Mariah Garnett mixes documentary, narrative, and experimental filmmaking practices to make work that accesses existing people and communities beyond her immediate experience. Using source material that ranges from found text to iconic gay porn stars, Garnett often inserts herself into the films, creating cinematic allegories that codify and locate identity. She is currently in production on her first experimental feature film, Trouble, about her relationship with her Northern Irish Father, who fled Belfast in the 1970s after being profiled on the BBC for his “mixed” Catholic/Protestant relationship.
A prolific artist, she had solo exhibitions at the Metropolitan Arts Center (Belfast, UK) and ltd los angeles (Los Angeles) in 2016, and her work has shown at MoCA, REDCAT, White Columns, Ann Arbor Film Festival and in the 2014 Made in LA Hammer Biennial. Here, as part of our annual 2016: The Year According to series, she shares her top personal, political, and cultural moments of 2016.
1.
Bowie.
This year started with my biggest idol dying, which was perhaps an indicator of the soul crushing 12 months ahead, but it also led to a mass online eulogizing of his life. My favorite discovery to come out of this was this video of him as a teenager talking about protesting for the rights of boys to have long hair.
2.
Other & Father
I had my first institutional solo show at the contemporary arts center (the MAC) in Belfast, Northern Ireland last winter. It featured archival video of my dad and his girlfriend in the ’70s and my own re-enactment of the footage. At the opening, one of the gallery guards recognized my dad’s teenaged girlfriend! In fact, he’d dated her right after she and my dad broke up. That was a nice moment, and typical of Belfast too.
3.
Henry Taylor at Blum & Poe
This show blew my mind. Blew it straight out of my head. It was basically perfect. To call it a painting show is both an understatement and totally what it was.
4.
Yosemite
I went to Yosemite National Park this year in July for the first time. I don’t know what took me so long.
5.
Weirdo Night
Best post-collective-trauma-catharsis-through-performance-art. Jibz Cameron aka Dynasty Handbag has been hosting a monthly “comedy” night at El Cid in LA for most of the year. Dynasty Handbag MCs and does a set or two herself, while hosting an array of local weirdos with acts. She is generous both in the space she gives to her guests and in the material she offers to her audiences. For some reason, maybe because of 2016, weirdo night kept falling right after awful events – like the Pulse nightclub shooting and the election. I am not entirely sure how she managed to pull this off, but she drew us out of our cowering little individual selves on nights when staying home probably seemed like the only option, expressed all of our fear and rage for us, and sent us on our way feeling a little less bad. It’s no coincidence the house was particularly packed on those nights.
It was just so so so so so so good.
7.
Eve Fowler at Participant
I had the distinct honor of shooting and editing a black-and-white 16mm film for Eve Fowler, which opened at Participant on November 6. The film is a portrait of more than 20 women artists from Los Angeles and New York working in their studios. Visiting all of these women and observing them at work was very powerful. Highlights were filming artists getting reading for 2016 shows: Celeste Dupuy-Spencer finishing paintings for her show at Mier Gallery and Nicole Eisenman working on her Anton Kern show—although, really, I left each and every one of their studios with a new appreciation for what they do and how much they know.
Full list of participants, many of whom had shows this year: Shanon Ebner, K8 Hardy, Rachelle Sawatsky, Erika Vogt, A.L. Steiner, Math Bass, Dawn Kasper, Yunhee Min, Lauren Fisher, Lee Relvas, Mary Weatherford, Taisha Paggett, Anna Sew Hoy, Daphne Fitzpatrick, Rachel Berks, Veronica Johnson, Dylan Mira, Ellie Murphy, Nora Slade, Pearl Hsiung, Hayden Dunham.
8.
Bakersfield
I got my first university teaching job this year at Cal State Bakersfield. Highlights: when a student did a performance for her crit modeled after Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece, showing them Couple in A Cage, rediscovering Alex Bag’s Untitled Fall 95, and having Rafa Esparza come talk to my class about performance and his own work. Then we went out for “Basque food” and I ordered a “French fry salad.” It was right after the election and the place was filled with old white men who stared at us. It was the first time we had ever really had a conversation.
9.
Re-watching Seinfeld
I have found it to be extremely soothing in the face of current events.
10.
The protests at Standing Rock
Witnessing one of the most oppressed groups in the country take a stand against corporate greed and a militarized police force and the momentum they gained has been powerful. And finally acknowledgement and vindication from the highest level of government (though obviously far from over)—it’s a good note at the end of a terrifying year.
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