Happenings: From Motel Rooms to Symposiums

It's evident that the happenings in my city keep me going through the week. Full of exciment I jot down events I oddly happen to know about or emails I receive. Did I ever tell you that Mondays have become my favorite day of the week?!... With full anticipation for that new press release, announcement, curiosity.. all labyrinths connecting and filling me with unsparable joy. Pardon the long explanation, I'm just really excited for Iannis Xenakis later on in November, an Art History symposium at The Hammer this Friday, SASSAS at Human Resources this weekend, and a mysterious performance at The Royal Pagoda Motel tonight in Chinatown!.


Last night you missed a great performance at Human Resources-- though as the story goes, it's either that Angelenos or those claiming this city, find the place as a recluse hideaway, or they simply just don't know... I'll go with the later, as I find it humorous that even those living in close proximity of great venues have no close relationship with that deadbeat strip mall or forgotten plaza, if only they knew that there's activity in these venues, an energy that hopefully seeks their contribution.


Human Resources:

Thursday October 21, 2010
8pm- until you're tired and ready to head home.

Ocean of Noise
Aaron Drake, David P. Earle, Elana Mann with Juliana Snapper

Human Resources hosts a night of performance art, music, and films.

"Ranging from answering machine messages to muffled lectures to reconstructed opera, each work in the event speaks to something that can get lost, orally and aurally, during human communication."


Friday October 22, 2010
8:30pm -

AD HOC #1
I have been attending events at Human Resources since it's first oepning back in May and ever since I have grown a following towards the space, but once again it proves to be a hybrid venue for musicians, artists, scholars, and the like. This Friday don't miss the first event of an ongoing series, AD HOC, in collaboration with SASSAS. For it's inaugurual series, Human Resources will host to two experimental musicians from both Norway and Australia.

Tickets: $8.00
Visit http://www.sassas.org/ or phone 323/960-5723.

Human Resources
510 Bernard St. in Chinatown, 90012



Charlie James Gallery, Dan Graham, and The Royal Pagoda Motel: The Trifcta of of Michelle duBois

Thursday October 21, 2010
6pm-10pm

The Unveiling of Michelle duBois, is an interactive, mysterious exhibition curated by Emma Gray, in the unveiling of mystery woman Michelle duBois; a flight attendant, actress, stunt woman?!

"Charlie James Gallery, Dan Graham, and Emma Gray are pleased to present ZOE CROSHER’s For Ur Eyes Only: The Unveiling of Michelle duBois. The show will be housed in Charlie James Gallery in Chinatown, and will be supported by two other events in the neighborhood: an installation of work at Dan Graham at 506 Bernard, and a performance featuring actress Liane Balaban, working from a script by writer/curator Lara Taubman at the Royal Pagoda Motel at 995 Broadway, room #7 from 8:30 to 9:30pm. In this new iteration, comprised of images and ephemera bequeathed to the artist by confidante Michelle duBois, Crosher explores ongoing themes such as identity, travel, transience and obsolescence. She has extensively re-photographed, scanned and re-ordered duBois’ slippery self-portraits into a re-contextualized archive, thriving in the soft spaces between fantasy and fiction, documentation and theatricality, and individuation and anonymity"

Artist Reception 6-10 at Charlie James Gallery, 975 Chung King Road

Dan Graham, 506 Bernard St 7-10p

Performance Featuring actress Liane Balaban, reading a fictional piece based on the archive written by Lara Taubman from 8:30-9:30 at the Royal Pagoda Motel, 995 N Broadway, Room #7

Back To The Future and Doug Harvey at Tom Jancar

Back To The Future at The Hammer Museum

October 22, 2010

10am-6pm

I'm most anticipating Friday's Graduate Student Symposium at The Hammer Museum, Back To The Future, which will feauture several speakers regarding the imapact as well as the future/past of art, art theory, in the context of time--

"Back to the Future, the UCLA Art History Graduate Student Association’s (AHGSA) 2010 symposium, examines temporality, chronology, and constructed histories/futures in art, asking how art, art history, and exhibitions constitute forms of time travel. Keynote speaker Professor Pamela M. Lee of Stanford University will offer her insights on how art contends with time. The symposium will include presentations by nine graduate students from UCLA and other distinguished universities."

JANCAR GALLERY

October 22, 2010
6pm-9pm

Jancar has slowly grown quite a reputation in Chinatown's art scene for showing mostly 70's conceptual art. That which largely ranged in photography. Not to mention Jancar's recent appearance in New York City's art scene... Long story short, I admire Tom Jancar for his passion, he truly was born to run a gallery.

JANCAR GALLERY is pleased to announce 3 concurrent solo exhibitions

DOUG HARVEY - "Unsustainable"
NANCY BAKER - "Please Stand By"
CYRIL KUHN - "Butter Boot"

J A N C A R G A L L E R Y
961 CHUNG KING ROAD LOS ANGELES, CA 90012
TEL 213 625-2522
Hours: Wed – Sat: 12 – 5 PM (and by appointment)

More to come tomorrow morning.. I have to run to my next class!.

A Conceptual Trifecta: Rena Small, Claire Nereim, and Kathrin Bumester at Jancar

JANCAR Gallery: At First Glance

Photography may be a trend you often meet at many art shows, given the accessible tools of the trade or the joys of the sweet battle for that perfect photograph, but currently at JANCAR Gallery in Chinatown artist Rena Small gives photography a good name.

