Autumn Breon at Frieze Los Angeles: "Leisure is Not a Luxury"
The artist talks about her performance for Frieze Projects which reflects upon the history of Bay Street Beach in Santa Monica, where Black people were able to find a safe haven during the early to mid 20th century
The artist talks about her performance for Frieze Projects which reflects upon the history of Bay Street Beach in Santa Monica, where Black people were able to find a safe haven during the early to mid 20th century
Leisure Lives, created by multidisciplinary artist Autumn Breon, is a public installation that honors Santa Monica's Bay Street Beach and the Black spatial imaginary. Only a few miles from Frieze Art Fair, Bay Street Beach was a seaside haven for Black Californians’ recreation in the early to mid-twentieth century.
A colorful and illuminating gateway to leisure, Leisure Lives monumentalizes the legacy of the Black pioneers that fiercely protected public space dedicated to Black rest. Activated by the artist’s accompanying performance Swag Surf in the Water, Breon imagines this public space as an invitation to claim and reclaim space for relaxation.
