Elana Mann and Matias Viegener, “Drone Duet” (via artsblock.ucr.edu)
This week in LA, look forward to a variety of film screenings, musical performances, and gallery openings around town. Your must-dos include the West Coast premiere of a semi-autobiographical theater performance, a show centered on the visual art of the tarot card, and a series of shorts by a filmmaker set on bringing back lost or destroyed movies.
Music Made in LA
When: Thursday, July 17, 7:30–10:30 pm
Where: Hammer Museum (10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood, LA)
As part of its Made in LA 2014 biennial, the Hammer Museum has invited radio station KCRW to program four nights of free, live, local music in its courtyard. This week’s performance is for fans of folk band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Hosted by the group’s frontman, Alex Ebert — who hails from LA and released his first solo album a few years ago — the show also welcomes local outfits The Shoe and My Hawaii as well as the New Orleans–grown act crash.
Talk with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
When: Thursday, July 17, 7pm
Where: Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (250 S Grand Ave, Downtown, LA)
Singer-songwriter, poet, performance artist, and founder of COUM Transmissions, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge is teaming up with the MOCA bookstore this Thursday for an evening of insight into the life and work of the ever-evolving mother of Throbbing Gristle. Programming includes a presentation and signing of Genesis’s new book, followed by a taste of Hazel Hill McCarthy III latest film, Bight of the Twin, which follows Genesis’s research on Voodoo and Twin Fetish in Benin. The night concludes with a conversation between Hazel and Genesis and a musical performance by DJMREX. —AT
Bronx Gothic
When: Thursday, July 17–Saturday, July 19, 8:30pm
Where: Highland Park Ebell Club (131 S Avenue 57, Highland Park, LA)
This week Show Box LA presents the West Coast premiere of Okwui Okpokwasili’s semi-autobigraphical performance “Bronx Gothic.” The evocative piece of physical theater, reviewed by Hyperallergic when it was performed at this year’s COIL Festival, uses song, movement, and handwritten notes to tell the story of two girls on the brink of adolescence in the Bronx. —AT
The Art of Cultural History
When: Opens Friday, July 18
Where: Aran Cravey Gallery (6918 Melrose Ave, Hollywood, LA)
This group show, curated by photographer Eric Kim, takes its cue from ideas surrounding the creation of cultural history. The press release cites a passage by artist Allan McCollum:
“… [I]ndividual experience is clearly inseparable from the culture in which it is constituted. This truth is in fact at the root of the most beautiful mysteries of life. Thus, in our intermediations, we can share with one another an immensely rich history of experience and reflection. Yet as individuals, at the same time, we may run the risk of losing a sense of personal identity, and growing blank in the process—like the postcard photographer’s gaze as he captures his empty images.”
Speaking to shared culture, the commodification of history, and modes of representation, this is going to be a deep one. —AT
Seth Styles, “The Fool” (via lastprojects.org)
Tarot Show
When: Opens Saturday, July 19, 7–10pm
Where: Last Projects (6546 Hollywood Blvd, #215, Hollywood, LA)
If you’re interested in the occult, visit Last Projects this weekend for the opening of this group show. Local LA artists including Michael Dee, Olivia Beall, and Nico Zurita will display their individual renderings of this iconic deck of 78 cards, which since the mid-16th century has been used for fortune telling or pure entertainment.
What’s in a Day Job?
When: Opens Saturday, July 19, 12–8pm
Where: Monte Vista Projects (5442 Monte Vista St, Highland Park, LA<)
Artists Jeff Foye and Gordon Winiemko present a day in their lives with their video diptych opening this week at Monte Vista Projects. The 8-hour running time, during which both men are constantly engaged in some kind of labor, coincides with the 8-hour workday and so too requires a laborious commitment from the viewer. According to the press release, the time-based work “transcends the boundaries of time, the way our labor now transcends boundaries under the ’empire’ of late capitalism”. —AT
Last Chance: Drone Duet
When: Through Sunday, July 20 (closing reception Saturday, July 19, 6–9pm)
Where: Culver Center of the Arts (3824 Main St, Riverside, CA)
Part of the Culver Digital Mural Project, Elana Mann and Matias Viegener’s “Drone Duet” examines the growing presence of drones in our lives and the increased surveillance accompanying them. The work, which pairs an original drone poem with an animation, has its closing reception this Saturday. And why not make a day trip out of it?While you’re in Riverside, explore the evolution of Japanese-manufactured cameras at 100 Japanese Cameras: 1925-2014, which opens Saturday at the California Museum of Photography. The display will include basic 35mm cameras, small prewar cameras, various European copies, and more.
Screening Bruce Checefsky
When: Sunday, July 20, 7:30pm
Where: Spielberg Theater at the Egyptian Theatre (6712 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, LA)
The LA Film Forum hosts a retrospective of Bruce Checefsky’s films, screening all eight of his shorts in addition to his most recent movie, released this year, Witch’s Cradle. In his 13 years as a photographer and filmmaker, Checefsky (who’s also director of the Reinberger Galleries at the Cleveland Institute of Art) has been a dedicated researcher, recreating films that once existed but were subsequently destroyed or lost, especially experimental and avant-garde Eastern European shorts from the 1920s–40s.
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With contributions by Alix Taylor
