When the official flyer from MOCA cautions that the use of earplugs is strongly recommended, you know something other than a bit of classical music in the park will be going on. This was the situation last weekend down in Los Angeles’ State Historic Park (screw that, I am still calling it The Cornfields) when MOCA organized a re-creation of Iannis Xenakis’ Persepolis, a multi-track experimental music/space/sound composition.
I rolled up late, because I did actually turn back to pick up my earplugs (musicians gotta protect the ears you know), but couldn’t find them. The place was pretty crowded when I got there, and the sun had recently set, so light was fading fast. Walking toward the park, you could hear a low thrum, and I followed the rest of the stragglers into the park. As luck, and most likely insurance riders, would have it, ear plugs were being handed out at a MOCA info table. I plugged em in, and walked into a landscape made of noise, grass, and crowd.
I am not sure I have fully digested this thing yet, but I can say for now that it was an experience, a physical, visual and audio experience on a pretty intense level. I tested pulling the earplugs out from time to time, as I was worried I was missing the highs of the sound. And it was loud, so very very loud. Sometimes bearable and OK, but without warning, a super high pitch would drift in and threaten permanent damage.
I wandered around, as the work sprawls over the park, with speakers on posts set up regularly spaced around the area. There were searchlights and fog machines, at first seemingly doing their own thing, but later working in concert with the sound to create a frenzy of stimuli.
Later there were pillars of fire. There was subtle sound in the giant noise, lots to keep you interested, and enough change to hold me there through the entire duration. It evolved, peaking with the sweeping searchlights, then backing off just a bit to hold for a while before it all simply stopped.
These videos are nothing like it, of course. But, they give you a glimpse into the idea. Sadly, I didn’t catch a shot of the Gold Line train cutting across the edge of the field right behind the huge crowd – which was very surreal.
Well, this is a very disjointed post, but like I say, I have not digested it yet. May write more on it later when I have thought about what exactly made this so spectacular. Or maybe I will keep that to myself.
Last night I ran the first prints of my polymer plate design for the letterpress class I am taking. After a very slow start, things seemed to be going quite well – got the plate located properly, paper aligned, impression good, added some more ink and was ready to go for it, when things started to go badly. First got some bad spots from crap in my ink, then after fixing that, parts of the image started not having enough ink coverage, and other parts looked like they were getting hit too hard. Gerald (the teacher) and I messed with until a half hour past the end of class time, but we just couldn’t fix it. Turns out there was some impression left on the tympan (mylar on the cylinder the paper wraps around) from the last person to print on that press. Rrrrrrr. Ah well, got some decent test prints, and will have to set the whole thing up next week to try it again.
The quote is from Leonardo Da Vinci, and is set in Breathe Pro by Maximiliano R. Sproviero. The overall idea is a nod to Miesien purity countered with Philip Johnson’s snarkiness.
(the images below look great, but after these few almost perfect prints things went downhill and we couldn’t get it back)
Things have been getting busy round the Rise Industries Studios West. In addition to some interesting freelance projects, and the continued saga of the furniture design venture, I have moved into a new workspace (Studio 1060! More about that later) and I am working on a new letterpress print, which I will be doing the printing for this time! Here is a teaser shot of it:
Also preparing to give a little artist talk and workshop at Otis. Will be showing some of my sound works and talking about my process for creating those, then doing a workshop on making contact mics. Should be a lot of fun. Maybe I will reenact that workshop and talk at the Rise Studios one of these days, if there is interest in that sort of thing.
Early last month I stopped by Machine Project in Echo Park to check out the ship that was rumored to have been built inside (and through) their small storefront space. The opening was packed, with crowds spilling out onto the street, and as soon as I strolled in I could see why – there was in fact a rather large ship taking up most of the space inside.
The ship, an installation by Josh Beckman called Sea Nymph, served as the site for seven weeks of maritime themed programs. Events ran the gamut from crocheting jellyfish, to lectures on navigation or pirates (the hacking kind though I believe), to a puppet show about Moby Dick. Unfortunately, that ship has now sailed, as it was taken apart last weekend. So – if you have not yet seen Machine Project’s majestic sailing ship, you will have to be satisfied with these here photos and videos.
As per their usual mode, Machine managed to cram art/craft/academics/tech and pure joy into an ambitions project, and then stretch it out over a couple of months of interesting programming. Take this as a lesson – if you can get to the next seemingly crazy thing they put on in there, you be sure not to miss it this time.
I started taking a great letterpress class this month, taught by Gerald Lange, in Otis College of Art and Design’s Continuing Ed. program. So far we have seen some of Gerald’s fantastic work and that of his students, memorized the California Job Case, set up some type, and started printing. With many errors. So – next week its back to setting and trouble shooting the type, then clean press, ink, print, check, clean, fix type, ink, print, clean… you get the picture. Everything looks like it will take forever but I get the impression that we will get faster at it. The machines, the type, the tools, are all just as beautiful and great to work with as I had hoped. mmmm, lead type.
This one is a sketch of part of the set, working out the layout of the art-wall/incomplete installation that forms part of the back wall of the set. In the foreground was a model of the art-wall, which was been reconfigured as more of a material sample piece instead of an actual model.
Below are a few photos from rehearsal last week:
Shanti Reinhardt and Barry Saltzman discuss.
Tuddy Monteanu documents Eva.
Bianca Gisselle
Bianca Gisselle and Heather Tyler
And some images of the rolling rear projection wall, with a paper screen for testing. We will be putting up the real screen in the space. The shape is a right triangular prism with the top sliced off diagonally – if that makes any sense to you. It came out great, and basically gives us a compact, rolling, moving image. The video projector mount (not shown there) attaches to the outside edge of the vertical post on the back, and drops the image perfectly onto the screen without the need for zooming or any adjustment. Next hurdle – running wires to it from the booth above.
