BROODWORK: It's About Time
(with Irris Anna Regn)
Ben Maltz Gallery, OTIS College of Art and Design
April 30-June 11, 2011.

An exhibition that explores what family life can provide to creative professionals. While having both a family and a productive practice is nothing new, the trend of honoring the synthesis of the two is a current phenomenon. This exhibition is a project of BROODWORK, the cross-disciplinary inquiry surrounding the integration of creative practice and family life founded by It's About Time curators Iris Anna Regn and Rebecca Niederlander. The curators defined, named and now investigate the practices and output of this previously unspoken vanguard community. For this project, the lens is focused on Time, and presents themes such as Juncture, Momentum, Occasion, and Transference through a wide range of works from the fields of visual art, architecture, design, creative writing, and music within the parameters of 21st century life. Project funding is provided in part by the Pasadena Art Alliance, and Eamon O'Kane's participation in this exhibition is made possible by Culture Ireland's initiative Imagine Ireland – A Year of Irish Artists in America 2011.

Artists: Elizabeth Alexander, Jim Campbell, Joyce Campbell, Rebecca Campbell, Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, John Hall, Tim Hawkinson, Steven Hull, Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg (SO-IL), Greg Lynn, Dave Muller, Christoph Niemann, Eamon O'Kane, Danica Phelps, Michael Rotondi, Michelle Segre, Tony Tasset, Nina Tolstrup, Corinne Van der Borch and Iwan Baan, and Michael Worthington.

Events Saturday, April 30, 4pm-6pm - Opening reception with sound performance by Health and Beauty, Workshops by Finishing School and Project Food LA

Sunday, May 22, 2pm-5pm - BROODWORK: Marking Time at the Santa Monica Museum of Art SMMoA's Cause for Creativity welcomes BROODWORK's intergenerational exploration on how family becomes a mechanism for marking time; includes Ann Faison's Making Time workshop and other hands-on activities. Location: SMMoA, Bergamot Station G1, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica, 90404, Info: education@smmoa.org. Tickets: $5, FREE for SMMoA Members

Saturday, June 4, 11am Gallery tour with BROODWORK Curators

Saturday, June 11, 1-3pm Book launch and reception for The M Word: Real Mothers in Contemporary Art (May 2011), Published by Demeter Press, edited by Myrel Chernick and Jennie Klein.

Sponsored in part by Pasadena Art Alliance. Eamon O'Kane's participation in this exhibition is funded in part by Culture Ireland's initiative Imagine Ireland – A Year of Irish Artists in America 2011.
Buy the catalog forBROODWORK: It's About Time on Amazon. View PDF version here.


By exploring work produced by our vanguard community, BROODWORK has discovered numerous themes that often characterize and connect our large and diverse group of practitioners. The exhibition BROODWORK: It's About Time at the Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design is a pivotal part of a series of installations and events in our 2011 investigation of one of the most recurring themes, Time.

BROODWORK: It's About Time delineates the subjective, relativistic and multi-directional nature of time through Juncture (intersecting timelines), Interval (a defined length of time), Occasion (an instant), Momentum (an occasion that carries forward infinitely), and Expansion (interwoven infinities).

Our collaboration itself exists at the great JUNCTURE of creative practice and family life. As a marker of time, the inter-generational nature of family originates a new awareness of mortality and how the past continues to affect the present. Conversely, parents also reexamine their own development by assuming the newfound responsibility of fostering another's childhood. By adopting the unique juncture of this universal experience of parenting with the specific constraints of creative practice, today's creative parent navigates a dynamic environment rife with dynamic possibilities.

Changes in methodology within the creative practices reflect research from the Families and Work Institute, which reports that families today spend significantly more time with their children than even a decade ago: creative work often gets produced in small increments of time, and made collaboratively. Thematically, work is often thought of within a larger timeline and ethical issues become a focus.

Within BROODWORK, time exists at episodic junctures of the personal, communal, and global. It follows that although BROODWORK cannot be classified along lines of gender, content or medium, there exists a juncture that contextualizes an investment in the future with exacting honesty and humility.

All identities for this exhibit designed by Handbuilt.