On June 11, ICA LA hosted a program featuring a panel consisting of artist Jackie Castillo, urban planner and artist James Rojas, and art historian Nicolas Orozco-Valdivia. The panel discussed how visible and invisible traces of labor inform our cultural understanding of place, utilizing the collaborative and familial elements of Castillo’s practice to inform their discussion.
At the time of this program, the City of Los Angeles experienced displays of aggression and excessive deployments of armed forces against our immigrant community and individuals. A curfew was imposed by the City of LA for an area in Downtown Los Angeles that included ICA LA. The museum changed this in-person event to an online format.
Following the program, Rojas said in a message to ICA LA staff: As an urban planner, I gained so much from engaging with young Latino artists and art historians. Our discussion explored how Latino labor, both formal and informal, has shaped the U.S. urban form and landscape, and how these contributions are represented, particularly in today’s political climate. Labor as politics or as a place.
One highlight was the conversation around Jackie Castillo’s work and her use of sculpture versus photography. We talked about how photographs can be manipulated or recontextualized in countless ways, often leading to intellectual interpretation. In contrast, sculpture offers a more sensory, grounded experience. Jackie’s exhibition _Through the Descent, Like the Return at ICA LA is her attempt to translate the ephemeral nature of photography into the tangible presence of sculpture._
When art historian Nicolas Orozco-Valdivia spoke about his experience with the suspended tiles in her installation, I connected with his insight. The physicality of the work evokes emotion and presence, while the photographs in the exhibition offer multiple, often more abstract, readings.
This reminded me of something I often reflect on: national media can portray Los Angeles as a city in flames, but for those of us who live here or are here, we know that’s not the full story. There’s a powerful difference between how we experience the world and how it’s imagined, reported, or intellectualized.
This truth is central to my art and urban planning practice. Through Place It!, we ask people to build their memories, needs, and aspirations using everyday objects, and not use the typical planning tools like images, words, data, or maps. These tactile, sensory tools unlock something deeper and more honest. As I’ve seen time and again, truth comes out through our hands.
James Rojas is an urban planner, community activist, artist, and leading voice in participatory urbanism. He is the founder of Place It!, an interdisciplinary, community-healing visioning process that uses storytelling, object-making, art, and play to transform public outreach into a creative, inclusive, and impactful experience. Over the past 20 years, James has facilitated more than 2,000 workshops and built over 600 interactive models across the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Europe, and South America. James is one of the few nationally recognized urban planners to explore how Latinx cultural practices shape the American landscape. His work sheds light on how Latino communities interpret, reshape, and reclaim urban and suburban spaces. His recent book, Dream, Play, Build, co-authored with John Kamp, presents a new model of community engagement based on relationship building—a method rooted in joy, memory, and collaboration, and specifically designed to include those historically excluded from the planning table.
Jackie Castillo: Through the Descent, Like the Return is on view at ICA LA through August 31.
Latino Urbanism & Cultural Placemaking
Place It! (Community Engagement)
Art Interactive Models
Projects
The following is a list of open space community projects organized in part by Rojas: