Commonwealth & Council presents an exhibition by Akina Cox that favors rhizomatic growths in propagating multiple, non-hierarchical modes of knowledge and other possible communities for shared meaning. 

Interspersed among Akina Cox’s various engagements in video, sculpture, drawing, painting, and writing are field guides for mapping another consciousness and sensibility from a marginalized or minoritarian position. In the video, Amazon Solitaire (2012), a narrator plays a game in which the queens win solitaire (kings don't exist in this version) with a deck of handmade cards. This lone act of solidarity with the Amazons conjures together a community of other Amazons who engage in shared activities in a self-sustaining society. Accompanying this video is over a dozen seat cushions made of folded newsprint (Girl Scouts style) and sealed with wax. In the adjacent space, two small boxy clay sculptures are assigned to “a pontiff” and “a pastor" which refer to a religious gesture of reserving a chair or some other seating for a prophet or god.

 In her writing, Cox interweaves personal tales of phantom pregnancy aka Immaculate Conception, a sleep away camp for girls wearing granny panties, hoarders to the rescue, Unification Church and Rev. Moon, and search for Amazons at the DMZ, a de-facto nature sanctuary. A new Risograph artist book of these rhizomatic propositions printed by Golden Spike Press will be released during the closing reception. 

Akina Cox graduated from CalArts with an MFA in 2012. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Workspace, Monte Vista Projects, Dan Graham, LACE, and most recently, a two-person exhibition with Ariane Vielmetter at Marine Contemporary. She has been involved with many collectives including lyeberry, which has an upcoming event at For Your Art, and the Eternal Telethon, which has staged events at the X-Initiative, Pomona College Museum of Art, Barf Space, and RedCat. Her videos have been screened at various venues in Berlin, Amsterdam, New York, and Los Angeles. Her artist books have been published by New Byzantium Press and Golden Spike Press. She lives and works in Los Angeles.