Art Run L.A. part one: "3 Solo Projects: Jessica Rath / Carrie Ungerman / Lynn Aldrich at OTIS college of Art and Design

Jessica Rath, Tree Peel, 2008, gallons of latex.

I went to L.A. for an excellent art run. I enjoyed the drive, the conversation and the shows. First we went to the Otis College of Art and Design / Ben Maltz Gallery (my first visit there) to see "3 Solo Projects: Lynn Aldrich // Jessica Rath // Carrie Ungerman". It was graduation day, it was crowded outside with students and parents, the air filled with laughs.

Inside the gallery it was very quiet. Rath's weird looking tree was standing alone in the middle of the first space. Was it a real tree, if yes, was it dead? When I got closer I touched it and it was soft. Then I saw the stitches, all over, it has been stitched to reconstruct the form of the tree. Looking at its base, I could see now that it was hollow, and there was a metallic structure underneath it to sustain it. On the surface of the trunk, one could see pieces of the bark of the tree which was enclosed in the latex. Strange piece, it looks heavy and it is not, it is empty. I felt like I was in the future (decades, more?) and I was looking at the last tree on earth!









Lynn Aldrich, Silver Lining (2009) [in front] and Desert Spring (2007)
[in back] Galvanized gutter parts and downspouts,
alkyd enamel, dimension variable

In the second space, Aldrich's gutter parts and downspouts are extremely organized, either coming out from the floor or coming down from the ceiling (one can actually walk underneath that one and get an interesting perspective). I could not help thinking about a giant organ - and I was almost waiting for some noise or some music (which never came).


Lynn Aldrich, Silver Lining (2009) - from underneath


Carrie Ungerman, Untitled, 2008, plastic, Mylar.

And then there were Ungerman's mountains. A journey to the center of the Earth? To the Ali Baba's cave? To a monstrously beautiful landfill? The mountains are Shiny and fluffy and tall and fragile and very large. A structure I wanted immediately to explore, it is made for that, you can walk around and discover different views. The Mylar has certainly been cut while still rolled and then unrolled and displayed carefully. One thing I particularly like: if you blow air, the Mylar moves a little. And you can play to see how the structure reacts. The structure underneath the Mylar is made of bags full of recycled water bottles. It is not hidden: in various places you can see it very well. So the whole structure is really light, although it takes a huge space. There is no way it can be twice the same if displayed in another space, which is great.


Carrie Ungerman, Untitled, 2008 (detail)

And then we headed to Bergamot Station for the second part of our art run!

"3 Solo Projects: Lynn Aldrich // Jessica Rath // Carrie Ungerman"
April 18 - June 13, 2009
Otis College of Art and Design / Ben Maltz Gallery
9045 Lincoln Boulevard
Los Angeles CA 90045

Inspiring People: Jill Bolte Taylor, neurological researcher. Please listen to this 40mn program!

I listened to an amazing program yesterday on NPR. An interview of Jill Bolte Taylor by Terry Gross. I already heard that interview a few months ago and I was thrilled to hear it again yesterday.

Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke years ago, and as a Neurological researcher, she was able to analyse what was happening as it was happening. It took years for her to heal but eventually she completely recovered. The stroke happened in the left part of her brain and she experienced what it is to live with the right hemisphere taking over. It changed her forever. Her bestselling memoir My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey is published in paperback this month.

listen to the interview here

"Voices: Mapping The Hood" @ Art Produce Gallery / Sunday is the North Park Festival

"Voices: Mapping the Hood"
A multi-media interactive installation
May 17-June 28
Opens Sunday May 17
10am- 6pm
In conjunction with the North Park Arts Festival

North Park Arts Festival Sunday, May 17, from 10 to 6pm.

Art Produce Gallery
3139 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92104

Art@theCore

Working on my upcoming solo show "C'est la Vie" at the SDAI

It is amazing to work on the deck outside of the house. This canyon is a little heaven. Always changing, depending on what flowers are blooming, always busy with birds. My neighbor's cat comes every day to check if there are some interesting lizards to chase.

The series of paintings which will be exhibited at the San Diego Art Institute in June is almost done. I am still working on a few a them. They are all square, have different sizes and depths. I still have to do a large painting on the wall of the gallery. I will have four days to complete the work. It hope it will be enough! It is a monochrome painting, with quite a few silhouettes in it. In the last issue of the magazine "Dwell", I found an interesting article about "green" paints with beautiful qualities and I will use one of them to paint the wall.

This time I worked specifically for the space of the gallery. I have a lot of photos from my last year's solo show and it helped me figure out something completely different this time.

We'll see how it goes but the contrast between the colored series of small square paintings and the large monochrome painting in the background should be interesting.

C'est la Vie / Michele Guieu Solo show
San Diego Art Institute (SDAI)
June 5 - July 12, 2009
Opening reception June 12, from 6 to 8

Notes (at Boomer's)

A few more days to see "Process Art (Dead Man Don't Make Sculpture)" at the entrance of the MCASD La Jolla

My son in front of "Process Art (Dead Man Don't Make Sculpture)"
Bronze
87 x 58 x 41 inches

At the end of May, "Process Art (Dead Man Don't Make Sculptures)" by Nathan Maubry will leave the MCASD La Jolla to be shown at the Hammer Museum in L.A. The MCASD and the Hammer purchased the sculpture together last year.
Nathan Maubry lives and works in Culver City.

