Emptiness is not an Option

So, I went to see some gallery shows this afternoon as I sometimes do. I wasn't in the greatest of moods but, I wasn't figuring on becoming intensely depressed and confused about art in general as well as my own art life. I went to this place which had a show by a performance artist. The show contained almost nothing. There were a couple extremely dull and non-changing videos showing, and a piece of paper with writing on it on the wall. There was also a small painting made with one color of paint and no content, on a wall painted with the exact same color. I went downstairs and there was a large empty room. There was a ceiling light on in the opposite corner showing a small piece of wood leaning against the wall. There was another piece of paper with writing on it by the door. I read the first paragraph which started "I wanted to create a piece about nothing". And that's when I got really worked up.

Not only is this sort of thing mediocre but, it's been done countless times. Now is not the time to make art about nothing. There's a lot happening in the world. The way we communicate has completely shifted in the past 10 years. We're in the midst of a revolution in technology. Humans are putting stresses on our natural world that will change the way we live in the very near future. Robotics, plastic surgery, DNA synthesis, video games, autism, so many things to think about. I could go on and on. This is really probably one of the most exciting times in the history of humanity. A lot of good and bad but, lots of stuff is going on.

After seeing this insult to the eyes I became very upset and depressed. I started to think about my own "life" as a performance artist and to question what I was really doing. What am I doing and why am I doing it? I don't even know! What IS a performance artist? What is my goal? I make so much effort to do something different and new. I spend loads of money, I organize people, I do large and small productions involving movement, technology, humor, strange visuals. Who am I doing this for and who am I trying to impress? Is it the gallery owners and directors? Am I trying to impress the same people who curated this show I just saw? Am I trying to impress those art intellectuals who can justify curating a show about absolutely nothing? If so, what I'm doing is futile because they will never understand me. My art is about something.

The only real answer I have is that I cannot stop doing art. An artist is what I am. I'm a creative thinker and idea man. THE IDEAS HAVE TO LIVE! I don't know why exactly, but, they just do. They are burning inside of me and they must come out.

The artist's roll is to inspire, is it not? Our role is to express ourselves and to make people feel or see something differently. We give meaning to other people's lives. We are important. It's mind-boggling how this artist failed so miserably in this instance to be inspirational. Having an idea is not enough. It needs to be developed. It's called "art". That means there's an ART to doing it. A lot of contemporary art these days is so very similar. So very empty, undeveloped, pointless and lost.

Airom Inc.

Congrats to Airom Bleicher on his new gallery (Caporale/Bleicher) located on LaBrea Ave. next to Jack Rutberg. So glad he has added a new eastern wing to his growing art conglomerate which started (and continues) with the Bleicher/Golightly location on Ocean Ave. Santa Monica is essentially Siberia as far as I'm  concerned and traveling there from Los Feliz was always a schlep for me. I'm happy that I'll be able to attend more of the many art & music events Airom puts on.

At Bleicher/GoLightly he is renting a partition of an existing gallery so his space there is severely limited. This new joint is gigantic in comparison and actually big enough to hold more than 5 people. And there were definitely more than five here at the "Worlds Within" grand opening. See the pictures for proof. The place was filled with important artists and art luminaries, a large foresty installation, a Bleicher brother, and at least one person named Calethia.

Airom has been doing the gallery & artist representation thing for a few years now. He has been tireless in his effort while at the same time living on the ultra cheap. The man doesn't even own a car for Chissakes! Couldn't happen to a nicer guy and I'm really happy for him. Yes, Airom is a great lad and I hope he is able to remember and appreciate all the fine work he has done even after he goes broke. Just kidding! Congrats Airom!

Greene Sculpture Park

So, I drove downtown to see a couple Chung King Road openings the other night. I had a good time and liked some of what I saw. But, as I was mysteriously disappearing (it's my way) I noticed a fine group show at a temporary space called the Greene Park Gallery. It's just up another few days so you might not catch it in time. But, I thought I'd throw a few words around about some great sculptures by Peter Wu.

