LA trip--endless white wall

A lot of galleries gave me a same feeling. Endless white wall, man-made lighting, no sunlight, fairly cold, with a plastic, paint smell. It’s interesting but also a little bit depressing. Especially when there’s video going on in the space, usually its pitch black except the projector’s light. And maybe just me…I really don’t like it. The smell plus the sound of the projector and the darkness, it just unpleasant for me, I want to escape from that space at once. I wonder if there could be some gallery change those paint smells. And also contents, a lot of contemporary arts, they are quite dark, and negative, just depressing.

Ruya Qian

John Divola's Zuma Series, 1977-1978, at MOCA Geffen's, "Under the Big Black Sun

Suzanne Minatra

8 March 2012

Our travels to Los Angeles brought us down from San Francisco just in time for the final day of MOCA Geffen's Pacific Standard Time exhibition, "Under the Big Black Sun." The show was, quite frankly, overwhelmingly huge, with 500 art works from 139 artists. "Under the Big Black Sun" is a survey of California art from the time of Nixon's resignation in 1974to Regan's inauguration in 1981. Rather than being organized chronologically or by media, this show was curated according to theme, showing the turbulent state of the mid to late 1970s.

As I mentioned earlier, the show was massive; I found myself wandering through as if I were in a labyrinth, having completely lost everyone I'd come with. I made my way through gallery after gallery trying to take in as much of the show as possible; there was so much to see and so much ground to cover. just as I felt the museum fatigue settle in and was ready to throw in the towel and take a break I stumbled upon John Divola's peculiar Zuma Series. Divola (b. 1949) is a Los Angeles based Photographer who, with this series, documented the disintegration of the beachfront community Zuma Beach in Malibu between 1977 and 1978. Divola explored abandoned, dilapidated ocean front properties looking for photographic opportunities, sometimes orchestrating his view by applying spray paint to the interiors of the rooms. In his statement about this work, Divola says:

"On initially arriving I would move through the house looking for areas or situations to photograph. If nothing seemed to interest me I would move things around or do some spray painting. The painting was done in much the same way that one might doodle on a piece of paper. At one that point I would return to the camera and explore what ever new potentials existed."

The end results were super saturated images of brilliant seascapes juxtaposed through the broken windows of soon to be demolished prime beachfront real estate.

John Divola, Zuma #25 (1978/2006), from Zuma Series, 1977–78 (http://www.moca.org/black_sun/artwork/john-divola-zuma-beach-1977%E2%80%9378/)

For some time I have been vaguely captivated by Divola's Zuma Series, though, until now, had only seen online reproductions. Online representations of Divola's image do not do then justice at all. His images are mesmerizing, the intense color of the California setting sun draws the viewer in. Furthermore, Divola's images were hung at a size and height that allowed the audience to enter the scene. I, for one, felt as if I were present in the 1970s ramshackle Zuma Beach homes. The Zuma Series was hung on a wall that spawned two galleries, occupying a transition space. Viewing the images in this space felt vaguely odd, I often had to step out of the way of visitors who were moving through the threshold between the two galleries. The feeling was interesting in conjunction with the subject matter of the work, both places felt like places that I shouldn't have been occupying.

John Divola, Zuma #8 (1977/2006), from Zuma Series, 1977–78 (http://www.moca.org/black_sun/artwork/john-divola-zuma-beach-1977%E2%80%9378/)

Though the work was made in the 1970s, the Zuma Series remains especially timely and relevant today. The country is in the middle of a financial crisis, with the sate of the American people Ina constant flux. People must alter their practice in order to fall in line with the progression of current affairs. As such, this is how Divola describes his connection with the Zuma Beach circumstances:

"These photographs are the product of my involvement with an evolving situation. The house evolving in a primarily linear way toward its ultimate disintegration, the ocean and light evolving and changing in a cyclical and regenerative manner. My acts, my painting, ,y photographing, my considering, are part of, not separate from, this process of evolution and change. These photographs are not so much about this process as they are remnants from it. My participation was not so much one of intellectual consideration as one of visceral involvement."

Might Divola's images be visual evidence of the collapse of the American Dream? He presents the ideal lifestyle, a room with a view, yet while the view remains as picturesque as ever, the room has fallen to ruin.

