Radio Imagination: Artists in the Archive of Octavia E. Butler
Radio Imagination: Artists in the Archive of Octavia E. Butler is a group exhibition organized by the Los Angeles-based not-for-profit organization Clockshop. The exhibition debuts 6 new commissions inspired by the Octavia E. Butler papers at the Huntington Library. The exhibition is part of Clockshop鈥檚 year-long program throughout 2016 celebrating the life and work of Pasadena science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006).
Octavia E. Butler was a bestselling and award-winning author, receiving both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for her groundbreaking science fiction, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN West. She was the first Black woman to achieve international prominence in the genre, and is the first and only writer of science fiction to earn a MacArthur 鈥済enius鈥� Fellowship. With Black female protagonists, radical notions of kinship, and a keen understanding of power dynamics, Butler鈥檚 writing revamped the conventions of the science fiction genre. Ultimately, her work suggested new ways of thinking and new models of working for generations of writers and artists to come. 2016 marks the 10-year anniversary of Butler鈥檚 death.
Radio Imagination debuts new work by contemporary artists working in performance, sound, installation, photography, drawing, and video. Forming an unprecedented collaboration with Clockshop, the Huntington Library in San Marino granted these artists access to work in Butler鈥檚 archive. The Octavia E. Butler Collection at the Huntington Library consists of 8,000 individually cataloged items and more than 80 boxes of additional ephemera. Materials range from Butler鈥檚 very first short stories, written at age 12, to manuscripts, photographs, and Butler鈥檚 collection of inspirational quotes. The commissioned artists comprise an intergenerational group of emerging and established artists, each with an affinity for Butler鈥檚 work and a long-standing interest in her oeuvre.
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Radio Imagination: Artists in the Archive of Octavia E. Butler is a group exhibition organized by the Los Angeles-based not-for-profit organization Clockshop. The exhibition debuts 6 new commissions inspired by the Octavia E. Butler papers at the Huntington Library. The exhibition is part of Clockshop鈥檚 year-long program throughout 2016 celebrating the life and work of Pasadena science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006).
Octavia E. Butler was a bestselling and award-winning author, receiving both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for her groundbreaking science fiction, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN West. She was the first Black woman to achieve international prominence in the genre, and is the first and only writer of science fiction to earn a MacArthur 鈥済enius鈥� Fellowship. With Black female protagonists, radical notions of kinship, and a keen understanding of power dynamics, Butler鈥檚 writing revamped the conventions of the science fiction genre. Ultimately, her work suggested new ways of thinking and new models of working for generations of writers and artists to come. 2016 marks the 10-year anniversary of Butler鈥檚 death.
Radio Imagination debuts new work by contemporary artists working in performance, sound, installation, photography, drawing, and video. Forming an unprecedented collaboration with Clockshop, the Huntington Library in San Marino granted these artists access to work in Butler鈥檚 archive. The Octavia E. Butler Collection at the Huntington Library consists of 8,000 individually cataloged items and more than 80 boxes of additional ephemera. Materials range from Butler鈥檚 very first short stories, written at age 12, to manuscripts, photographs, and Butler鈥檚 collection of inspirational quotes. The commissioned artists comprise an intergenerational group of emerging and established artists, each with an affinity for Butler鈥檚 work and a long-standing interest in her oeuvre.
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