This is the new TTINLA so no deep analysis here, just snippets of appreciation for the nuggets I come into contact with. These sculptures feature all sorts of common objects like crappy figurines and cheapo coffee table gifts that would end up at a garage sale. This stuff is arranged and worked in such a way as to sublimate (I love that word) the original meaning of the objects. It's very obviously lovingly done.

There was other great work in the gallery but, I thought I'd focus on my favs. Keep your eyes peeled for Peter Wu in the future. http://www.drpeterwu.com

A Lowbrow Quickie

So, all I basically had to do was to get up from my early evening nap and walk up the hill across the street to see Beyond Eden Art Fair at the Barnsdall. I couldn't really pass this up, it would be shamefully sloth-like. The Barnsdall is a great place to see an art show but, whenever I go I keep thinking how horrified Frank Lloyd Wright would've been to see his beautiful gallery filled up with contemporary art pieces. He's been turning over in his grave for almost 50 years now and this Lowbrow show will for sure keep him spinning.



I'm not really a lowbrow guy but, there were a few really excellent artists who's work I really dug. One was Christopher Ulrich. I first heard of this guy from the Youtube show Artist Unusual. This is a really well done little series of art interviews by Randy Wall in his Andy Warhol wig. Check it out: Artist Unusual There's some crazy energy that Christopher is focusing in his work. Very detailed, bold and powerful stuff.

There were tons of people at this show including local art scene regular and idea man Aaron Landy feeding his video hoarding addiction. I think there needs to be an intervention. Don't tease us Aaron we need to see this shit before we die! Later, I asked a guy who I thought was Seth Carmichael if he wanted to buy a donut. It wasn't him and he didn't want to buy one. Guess it's been awhile since I've talked to Seth. Here's some info about the event: http://www.lamag.org/home/beyond-eden/

Oh No! Google just took over Blogger and they're screwing everything up. My settings are toast! I have to go in to the HTML and delete all the new crappy stylesheets they forced on me! Fuckers. Ever heard of Scroogle? Makes me feel better using it. Check it: http://www.scroogle.org

I've been Resnick-ized!

I've been a busy bee. All sorts of performance art projects have kept me away from blogging. Frightfully busy have I been. Take a look at my site if you're interested to see what's been taking up my time. http://www.treiops.com/art But, also, I've realized I've become too much a journalist. Instead of just riffing on the crazy night I had I'm starting to do actual research! Damn my perfectionism! If'n I'm to keep this blog going I've just got to wing it. So, wing it I shall. Expect less details and more immediacy here on TTINLA.

I can't believe I've never been a member of LACMA. I love the place. But, I go there not often enough. So last Saturday I just decided to walk in and sign up. Lo, and behold they had built a whole new exhibition space called the Resnick Pavilion. It was full of mostly interesting objects. I'm a big fan of history especially ancient American history.



Did you know 95% of the people who originally lived in the Americas died of European delivered diseases? Often entire communities and populations were wiped out even before they had peered onto a white face! This isn't propaganda it's the real truth! Check out this fantastically detailed book called 1491 by Charles C. Mann.

Anyway, a lot was happening back in the good ol' Mesoamerican days, like the Olmec. You know those big heads? Well, the Resnick has a few of them along with some other grand Olmec items. They also had a couple other fine shows, one was a really fascinating assortment of high fashion clothing from 1700-1915. Hey Adele, you need to go!



The other an assortment of 18th century paintings & sculpture from the Resnick collection. I must admit I'm a sucker for these romantic sculptures featuring all the Greek gods and such. I know it's cheezy but I just can't help myself.



It reminded me of my trip to Copenhagen a few years ago when I happened upon the Glyptotek. http://www.glyptoteket.dk/ I spent most of the day there admiring Greek & Roman period sculptures along with reproductions and works in the same style from the 19th century. They also do this crazy thing in their museums of putting contemporary items along with the old stuff. Mind blowing. Go to Denmark!



