LA Trip

LA TripUnder the Big Black Sun —Moca Geffen

The first stop we’ve made in LA is Moca Geffen, for the Under the Big Black Sun show, which is about the west coast art in the 1970s. As an international student barely know about American history and contemporary art history of US, I have been worried if I can get the idea behind the show, or if its too contrived and over whelming to me. Ho

wever, the show seems friendly to the audience. There is no certain designed pathway to tell audience how to experience the exhibition; instead, the space is quite non-directional, in a good way.

I felt that I have freedom to spectate all the memorial art pieces about the age I haven’t been through, and made my own connection between all these feminism, racism, anti-war, and anti-modernism social protest. Especially at a certain time that Occupy movement goes around the country, how the artists at that age using art as a social tool to make a change really addressed reflection of the present. In the way of Pluralism, the curator also give the audience a break between all these depressing, shocking artworks with some peaceful personal landscapes, also gave me a sense of that not all the artists at the time devote themselves into social movement, but trying to escape from the world.

I was impressed that how the sculpture “A world map in Beer bottles” transformed my experiential journey to the international time, with a Tsing Tao Beer bottle to the end. As one of the three big hanging projections, the international news is horizontal reversed, is that related to the possible bias from a single perspective?

Naked Hollywood --- Moca

Hollywood, a paradise where dreams come true, not so many resonates to me though. Impressed with Weegee’s several photos.

Chinatown—Red Cat

Like the performance film, and also enjoy how he recreating the space when he recreates the film “Chinatown”. However, I think how many audiences were in the exhibition in the same time affect the outcome of the experience.

Galleries in Culver City

I brought the question that how could the design of a small exhibition space affecting audiences’ experience with me when I go to Culver City Galleries. I think Brian Bress show in Cherry & Martin Gallery is the most effective one.

When I got into the gallery, there is a full length video projecting on a wall. I felt that is really impressive how the artist divided the space into two parts with the projection wall, and the second parts contains video portraits in a photo frame. With the wall in between, I made so many assumptions how these two bodies of work related to each other, and how the artist wants me to get from this kind of layout.

by Duo