Gettin’ off the Ground: Contemporary Stories from an American Community

posted by on 2014.02.07, under art, culture, exhibition, news, photo, social practice

My 2009 project “26 Passports” will be on exhibit at Angel’s Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro, CA from February 9 – April 11, 2014. This is the first time this piece has been shown. More details below.

Gettin’ Off The Ground: Contemporary Stories from An American Community
curated by Isabelle Lutterodt

Opening Reception Sunday Feb. 9, 2-5pm

Angel’s Gate Cultural Center
3601 South Gaffey Street
San Pedro, California 90731

Angels Gate Cultural Center (AGCC) is thrilled to invite you to the launch of a new round of exhibitions that continue to explore how stories within the community shape the collective consciousness in San Pedro and South Bay area.

An Opening Reception for several new shows in the Galleries will be held on February 9, 2014 from 2:00pm-4:00pm. Chamber Concert at 4:15pm.

MAIN GALLERY I: Supporting Structures: A Community Arts Project – Fausto Fernandez in partnership with members of the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters and the Pile Drivers, Bridge, Dock and Wharf Builders Local Union 2375

This project marks the beginning of a year-long partnership with the Union. Together we will explore the story of their members and families, the history of the labor movement in San Pedro and how this impacts the community at large. Los Angeles based artist Fausto Fernandez was selected by the Joe Baker, Executive Director of Palos Verdes Art Center, to work on the project.

MAIN GALLERY II: features artists: Mwangi Hutter, Michele Jaquis, Jessica Wimbley and Eve Wood

Work has been selected that continue to explore stories relevant to the local community. The work ranges from video to sculpture and explores issues of representation, identity and personal responsibility. Visitors will be able to tell their own story through interactive art stations in the gallery.

COMMUNITY GALLERY: Symbiosis – Karena Massengill with students from Cabrillo High School in Long Beach.

San Pedro based artist Karena Massengill will be showing work alongside her students work from Cabrillo High School in Long Beach, CA. The work represents the creative conversation that emerges between artist-teachers and students.

COMMUNITY ROOM: Artist-In-Classroom will showcase young artists from South Bay schools.

Features work by young artists from local and regional schools in the South Bay/Harbor region who have been instructed by Angels Gate Cultural Center’s Artists-Teachers

Following the reception, join Grammy Award-winning Southwest Chamber Music in Building H for a one-hour program featuring violinist Shalini Vijayan playing pieces from J.S.Bach, Kurt Rohde, Lera Auerbach, and Hyo-shin Na, and talking about classical and contemporary music.

This program is part of the Music Unwrapped series of free community concerts. These informal and interactive performances are designed to break down the barriers between musicians and audiences of all ages.

Angels Gate Cultural Center galleries are open to the public Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on the second Saturday of the month from 12 – 5pm. Admission is always free.

 

Hollywood Storage Building

posted by on 2012.10.28, under architecture, photo

I have been taking photos of this storage building in Hollywood just about every weeknight lately. I park in a lot that gets this 3/4 view of it, and there is just something about this tall, vaguely classic building that fascinates me. The thin ribs that catch the setting sun and cast vertical shadows, the percentage of window to blank wall (making it obvious it’s storage, but still a bit visually jarring). The way the finish changes with the color of the setting sun. I love the detail of the American flag up on top – letting you know the relative wind speed and direction in each photo. Everyone once in a while some mundane, background building in LA catches my attention for awhile…

Anyway, I will keep shooting it. These are all with my cell phone but I shoot a few with film now and again too. Here is what I have shot so far:

 

Portland Japanese Gardens II

posted by on 2012.04.29, under photo

Here are the rest of the photos I shot of the Portland Japanese Garden. All shot on a Yashica Twin Lens Reflex, medium format. I highly recommend making a trip up there, especially if you can time it so that the sun peeks out for an hour or so while you are at the gardens.

A wrap-up of Sarah’s Time with Rise at ICI

 

Here are a few more photos and info about what Rise Industries was up to on Day 6-7 of the ICI Residency. Today, Friday, is the final install day for the exhibition, and Jeremy, Michele, Mike, and John are still at ICI, but I’ve returned to Boston, and already miss it!

