> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Artists Take Over an Iconic Lloyd Wright House in Los Angeles
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/passages-at-the-sowden-house-homela/
- Published: 2019-01-08T21:45:10.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:24:08.000Z
- Description: Passages, a two-day program of performance, film, and music, will explore the home’s architectural and cultural significance.
- Author: Matt Stromberg
- Tags: Art, Events, Los Angeles, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:34 (2019, 2020, part 1)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2019/01/1546461863294_-passages-press-3.jpg)

Delaram Pourabdi and Rebecca Bruno, “PASSAGES” (film still) (image courtesy HomeLA)

The [Sowden House](https://sowdenhouse.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) in Los Angeles’s Los Feliz neighborhood is one of the city’s most iconic residences. Built for painter and photographer John Sowden in 1926, the 6,000 square-foot house was designed by Lloyd Wright (son of Frank Lloyd Wright) in a Mayan Revival Style, inspired by the monumentality of pre-Columbian architecture. Wright used concrete textile blocks that give the house a dramatic appearance and its nickname “the Jaws House,” for the way the blocks frame the entrance like a shark’s open mouth. The house also has a possible link to one of the more salacious episodes in LA history, being the one-time home of a prime suspect in the unsolved [Black Dahlia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%5FDahlia?ref=hyperallergic.com) murder of 1947.

This weekend, the residence will host [*Passages*](https://www.homela.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com), a two-day program of performance, film, and music exploring the home’s architectural and cultural significance. Organized by [HomeLA](https://www.homela.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com), which stages public dance performances in private spaces, the event will be anchored by a cinematic collaboration between HomeLA founder Rebecca Bruno and Delaram Pourábdi, founder of creative agency [Paradeux](https://para-deux.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com). The film follows Bruno — wearing a soft sculpture made of her grandmother’s shoulder pad collection — as she moves throughout the home’s cyclical floor plan. Other artists will present work focused on the house as well, including choreographer [Crystal Sepúlveda](http://www.crystalsepulveda.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com#/new-gallery/), who previously collaborated with Clarissa Tossin on a work responding to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Mayan Revival Hollyhock House; Theresa Wayman of indie band Warpaint; and [Tyler Matthew Oyer](https://www.homela.org/process-record/2019/1/5/w8ukshpikufk7hrt11gx1k1q4r51m9?ref=hyperallergic.com), who tackles the legacy of Jack Smith’s queer camp cinema with a dose of anarchic occultism.

**When:** Saturday, January 12 and Sunday, January 13, 4–7:30pm ([tickets:](https://passagesatsowden.brownpapertickets.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) $35)  
**Where:** Sowden House(5121 Franklin Ave., Los Feliz, Los Angeles)

*More info at* [*HomeLA*](https://www.homela.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com)*.*