Dani Dodge and Various Artists

The Lancaster Museum of Art and History and MOAH:CEDAR are excited to announce the 2017 Annual Juried Arts Festival. The exhibition kicks off with CEDARFEST, a one-night-only festival celebrating the artists. The festival will take place Saturday, June 17th, from 4 PM – 8 PM This year’s jurors include local, internationally recognized artist Robin Rosenthal and Los Angeles Artist Nicolas Shake.

Artists interested in submitting work should note that the museum will only accept entries through Café (callforentry.org). For those unfamiliar with online submissions, workshops detailing the process will be available at MOAH May 25th and May 27th, from 6:30 PM to 8 PM Participants will have the opportunity to submit their work through Café’s online system during these workshops.

The submission period for CEDARFEST runs from April 28th

to June 2nd.

CEDARFEST, the exhibition, will be on view Saturday, June 17, through Saturday, August 5, 2017. Upper and lower galleries will be open to the public during MOAH:CEDAR’s hours of operation, Thursday – Sunday, 2 P.M. – 8 P.M. Community members are invited to view the art and share photos on social media using #CEDARFEST. Visitors are also encouraged to vote for their favorite pieces using #CedarfestPeoplesChoice2017, as the artwork with the most votes on Instagram will receive a special prize following the exhibition. All exhibiting artists will receive an electronic catalog listing all participants and their displayed works.

Dani Dodge’s “Personal Territories” maps out a new way of looking at home

Lancaster, CA — When we are young, we want nothing more than to get away from home. As we age, some of us want nothing more than to be home. Dani Dodge’s installation maps her own history of home and encourages visitors to consider their own tales of personal territory.

Opening June 17 at MOAH:CEDAR, “Personal Territories” is a room-sized interactive installation that incorporates video and sculpture while allowing members of the public to contemplate their own memories of home.

Dodge is known for crafting evocative interactive works that reflect ideas of home, formation of identity, and the secrets we hide in public and private spaces. She explores how many layers of transparency are required before opacity occurs.

Opening reception: 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday June 17, 2017

Location: MOAH:CEDAR, 44857 Cedar Ave., Lancaster, California

Exhibition runs through August 5, 2017

Hours: 2 to 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday

Cost: Free

Additional events: The exhibition will include four events—July 1, 8, 15, and 22—outside of the museum walls to engage the community in a dialogue about the personal territory we all tread.

To create the work, the artist, who grew up in California, relearned the art of sewing, something she abandoned after doing poorly in home economics at age 14. She re-creates her childhood bed in clear vinyl and shades of translucent fabric, hanging it from the museum ceiling. Each piece is a striation in her journey. Threads dangle from the seams.

A time-lapse video, reminiscent of Dodge’s childhood territory, projects onto and through the objects. It is at once visible and obscured as it plays upon the surfaces.

The installation allows the public to wander through this ephemeral representation of Dodge’s personal history, rendered in dreamlike colors and textures that at once conceal and reveal the details of her youth.

Sculptures made from the skins of mattresses dot the room. Visitors are invited to share their own childhood memories and ideas of home on wood blocks—one of the most solid items within the room—and hide them in shoeboxes under the bed.

Inspired by her personal history as a war correspondent, political journalist, and a young single mother who at one point lived in a car with two infants, the artist’s sculptures and installations reveal a range of powerful themes, including identity, memory, the fragility of home, and the nature of truth. At the same time, Dodge’s installation seduces viewers with its delicate monumentality and subtle but perilous beauty.

While no less contemplative, her “Personal Territories” public performances will be a celebration of community and home. At locations throughout Lancaster, she invites the public to share their own truths with her and others. The paper airplanes, drawings, and stories that result from the encounters will be on view at MOAH:CEDAR.

Personal Territories: Events Interactive Art with Dani Dodge

Saturday, July 1, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.: Joe Davies Heritage Airpark

Horizons Beyond the Homefront

Participants fold paper planes, write where they want to go on them and toss them into the “horizon.”

Saturday, July 8, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.: Prime Desert Woodlands

The Earth Is My Home

Participants fill in a 4-foot-tall image of the Earth with their thoughts and drawings of what the planet means to them.

Saturday, July 15, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.: Los Angeles County Library – Lancaster

The Setting for my Story Is Home

We all have a story to tell. Participants tell the artist a short story about their home, wherever or whatever it is. The artist creates a title for the story and types it on a vintage library reference card that the participant then files into a library card file.

Saturday, July 22, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.: Western Hotel Museum

Home as Heritage

Visitors to the museum think about their own heritage. They share the name of a relative who was a foundation of their family and a short story about that person. The artist types the story in no more than three sentences on parchment paper that becomes a “book.”

Bio: Dani Dodge lives and works in Los Angeles. Her work is included in three museum collections and has been shown across the U.S. and internationally. In 2016, Americans for the Arts named Dodge’s interactive installation/performance “CONFESS” one of the outstanding public art projects of the previous year.

She is a former newspaper reporter who was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for exposing congressional corruption in 2006. She was embedded with the Marines during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She left journalism in 2008 to focus on art.

Websites: DaniDodge.com & lancastermoah.org

Note: Dodge’s opening reception is being held in conjunction with the 32nd Annual All-Media Juried Arts Festival, CEDARFEST, hosted by the Lancaster Museum of Art & History (MOAH) and MOAH:CEDAR.