Art: Site and sight

Framed perception, directed attention

Jen Hofer

This post is simply to express my gratitude to the three artists whose images have accompanied my writing for Jacket2—Sandra de la Loza, Pato Hebert and Michelle Dizon—in these final weeks of my stint as a commentator. The presence of excerpts from their work in the header of each of my posts (like the company of writers and artists contributing to the vibrancy of this new incarnation of Jacket) gives me something to live up to each time I sit down to write. I often ask myself which conversations I most passionately want to inhabit, and how best to go about creating and/or entering the spaces of those conversations. When I consider work like Sandra’s, Pato’s and Michelle’s, I realize I am (at least some of the time) already in those conversations.

If you didn’t have a chance to explore some of the links in the sidebar text during the past months, please begin your investigations now! The current sidebar text features information on Michelle Dizon. Here are the texts about Sandra and Pato once again, for your reference.

Sandra de la Loza, from "Declared Invisible Monuments"

Los Angeles artist Sandra de la Loza, of Pocho Research Society fame, created the Stoner Spots series to portray sites temporarily occupied by those in search of illicit, transcendent or solitary experiences. The header image to the left is titled "Flat Tops." When she's not researching stoner spots, Sandra spends her time lock-picking and revitalizing public monuments.

Pato Hebert, from "Trying To Catch Your Breath"

Los Angeles artist Pato Hebert uses both art-making and activist practice to engage public space and intersect with a tremendously wide variety of people, inhabiting in the most vibrant way possible the idea that art exists—for everyone—in order to spark shifts in perspective and interaction. When Pato isn’t encouraging local college students to “text message” in response to creative instigations, he’s photographing our ephemeral world and bodies, making installations, and doing AIDS education and cultural work.

June 26, 2011

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Los Angeles artist Sandra de la Loza, of Pocho Research Society fame, created the Stoner Spots series to portray sites temporarily occupied by those in search of illicit, transcendent or solitary experiences. The header image to the left is titled "Flat Tops." When she's not researching stoner spots, Sandra spends her time lock-picking, revitalizing public monuments, and remixing murals.

Heartfelt thanks to Pato Hebert and Michelle Dizon, whose images also graced this space during my tenure as commentator.

Jen Hofer is a poet, translator, interpreter, teacher, knitter, book-maker, public letter-writer, and urban cyclist. Her recent and forthcoming poem sequences and translations are available through a range of autonomous small presses including: Atelos, Counterpath Press, Dusie Books, Kenning Editions, Les Figues Press, Palm Press, and Subpress. She also writes letters for people in public spaces at her escritorio p√∫blico, and makes tiny books by hand at her kitchen table in Cypress Park, Los Angeles. She teaches at CalArts, Goddard College, and Otis College, and works nationally and locally as a social justice interpreter.

Feel free to be in touch with Jen Hofer via post (email or fb message me for my street address) or in the ether at route.the@gmail.com.

Jacket2Commentaries feature invited posts by poets and scholars who take a close, serial look at poetry scenes, archives, poetic concerns, or theoretical clusters. Commentaries, although curated, are not edited by Jacket2 staff. We welcome your comments. Send queries and notes to Commentaries Editor Jessica Lowenthal or contact us at this page.