John Divola, Zuma #9 (1978/2006), from Zuma Series, 1977–78 (http://www.moca.org/black_sun/artwork/john-divola-zuma-beach-1977%E2%80%9378/)

Temporality

Our first day as a class in Los Angeles, February 13, 2012…first place on our itinerary: MOCA-Geffen. It was the last day of the exhibition: Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974 – 1981.

Below you can read about the exhibition, this is a screenshot taken from MOCA-Geffen’s website.

You can find many pieces of artwork from the exhibition on their website, included are the titles, artist name and description. Below I have chosen 3 of my favorites.

Rupert Garcia, Human Rights Day, 1975–7

Chicano artist Rupert García put his intense graphic work in the service of leftist politics. Influenced by commercial art, but rejecting Pop art’s banal imagery in favor of politically charged subject matter, Garcia used found images from mass media sources to boldly denounce global injustice and violence in this work.

Suzanne Lacy, Three Weeks in May, 1977

In May 1977, Suzanne Lacy organized an “expanded performance” over the course of three weeks to raise awareness among Los Angeles inhabitants of the frequency of assaults on women citywide. The project opened on Mother’s Day, May 8, 1977, and included performances and installations as well as non-art events such as speeches, interviews, self-defense demonstrations, and speak-outs. On this map of Los Angeles, installed in the mall outside City Hall, Lacy stenciled the word “RAPE” in red on the approximate locations attacks reported to police during the three weeks of the project. (At the close of Three Weeks in May, ninety rapes had been reported.) The artist later stated that “if rape was practically a household experience [she should] make its name a household word.”

Chris Burden, The Reason for the Neutron Bomb, 1979

Chris Burden shifted his practice from performance to large-scale installation during the late 1970s. With a matchstick placed atop a nickel representing one tank, The Reason for the Neutron Bomb recreates the fifty thousand-strong Soviet tank division in an overwhelming yet orderly display. Burden conceived this work in response to the heated debates about nuclear proliferation occurring during the late 1970s. Concern about the Soviet army’s superiority over Western European forces was the justification given by the U.S. military for the stockpile of nuclear weapons. A potent symbol of Cold War international power dynamics, the installation reflects the artist’s abiding fascination with military weaponry and political might.

We also visited RedCat Gallery during our visit to Los Angeles. Ming Wong created a series of videos and scenic backdrops that centered on the making of Roman Polanski’s 1974 film Chinatown. Shot on location in the gallery, Wong’s reinterpretation, Making Chinatown, transforms the exhibition space into a studio backlot and examines the original film’s constructions of language, performance and identity.

We had the wonderful opportunity to speak with the curator while we there. An interesting point that he brought up was the temporality of the project. And I wondered:

Is that something to take into consideration when developing an exhibition in this day and age?

Let me explain this further…Ming Wong’s exhibition was in short created to be easily recreated. Due to the size of each of the backdrops, it would have been more time consuming and expensive to take down, mail and put back together at its final destination than it was to simply reconstruct the exhibition at the new location. This being said I can’t help but think is this something artist’s need to take into consideration when creating their artwork? How important is it that your work easily be recreated or constructed? Just some food for thought. I myself am still pondering the importance and how final presentation in general plays a role in the creation of artwork.

-Erin

Our class trip to Los Angeles with Hanru was an eye opening and inspiring experience. I had never been to LA before and was unsure of what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised. We saw a wide variety of exhibitions ranging from emerging artists in the galleries of Culver City and Santa Monica to well established artists at the Getty Museum, LACMA, and MOCA. As a photographer there was much to see and there were many artists whose work I found interesting. I enjoyed visiting MOCA and the galleries in Santa Monica the most.

One of the main highlights of the trip for me was seeing the photographs of my professor and mentor Hank Wessel Jr in the show Under the Big Black Sun at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, and at The Getty Museum. Wessel’s photos really capture the essence of his process, which he teaches to his students. His work is about seeking unexpected and unfamiliar moments, which is something I have learned from him to put into my own practice of photography. Seeing Hank’s work on the walls of such prestigious museums like the Getty and MOCA made me feel honored to know him and very lucky to have been fortunate to study with him. He has been the most significant and influential person to my photographic practice. Hank has facilitated my understanding of how sacred each person’s process is and what my work is about.

