piling on to see how these accumulative effects transform his and our perspectives. 

Additionally, this installation marks the swan song of Newkirk's antennae as motif, even as he continues his exploration of the analog. His interest in questioning the past, particularly how we receive information remains a fundamental part of his practice. 

Kori Newkirk's work at Transformative Arts began over a year ago when he created the SONIC SURVIVAL STRATEGIES Volume 90013, where artists in our neighborhood made cardboard boomboxes to visually replicate the energy of the area's prolific boombox sounds. 

This new installation is bookended by June Edmonds TA residency project that culminated in June Haul. The conversation between the artists and works makes certain for us the benefits of our programming at Transformative Arts.