Without Your Interpretation, by Ulysses Jenkins, 1983

Ulysses Jenkins, Artist
Without Your Interpretation , 1984

Medium
Video transferred to DVD, color, sound
Dimensions
13:53 min.
Credit Line
Courtesy of the artist. Video still courtesy of the artist

This performance took place in 1983 at the Art Dock on Center Street in Los Angeles. Like much of Jenkins's other work, it involved multiple performers, including Maren Hassinger and Senga Nengudi. Here Jenkins addresses social and geopolitical issues—specifically the "insensitivity of middle-class attitudes towards the Third World"—often using an invented language referred to as "doggereal." Jenkins confronts Americans' indifference to events outside their own country, particularly to crises and need in poorer nations. By boldly addressing these issues, he calls for political action and international awareness.

Ulysses Jenkins, Without Your Interpretation, 1983
Uploaded by UCI Studio Art