Overall, the exhibition Under the Big Black Sun seemed a bit disconnected. I guess the string that tied the works together was the fact that they were all made during the same time period during the 1970’s. Some of the work I found compelling, some of the work was boring, while others were offensive. Richard Misrach’s Desert Images, Ed Rucha’s Cities in Question, John Divola’s Zumba Series, and Lewis Baltz’s The New Industrial Parks moved me. John Divola’s photographs depict abandoned, destroyed, and graffiti filled buildings with open widows that look out onto the ocean. This series was also being shown at the Luisotti Gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. After seeing Lewis Baltz’s photographs I found his book Candlestick Point in the reading room at MOCA Geffen. This book was filled with images that were influential and gave me some good ideas for my new series of photographs I am working on.

At The Museum of Contemporary Art I enjoyed seeing Marc Rothko’s paintings and Alberto Giacometti’s sculptures. I came across a quote by Giacometti that resonates very close to what my own work strives to do. He said, “What is important is to create an object capable of conveying the sensation as close as possible to the one felt at the sight of the subject.” Marc Rothko said, “I paint large pictures because I want to create a state of intimacy. A large picture is an immediate transaction; it takes you in. While standing in front of his paintings, especially Purple Brown 1957 and Red Violet Over Red 1959, I was immediately consumed by the colors in front of me and the subtle transition from one to the next. His work reminded me of the effect my father’s large abstract paintings have on me.

The Peter Fetterman Gallery and the Rose Gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica had some of my favorite works I saw on this trip. The Peter Fetterman Gallery was showing photographs by Steve McCurry, Jerry Uelsman, and Patti Sammllahti. Steve McCurry’s images were filled with vivid luscious color and made you feel as though you were actually in the place that the photo was taken. It was amazing to see the surreal images of Jerry Uelsman whose images were layered in a traditional darkroom years before the invention of Photoshop. The real highlight at the Fetterman Gallery was my introduction to Finnish photographer Patti Sammlahti, whose work blew me away. It was refreshing to see that someone still follow in the tradition of “The Decisive Moment”. His photographs were simple, poignant, and beautiful. The light in his work was stunning and ethereal. My favorite was a snow-covered scene with a man dressed in black walking down a road with a hazy background of winter skeletons of trees. The soft subtle light reflected off the snow made the landscape glow.

At the Rose Gallery I saw for the first time up close the amazing photographs of Elger Esser. The show was filled with large, vast landscapes where the water meets the land along the banks of the Nile River. The color palate is unusually warm, almost amber, which give the photos a very calm and inviting feel to them. I was familiar with some of his work, but had never seen this series or stood in front of his massive and delicate prints. Quite a different experience compared to seeing his images in a book. This show inspired me to play around with a warm color palette for a new series of photographs I am making the captures where industrial landscapes meet the water. I have thought a lot about the question that Hanru asked me about how I see my work in relation to the contemporary art world. Initially I responded that I saw myself as more in the modernist tradition, however I feel that applies mostly to my process and not my subject matter. I do see myself as more contemporary in the subject matter that my work is exploring right now.

Celia Lara

The rough thoughts of the L.A. trip… there are so many places full of inspirations and we did not have enough time to digest at that time! Yet i love the contents as it feels like brainstorming, and some ideas and thoughts came to my mind afterwards.

The first show 'under the big black sun' for me is more about the main issues in a specific time period. the most impressive piece for me is the wall which was built with canvases. the time theme is around the 70ths and 80ths in last century. Fall of Saigon, Mao, John Lennon, Pope paul, Cultural Revolution, Jim Jones, Iran, and cairo,Egypt. All of these featured as the key words of that era. I was amazed by Chris Burden's piece about bomb which simply using matches and quarters to represent the idea. He always surprised me.

Here I would like to concentrate on the scenes behind the exhibition.

