Ken Gonzales-Day has taught at Cal Arts for years, and certain circles of Cal Arts, both in the conceptual projects of its professors and the new work of its recent graduates, have long been drawn to lost histories and cultural memories that have faded from view or have been covered over. Call these histories what you will - repression, sublimation, political suppression - but the fact is some things are forgotten.

In 2006, Gonzales-Day published through Duke University, Lynching in the West, a book that is the most comprehensive look at the history of hanging in the west, mostly of Latinos and Native Americans - the tale is comprehensive and brutal and until then, lost.

At LACMA in Phantom Sightings, we get an installation that presents some of Gonzalez-Day's findings. The viewer enters into a corridor lined on each sides the same photograph altered and adjusted in positive and negatives, both sides of the hallway draws attention to what is missing - the victim of the hanging. At the end of the hallway, Gonzales-Day presents evidence of hangings in California -- newspaper clippings, testimony, and photographs. Though the viewer gets a sense of what may of happened all those many years ago, the truth remains shadowy and uncertain.

- Ed Schad

(Images top-bottom:  Ken Gonzales-Day, St. James Park (The Wonder Gaze), 2006-07, 120x280 inches; Ken Gonzales-Day, Disguised Bandit, 2005, 3.8 x 6 inches; Ken Gonzales-Day, St. James 1, 3.7 x 6 inches; Images courtesy of the Artist)