The Jester’s Court

A good week for news of artists (and judges) making art with the aid of legal discourses. This year’s graduating MFA exibition from the California Institute of the Arts features one such project by Carlin Wing.

However, artists such as Carlin Wing were inspired not only by Chinatown’s reputation as a hip and popular art enclave, but also by its earlier history. Her outdoor chalk diagram piece “Four Courts” references the multiple meanings of the term “court” — from royalty and sports (Wing was a professional squash player) to architecture and judicial. The latter will be suggested in the form of a live reading related to an 80-year-old California Supreme Court decision that old Chinatown be razed to make room for Union Station. “I wanted to engage with the community here and the history,” Wing says.

Read more on the CalArts MFA exhibit at the LA Times.