For the past month or so, Michele and I have been working on video and set design for Marcie Begleiter’s play Meditations: Eva Hesse. The piece, a fictionalized account of Eva Hesse’s life and last days, combines theater with elements of sculpture and video installation, and touches on several key moments in Hesse’s life and career. As the video and set design team, we have been working closely with Marcie and director David Watkins to bring the piece to life. Very early on, Marcie had created story-boards visualizing the feel of the performance, combining the essence of Hesse’s work with the reality of her brain cancer until her work and life become merged in the finale.
production design sketch, by Marcie Begleiter
Armed with her early sketches, and following the evolution of the play through the rehearsal and workshopping progress, the set has emerged as a few key elements that loosely define the required settings. One is an installation/studio wall for the actors to work with as the play unfolds. The idea for the installation/studio wall is to create a work in progress, which the actors will build upon, that has the feel and materiality of Hesse’s work, without trying to re-create any of her work in particular. This element references an underlying order layered with organic complexity and rooted in process and materiality. The other major set piece is a rolling, rear-projection video rig – built with an industrial aesthetic so that when it is not carrying video, it will serve as a portion of a wall or part of a space. The steel-angle construction precisely frames the area required for a short-throw projector to create a seven by five foot image, in a compact geometric form.
sketch of rolling rear-projection rig and set wall, by Jeremy J. Quinn
early sketch of the “art wall,” by Jeremy J. Quinn
The video design consists of two main conceptual threads – one channel that fills in set elements and another channel that represents abstractions of Eva’s memories and psychological states, both of which follow the emotional arc of the play. Michele has been shooting and editing at a furious pace, attending most rehearsals and working in the space while watching the rehearsals progress. Rise Industries member Sarah Rushford was also able to shoot some video for us while traveling in Germany, which will be used in a German train station scene in the play.
still from video projection, by Michele Jaquis
Production Crew
Meditations: Eva Hesse is written by Marcie Begleiter, and directed by David Watkins
Michael Vanderbilt : Producer
Michele Jaquis : Video Designer
Jeremy Quinn : Set Designer
Alice Tavener : Costume Designer
R. Christopher Stokes : Lighting Designer
Casey McGann: Stage Manager
Marisa Blankier: Assistant Stage Manager
Rosalyn Myles: Prop Master
Cast
Young Eva-Alexandra Ozeri
Adult Eva-Bianca Gisselle
Dying Eva- Heather Tyler
Tom-Robert Manning Jr.
Mutti/Dr. P/German Curator- Shanti Reinhardt
William/Sol/German Transit Officer-Barry Saltzman
Lucy/Helen/Mariyln-Anne Yatco
Art Worker 1 (Daniel)-Tuddy Monteanu
Art Worker 2 (Jane)-Kimberly Patterson
Thanks to everyone who came out to our open studio last week, we had a lot of visitors and a great time in general. For all of you who somehow missed it (like, you must have missed your plane from Logan or something and we are sorry if that is the case but if so hopefully you spent the day at the Bunker Hill Monument and the USS Constitution or something and everything is cool) – here are some photos from late in the day, and some images of the little print demo we ended up doing. Metallic inks on green origami paper are super cool BTW.
Rosalyn Myles came by for the day, with her collage works, fabric dolls and various pillow items. Catherine Garrison also came by and ran the printing table, which continued all day. Rise member Mike Feldman stopped in for a while and did some printing as well.
Jeremy’s CDs, DVDs, photos and RV cards (those last coming soon to the Rise Online shop)
Jeremy studio with posters, Interlopers series and “Transference”, sound installation
Michele studio, The Storm video playing on her computer, passport project and family/identity based projects on wall.
Sitting around the printing table after the open studio.
Some of our prints:
This one may form the basis for a metal grille cover soon.
Had a tough time with the gold leafing..
Powder blue on kraft paper was a big hit.
Mike put some filth on our dental floss. Awesome.
Michele made a great border, suitable for diplomas and other such official paperworks.
I have been fooling around with a contact mic that I made over at Machine Project last week in their workshop, and had an idea for modifying the sound of a metronome live via guitar pedal delay and synth effects. So – this is what I worked up today. It sounds a bit better live, I need to get a mic closer to the amp, not near the metronome to pick up more of the modified sound, but it looks better with my little point-n-shoot at this angle. I have been working on a bunch of sound sculpture projects lately, so there are more to come along these lines.
Once again, Michele and I will be hosting an open studio at our lovely loft in the Arts District. This time, we will be surrounded by a festival-type atmosphere, as Bloomfest will be going on in the Arts District, and Nisei Week will be starting up in Little Tokyo – so there will be plenty to do when you get tired of perusing the local artist studios around the area. Though, it may make parking a sort of challenge.
I will have some sound installation/sculpture work I have been making lately on display, as well as some posters, CDs and cards (the RVs!) for sale. Michele’s recent work exploring language, translation, and family will be up and on some of our video monitors. We might even get down to some lino cut printing during the day, so maybe you can see us cut up and print some stuff in person.
On top of all that, our friend Rosalyn Myles will be there with some of her handcrafted fabric dolls and things for sale. So come on by, even if its just to chat and have a drink before exploring the festivals.
We are at:
837 Traction Ave. Suite 307. LA 90013 There is a call box outside to dial up on, and we will stick a sign on the sidewalk so you don’t miss us!
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