L.A. Briefs

Short thoughts on film, art, and culture around Los Angeles.

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Photos from The Broad press preview (9/16/2015)

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Recesses at Park View

“The artists exhibiting here collectively withdrew from the University of Southern California’s Roski School of Fine Arts Master’s program in May of this year... their defiant gesture has asked us to confront certain realities that continue to widen both nationally and globally, which affect us all: how natural it has become to take on huge amounts of debt to even have a chance to enter and participate in an all-or-nothing industry like the artworld.” -Park View “Recesses” Press Release

When Edie Fake, Ellen Schafer, George Egerton-Warburton, Julie Beaufils, Lauren Davis Fisher, Lee Relvas, and Sid M. Dueñas withdrew from USC’s Roski School of Fine Arts the news made big waves and especially resonated within the Los Angeles art community. So for their first collective group exhibition following this action, the significance behind the gesture is almost impossible to ignore when viewing their work in a single show, let alone one inside of Park View, a gallery/apartment where you can cover the entirety of the show in 5 large steps. But, the space seems very appropriate for such a charged and at times, sparse show. Though the overt focus of the show was not on the collective withdrawal of this group, their shared experience is something I could not help but think of when viewing the show as a whole and I feel that it only helped to make my experience one that was more cohesive and impactful.

Each piece in the show had a very distinct character and approach but were generally minimal in color and affect and seemed almost natural in the small apartment space. The proximity of each piece to another would have forced some kind of connection regardless of the Roski one, and I rather enjoyed the way the proximity let me think about each piece in relation to the other, and appreciate especially striking ones that literally jutted out of the wall at me. An important show to see, and one that stands alone outside of the recent headlines. 

RECESSES CLOSING AUGUST 8

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Tangerine (dir. Sean S. Baker)

Tangerine was a film I went to see primarily out of curiosity. Curiosity stemming from the location, the fact that it was entirely shot on three iPhone 5s smartphones, a transgender cast! My hopes were very high that this film might be innovative, thoughtful, original... and I was prepared to have those hopes crushed or at least wilted slightly but they were well exceeded by an incredibly rich development of the characters, thoughtful treatment of the diverse and vibrant East Hollywood neighborhood where this takes place, and of course lots of donuts. 

This film takes particular advantage of its location (an approximately 3 mile stretch on Santa Monica Blvd. between La Brea and Myra), and the relative carlessness of the characters lovingly and starkly accentuates the part of East Hollywood that is completely missed when you are in your car driving across the city, which I imagine is the manner most people privileged enough to have a car experience the neighborhood. The depiction of the women in the film is sensitive but never pitying, and the film relies on authentic relationships, vocabulary, and ritual to portray a life that, as I mentioned, is viewed by so many in the city for a quick second via a car window. 

Tangerine is a spectacular reminder of what truly independent, low-budget filmmaking can accomplish, and though it risks a saccharine mood at times, it captures the spirit of that particular small stretch of highway in a way that speaks to a larger part of Los Angeles we pass through in our cars without ever really thinking of those who walk the streets. 

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Christian Marclay: The Clock at LACMA

Christian Marclay’s “The Clock” makes me want to watch every movie ever made. Or at least every one of the movies (and occasional T.V. selection) featured in his looped 24-hour video montage that functions as a clock, with real-time references synced to the exact time of day. Like any monumental and massive piece where you cannot even begin to imagine how long it possibly took to dig through enough clips to find the perfect 6:36pm gem, The Clock is stunning simply in its completion. Where it really becomes something special though is in its ability to completely captivate an audience so that even when they know EXACTLY, precisely, every minute what time it is, they’re still surprised when they walk out and they realize they have been watching for an hour. 

The clips seamlessly slip into one another (kind of like... I don’t know... time?) and make watching an enjoyable experience of oscillating between occasional recognition and continuous astonishment at the minutiae Marclay must have studied to make this piece a reality. Though the Art of the Americas building features comfy chairs, wait till you can see this one at the Bing theatre in front of a giant panoramic screen. Oh- and go at midnight. That’s the best time. 

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY: THE CLOCK CLOSING SEPTEMBER 7

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Chris Francis: Shoe Designer at CAFAM

I’m not quite sure how this was my first visit to CAFAM (Craft and Folk Art Museum) on the Miracle Mile considering I have been to LACMA perhaps 5 times this past year, but I’m so happy I finally went in and I’m so happy it was during a Chris Francis show. I know admittedly little about shoes or fashion but I like to think I can appreciate both and Francis’ wearable (?) creations had me marvel at both their craftsmanship and the prospect of someone actually balancing in them.

An admitted fusion of “high fashion, 20th century art movements, and punk rock,” Francis’ designs are the equivalent of entering a bouncehouse at your best friend’s birthday party. Buoyant, exuberant, and just generally cheerful, each of his pieces had a giant personality and equally fascinating explanation for how they were constructed (thanks to the nicely written accompanying wall text).

My only mistake at this show would be not coming when Chris Francis was in-house, having relocated his shop to the museum during the course of the exhibition, “working and demonstrating the methods he utilizes to design and craft his shoes.” Try and check out the show while he’s there, I think that will make the construction and craft of his pieces even more unbelievable than they already are. CHRIS FRANCIS: SHOE DESIGNER CLOSING SEPTEMBER 6

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Up to & Including the Horizon at OCHI PROJECTS

Up to & Including the Horizon (curated with Brian Wills and Lexi Brown) has been in the works for many years but seems to come at a time when many of the artists included in the show seem to be at their best yet. Among the artists featured in the show are Rob Reynolds (above), fresh off of an incredible solo show at LAXART, and Patrick Lakey whose Magic Mountaineering Co. is one of the most memorable atmospheric installations I’ve seen all year. 