This is a surprising and weird version of "The Thinker" (the sculpture was made from a cast of Rodin's sculpture offered for sale on eBay by a California foundry). When one arrives at the museum of contemporary art on Prospect avenue, one sees the back of it and then one turns around and sees the large crazy looking/halloween-like mask covering the face.

That thinker may have think a little bit too much!





MCASD
The Hammer

Notes (at the San Diego zoo)

Thomas Hirschhorn: Poor Tuning at kurimanzutto and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City

I stumbled upon this document about Thomas Hirschhorn's show "Poor Tuning" in Mexico City, which just ended. I would have love to see it!


Thomas Hirschhorn
Poor Tuning
march 14 – may 9, 2008
Kurimanzutto
gob. Rafael Rebollar 94, col. San Miguel
Chapultepec 11850,
Mexico City
info@kurimanzutto.com

The Infinity Lab presents "NineTransient Things" at Voz Alta Project

I've been wanted to go for a while to Voz Alta Project in Barrio Logan. Saturday I decided that going to see the last work by the The Infinity Lab was the good occasion. I was attracted by the title of the show and I also read strange things about that group of artists which made me want to know more. The Infinity Lab is run by three loco doctors: Dr. Cuddles With Cats, Dr. Niku and Dr. Hueso. I checked out some of their videos online, on their YouTube channel. Their work, strangely, seems to me at the same time pretty serious and rather silly - well, I guess, in that sense it is very Dada. In their videos, the doctors of the Infinity Lab always appear with masks and costumes, so it is impossible to recognize them. Dr Cuddles with Cats: "Adopting a different costume can change the way you interact with the world, and the way the world interacts with you".


The Infinity Lab: Dr. Niku, Dr. Hueso and Dr. Cuddles With Cats,
with their costumes: hats, sunglasses and masks,
holding their props and wearing red.
San Diego City Beat - cover- August 2008

I like that the three doctors have a mysterious identity. The "Lab" concept offers them endless possibilities to experiment in various directions. They seem to have a good time doing what they are doing which is great. Also there is an aspect of their work which is irreverent, I like that.
Check out that video: "Blue Chip Special #4: The Infinity Lab does Jeff Koons. Special Guest Performer: Dr. La Bone. Jeff Koons oversees the creation of the sacred cow."



So, the show! Nice place, nice vibe. The three doctors were there, but totally incognito!
DJ Dan Camacho was operating in the back room.


DJ Dan Camacho


"Mask"


"Gloves"

On the walls are displayed nine 3' square drawings on paper made with exclusively Crayola crayons. The nine transient things are: "Peppermint" (the cat), "Bone", "Ms. Meatcow", "Ears", "Hat", "Antennae", "Mask", "Glasses" and "Gloves".

But the very first ones I see on the right are the mask and the gloves. In the midst of the swine flu hysteria (Saturday, May 2, was right at the pick of it), I cannot not make the link with what is going on. I am very interested in artwork related to "here and now", so this sends a good signal about how perceptive the doctors of the Infinity Lab are - although they made the work before the "outbreak". But it is around, in our subconsciousness. The fear of contamination, the need for protection.


From left to right: antennae, mask and glasses.


Peppermint


Hat


Ms Meatcow

On the left end of the room are hanging the three objects, symbols of the three doctors: The cat, "Peppermint", is Dr. Cuddles with Cats', the cow, Ms. Meatcow, is Dr. Niku's and the bone is Dr. Hueso's.


"Peppermint", Ms. Meatcow and the bone

On the right end of the gallery, an 18mn video runs on a loop.



I watch the video about Peppermint, Ms. Meatcow and Bone going from California to New York and back. They are overlaid on different pictures of the places they go to (Las Vegas, the desert, Texas, Mount Rushmore...). Along the way the trio finds and takes the 6 other transient things (the ears, the hat, the antennae, the mask, the glasses and the gloves). For example they find the mask in New York at Ground Zero.



Next to the video, there is a triangle shaped shelf with, on top of it: Crayola crayons boxes, Crayola crayons protective papers in a jar and Crayola crayons shavings in another one.
Dr. Cuddles with Cats: "There's this artist, Haim Steinbach, who makes shelves, and we made a parody shelf. In the animation, the characters: Peppermint, Ms Meatcow, and Bone go to New York and they find Haim and they trade all the things they found on their journey and themselves for the shelf. The same shelf in the animation is [here] in the gallery."


"Blue Chip Haim Steinbach Special."

If you missed the opening reception, go to the closing one - DJ Dan Camacho will be there again.

Closing Reception: Saturday, May 16, 2009 from 7pm -11pm
Exhibit dates: May 2-May 16th.
For more information:
vozaltaproject.org or myspace.com/theinfinitylab
The Infinity Lab
The Infinity Lab / YouTube



Voz Alta Project
Neighborhood: Barrio Logan
1754 National Ave
(between Sigsbee St & Beardsley St)
San Diego, CA 92113
(619) 230-1869

"Clowns, Ventriloquists and Businessmen" @ Art Produce Gallery

"Clowns, Ventriloquists and Businessmen"
Student work from Visual Arts and Performing Arts Academy of Hoover High School
(San Diego).

One Night Only / Artist Reception
Saturday, May 9, from 6 to 9pm

Art Produce Gallery
neighborhood: North Park
3139 University Avenue
San Diego
(619) 584 4448
The gallery is open 7am - 4:30 pm everyday
through Caffe Carpe Diem