The Archer School ‘is’ Antigone in New Exhibit

By MATTHEW MEYER | Reporter

“Antigone is you is me”—a new art installation at The Archer School for Girls—has transported the tale of “Antigone” from the annals of Greek myth to the streets of modern Los Angeles.

The exhibit, created by text-based artist Alexandra Grant, was a participatory project that invited students and community members to contribute their own illustrations to accompany the text. It was displayed at a special event Thursday, Feb. 2 in the Archer School’s intimate Eastern Star Gallery.

Described as “part-poetry, part-dialogue, part-literary text,” the installation adapted the ancient Greek myth to cast Antigone and her sister Ismene as two Angeleno teens. Grant and her sister Florence Grant penned the adaption.

The text was just the beginning, however.

Archer’s students, teachers and faculty were welcomed to engage and interpret the text on their own, and then illustrate the story with the Eastern Star Gallery’s walls as their canvas. Sticky notes containing key words and phrases from the text were arranged around the room to further inspire the artistry.

The driving quote for the project as a whole was a line from the original myth: “I was born to love not to hate.”

Participants weren’t limited in the scope or style of their illustrations, but they were challenged to work with the artists around them, and to find ways to make each work flow into the next. Participants were credited for their work at the public gallery opening and reception on Feb. 2.

The Archer School emphasized the exhibit’s positive impact on students and staff, describing the experience as a safe place for “hospitality, creativity and experimentation.”

Grant’s works are experimental by nature—often dealing with the translation of text to image and the relationship between spoken language and written word. Her works have been shown at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, in addition to galleries around the U.S. and abroad.