These two photos above,  are from the filmstrip The Air About Us; a 1959 filmstrip for grammar school students, about a range of ideas relating to air and air pressure. The slides are beautifully photographed, oddly diagrammatic and some with the same awkward humor you see in those above. The filmstrip, which I watched without audio, has a wierd tonal contrast between pedagogy and poetry, science and spirituality.  It’s an experimental text and image work in itself.

I discovered what I thought was the empty filmstrip canister on my first day at ICI. A photo of the title on top of the canister  is featured in exhibition. But, because it’s such a short filmstrip, it was actually clinging so close to the sides of its canister that  I really thought the canister was empty. The last day I was there, I happened to open the canister again and realized the film had been there all along…

The Air About Us , the phrase alone  relates to the work we did during the residency. The air about us could be the representation of  distance using two dimensions; the uncanny quality of our 3d stereographic portraits. The air about us could be the cultural distance that travel photography can put between the subject and photographer. Or, it could be about misrepresentations of sizes and distances of continents in global projection maps.  It could also be about the contrast of closeness and distance we encounter in video chatting. Also, the air about us, is about us; Rise Industries. It’s about our personal relationships and histories and the roles we organically adopt within the collaborative, and challenges we face as we make art as a collaborative with members on opposite coasts and more than one continent. Working with Rise at ICI was a fantastic experience and I want to thank Rise and ICI, so very much!

Michele Jaquis, Jeremy Quinn, and Sarah Rushford in the ICI Lab

 

Me video chatting with Boris Margolin in Boston, showing him around ICI. Time clock and multi-time zone punch card piece at the right.

John Kim and Michele Jaquis discussing conversion techniques for Pacific Standard Time to Metric Standard Time.

Rise Industries at the Institute of Cultural Inquiry – Day 5

posted by on 2011.06.05, under art, culture, exhibition, ICI Residency, photo

Above is the result of an experiment we carried out at ICI today. We made 3d sterographic portraits! This is one of a sculpture in the garden at ICI.

Jeremy named The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco as a book that is influential to the ideas we will work with during the residency. I read the book years ago, and decided to re-read it, beginning on my journey from Boston to LA. I’m struck by the richness of the text, and have been marking passages I plan to excerpt for work at ICI.  The humor, and ideas of parallel experience emerge as I read. Jeremy, Michele and I are busy with the work of collaborating, unearthing an archive, making interdisciplinary work, and planning an exhibition,  simultaneously, and I can’t speak for them, but I am glad to have this text at my side to ground my thoughts and ideas.

We’ve received virtual visitation in the form of art work from fellow Risers Nicole Jaquis and Tim Devin today! Nicole sent two very striking documentary photos of her father visiting Hardiwar India, where Nicole lives. We plan to pair a print of one of the photos, (a shot of Marty, Nicole and Michele’s father,  jet-lagged and asleep ) with an excerpt from The Island of the Day Before.

Tim Devin’s work arrived in the mail this morning. It’s a project called BBC Broadsides. These are  posters that represent statistical maps with information about Los Angeles demographics and water supply. They will be posted throughout the city. Photos of the posters in the city will be exhibited at the 10/10∆8 Exhibition. More on Tim’s project, another version of which he completed in Boston, can be found here.

This morning at ICI we looked at grammar school film strips on a Dukane film strip projector and decided on a particularly apt frame to include in the exhibition. The film strip, entitled Space Travel A.D. 2000, includes a frame that shows a drawing of a boy on the beach and the caption reads “We know that the world is round, but we seldom sense that it really is.” Michele looks through the film strip titles in their cases below.

Up in the Mountains

posted by on 2011.03.11, under photo

I just got photos developed from our (Michele and I that is) trip this past summer to the Mammoth Lakes area. These are from my fabulous Yashica twin lens reflex, shooting medium format Kodak 160 film (natural color I think). I have got to shoot some more with this camera, love the detail it captures.

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