Rise Industries

I’ve been gradually updating the my portfolio on RISE. There are recent videos, digital prints and collaborations added so far and more coming soon. Check them out…

This is very upsetting. Is our country becoming fascist?

A R T F U L Wednesdays

In light of the recent Israeli/Hezbollah fighting in Lebanon, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss the work of Walid Raad and The Atlas Group. I was first introduced to Raad’s work through Professor Gene Gort at Hartford Art School when he invited Raad as a visiting artist. He gave a slide show and presented several videos that appeared to be experimental documentaries about the Lebanese civil war. Afterwards, I remember overhearing Gene say to Jeremy something to the effect of “don’t believe a word he says.” Years later I saw Hostage: The Bachar Tapes at an LA Freewaves screening and I was reminded of how powerful Raad’s work is. This video is presented as if it is made by a Lebanese man who was held hostage with 5 Americans leading up to the Iran Contra Affair. It chronicles his hostage experience through a direct address to the camera combined with video compositing of appropriated news footage and a long take of the Mediterranean Sea. No where on the tape or in its credits does it mention Walid Ra’ad or The Atlas Group. Occasionally there are digital glitches. One thinks they are mistakes and not part of the original piece, but after a while one realizes the glitches are clues to its making, reminding the viewer that this is manipulated and edited video art not a fully factual document. Yet it still calls into question – did the Arab hostage really exist? And if so, why was his voice not heard until now (2001) and the American’s voices heard through their published memoirs in the early 1990s? Atlas Group’s website says this piece is part of files that they created but are attributed “to named imaginary individuals or organizations.” Yet Souheil Bachar has his own page on the Internet Movie Database. Hmmmm?

Ok. I know this goes beyond the confines of Art, Music and Architecture but this is important!

Holly Myers has written a nice review of our installation Sweater for the LA Times. Read it here.

A R T F U L wednesday (a day late)

Last night at REDCAT Theater I saw a screening curated by Nancy Buchanan called Still Radical: Feminist Video from the 70’s. I first met Nancy at Gallery 825 when we were both founding members of the Video 825 curatorial committee. At the time I had no idea who she was and that she was a key figure in pioneering early video and feminist art. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share. The screening included works by Martha Rosler, Susan Mogul, Nancy Angelo, Eleanor Antin, Cynthia Maughan, Lynda Benglis, Ilene Segalove and Buchanan herself with a candid panel discussion afterwards between Buchanan, Mogul, Eungie Joo (REDCAT Gallery Director and Curator) and Andrea Bowers, who’s exhibition is currently on view at the REDCAT Gallery. It is much better to see these works while in an audience, however you can still watch them by yourself online or in the media library at your local art school.

There is something inspiring about the history of feminist art in LA, as if the whole genre began here at Womanhouse. It reminds me of the many reasons I was drawn to LA instead of NY. There was a sense of community, collectivity, sharing and support among artists that I didn’t see in the established art world of NY. I am not sure how much of that still exists here, perhaps the myth is over, but everyonce in a while I find pockets of artists who are generous and willing to share information and ideas without feeling threatened by each other.

A R T F U L wednesdays

Yesterday, Michiko sent me an anouncement about her cover art for a new book published by Cloverfield Press. Looking at what other books they have published I came across Miranda July‘s work. I then spent hours wandering through her web project Learning To Love You More, which is basically a database of written and visual “reports” uploaded from all over the world in response to “assignments” such as “14. Write your life story in less than a day.” or “34. Make a protest sign and protest.” or “50. Take a flash photo under your bed.” It held my attention for so long perhaps for the same vouyeristic reasons people read personal blogs, however it was more engaging because of the variety of people responding to each assignment. While looking for that site today, in order to write about it, I came across another web project by July that is more affecting: How Will I Know Her is a collection of photographs of teenage girls holding photographs of someone they miss and haven’t seen in a long time due to circumstances beyond their control with text written by the girls about the person in the photo they are holding. My description may make it sound sentimental, but I think there is something more to it than that. It is about sharing experiences and giving others a venue to publicly say “I miss you.” even if the person they miss can’t hear them.

responding to Musical Tuesdays…
I found Os Mutantes. Nice! You should also check another group on Luaka Bop – Zap Mama. I heard them when I was in college from my cousin’s huge music collection and have been hooked ever since.

If you haven’t been checking our Calendar of upcoming Rise events, here is a head’s up about my opening tonight: Sweater is a collaborative installation with me, Arthur Pembleton, Sharon Kagan, Meeson Pae Yang, Neil Fenn and Sophia Allison under the guidance of Tim Hawkinson. It will be up until July 21 at Gallery 825 in LA – don’t miss it!

A R T F U L wednesdays

I have always loved the work of Hirokazu Fukawa, ever since I was introduced to it when he was my sculpture professor at Hartford Art School. His installations combine an autobiographical motivation (a Japanese man born after WWII, a father of two Autistic children,) intellectual research and skilled craftsmanship that are not only beautiful to look at but also engaging visual poetry that you think about long after you have left the gallery. Recently Hiro sent me a link to his new website. You can view documentation of his installations through the gallery link. Or you can play around with sort of creepy flash animations of skeletons and skulls that take you through a various games, quotes and images about the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings during WWII. Every once in a while you have a choice of three identical skulls to click on. It is almost frustrating when you forget which one you have already been to, but quite rewarding when you find something new.

Oh yeah…and the second show I mentioned last week…at the California Museum of Photography at UC Riverside: Supervision includes work by Nicoline van Harskamp & Jill Magid. What stood out the most for me was van Harskamp’s three channel video installation “To live outside the law you must be honest” combining interviews with 30 residents of Freetown Christiania just outside of Copenhagen. According to the museum’s wall text, it was originally a social experiment set up by the Danish government in 1971 on a former military base to see if people could survive in a self governing society and it is still functioning. Very fascinating.

A R T F U L W E D N E S D A Y S

I saw two art shows worth mentioning last week, but wasn’t able to post about them due to blogger problems. I’ll write about one now and save the other for next week’s post…

Consider This… at LACMAlab: Invited artists were asked to “imagine a nation” for this yearlong exhibit that continues “the LACMALab mandate to investigate new models for presenting art and engaging audiences through the commission of participatory, ‘age-free’ installations.”

On June 8th Dorit Cypis led a walk through discussion about the exhibit and particularly her work as both an artist and a mediator in conflict resolution. She asked the questions: “How do you close the gap between cultures? How do your open yourself to ‘the other’? How can you help ‘the other’ and not run away afterwards? How can your engage with ‘the other’? Can a Jew enter a fundamentalist Palestinian neighborhood, a white woman enter South Central LA, a black man enter Beverly Hills all without fear?” For her project, Sightlines, she had a forensic scientist in Mexico sculpt the heads of the first female Palestinian suicide bomber and the young Isreali woman who was killed by the bomb from their pictures on the cover of the April 15, 2002, Newsweek.

Other stong pieces in this show include Bruce Yonemoto‘s video “The World Asunder” which pays homage to the scene in Peter Campus’ Three Transitions where he looks at a burning piece of paper with his own image chroma keyed into it. However in Yonemoto’s version, the perfomer’s image soon disolves into images of demonstrators burning draft cards, books and the cross.

Finally in the Project Space, Clayton Campbell presents a series of photos of a young boy in a karate uniform holding up signs with typed text depicting Words My Son Has Learned Since 9-11. Throughout the duration of the exhibit, Campbell conducts workshops where museum goers can have their photo taken with their own sign and added to the collection on the walls.

All and all a thought provoking exhibition. Check it out if you are in LA before the show closes on January 15, 2007.