The show consists of Polaroid’s taken between the years of 1975-1982, both in the format of the most common Polaroid SX-70 and the 20x24 prints that are traced back to the early 1980's. Polaroid was known for reaching out to teachers, and many in the line of photography, but most notably Polaroid made tools accessible to artists, and often collecting several pieces for their collection.



Rena Small, Los Angeles born and based graduates from Cal Arts with an MFA in 1977. Just after graduating Small moved to New York City in 1978, and stays in the east coast for eight years, returning to Los Angeles in 1985.

A conceptual artist most known for her early Polaroid work, works within photography and painting. Small’s other work explores the mysterious language of a persons hands including artists in the likes of Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, and Andy Warhol. Or her conceptual paintings that spark a game with life...


I have looked closely at the mysterious presence of human emotions veiled in the hands, the essential tools of all artists.- Rena Small




Rena Small- Red Chair,1978, Polaroid SX 70


In Red Chair (1978) Small plays with the spectator, creating semi visual illusions by her selection of Polaroid’s. A flying foot, a seated bosom… A puzzle of the artist bare naked body.

Small does not only play with visual puzzles, but with language, as is the case in Four Shots (1979)




Rena Small- Four Shots, 1979, Polaroid SX-70


There’s more than meets the eye!!!.....

Claire Nereim conceptual pieces in the second room of the gallery... Nereim’s pieces create a glorious stillness just after playing spectator to Rena Small’s often playful and politically inclined body of work. However, I had a difficult time understanding Nereim's work. Traces of Eva Hesse came to mind, and the study of memory. Though, I venture Nereim explores memory, since it ever so often inspires human emotion.


Claire Nereim: Gallery View



The Underground

The conceptual trifecta wouldn't be complete without Kathrin Burmester.

Burmester an Otis alumni and current professor works with film, photography, and video. Her work mainly consists of studies of human behavior in our technology bound culture, but most significantly the role of spectator in an ever so fast driven environment.

In Tour, a fifty three minute video of a tourist boat along the river Spree in Berlin, Germany documents the ephemeral significance of mass tourism to a city like Berlin along with cultural commentary to sites along the tour, which are often witty.

Burmester reaches nostalgia, and leaves the viewer in trance. Repeated sets of words, or more like repeated social commentary glue the viewer with witty comments as : " There's no one in this part of town, if you see someone, I encourage you to take out your cameras" .. or in the likes of that.

We found ourselves watching most of the fifty three minutes, in a sort of dream like state.






Kathrin Burmester: Tour, 2008/2010, One-channel video, color, sound, 53 min.


The tryptich of Small, Nereim, and Burmester incorporates the essentials of conceptual art, marrying each other quite nicely.

So if you haven’t seen the show yet, get down to Chinatown!. On your way, why not explore what this neighborhood offers?! .. Trust me, there’s more than meets the eye!.




July 10 - July 31, 2010
Rena Small: Early Polaroid Work 1975-1982
Claire Nereim
Kathrin Burmester


JANCAR Gallery
961 Chung King Road
Los Angeles, CA, 90012
213 625 2522

JANCAR: Mery Lynn McCorkle and David Grant

If you are a closed friend of mine you know my love for the arts and no other place like Chinatown makes me feel right at home. Merging both my visual and nasal senses. This time I found myself at JANCAR just fresh out of a study session for my American Art History course. Most likely, others would have ditched more art pleasures for other activities that indulge the senses, but not me. I had not yet had my dose for the day. Though, yes!, we can debate that art is plentiful and everywhere… It’s simply unavoidable, but that’s for another post. So please, stay tune.


JANCAR: First View

If you have not yet explored Chinatown’s art scene I suggest you get yourself down there as fast as I write: GO!

You just can’t deny great art in a setting that embraces it’s surroundings. Oh, and of course good eats are just steps away. Need I say more?!


Mary Lynn McCorkle:First View

The title of the exhibition was in itself contradictory, but it played as a transition in your mind. The title could not be simply self explanatory in this case. Depth is what it looked for and what it served.


RAW Silence

SILENCE was the chosen title for this exhibition. However, as viewers we quickly transitioned silence into loud heard cries: Oppression, Innocence, Bodily, Vulnerability. The use of mixed media tore apart bodies, and broke the silence. Immediately, I ventured if the artist approach had anything to do with human vulnerability. The raw silence in her work sparked thoughts of innocent people being killed, mistreated, due to higher power.


Detail

Above is a detail from one of McCorkle’s mixed media works. If you look closely, on the far left background microcosm sized signals of life flow freely throughout the piece being covered by a body of transparent white colored painted shield. A shield that can no longer hold together. Wounds, or stitches mark the shield. A map of the body. Nonetheless, they’re pieces I wouldn’t mind having at home. I can picture myself endlessly staring at each for hours. For thought, for self meditation.


The Underground!

JANCAR also runs a PROJECTS section, showcasing three different artist. In this case out of the three, David Grant swooned me off ground.


Gallery View

The instant I walked in to this underground fortress, I was taken away with glee when discovering David Grant’s abstract sculptures. Grant’s sculptures expressed body, and mounts of it. His bodies expressed form, but feeling was more resonant.


Evolving


Universal Communication

The bodies not only felt, but developed new body parts. Grant touches on the idea of body builders, on how they undergo the removal of fat from their bodies to tone muscle, but there’s gainers that do the opposite. Gainers gain fat for the indulgence of erotic, sexual pleasure. A common human trait, the undergoing of attraction… ending with our sole goal of universal communication: sexual desire.