Complex, challenging, and immersive, “W|ALLS: Defend, Divide, and the Divine” is a historical look at civilization’s relationship with barriers, both real and imagined. For centuries, across diverse civilizations, walls have been central to human history.

Ami Vitale, Ripple Effect, 2009, Baoli in Amer, Jaipur, India

This exhibit explores the various aspects of walls – artistic, social, political, and historical – in six sections: Delineation, Defense, Deterrent, The Divine, Decoration, and The Invisible. These categories overlap and change meaning according to context, much like the walls themselves: erected for one reason, their appearance and use is then altered and modified over centuries, reflecting the civilizations that have grown and changed around them.

Featuring over 70 artists and photographers, W|ALLS invites guests to contemplate how these structures – from the decorative to the divine – affect the human psyche and why we keep building them. The show is curated by Dr. Jen Sudul Edwards, the Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Also, experience Light the Barricades, an interactive public art experience by Candy Chang and James A. Reeves that reimagines the wall as a site for contemplating our inner obstructions. Free and open to the public!

On view: October 5 – December 29, 2019

Where: Annenberg Space for Photography, 2000 Avenue of the Stars, LA, 90067
Website: https://www.annenbergphotospace.org/exhibits/walls/