The biggest harvest and most interesting inspiration for me is the talk by Dan Cameron at the very end of our trip. his sharing about how an exhibition formed and then take care of every little detail in the show. Prospect New Orleans, the largest national biennial, which Dan used to illustrate his mind and experiences, connected all the individual dots to a larger content to me. Also the idea to have Prospect 1, premiered in 2008 and the second, Prospect 2 opened in this Oct.

his points about how the city revived after Katrina really made me think a lot. art is supposed to be a form to express human's emotional expressions and experiences. an exhibition rarely presented itself as a reminder to the outside world that New Orleans has experienced such a horrible disaster and how the city picked itself up bit by bit, little by little. one of the obstacle for this project is that the second installment was postponed in 2010 because of funding constraints. this made me want to shed my tears. for me projects like this should be supported by the state and the city. as it is not only an art event. six years after a disaster like Katrina, which destroyed everything in the community, the biennial is more about how people revive after Katrina left. at the same time attentions are drawn to pay upon the cultures and people there. just as Dan said, there are a lot of great local artists but people seldom know them. Prospect New Orleans 1.5, which focuses on new and old local New Orleans artists and their works, is the most meaningful concept to me. I read the concept behind this biennial is to draw people's attention and care to this local community who have suffered Katrina. in this case the pieces and ideas by the local artists are very vital. in a larger content it might assist in building the community anew. what's more, culturally speaking, other societies can take this opportunity to gain knowledges about what's going on within the 'community'. and also, Prospect functions as a mirror, reflecting different aspects of the community, making the audience to rethink people and cultures there. I think this is pretty crucial, and for me this kind of thoughts behind the show is really interesting and inspiring.

This actually could be the answer to the question 'does art have a rule to play' in the talk with Dan Cameron. Just break the rule. Stand out then you can be outstanding, especially in the field of art. I think a biennial like Prospect New Orleans is different. it is not just about art itself, but about your feeling of the surrounding world, and people that you care. Brought people's attention to the community, by using art as the trigger.

The LA trip made me think more about the scenes behind exhibitions. I am getting a clearer picture of curatorial practice. I used to feel curious about how everything put together and why the theme of the show would be like this or like that. I guess curating an exhibition sometimes might feel like marketing to some extent. As the theme of the show is the belief to be expressed. and the message would be delivered. From the perspective of curator, everything tiny little thing should be considered and took care of. Just like the first exhibition we saw in the trip, 'under the big black sun', theming in the year 1974-1981. Then this is our chance to rethink history. and Dan's stories about how culture gets changed when exported lead me to think exhibitions in a larger content. all these little thoughts about exhibitions made me extremely looking forward to meeting the curators in New York!!

Bingjie Li

A narrative film inside a gallery

Being a film student, I don’t have much experience with art galleries. This class, this field, and this exploration are totally new for me. My early understanding of art galleries only comes from the small video/film screening room in most big galleries. The trip to LA totally changes the way I look at galleries. The most unforgettable show for me is “making Chinatown”.

How is video art shown in art galleries? One common way is inside small ‘theaters’ within a gallery space. Video art is also commonly presented on monitors hung on walls like photos or paintings, constantly looping. Moreover, video art, unlike films, usually does not contain narrative content.

It’s hard to give a precise definition to separate film and video art, but narrative films require longer time and attention to watch in a quiet or dark space. As a result, people don’t usually watch narrative films in art galleries. How can a film like “Chinatown”, then, be shown in a gallery? This is a famous film with complicated plots and strong characters. It’s not an ideal project to be shown in a gallery.

And yet, the “Redcat Gallery” did just this. The gallery showed a narrative film for the exhibition, “Making Chinatown”. I don’t want to talk a lot about Ming Wang’s performances of various roles from this film. I just want to discuss what makes it possible to use the space of the gallery for a narrative film.

First of all, the curator and the artist chose eight specific scenes inside the film. These eight scenes are all important but short. Being short and being able to loop are two important elements for video art inside a gallery. So these eight scenes became eight short looping videos. Let’s look at the locations where these eight scenes were shown. The audience members can view the scenes in sequential order, experiencing a ‘timeline’ of the film as they walk through the gallery. Here is a video demonstrating this walk-through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33sgsE96T5I&list=UUfOTdgqBxPe8RBapDFAKagQ&index=1&feature=plcp

The big difference of “Making Chinatown” and the film “Chinatown”, however, is that the audience can choose which scene to watch and can even watch multiple scenes at the same time. This is because “Making Chinatown” has cut the sequencing of the original film into different fragments. And all the fragments appear simultaneously within the same space. This is one of the beautiful things allowed by the gallery. Compared to cinema, audiences can choose the parts they like and the order or times they view.

