Copresented with Clockshop

Shot during the first wave of the pandemic, the artist Carmen Argote's first film, Last Light, is a meditation on walking and memory in Los Angeles. Argote describes her walking habit as synonymous with thinking, a way of taking in and digesting the conditions of her environment. Through walking, the artist "deconstructs and reconstructs my ideas, thoughts, and self." Combining video and still images of an evacuated city with an intimate voice-over, the narrator reflects on feelings of vulnerability and betrayal, and draws on childhood memories to make sense of a city transformed. Over the course of the piece, day moves to night as the artist traces a path from demolition and sickness to envisioning a different world. (dir. Carmen Argote, 2020, color, 12 min.)

The screening is followed by a Q&A with Carmen Argote and Hammer associate curator Erin Christovale.

Support for this project is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the Pasadena Art Alliance, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.