This show does a lot more than strike when the iron is hot, however. Located on an unassuming street corner Mid-City (albeit in a very eye-catching bright blue building), the flat, clean space at OCHI PROJECTS seems the perfect place to examine the idea of the horizon. Each image and sculpture in the show contemplates the meaning of a horizon line as a fundamental part of art and image, a component that is oftentimes not even considered before it is represented in one way or another. The space between pieces in the show lets each breath and clear its own space, with both the clear and abstract lines guiding one almost naturally through the exhibition. 

After spending a day driving around Los Angeles from gallery to gallery, the flatness of the streets and rooftops blending into one another for mile after mile, a show about horizons seemed incredibly appropriate. Given the remoteness of OCHI PROJECTS to most other galleries in Los Angeles, I could hardly think of a more appropriate theme and a more thoughtful group of artists to explore it. 

Up to & Including the Horizon CLOSING JULY 25

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The Tribe (dir. Miroslav Slaboshpitsky, 2014)

Any opinion I have of The Tribe as entertainment or gore or beauty is heavily eclipsed by my admiration of its unapologetic use of language. Though I’m heavily against considering it a gimmick for even one second, the decision to screen the film in Ukranian sign language with no subtitles or alternative interpretations makes this a powerful piece on identity, language, and ex/inclusion. At its barest, this is a story of a new arrival at a boarding school for deaf children who very quickly becomes involved in an institutional system of crime, prostitution, violence, and theft. 

It was such a singular experience to watch a film where I could feel my brain skittering to catch up every few minutes, and my eyes fixed and wide on the long takes that implicate your confusion in the crimes of these young men, your not understanding giving them the upper hand for the film’s two hour duration. It is not my world to understand and I am grateful for the chance to be completely and unapologetically immersed in something I cannot comprehend but through viewing am offered a rare glimpse into.

Recommended reading following/preceding The Tribe: Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza

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The Slick and the Sticky at Various Small Fires (VSF)

The Slick and the Sticky is an impressive group show at Various Small Fires co-curated by Vanessa Place. Because of the setup of the gallery, the intense curation of this show is made immediately apparent as you are funneled through the front door of VSF (which is actually kind of a back door) by walking through a narrow dirt path on the side of the building. From above, you hear Place’s voice narrating an audio guide of the works in the show and including descriptions of the works as published in interviews or by the gallery itself. For a full version of the audio, click here.

The show had three clear parts to me- Place’s disembodied voice that followed you around the outdoor portion and entrance, Stephanie Taylor’s outdoor installation “Broom and Rum” (pictured above), and the the array of work I’d call new media and sculpture inside (and pictured below).

The care that went into this show and the connections that were being drawn between art and poetry were vibrant, fresh, and sometimes even clinical. As stated in the manifesto (or press release?) on VSF’s website, “A group faces off between inflection and infliction, attraction and its better partner, compulsion.” Within the group of artists represented in this show, I am at times repulsed, but more frequently attracted to get as close as possible to the art itself, and its obscured meaning.

THE SLICK AND THE STICKY CLOSING AUGUST 8, 2015

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Eben Goff: INCLUSIONS at Diane Rosenstein Fine Art

Gotta start this with a disclaimer: Diane Rosenstein is so beautiful you could put a pile of anything in that gallery and the light will hit it perfectly, you’ll find some hidden corner of the space that feels like all yours, and the high ceilings will amplify and canonize even the smallest pieces. So when there’s something big in there like Eben Goff’s work, you suddenly can’t imagine seeing that show anywhere else. 

The Los Angeles based artist presents both his carved wall reliefs and standing sculptures as well as the “Arc,” an alderwood sculpture (with wheels!) the artist moved across the Berkeley and Continental Pits (open pit copper mines in Butte, Montana).

The work has the appearance of being mined out of the earth, equal part industrial relic and alien spacecraft, ancient and modern. INCLUSIONS does a spectacular job of giving the viewer a truly complete sense of the work from all angles- on one side of the gallery you have the Arc itself, and on the other side incredible photographic documentation of its journey with Goff.

I rarely see a show of this magnitude (both in literal scale and thought), and what a pleasure it is to see it in an airy, light, beautiful setting like this gallery.

EBEN GOFF: INCLUSIONS CLOSING AUGUST 15, 2015

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Nancy Jackson at Rosamund Felsen Gallery

Occupying the front part of Rosamund Felsen Gallery in Downtown Los Angeles is a spectacular little show of recent felt work by Nancy Jackson. Most of the hand-dyed and hand-stitched wall hangings are accented by captivating lenticulars (usually human faces) which give you the eerily wonderful feeling of both the artist and her works watching you enjoy! 

Her family tree hangings were the most fascinating to me, mostly because I tried to figure out just why she seemed to choose indigenous people as her subject, along with patterns that seemed reminiscent of traditional native work. Perhaps a connection to folk art and handmade craft? Either way, this was the only part of an otherwise beautiful show that seemed a somewhat random choice to me, if anyone has an explanation for this I’d love to hear it! The show is a labor of love, and do take advantage of Les Biller’s show up in the back of the gallery for a double dose of color.

CLOSING AUGUST 8, 2015