On Sunday (March 31), the New York-based radio station Montez Press Radio will air DISQUIET SMOG, a 60-minute radio program by artist and CalArts faculty Harry Gamboa Jr.
DISQUIET SMOG features original digital music and sound art by Gamboa and explores the contemporary Los Angeles soundscape. Listeners can experience the ambience of human voices, spoken narrative, indistinct echoes and noises. As the artist described in email correspondence with 24700, the project “infers an era of dystopia layered upon dreams of resistance while attempting to breathe the rarest and freshest air that can only be experienced in the realm of social, economic, political and environmental pollution.”
Gamboa is recognized for his contributions to the political discourse surrounding Chicano and Mexican American identity. From 1972 to 1985, Gamboa was a co-founder and core member of the Los Angeles-based, Chicano performance group Asco. He has worked across a variety media including photography and video. His work is featured in numerous permanent collections including El Museo Del Barrio and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.
Last year, the Autry Museum of the American West exhibited Harry Gamboa.: Chicano Male Unbounded, marking the first comprehensive exhibition for the artist and writer.
Streaming of DISQUIET SMOG will be available here at 11 am (EDT) on Sunday. A follow-up live broadcast interview with Gamboa and Montez Press Radio is scheduled for April 11 from 7-8 pm at the L.A. Art Book Fair.
— Brigitte Ugarte