Our entrance to the museum was a bit disjointed and confused. The museum is the midst of the construction of a new downtown area call the Quartier des spectacles (see next post for more on that) so it was a bit hard to find the entrance. Then after buying a ticket, I misplaced it and had to rifle through my purse as the museum staff and the others I was with waited. This agitation dissipated though as we entered the Tacita Dean installation. There was Merce Cunningham in 16mm, life size, sitting patiently and looking at us or looking just past us, in six projections throughout an immense room. It was like that dream in which someone you love who died, comes back, without explanation.
In the projections, Merce Cuningham is performing John Cages 4′ 33″ . Cage’s performance consisted of instructions for a piano player to not play piano, and Merce Cunningham’s rendition is that he simply sits still for that period of time in his dance rehersal space. In some of the angles you see the person behind the camera, you see New York and the light from the windows pours into the room and from the mirrors. They are stunning portraits, simple and rich with conceptuality and with accesable human meaning. (and further enriched because here is a collaboration among Merce Cunningham, John Cage and Tacita Dean, all making thier own piece) To me they all state fundamental (familiar but welcome) remarks about the worthiness of experimentation and of challenging popular modes of media. To me, some of these are;
-long static shots remind me that media can represent stillness and this can be so engaging
-he isn’t acting, this is a documentary of a man sitting still
-be patient when making moving images
-there’s an old person on the screen, under-represented population
-he’s a dancer, and his sitting still in a chair and this is his dance
-the projections represent him life size, there is no bigger than life character
-the camera is shooting from several angles, and the projections are located all over the room, blowing apart the illusion of space that this media is often expected to invoke
CJB will be playing at easily the coolest music club in DTLA (if not all of LA). This place is what happens when integrity motivates. Couches. Great service. Hot food. Hot people. LATE drinks. (early drinks.) Come as you are. Be who you are. Dinner House M loves all.
When: Saturday, October 17th
We hit it at 10 and go to around 1:30.
(That’s a whole lot of funk.)
Where: Dinner House M
1263 W Temple St. 90026
$: 6 cover, all of which goes directly to the band!
This past weekend Michele and I headed down to Long Beach to install her video and check out this years crop of sound works installed for their annual audio-art festival. The show was bigger this year, and a good crowd showed up, but I didn’t find much work I found interesting this time around. Last years show was a real stand-out to me, got to see if I have photos lying around of that I can post later. There were a few things this year that grabbed my attention of course, notably D. Jean Hester’s field recording style audio tour of the SoundWalk (which made me want to carry a mic and headphones around everywhere I go), and Flora Kao’s sound sculptures. Michele’s video installation too of course, but I may be a bit biased towards that one.
Down there we met up with Rise member Mike Feldman and some others friends in the music industry, and talked a little about what failed to capture our attention this time around. We came to the conclusions that there was a bunch of work that had some technical things going on, but failed to bring any conceptual drive to it, and a bunch of work that was more traditionally “fine art” with sound added as an afterthought or not really bringing anything to the work. That and the usual sprinkling of works that either are rehashing of older artworks (when is an homage merely a copy?) and stuff that just didn’t work out at all. The event is so large that we may have missed a third of it altogether, so perhaps there was more out there which would have impressed us. I really wish it could extend to two days, as now its getting a bit large to take in during the course of one evening. Criticism aside, it really is a fantastic event every year – pretty amazing to see/hear sound art taking over a whole neighborhood for a night, and to run into little projects in every little nook and street corner. If anyone else was there and has some other project to point out that I missed, leave it in the comments please.
My new video/sound installation, i dream in your language, will be presented at this year’s SoundWalk, “a one-night event of sound installations by over 50 local and international sound artists.” Works are spread throughout the area encompassed by Broadway, Atlantic Avenue, Ocean Boulevard, and Elm Street with a sound corridor on 1st Street that will connect the East Village and Pine Avenue. The art is exhibited in a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces. Mine will be at Phantom Galleries on the southwest corner of 3rd and Elm Ave.
SW09 PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Aaron Drake / After School Program / Alexander Jarman / AMO / Amy Ling Huynh / Andrea Dominguez / Bekkah Walker / Braden Diotte / Caroline Chang & Kyoung Kim / Clowns and Fetuses / D. Jean Hester / Divine Brick Research Sound Projects / Double Blind / Elisabeth McMullin & Kegan McGurk / Erin Scott / Eric Strauss / FLOOD / Flora Kao / Francene Kaplan & Ryan Hunt / Gary Raymond / G. Douglas Barrett (Buffalo) / Gintas K (Lithuania) / HOLLOW BODIES / HumanEar / j.frede / Iris Lancery & Cyril Marche (France) / Jeff Boynton / Jeff Rau / Joe Newlin / John Kannenberg (Chicago) / Joseph Tepperman & Dorian Wood / Julia Holter / Justin Varis & Kevin Ponto / Kadet Kuhne / Karen Crews & Brian Hendon / Kari Rae Seekins / Leah A. Rico / Lewis Keller / Machine Head / Madelyn Byrne, Randy Hoffman & Ellen Weller / Mark Cetilia & Jon Coulthard / Michele Jaquis / Mitchell Brown / MLuM (Singapore/USA) / MPG Interactive Arts / Noah Thomas / Object Control / Ori Barel & Gil Omri Barel / OTONOMIYAKI / Paula Mathusen / phog masheeen / Phil Curtis / Phillip Stearns / Redux / Sander Roscoe Wolff / Scott Cazan / Small Drone Orchestra / smgsap / Song-Ming Ang / Steve Craig / Steve Roden / Steven Speciale / Stuart Sperling / Tamara Mason / The Hop-Frog Kollectiv & Friends / The Carolyn Duo / Tom McDermott / UEM / Warren-Crow + Warren-Crow
Start Time: 05:00 Date: 2009-10-03 End Time: 10:00
I wrote a review of Barbara T. Smith’s Aug. 28th performance at Highways, “Hold Your Mud, LA” and Paige Tighe published it on her blog, Grey Area Artist. You can read it here.
1. Write your manifesto or choose a famous one (we will provide copies to choose from)
2. Come to the party and bring a brunch item
3. Read, Listen, Eat, Enjoy
Join us live or via Skype.
Participants will stand on a “stage” and speak into a microphone.
All readings will be videotaped.
The revolution will be televised.
5/17/09 11am-2pm
At Rise Industries Studios in downtown LA
RSVP via email or here.
One of my crazy friends and his crazy artist friend did something either really stupid, or completely brilliant. They launched a replica of a Revolutionary War submarine in the East River, very close to a British Cruiseliner, the Queen Mary 2. Art or Terrorism, or just a stunt?
Nam June Paik is considered to be the godfather of Video Art, the first artist to have access to the Sony Portapak. He was a fluxus artist and worked primarily in performance and video. He died this past January and tonight LACMA and LA Film Fourum will be honoring him tonight with a TRIBUTE TO THE LIFE AND ART OF NAM JUNE PAIK – “An evening of remembrances, performances, projected video works, and rarely seen clips.” If you are in LA this is not to be missed.
Its a busy week…Tomorrow, Jeremy and I have digital prints in an art auction benefiting The HeArt Project.
This Saturday, June 4, I will be presenting a new installation and Jeremy will be presenting a new performance/installation at Interchange 3 at LAAA/Gallery 825
October is a busy month for Rise Industries. Jeremy and I participated in a performance event Interchange last weekend. Check out images online if you missed it. Today I have a video being shown as part of The Best of Video 825 at MAK DAY. Also tonight at Gallery 825 I have a video/sculpture in the group exhibition Things d’ Art.
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