I believe that by creating new approaches and new habits, we can begin to loosen some of the societal perceptions that bind us into old ways of thinking and being.
The contemporary colonial world frequently teaches us to cut off from our sensorial natural bodies, our knowing, our nature, and one another.
Finding ways to understand our own nature, (corporal, spiritual, relational), including our hair texture, body, how we adorn ourselves and move our bodies, is one powerful way to understand ourSelf -the reality of our personal human existence and how we relate to everyone around us. How can we nurture the Self (that exists?) BENEATH colonialist, racist, patriarchal socialization. Who are you beneath social codes? What do you want to carry with you into your and our collective futures?
It is all of our responsibility to be architects of the future.
(J. D.)
We are in an era of necessary change and can be guided by self inquiry, un-learning/re-learning, awareness of self, intentional choices, bridge-building, and redefined identity.
We need to radically accept ourselves. When we deny our nature and body, it becomes that much easier to deny the nature and body of another. LK
Klein founded Aesthetic Autonomy in 2018 with the intention of integrating all her practices to serve individuals and communities towards visualizing and making choices towards intentional, positive, collective, protopian futures.
Lauren Klein
Practitioner, Researcher, Sculptor, + Beauty Industry Worker building works, experiences, and services that change the impact of our everyday practices.
Frizz advocate, Pro-Frizz.
Shows/Presentations/Workshops + Participation
“Soil: Wise Record Keeper; Reterritorialization through Somatic / Haptic Knowledges” Artistic Research, The Barn Arts, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 2024
“the shape of (y)our perspective” Artist in Residence and performance/installation at Temescal Art Center: Aesthetic Autonomy: November 2022
A Preemptive Study: from public amateurism to community science, organized on the occasion of LACE’s Pacific Standard Time exhibition (un)disciplinary tactics: Beatriz da Costa LACE Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, study group, March 2022 - December 2022
“Bajo La Sombra del Sol” wearable sculpture for performance series at REDCAT Theater, LA, 2021
Boss Witch Productions Mono Lake, CA residency + production for “Bajo la Sombra del Sol” 2021
“Fugitive Planning: 2050,” collaborative, participatory collective projection, 2021 - 2050
Panelist, Aesthetic Futures, Decolonizing Futures and SCI-FI, World Futures Day, “Decolonizing Futures,”Conference Series, Envisioning Lab, 2021
Aesthetic Futures for Social Wellness Manifesto Map published in U+ Zine on Future, 2020
The HOLOGRAM, Peer-to-Peer Feminist Health for a Post- Pandemic World. Second Cohort, September 2020, ongoing
The Human Way, Residency Online, September 2020-Jan 2021
Natural Hair Futures, Aesthetic Autonomy Workshop facilitation: New Woman Space, May 2020
Quarantine Series: ART HAIR FUTURES, online presentation + conversations April- ongoing, IG + Zoom 2020
On Inhabitable Planetary Worlds, workshop with Patricia Reed, CDMX, August 2020
The Power of Hair, workshop series, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Mexico City, Mexico 2019
NewMoon Resonance Sessions, with Milo Tamez, workshop series, Mexico City, Mexico 2018-2019
FIELDS, with Milo Tamez, performance, Ex-Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico City, Mexico 2019
FIELDS, with Milo Tamez, artist talk, Editorial Herder, Mexico City, Mexico 2019
Aesthetic Autonomy, Irregular Salon, Brooklyn, NY 2019
Theory of Change, 1-to1 workshop with Injita Elabd, CDMX, 2019
FIELDS, Bucareli Casa del Arte, Mexico City, Mexico 2019
Aesthetic Autonomy, Laboratorio Arte Alameda (performance and video installation) CDMX, Mexico 2018
Arqueologia de la Autonomia, Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City, Mexico 2018
Torus Project, exhibition and Artist in Residence at Espectro Electromagnético, Mexico City, Mexico 2017
fono figura, exhibition and Artist in Residence at Museum of Human Achievement, Austin, Texas 2017
Inside Gemstones, Immersive Gallery, Brooklyn, New York 2016
Lutra Lutra, The Luggage Store, San Francisco 2014
Lutra Lutra, The Lab, San Francisco, CA 2013
Midnight Sun, Amnesia, The Make Out Room, San Francisco, 2012
Birds, Pirate Cat Radio, San Francisco, CA 2012
Texture, DPT Salons and Academy, San Francisco, CA 2011
Fabric Glass, Viracocha, San Francisco, 2011