Other than visual part, another special thing about “Making Chinatown” is the audio. In “Redcat”, we can watch more than one scene from “Making Chinatown” at the same time. But we can hear all the eight soundtracks played together. In fact, cinema is based on time but gallery on space. The eight scenes are played at the same time in a small space with speakers. So the audios are overlapped. Again we don’t really need to know what the characters are talking about because we know the story or we can buy a DVD. But when multiple audio tracks are played at the same time, the time and space changes. We can hear what’s happening in the fifth scene and the first scene at the same time. We can see what’s happening in the first location and the sixth location together. When watching a narrative film, we need the editor to give a flashback to remind us of some plots before. But in a gallery space, we can choose or we can actually hear or watch the scenes happened before.

One more reason for the possibility of “Making Chinatown” is that this project is based on a very well known film. Though not everyone has watched the film, most people have heard about it or at least recognize it as a classic film. So people might not pay attention to the plots or characters or scenes any more, because anyone can buy a DVD and watch it at home. The point of going to the gallery is not to learn about the story. For other narrative films, if they are shown in galleries, then people need to find out what they are talking about first.

By Li CHEN

L.A. Trip

We were very impressed with the list of museums that Hou Hanru’s class was scheduled to see. We had been to Los Angeles a few times before, but the focus had never been on academics. Mr. Hanru is a wonderful guide throughout each and every exhibition that we went to. The program was extremely well thought out and perfectly organized. His teaching assistant Sheeka Arbuthnot was such an amazing contribution to this trip. The two of them make a fantastic team and everyone felt very welcomed by them. We arrived early with a group of people and we rented a very interesting home in Venice Beach, just outside of downtown Los Angeles. It was perfectly located between the various places that were on our itinerary.

Monday, February 13, began our travels through the Los Angeles area. We started out at the MOCA Geffin. This was an extension space from the MOCA, which was located in a more central location. The MOCA Geffin housed one of the most impactful exhibitions that I have seen in a very long time. It was entitled, Under The Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981. The press release reads as such: “This major art survey examines the rise of pluralistic art practices across the state. The years 1974 and 1981 bracket a tumultuous, transitional span in United States history, beginning with Richard Nixon’s resignation and ending with Ronald Regan’s inauguration. The exhibition borrows its title from the 1982 album by the Los Angeles-based punk band X to suggest that, during this period, the California Dream and the hippie optimism of the late 1960s had been eclipsed by a sense of disillusionment during the post-Watergate, post Vietnam era.” They speak of the dystopian atmosphere of the 1970s and how it created an artistic milieu that, “ seemed to include everything under the sun.” Across the state of California, people were creating art works that reflected what was occurring both socially and politically in a post war culture. This exhibition was extremely impactful and a true memory that we will always cherish. We caught it on the last day before it was closed, so we all felt very lucky to have been able to see this exhibition first hand. Something that we found of great interest as a studying curator and photographer, was the manner in which it was so well organized. Each and every artwork and section of the museum was mapped out with numbers. There was a phone number that we could call and a voice on the other end was of the artist, him or herself, explaining the manner in which they created the work and how they were inspired. Neither one of us had ever seen an exhibition that incorporated this curatorial aspect. The book that was published and readily available in the bookstore was of the upmost quality. You could join in with the show and then later, take a numbered map of the museum layout that correlated with the works and the museum setting and you could continue back into a virtual world with each and every work commented on by the individual artists who made this possible. we found this to be quite brilliant as well as the small library room, which housed various books and educational material on each and every artist that was included in this California social retrospective archive.

The MOCA was founded in 1979 and is the only museum in Los Angeles to be completely dedicated to contemporary art. With the new director, Jeffrey Deitch, this museum has taken a very extraordinary turn in its program, a very edgy one at that. We thought that it was very interesting that photography seemed to play such an important role in each and every exhibition that we went to. The subject of photography and the state of California as a subject seemed to dominate the focus in various showrooms all across that Los Angeles area, from the museum space to the smaller gallery spaces. The exhibition at the MOCA was entitled: Naked Hollywood: Weegee in L.A. This exhibition consisted of around 200 photographs by the tabloid photographer Weegee whose base is in Southern California. “The exhibition encompasses Weegee’s related works as an author, filmmaker, photo-essayist, and genius self-promoter.” (Press Release MOCA) It was co-curated by MOCA editor Erica Wrightson and guest curator Richard Meyer. This exhibition was intended to be a part of the Pacific Standard Project, which is affiliated with The Getty Research Center and focuses on post war art made in Los Angeles. This has been an active project since 2002 and the plan will continue until 2013. It is a historical archive that is of great importance and it’s first-person accounts make a crucial impact.

