Mariah Garnett, Trouble
Last year, the artist Mariah Garnett made it on Hyperallergic’s list of top 20 art shows in Los Angeles. At the heart of her solo exhibition, hosted by the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, was the feature-length film Trouble (2019), which our critic Abe Ahn described as “an intimate reenactment of family and political histories.” Over the course of the film, Garnett’s relationship with her long-lost father unravels, as she learns more about his past — specifically his activist past and his escape from Northern Ireland during the Troubles. As Ahn says, you’ll come away “feeling both disturbed by and wanting to know more about the Troubles.”
For those who missed the opportunity to see the film, you’ll now be able to stream it through Commonwealth and Council’s website from Friday, May 8 through Saturday, May 9. It’s yet another example of how artists and organizations are sharing their work online during these times when we’re inside.
Before then, you can also watch Garnett’s “Garbage, the City, and Death” (2010), another dive into familial history. For this eight-minute film, Garnett took three scenes from the Fassbinder play of the same name and reenacted them with her long-lost half sister, Joanna Coleman. In the filmmaker’s words, “I use Fassbinder’s text as a means of exploring concepts relating to sibling-hood that do not exist in my actual relationship with my sister — it is an illustration of how I imagine sisters might fight.” You can stream this one starting today, April 28, through Friday, May 8.
You can learn more about Garnett’s fascinating, wide-ranging work, here.
When: Tuesday, April 28–Saturday, May 9
Where: Streaming on Commonwealth and Council
More info at Commonwealth and Council
