Artist Dorian Wood seeks to glorify both the sanctity and irreverence of intimacy. Through the use of their corpulent body and booming voice, Wood revels in challenging the artist-audience separation, using subject matter informed by their own position in society as a non-binary person of color and an autodidact without a formal college education nor a strong alliance to any particular community.

For “Nodrissx/Narcissx,” the artist will be in a chair in the center of a darkened room, covered from head to toe in a cloth, with a slit that exposes their left breast. The artist will have a microphone propped in front of their face. Attendees are invited to kneel in front of the artist and suckle on artist’s breast. Attendees may suckle on the breast for as long as they want. During the performance installation, artist will vocalize to a 4-channel soundscape created solely by artist’s voice.

Wood’s work has been showcased in concert halls and performance spaces around the world, including at such institutions as The Broad (Los Angeles), LACMA (Los Angeles), The Stone (NYC), MASS Gallery (Austin), Kulturhuset (Stockholm), and Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin). As a musician, they have released over a dozen recordings, among them two back-to-back albums, Rattle Rattle and Down, The Dirty Roof, showcasing a series of doomsday-themed songs that incorporate over 60 musicians. Their most recent album, XALÁ, marks the first time that Wood has recorded a full-length work in their mother tongue of Spanish.

Cha, Yun Sook creates her artworks as a way of paying homage to Nature. Acutely aware of our civilization’s disregard for Nature, Cha expresses her gratitude to Nature through the mark making process of ink on Hanji paper and textile. She also celebrates Nature through performance by dressing others in clothes dyed with ink imbued with healing properties meant to lift the wearer’s spirit.

In her performance piece, Cha cuts, folds and sews pieces of fabric to drape over a model to complete a one-of-a-kind piece. She will interact with audience members by sharing strips of fabric that can be worn or carried as a reminder of our connection to the natural world.

Elizabeth Tobias will amplify her fusion of social practice, performance and sound to debut Survivor! Share your 98 Second Story at 2019 The Los Angeles Art Show. This immersive project addresses the sexual assault epidemic, one of the most pervasive, yet most underreported crimes. Survivor! addresses the staggering statistic that every 98 seconds, there is a sexual assault in America.

Weaving together spoken word and improvised sound, Elizabeth Tobias will perform with an ensemble of artist survivors to collectively promote needed awareness and advocacy for sexual assault survivors in the art community and throughout the public sphere.

Those victimized by violence often lack the support and resources needed to come forward. For artists who have been impacted by the trauma of sexualized assault, rarely, if ever, are there adequate opportunities to create work that addresses their stories within and beyond the larger art community.

Dr Jennifer Freyd, expert in the field of interpersonal violence has identified that the act of speaking out has a measurable impact on decreasing violence. Consequently, the performance has the potential to directly reduce the statistics. Survivor! Share Your 98 Second Story is a ground breaking new performance that addresses trauma, courage and continuance.