MOCA Climate Conversations: Josh Kline

This symposium will explore themes brought forward by the exhibition Josh Kline: Climate Change including the role of capitalism in climate change and the colonial roots of the polycrisis. The program will be moderated by artist and MOCA Environmental Council co-founder Haley Mellin.

Session 1: CAUSES
12-1:30pm

Session 2: EFFECTS
1:45-3:15pm

Session 3: SOLUTIONS
3:30-5pm

Josh Kline (b. 1979, Philadelphia; lives and works in New York) is known for creating immersive installations using video, sculpture, photography, and design to question how emergent technologies are changing human life in the 21st century. Kline often utilizes the technologies, practices, and forms he scrutinizes—digitization, data collection, image manipulation, 3D printing, commercial and political advertising, productivity-enhancing substances—aiming them back at themselves. At its core, Kline’s prescient practice is focused on work and class under late capitalism, exploring how today’s most urgent social and political issues—climate change, automation, disease, and the weakening of democracy—impact the people who make up the labor force.

Part of MOCA’s environmental programming, MOCA Climate Conversations are organized by Kelsey Shell, Environmental and Sustainability Strategist, with Alitzah Oros, Public Programming Associate, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Highlighting the museum’s work around climate, conservation, and environmental justice, MOCA’s environmental programs are guided by the work of the MOCA Environmental Council, the first sustainability council at a major arts museum in the United States. The environmental programs present artists, activists, and scholars committed to critical ecological issues in Los Angeles and globally.

The 2024 MOCA Climate Conversations are made possible by Nora McNeely Hurley and Manitou Fund.