Single-channel video.

Every Ocean Hughes (formerly known as Emily Roysdon) has created a new single-channel video, One Big Bag, which draws on the artist’s recent experiences with death and grief. Growing out of an extensive period of research, One Big Bag explores what the artist describes as “queer death,” a field that addresses questions of self-determination, mutual aid, survival, diverse kinship, and accountability. Inspired by the mobile corpse kit—full of mundane household objects—that a death doula always has packed and ready to go for urgent calls to care for the newly dead, Hughes’s work addresses the materiality of death, how care for the body reflects cultural values, and a queering of the experience of death in a society that often hides its actual processes from public view.

Organized by Connie Butler, Hammer chief curator, Anne Ellegood, ICA LA Good Works Executive Director, Nika Chilewich, Hammer curatorial assistant.

October 10, 2021 – January 9, 2022, Los Angeles