On January 25, 2025, L.A.-based artist Francesca Gabbiani will premier Gossip, an ambitious, multimedia performance that investigates feminist symbology through dance, live percussion, electronic music, poetry, animation, and shadow puppetry.

The performance will be an occasion for the community to gather after the worst of the ongoing emergency situation. We ask all who can to please donate to Grief & Hope: LA Art World Fire Relief, a fundraiser and mutual aid effort spearheaded by a group of LA-based artists and art workers to help those impacted by the Eaton, Palisades, Sunset, and other fires in L.A. County.

Gabbiani has long created work about the interconnectedness of human lives and natural forces, often depicting the wildfires that are a regular occurrence in Southern California. In this work, symbols of fire, plant medicine, domesticity, reproduction, and the aging female body are explored through rich visual depictions and layered soundscapes. The score, composed and directed by Eddie Ruscha (assisted by Milo and Tristan Ruscha) incorporates live drumming, percussive sweeping, and whispered incantations.

In the early Medieval era, the term gossip--derived from the Old English word godsib, denoting a godparent or dear friend--commonly referred to a group of female friends or a woman's special friendship; a woman’s gossip may have included midwives, female relatives, and close companions. By the 1500s, with the rise of the European witch hunts and the persecution of “rebellious” women, gossip became vilified as harmful, idle talk, a historically patriarchal view that persists today. Through her work, Gabbiani challenges this notion while recentering the creative and intellectual power of women gathering, exchanging knowledge, and sharing bonds.

This event will take place in the space next door to The Brick, at 520 N. Western Ave. The performance will occur in two cycles, at 7:00pm and 8:00pm. Viewers are invited to come for one cycle or stay for both. The performance will take place in the round and viewers are invited to move freely throughout the duration. Standing room only, first come/first served.

This performance was made possible through the generous support of The Hillenburg Family Foundation. It was commissioned as part of the exhibition Life on Earth: Art & Ecofeminism.