ForYourArt presented temporary installations by Ben Jones and Ruben Ochoa to celebrate the fifth incarnation of CicLAvia, an event that temporarily removes cars from L.A. streets, for people to walk, skate, play and ride a bike.
Jones’s piece, Window ForYourArt 1, overtly referenced Georges-Pierre Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, a scene that represented a new kind of modern leisure in Europe. Ochoa’s Dancing POPOS were presented outside of the space on Wilshire Blvd. These “air dancers” (like one would find at a car wash) dressed as police officers were inspired by Chris Burden’s L.A.P.D. Uniform in LACMA’s collection.
Pedestrians and cyclists stopped along the way to take pictures with the Dancing POPOs, FYA's window, and volunteers holding signs created for the day. Participants were encouraged to tag pictures #ForYourArt and #CicLAvia allowing FYA to share the best snapshots from the event.
Special thanks to Jamy Li, and Hania Rouhani, Maritza Lerman Yoes.
Read the ForYourArt At CicLAvia press release here.
Public Art Installations to Celebrate CicLAvia - Press Release
June 23, 2013
Image credit: Ben Jones, Window ForYourArt 1, 2013
ForYourArt Announces Public Art Installations to Celebrate CicLAvia
Temporary public art works by Ben Jones and Ruben Ochoa will be installed as Wilshire Blvd. becomes a pedestrian thoroughfare
Sunday, June 23, 2013
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
ForYourArt at 6020 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles – ForYourArt (FYA) is pleased to celebrate CicLAvia and Los Angeles becoming more pedestrian friendly with temporary public art installations by Ben Jones and Ruben Ochoa. The works will be installed both in the storefront window of ForYourArt at 6020 Wilshire Blvd., and in front of the space for walkers to freely enjoy car-free streets.
FYA’s engagement campaign for the event, Stop and Smile #ForYourArt, encourages pedestrians to document and share their experience with the artworks during CicLAvia. Ben Jones’s piece, commissioned for the ForYourArt window, overtly references Georges-Pierre Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, a scene that represented a new kind of modern leisure in Europe. Jones’s reinterpretation of the iconic painting placed on Wilshire Blvd. revisits this theme as modes of leisure, transportation, and use of public space are evolving in Los Angeles.
Jones manipulates the visual language of Seurat’s pointillist masterpiece with his signature abstracted and surrealistic style. His reexamination of the classic forms retains certain curiosities, like the monkey on the leash, while others, like the little girl, have been shifted onto their own plane. Jones offers new possibilities for how we think about visualizing, experiencing, and energizing public spaces, particularly through the lenses of different eras -- as exemplified by the progression from pointillism to digital painting.
In addition to Jones’s window installation, FYA will also exhibit Ruben’s Ochoa’s Dancing POPOS outside of the space, consisting of eight “air dancers” (like one would find at a car wash) dressed as police officers. Ochoa originally created these blow-up sculptures for SWAP, the inaugural exhibition at Charles White Elementary Gallery for the Los Angeles Museum of Art (LACMA) in 2007 he created in collaboration with Mark Bradford. Ochoa’s Dancing POPOS were inspired by Chris Burden’s L.A.P.D. Uniform, an edition of 30 Los Angeles Police Department uniforms based on an enlarged prototype. In Dancing POPOS, Ochoa extends Burden’s idea of literally engulfing the viewer in the physicality of these symbols of authority. Theinstallationalso referenced the police contention and constant surveillance in the MacArthur Park area.
Much like Los Angeles’s novelty architecture, the “air dancers” are meant to grab attention quickly from the car. As they playfully undulate, the Dancing POPOS also become engaging and fun.
FYA will be publishing a photo gallery of its favorite photos of the artwork by attendees who use the hastags #ForYourArt and #CicLAvia when posting to Twitter and Instagram. FYA encourages all Angelenos to interact with the art works in person and share on social media.
About ForYourArt
ForYourArt is a weekly email, workspace, and platform for information distribution and art activities. ForYourArt seeks to advance a spirit of patronage and a culture of dialogue by perceiving all media, sites, and relationships as potential for artistic transformation. By facilitating projects that engage social, civic, commercial, and non-profit realms, ForYourArt engages partners to translate ideas both on- and off-line. www.foryourart.com
About Ben Jones
Ben Jones (Pittsburgh, 1977) lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He holds a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art. Selected exhibitions and screenings include: MOCA, Los Angeles (solo); The Modern, Fort Worth (solo); Loyal, Malmo (solo); Deitch Projects, New York (solo); Foxy Productions, New York (solo); Andreas Melas Presents, Athens (solo); Peres Projects, Berlin; Pace Wildenstein, New York; CANADA, New York; Green on Red Gallery, Dublin; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Tate Britain, London; Musee d' Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris/ARC, Paris; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; The Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool.
About Ruben Ochoa
Ruben Ochoa (Oceanside, 1974) lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He studied at the University of California, Irvine (MFA, 2003), and Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles (BFA, 1997). He has been included in the 2011 Venice Biennale Collateral Event, Palazzo Papadopoli, Venice, Italy, the 2008 Whitney Biennial, and the 2004 California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art. He has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Charles H. Scott Gallery at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, British Columbia; SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico; Locust Projects, Miami, Florida and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects. For his upcoming exhibition, Nasher XChange, he will be creating his largest outdoor installation to date for the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas. The exhibition will run from October 19, 2013 to February 16, 2014 in celebration of Nasher’s 10th anniversary.
About CicLAvia – Wilshire Blvd, Sunday, June 23, 2013 from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Wilshire Boulevard was first carved out as a long path through a barley field in 1895. While its beginnings were humble, this path has transformed into one of the most notable boulevards in the United States. On June 23, starting at One Wilshire in Downtown Los Angeles and ending at Fairfax Avenue along Museum Row, the CicLAvia – Iconic Wilshire Boulevard route will take participants through a snapshot of the city’s architectural evolution from Victorian vision to modernist experimentation, massive towers of business to intimate houses of worship, world class museums to working class mercados. For more information, go to www.ciclavia.org.
