Gal Amiram Gottlieb
Research-based visual artist working across photography, collage, video, and artist publications.
The Echo Park Project
The Echo Park Project documents the perimeter of Echo Park Lake during its closure in 2021. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the houseless encampment at the park—located in central Los Angeles—grew to more than 200 residents, many of whom were experiencing the immediate effects of the economic downturn on the city’s most vulnerable communities.
Tensions between the park’s new residents and their more affluent neighbors grew over the use of the public space. On March 26, 2021, the City of Los Angeles moved to evict the park’s houseless residents, citing the need for renovations. A fence was quickly erected around the park, making it inaccessible to everyone.
Using a camera mounted on a car, I documented the perimeter of the closed park in an attempt to make its inaccessibility visible and to examine the role that invisibility plays in silencing and erasing marginalized communities. The resulting work consists of continuous photographs depicting the park’s two-kilometer perimeter.
2021
