Loitering is delightful installation view, 2019. image courtesy of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. photo: Jeff McLane.

The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) presented Loitering is delightful, an exhibition that brought together ten Los Angeles artists to explore the joyful possibilities of slowing down.

Loitering is traditionally considered the preserver of delinquents, teenagers, and miscreants. Generally speaking, those up to no good. Of course, some are freer to dilly-dally than others. As Ross Gay reminded us in his incisive essay “Loitering Is Delightful” (which the author has kindly permitted us to use here), “…the darker your skin, the more likely you are to be ‘loitering'”. Gay goes on to point out that for people of color, any public display of “non-productive delight” – from loitering to laughter – can be censured. This leads one to ask: at which point does lingering cross into criminal territory? What does ‘loitering’ really mean? And why is it frowned upon?

Furthermore, might the gesture of standing or sitting, with no apparent purpose, contain a seed of radical potential? Could loitering offer some respite, however temporary, form the capitalist cycle of consumption and production? In a world consumed by digital devices and driven by productivity, what possibilities does daydreaming offer? Can fulfillment be found in staring into space? Is there pleasure in simply hanging out? What does it mean to be seen engaging in seemingly aimless pursuit, and, moreover, to take up public space in the process? Is loitering contagious?

At the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, visitors need pay for nothing to legitimize their lollygagging. Spending a long time in the gallery is not considered threatening; on the contrary, it is encouraged. Loitering is delightful posited the municipal gallery, a civic space with free admission, as a safe place to sit, look, and think.

With new work by Milano Chow, Lauren Davis Fisher, Ishi Glinsky, David Horvitz, Dylan Mira, Joshua Ross with Devion Law, Asha Schechter, Cauleen Smith, Lani Trock, and Megan Whitmarsh, Loitering is delightful invited guests to delight in dawdling.

Select Press:

Abe Ahn and Elisa Wouk Almino, “Your Concise Los Angeles Art Guide for Fall 2019,” Hyperallergic, September 10, 2019.