Otis College Faculty Liz Hirsch on Alternative Spaces, David Wojnarowicz, and Her Forthcoming Book

An Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art/Media Studies, Hirsch is also the Art History area head in the Liberal Arts and Sciences program at the College.

To complement their studies in one of eight undergraduate majors, Otis College students receive a well-rounded Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) education beginning in their first year. In total, LAS courses make up one-third of the credits required for graduation and cover topics including art history, writing, and the social and natural sciences. 

Liz Hirsch, an art historian specializing in modern and contemporary art, has taught in the LAS program for almost five years. She is also the co-founder of 839, a contemporary art gallery in Los Angeles. Last spring, Hirsch was a recipient of the Teaching Excellence Award for full-time faculty, nominated by students, faculty, and staff. She recently shared more on her work, teaching, and inspiration in this first of a new series spotlighting Otis College faculty. 

A Recent Course: Alternative Spaces: History, Theory, and Practice

This past spring I taught Alternative Spaces: History, Theory, and Practice for the first time. In the class, we explored both well-known and overlooked alternatives to mainstream cultural institutions across art, music, theater, and beyond, considering topics such as queer space, transnationalism, gentrification, and institutionalization. 

Students visited nontraditional sites across Los Angeles, including Leroy’s (run by Fine Arts faculty Ian James), the 7th Ave Garden, and New Theater Hollywood. They also perused the Ben Maltz Gallery archive at Otis’s Millard Sheets Library, considering how that venue blurred the boundaries between alternative and established cultural space.

Standout final student projects included a virtual diasporic space for the Arab world, a nuanced account of Linda Goode Bryant’s Just Above Midtown gallery, and original field research into New Theater Hollywood.

A Work that Continues to Inspire: David Wojnarowicz’s Jacket

I’m continually inspired by the work of David Wojnarowicz. His hand-painted denim jacket read, “If I die of AIDS - forget burial - just drop my body on the steps of the F.D.A.” It remains one of the most powerful statements I know, and I always teach it in my Theories and Trends class when it comes time to address the theme of bodies. The way he channeled grief, anger, embodiment, and political urgency into image and text has shaped how I think about the capacity of art to bear witness.

A Work of My Own: My First Book

I’m at work on my first book, High Performance: Publishing and the Social Life of Art in Los Angeles, 1978-1997, under contract from Manchester University Press, with the Performance Art Museum. In this book, I examine how experimental artists used print culture to build community, circulate ideas, and literally create their work just before the rise of the internet. 

Researching the book has taken me through archives, artist studios, and so many conversations with those who helped shape the cultural landscape of the Los Angeles we inhabit today.

More about Liz Hirsch.

More about Otis College’s Liberal Arts and Sciences program.

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