Communicator Series no. 14
Performed at
Poetic Research Bureau
Los Angeles, California
28 October 2025
Curated by
Emji Saint Spero
Sound by
jeremy kennedy
Video by
Gentry McShane
Join us in ritually restaging the feral haptics of the present with performances by Los Angeles-based artists Vaughan Larsen and Nina Sarnelle. Communicator Series no. 14 is an invitation to reach between the fault lines of collective presence to touch the electric terror of becoming a we…
i.e. nostalgia is for nymphos.
i.e. let’s vibe.
7:0pm Doors
8pm Performances
Free / RSVP
About the Artists
Vaughan Larsen is an artist, community organizer, and LGBTQ+ activist based in Los Angeles. Her practice involves photography, performance, sculpture, and video to express the dynamic, emotive states found within the queer chosen family. She creates images and stages happenings that celebrate and investigate the becoming of her identity as a trans woman.
In 2019, Larsen received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Later that year, she earned First Place in Getty Images’ Creative Bursary Award; first prize in Amsterdam Pride Photo Award’s Unique competition; and named an Emerging Fellow of the Mary L. Nohl Fellowship. Exhibited internationally, Larsen had her first solo museum exhibition in 2024 hosted by the Museum of Wisconsin Art.
Nina Sarnelle (they/them) makes research projects, participatory performances, music composition, video, and many experiments in pedagogy and collectivity. They facilitate somatic, improvisational & vocal workshops, including many with Selwa Sweidan under the collaborative project Touch Praxis. Their work explores conditions of neocolonialism, environmental injustice and labor exploitation in strange and intimate ways, often rooted in specific sites like the Port of LA, a former Nike Missile silo turned into a basketball court, or the shifting sands of “Silicon Beach.”
Sarnelle was recently awarded a $75K fellowship from the California Arts Council, a fellowship at Metabolic Studio, and a NYFA Environmental Arts Grant. In 2020, they had a solo video exhibition at the New Museum. They hold a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University. Their work has been shown at Whitechapel Gallery (London), Hammer Museum (LA), Getty Center (LA), Ballroom Marfa (TX), MoMA (NY), Istanbul Modern (Turkey), Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (Berlin), Museum of Art, Architecture & Technology (Lisbon), Fundacion PROA (Buenos Aires), Black Cube (Denver), Southern Exposure (San Francisco), Recess (NY), UNSW Galleries (Sydney), Project 88 (Mumbai), Kevin Space (Vienna), Villa Croce Contemporary Art Museum (Genova), Mwoods (Beijing), Human Resources (LA) and others; and featured in Art Forum, Frieze, Art in America, Huffington Post, SFMoMA, Creators Project, FlashArt and others.
ninasarnelle.com
vimeo.com/sarnelle
ig @ninasarnelle
Image Credit: Nina Sarnelle, Rehearsal for Breath Work, photo by Don Edler