Anyway, go to the Resnick too. It's good. Nice new building. You will like it. Don't worry, they still have the life-sized Michael Jackson and Bubbles ceramic sculpture next door.

A Daytime Culver Crawl

My day job has been frustrating of late. The economy sucks and there isn't enough staff to do what needs to be done. Everybody is stressed out. I needed a couple days off before I acted on the fantasy of putting my foot through the CPU. So, I chilled out and did mostly nothing for a couple days except take a fun trip to the Culver City galleries. I had missed all the current show's openings due to intense busyness in my life so, some of what I'm going to write about won't be available to view much longer but, I thought it worthwhile to highlight the outstanding work I saw.

At Walter Maciel there was a fine group show called Valley of the Dolls. A diverse assortment to be sure. My favorite was Andy Diaz Hope's strange and meticulous works which were sort of photographic mosaics using dark and moody subject matter. What started as a large photographic print was cut up into hundreds of tiny pieces. Each piece was then put into clear gelcaps which were glued onto a perfect grid in correct order, reconstructing the picture. Talk about yer OCD! Beautiful stuff. There was actually another artist who did a similar piece in the show, Beverly Rayner, who used gelcaps but put a photograph behind them instead of inside (far right).



At Angles Gallery was a fascinating kinetic piece by Joseph Kohnke called launch. As you entered the installtion room a motion detector activated a series of antique lunch boxes to come alive. The boxes slowly open at different intervals creating a creaking, whirring din. Each box had inside a thermos that would rise and aim, then descend back into it's silo. The artist was inspired by North Korea's bleak reality of not being able to feed it's populace but at the same time building a massive army.



I was pretty tired and ready to split the scene until I walked into Honor Fraser and saw Israeli artist Shiri Mordechay's bizarro mixed media installation. This totally took my breath away. It's just one of those indescribable explosions of expression. A sculptural collage-maze set before me. A vomit of grotesque bodies painted on paper and shaped into some crazy floating and creepy world. Contorted erotica and mythological creatures caught in a spider's nest of string and scraps. A Bosch-esque parade of fuck-sexy vagina-cock corpses. All of it painted on paper, cardboard, and fabric. Glued, wired and sewn together hanging from the ceiling, and standing on the floor. I don't even want to read the press release, I'd rather go back to see if I could figure out what's going on. A must see. Go see it before it's gone. Quick!





http://www.honorfraser.com
http://www.waltermacielgallery.com
http://andydiazhope.com
http://www.josephkohnke.com
http://www.anglesgallery.com

Perform Now! in Chinatown!

I caught some groovy Performance Art at the Chinatown Galleries Perform Now! event last week. I'm glad they are holding this event yearly now. Also, last year I believe it was just one day but this time it was a three and a half days, Thursday night through Sunday. I didn't see as much as I wanted as I was all over the place during the weekend. But, I did catch a few interesting gems.

I've always liked Tiffany Trenda's work. It's well planned, thoughtful and compelling. She employs video projections, video cameras, bizarre costumes, and usually an interactive element. She was performing her piece Terrarium which included all of the above. Trenda was wearing a white body suit with an LCD and camera headdress. She crept around in slow motion on lucite heels reaching out to audience members behind a rope barrier mimicking their slow movements but never touching. All the while various futuristic city and environmental scenes were projected on top.



I've always liked Lucas Murgida's work as well. In his piece The Oracle he cuts out the wise sage middle man who is normally called upon to form riddles for you to figure out and thus find your path. In this version you are your own sage. The viewer is invited to enter a phone booth-sized box with two way mirrors. Inside, all your questions are answered. Lucas stands outside like a barker, the truth is his con to entice people inside.



Perform Now! is really a fun event. The Chinatown Gallery area is perfect for it as it has a nice inner courtyard and a large secluded cul de sac. Be sure to take the time to check it out next year.

http://performnow.tumblr.com
http://www.tiffanytrenda.com/home.html
http://lucasmurgida.com/