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!
We went over to Sci-Arc last week to check out the current project up in their gallery space, Lenticularis by Hitoshi Abe. The project is a large scale mock-up of a proposal for the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center plaza in Little Tokyo, originally designed by Isamu Noguchi.
Based on a particular type of cloud formation that sometimes appears over mountains (I have seen some great examples out in Anza-Borrego State park), the quasi-functional sculptural object will span over the plaza, providing some shade, some views of a curious object from the street, and reflecting both plaza and sky in the middle. Checking out the 1:7 scale version at Sci-Arc, we couldn’t help but see strong similarities to the work of sculptor Anish Kapoor, and wonder how it will serve to mitigate the summer heat of the plaza, or shelter it from winter rains (part of the brochure from Sci-Arc describes it as a ‘roof’ which responds to the plaza being “too exposed to the climate of Los Angeles”). I am pretty curious as to how it would come off at full scale, crouching over the plaza, and a bit skeptical of it all as anything but a beautiful sculptural object. This unveiling also served as a presentation to the clients, so it remains to be seen whether they are sold on it in this form – if so, I might be able to check it out there myself in a little over a years time.
This past weekend Michele and I biked over to the Cornfields park in downtown LA (well, it’s now called the State Historic Park, but I don’t think that generic name is going to stick) to check out the Los Angeles version of the Renegade Craft Fair.
The fair was a giant conglomeration of craft booths set up in the sunny park with a great view of downtown, and we spent a few hours getting sunburned and checking out seemingly endless options for letterpress, T-shirts, handmade everythings, jewelry, and on and on. Our friends from Reform School were there, as was Elinor of Krank Press with a very pro looking booth. I found a little stuffed rain cloud I liked for some friends, and left inspired to get back to work on printing and jewelry projects.
I shot some random photos, since I was mostly too busy browsing to document – so here are those. If you want to hunt down any of the stuff, there are links to all the different makers via the Renegade Craft site here. The fair hits different cities too, so you can check to see if its coming to a site near you.
Rise Industries (well, Jeremy and Michele at least) will be opening their studio for the Arts District Art Walk tomorrow from 2:00 pm – 6:30 pm. Stop by, have a drink or snack, and check out what we’ve been making. Prints, cards, CDs and DVDs will be for sale too. Download map here.
The Everyday Exchange is a celebration of our daily routines—such as commuting to work, shopping for groceries, doing laundry, making breakfast…
Participants in the Exchange talk to each other about their routines. One person then makes a small present for their friend about these routines, or to be used during these routines. These gifts can be anything from a small artwork, to a poem, to a sound recording.
Visitors to the Exchange’s show at Meme will be able to see examples of past presents. They are also welcome to sit down and talk to Tim Devin about their own routines—and get a small present out of it.
Gallery hours: June 27- July 3rd 1pm to 8pm.
Closing : Saturday July 3rd, 6pm to 10pm
My father asked for a CD for father’s day, so I made him this. Piano layerings and smooth and erratic free improvisation was most probably not what he was hoping for, but how boring would the world be if all our children grew up to be exactly how we want them to be?? The last track is the jazz standard ‘Israel’ by John Carisi.
Our lighting designer, R. Christopher Stokes, took some beautiful photos at dress rehearsal. Things are looking good and we are all excited about the performances this weekend. Check it out!
shot by R. Christopher Stokes, 6/3/10
Walks Through Walls
by Caleb Hammond
Two Nights:
8:30 pm, Friday June 4th and Saturday June 5th
for tickets, call 310-315-1459
or purchase online at www.highwaysperformance.org
On Saturday, June 5, MEWS-PARI (the meaningful encounters with strangers preservation and reenactment initiative) will be doing its story-gathering/street theater thing at the Cambridge River/Figment Boston festival.
Since 2007, MEWS-PARI has been collecting people’s stories of their meaningful encounters with strangers. We’ve then been making maps and charts about them; writing dramatizations; creating free books; and reenacting the stories.
At the festival, we’ll have a table with free books and dramatizations. we’ll be tape-recording people’s stories, and reenacting others with anyone who wants to join us.
Above are a couple of sound clips from the audio I am working on for Walks Through Walls… its mostly things I have recorded on the guitar, with some other random recordings thrown in for good measure (eg, a toy finger piano, an ice skating record played on a Fisher Price record player) as well as that MIDI synthy part up there. Some sound was recorded specifically for the show, and I am also using parts of various other compositions of mine. In addition to all that, there are some sound effects thrown in. Oh yeah, and The Drifters. And maybe a Buddha Machine loop or two.
I propose that BP be required to use this as their logo as long as there is still an impact felt from the oil spill in the Gulf. Or until they actually get out of the oil business and become a green energy company, like they would have had you believe they already were.