After seeing the California Science Museum’s “Bodies” exhibit, I thought, “If only we knew that this is who we are all the time perhaps we would come to see ourselves in everything, and how much more deeply we would live.” The Hammer Museum’s exhibit, “Paul Thek: Diver, a Retrospective” echoes this perspective in its “meat pieces” collection.
Molly Crabapple is my new hero. When I emailed her to set up some time for me to meet her and watch her in action, she replied, “I’m pretty much ALWAYS working.” It’s true. You’d need to hire an assistant just to keep up with this girl. With this much success at age 27, its hard not to wonder how she got to this point.
Maskull Lasserre’s installation, “Anatomische Holzschinitzereien,” confronts the origin and essence of man through its pairing objects of every day human life with various animal corpses. The pieces do so through pairings that are almost disturbing and uncomfortable to even look at. They are almost macabre. There is suggestion of our origin; our distance from a more base form of human existence.
The MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles) not only legitimized decades of street art with their current exhibit Art in the Streets, but they initiated a campaign for the public to truly participate in the approval or criticism of that art.
ChinaShop sent one of our finest photographers to show us his perspective on what’s what. Its not to late for you to get out there and think for yourself. Art is truly in the eye of the beholder. Get out there and behold already!
Chinashop’s own Zoetica Ebb has developed a really cool concept – D4RT, a mobile art class that brings art workshops, supplies and public art projects to impoverished communities all over the world.
The first installment is going to take place this September in Yantaló, Peru and Zoetica needs support to make it happen. Check out the Kickstarter Video below, contribute what you can, and help spread the word!
Picture the motley imagination of Where The Wild Things Are mixed with the quixotic, avant garde world of Fischerspooner. Throw in the patience and immersion of a method actor. Then strip it all down and build it back up using a boutique, DIY aesthetic. This, in a nutshell, is how NewVillager have approached their craft. Are they artists? Yes, and not just in the musical sense. Ben Bromley and Ross Simonini—along with a cast of characters spread between San Francisco, Brooklyn, and all points in between—are just as keen on creating elaborate art installations as they are three-minute tunes. Are they musicians? Totally, yet their record is chock-a-block with big hooks and indie pop melody. Nothing is over your head, yet the band talks, almost reverentially, about a “mythology” they adhere to; something intrinsically connected to the way in which they form new creative ideas.
I felt tired strolling toward the line forming in front of the famous and previously dormant “Palace Theatre” on the opening night of Lucent Dossier, but one step toward the rabbit hole that is Lucent Dossier, and I, like the Palace, was awakened from my slumber.
Ok, that’s a bit dramatic, but the card flipping magician, top hat wearing stilts man and operatic press facilitator welcoming the gathering South Broadway line immersed me into their crafted “experience” before I had even entered the building… and that’s more than you can say about most formulaic entertainment “experiences.”
While on my way to check out an exhibit that had been on my radar for some time, I walked past a room with blue walls, a file cabinet, and various displays. I almost passed by but did a double take when it was brought to my attention that everything inside was created with insects. My unexpected detour had led me into Jennifer Angus’s “All Creatures Great and Small,” an outlandish exhibit that employs the use of multi-colored insects, beeswax figurines, vintage dollhouses, tribal patterns, and Dia de los Muertos skulls.
It’s pretty amazing what some artists use as their canvas; Ann Weber is no exception. The San Francisco-based sculptor takes cardboard and transforms it into a realm of love and relationships. Using only cardboard, staples, and shellac, she creates her own characters, each with a very unique identity.
Weber’s work can currently be seen at the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum in an exhibit titled, “Love and Other Audacities.” Walking into the exhibit, you are greeted with colossal cardboard sculptures, which are both architecturally dynamic and sensuous. Weber takes you into the land of her cardboard forms, each with their own crucial role within the exhibition.
As the Lucent Dossier Experience gets ready for their special engagement next week at the historic Downtown Palace Theatre in Los Angeles on Thursday, July 28, the world renowned avant-garde electro-dub cirque have posted exciting news about the event at their website (pasted below).
