Got housing woes? The Hammer offers consumers help

 

But answers to these practical financial and housing-related questions are actually available right now at the UCLA Hammer Museum’s Dream Home Resource Center, an installation by Los Angeles artist Olga Koumoundouros that illustrates the immateriality of real estate transactions and the shift from home as emblem of the American dream to house as a commodity.

 

"People have expectations of museums as static places to see art hanging on walls," said Allison Agsten, curator of public engagement at the Hammer. "Art can be beautiful but it can also provoke, inspire or challenge. And some art, like this installation, may even encourage participating as much as observing."

 

As someone whose chief responsibility is finding creative ways to connect with museum visitors, Agsten said she is always looking for new ways to get the public thinking about how art intersects with their lives and their communities.

 

So how about turning a small first-floor gallery in the lobby of the Hammer into a functioning office where housing experts and activists provide free advice about housing? Every day until Aug. 18, visitors can walk in and find a different adviser — perhaps a bank loan officer, a representative from the L.A. Human Right to Housing Collective, a real estate agent or someone whose home has been foreclosed — sitting at the gold-painted desk ready to listen.

 

"It was key that the participating experts have legitimacy and can provide a sincere, one-on-one experience," said Agsten, who added that this is one of the most "practical" installations she’s ever worked on at a museum. As a precaution, a printed disclaimer states that no one associated with the exhibit can be held liable for advice that doesn’t produce a desired result.

 

"This is an opportunity to talk about housing issues with a different crowd," said Elizabeth Blaney, representing the collective, a citywide network of tenant advocacy organizations that’s active downtown, in South L.A. and the Eastside. "Being able to talk about housing issues with people from the Westside was a great opportunity. Affordable housing affects everybody in Los Angeles."

 

So far, advisers from the collective have helped one renter who was facing a rent increase in a rent-controlled area and another renter fighting an eviction. Renters, who make up 65 percent of L.A. residents, are extremely vulnerable to housing problems and often don’t know what options they have, said Leonard Vilchis, a member of the collective who staffed the "office" one day last week with Blaney.

 

"This is a space where we can address these issues," Vilchis said. "In L.A. we destroy affordable housing to build affordable housing. We need rent control to keep housing affordable for very low-income people."

 

Agsten was eager to work with Koumoundouros after the artist transformed a neighbor’s abandoned house in Glassell Park into something she called "Notorious Possession." Koumoundouros painted rainbows across the interior walls and then painted the exterior of the house gold to symbolize its treatment as an object of value, not a personal dwelling place for people. She also invited young artists to squat in the back house, hosted a shared meal as a performance art piece and gathered housing activists to discuss the role of vacant homes in alleviating homelessness. She eventually documented the experience in photos for a book.

 

Koumoundouros’ views on housing — that housing is a crisis for almost everyone today —contrast with those expressed in another Hammer exhibition, A. Quincy Jones: Building for Better Living exhibit, which celebrates homeownership as the foundation of middle-class happiness.

 

As part of her exhibit, Koumoundouros copies some of the latest headlines from financial news publications on white siding panels. To keep the conversation going, museum guests are invited to fill out feedback forms. Commented one visitor: "Building managers carry a lot of power and information that tenants don’t always have, but do need. There needs to be more transparency!"

 

"Rich, poor, people in the middle … we’re all affected," Koumoundouros said. "Either you have a house to live in or you’re homeless."

 

One of the advisers, artist David Bell, spoke to visitors weighed down by mortgage troubles from his hard-earned experience. In the mid-2000s, Bell bought a townhome. When the market cratered in 2008, its value plummeted to only one-fourth of what he owed on it. He ended up short-selling it for just $20,000.

 

"The few people I’ve talked to today — younger and older — have had similar experiences," said Bell. And the sense of shame about sharing such personal financial woes was palpable.

 

Organizers of the exhibit said they hoped the unusual interactive approach they’ve taken — having live conversations about an urgent problem — helps people see how art can be a provocative vehicle that shows the intersection between art and contemporary life.

 

"Olga did what artists do. She has synthesized the ideas around a universal concern to create an installation that is incredibly timely," Agsten said. "How can we not present this kind of work?"

 

 

Olga Koumoundouros's Dream Home Resource Center runs through Aug. 18.

 

The A. Quincy Jones: Building for Better Living exhibit runs through Sept. 8.

 

For more information, call 310-443-7000 or visit www.hammer.ucla.edu.