Event Gallery Giant Robot Transforms L.A.’s Best Museum
by Jeff Nau January 26, 2010 - 11:00 am
Things got a little crazy with Giant Robot at The Japanese American National Museum last week. Between a raucous outburst by punk rockers The Binge, the usual array of bizarre surrealist paintings, transsexual action figures, homemade video games, and of course robots of all sizes, what began as a homemade magazine distributed to friends had officially exploded into a pop culture juggernaut. Eric Nakamura’s 15th GR anniversary featured some of the most inventive and original art by a variety of painters, plasterers, programmers, toymakers, and musicians.
Eric even presented a documentary of the museum show being put together, detailing the amount of effort each of the artists had put into their exhibits. My girl and I spent about 20 minutes just playing one of these homemade video games — nothing more than a series of paper cut-outs and pasted-together animated backgrounds that, despite its simple look, played and responded like an actual 2-player video game: punches, jump kicks, throwing objects Double Dragon style, all at the hit of a button and move of the joystick.
Along with The Museum of Jurassic Technology, Giant Robot made the museum one of those places that (thankfully) stood out among places like MOCA and The Getty and what often amounts to that air of plain pretentiousness. It’s fun, the art is just as amazing, and featuring more interactive exhibits make it more of a memorable experience. There was food, rock n’ roll, a real history behind it all that Eric and his friends really took the time to make for the patrons, and some larger-than-life art that had people flocking to and discussing. The only thing missing was booze — but I’ll take local creative genius, loud music, and homemade video games over the same old cold, 2-paintings-a room, uber-post-modern thing any day. Finally, an exhibit for the anti-exhibit.
Words by Jeff Nau
2 Responses to “Giant Robot Transforms L.A.’s Best Museum”
Leave a Reply
-
Feeds
-
-
Categories
- » A Few of My Favorite Things
- » Alamitos Heights Nightlife
- » Art/Design
- » Austin TX
- » Bars/Clubs
- » Belmont Shore Nightlife
- » California Nightlife
- » Comic Books
- » Contest
- » Contributors
- » Daily Dots
- » Downtown Nightlife
- » Downtown Nightlife
- » Event
- » Fashion
- » Featured
- » Film
- » Gallery
- » Hollywood Nightlife
- » interview
- » Long Beach Nightlife
- » Los Angeles
- » Los Angeles Nightlife
- » Miami
- » Moody Mondays
- » Music
- » New York City
- » Nightlife
- » Nightlife Directory Only
- » North Hollywood Nightlife
- » Oddity
- » Review
- » Santa Monica Nightlife
- » South Bay Nightlife
- » Uncategorized
- » Universal City Nightlife
- » Urban Exploration
- » Video
- » West Hollywood Nightlife
- » Westwood Nightlife
-
Recent posts
- » Katie Melua: I’d Love to Kill You
- » The Spazmatics: Independently Owned and Operated
- » American Trash: Represent Your Cynical Side
- » Tribute to a Hollywood Icon: Slash Day
- » Electric Zoo: Party Animals Ready Set Go
- » Tutu Sweeney & the Brothers Band Grace Red Bull Studios
- » Tuesday Newsday!! New Releases from Muderdolls, Sum 41, Disturbed, and Goo Goo Dolls
- » Averting Disaster, Questlove Conquers All at The Michael Jackson Tribute
- » The Chemical Brothers “Swoon” the Hollywood Bowl
- » Road to 8 Mile: Eminem Judges The Red Bull EmSee National Freestyle Battle
-
Archived
- » September 2010
- » August 2010
- » July 2010
- » June 2010
- » May 2010
- » April 2010
- » March 2010
- » February 2010
- » January 2010
- » December 2009
- » November 2009
- » October 2009
- » September 2009
- » August 2009
- » July 2009
- » June 2009
- » May 2009
- » April 2009
- » March 2009
- » February 2009
- » June 2008
-










January 26th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
lol it’s actually the japanese american national museum that hosted this exhibition. that’s like calling MOCA the murakami museum when murakami was there…
January 27th, 2010 at 2:05 am
yeah, kinda forgot that. Thanks!