Right across the street from the MOCA is the Redcat. We met with Adram Moshayedi, who curated the show entitled, Making China Town, by the artist Ming Wong. Here we see a re-enactment of Roman Polanski’s cult film, Chinatown. The thing that made this exhibition so incredibly interesting was that it consisted of various film stills and backdrop sets strategically placed throughout this exhibition space that was a converted garage space in the bottom part of this huge building that housed the Redcat. The most striking element of these film stills was the ever morphing Ming Wong whose multitude of characters all consisted of himself acting. His makeup and acting was so convincing, that it took us a while to be really convinced that the female character, originally played my Faye Dunaway, was actually a man. He is a very good actor and you can see such painstaking detail in each and every scene that he re-enacted. The cameo appearance of Aram Moshayedi brought an interesting interplay between the curator acting in the art work, bringing a correlative and personalized aspect to this project, especially when he explained that Wong was convinced by his sinister portrayal of a gangster who later mutilates the nose of the character originally played by Jack Nicolson. It was very entertaining to say the least! I also agree that this scene was quite convincing as well as hard to watch because it is quite bloody. I enjoyed this visit to old Hollywood glamour, yet with an ending that is anything but a traditional Hollywood ending, and so typical of Polanski and his European style. In the press release for this project, Ming Wong explains that “part of the process is not only channeling the characters of a film but the creators and interpreters-writers, directors, actors- so the research phase includes looking at Polanski before, during, and after the making of Chinatown (1974). The same is true for Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicolson. I see them as artists, and part of the work involves matching the legacy of the role, the artist, and the film with my re-interpretation at this point in history.” He goes on to say that “it is a space between the real, the perceived, and the imagined.” This exhibition really stuck in our minds many days after we had seen it.

The next day, we ventured through various galleries in Culver City. We had never taken the time to walk through this area of Los Angeles. Some of the galleries we visited were: Koplin Del Rio, Thinkspace Art, Charmichael Gallery, Scion Installation L.A., Roberts & Tilton, WWA Gallery and Susanne Vielmetter Gallery. Along the same walk way, was LAXART, where we met with Lauri Firstenberg. The theme of Los Angeles based photography was again demonstrated with, I Want to Go to Detroit; cheerleaders CHEER, by the photographer, Daniel Joseph Martinez. This exhibition press release stated that this was also “in conjunction with the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980. “ “This exhibition encompassed the debut of two bodies of work that Martinez produced in the 1970s. These two series document Martinez’s investigations of bodybuilding and beauty pageant culture in Southern California during this critical period of Southern California history.” The exhibition was accompanied with a billboard project on La Cinenega Blvd. interestingly enough, bringing the exhibition into the public sphere. Rita Gonzales was a very interesting person to speak with regarding the art scene in Los Angeles. She spoke in length about the issues that arise when working in a non-profit, public art space. We both found this information very useful. The participatory role of LAXART in the Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival, supported by the Getty Research Institute. This was a very interesting happening where the art of the Pacific Standard Time was displayed in public areas in Los Angeles from January 19 through 29, 2012. The press release read:” This 11 day celebration will feature more than 30 extraordinary performances, including re-enactments of iconic works by artists such as Eleanor Antin, Judy Chicago, Suzanne Lacy, and James Turrell, and inventions both large and small in the public sphere. The festival will present a series of adaptations, re-inventions, and commissions that are inspired by the performance and installation artists working in Los Angeles between 1945 and 1980.” Our trip to L.A. couldn’t have come at a better time! We both felt as if we were incredibly lucky to be able to experience these exhibitions that were at a closing end as well as the festival that was going on. It’s is really a part of American history that was right at our fingertips.

by Mimi Mayer and Andreanne Michon