LACMA

rooftop of a suburban house, an open field, a cliff overlooking the ocean) alone with a megaphone to his mouth and his fist raised defiantly. While the imagery makes reference to the Chicano activism of the 1960s, the photographic medium renders his message mute. His decision to display the mega- phone in a subsequent exhibition as a stand-alone object underscores its meaning as an artifact and further illustrates his ambivalence about the effectiveness of past devices for activism in contemporary culture. Ybarra is aware that the trajectory of history can redefine the way public places are used and is interested in document ing the layers of transformation in his work. His recent installation Belmont Ruins (2006) re-created the Belmont Tunnel, a downtown L.A. redevelopment site that has had a long history of reuse and adaptation. Belmont Ruins was equal parts docu- mentary, historical museum display, and interactive art installation. The device of using vitrines and museum signage for seemingly ordinary objects such as discarded spray paint cans emphasizes their cultural importance and posits them beside culturally valued objects, while his invitation to the public to paint on the exterior of the tunnel continues the tradition of community participation that was at the heart of the Belmont Tunnel. His commitment to artistic collabora- tion and his drive to document the constant transformation of public spaces by the communities who inhabit them are concerns that permeate all of Ybarra's work. — MICHELE URTON Los Angeles native Mario Ybarra Jr. has been at the center of a renewed trend toward collaborative and collective art making. In 2002, he cofounded Slanguage with Juan Capistran in L.A.'s Wilmington neighborhood. Slanguage functions as both studio and exhibition space where artists can work either collaboratively or alone, and has a distinct focus on experimentation, particularly with media and public performances; it includes an artist-in-residency program that acknowledges artists without formal training and allows them the means to produce their work and the tools to get exhibitions and generate press. Slanguage operates as a modified version of the earlier idea of the collective, one that doesn't subscribe to a unified political ideology or identity but allows for fluidity and individual projects. It also affords Ybarra and other artists a space to operate outside of the mainstream machinations of the art world, which doesn't yet seem to know how to define the new generation of Latino artists. Ybarra is interested in the evolution of Los Angeles as a center of a distinctly urban hybrid culture, and many of his works document that transformation. His first project with Capistran (a fellow University of California at Irvine alum), as Space Invaders 13, was a subversive public installation, Sub/Lime (1998). The artists were interested in how the empty lots of South Central had evolved after the 1992 riots. Rather than rebuilding the commercial strips that had previously occupied them, the city enclosed the empty spaces with chain-link fences, rendering them useless. Over time, the local community began using the fences as makeshift advertising space, posting homemade billboards and flyers for their own businesses. The artists installed small paintings on wood that had the word sub painted on top, with a plus sign and a lime painted underneath. The effect was that their work appeared to blend seamlessly with the handmade signs, but upon closer examination called attention to the innovative ways in which the community had reappropriated the space for their collective needs. Ybarra is well aware of the history of Chicano art and has at times referenced his predecessors' influence in his own work. With a deliberate nod to Asco's Instant Mural, Ybarra created untitled abstract duct tape paintings (1996–97) on the sides of buildings using stickers of lowrider cars as his medium. In his photographic series Go Tell It (2001), Ybarra photographed himself in numerous locations (the 208 MARIO YBARRA JR.

• Cover