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ICA LA - 9/11/2018

There were three main exhibits on display during our visit to the new Downtown gallery space:

1. B. Wurtz: This Has No Name This exhibition acted as the first major U.S. museum survey of NY based sculptor, B. Wurtz, who, for over forty years, has developed a visual language based around the mundanity of daily life. Working in assemblage, the work appears poetic and whimsical, selecting the banal objects that make up our day-to-day consumerist lives. The recognisable, everyday materials he chooses have been personally handled, touching on his commitment to the ethics of reuse and recycle. The idea of the commonplace also strips back the mystery of artistic production, which in turn establishes a sense of intimacy between artist and viewer. 

What I found most inspiring about the work here was the sheer dynamism and variety in the pieces on display. Almost tangible, and highly unique, I found the processes behind the work to be most captivating. From old slides to socks and plastic bags, the idea of reusing everyday materials and turning them into something completely new must alter a lot of viewpoints. In terms of colour schemes, the forms were cohesive yet took the viewer on a journey of very strategic ‘readymades.’ I will be looking to Wurtz for his playfulness with materials, and he has definitely taught me about the value of materials, in that you don't always have to strive to source unique mediums.  

2. Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush I had desperately wanted to check out this exhibition after finding Abney on instagram and feeling nothing but moved by her bold, intricate figurative works. The Chicago-born artist displayed a ten-year journey through her paintings, watercolours and collages. Unapologetically strengthening, the stories told through her work are highly political, inspired by the mainstream media and the complex social dynamics of contemporary urban life. Working with a sense of immediacy, much like a stream of notifications or scrolling headlines, her figures tumble onto the canvas with humour and mockery in a commentary on our reliance on social media and what it portrays.

The vibrancy and layout of these pieces are like nothing I’ve ever seen before; with the stylised, geometric approach, Abney combines text, numbers and blocky backgrounds with her figures who appear to be acting out scenes straight from your instagram explore page, or the latest international news headlines. Abney’s addressing of visual culture resonated with me especially when it comes to using the body as a vehicle for expression, and also in terms of her colour choices. Bold and striking, the large pieces are filled with energy, and I especially loved her collage work, which I will be looking to in my own practice in terms of colour and shape. 

3. Adrian Piper: What It’s Like, What It Is #3 The work, from 1991, is a large scale mixed-media installation which addresses racial stereotypes. Walking into the overwhelmingly white amphitheatre similar to a square coliseum in which entertainment would normally be viewed, you are greeted by rows of seats, a nine-foot-tall column displaying a video piece, and reflective mirrors around the upper edge. The installation’s sleek geometry is familiar to that of a piece of Minimalist sculpture; clean-cut and highly polished. The video piece comes in the form of four screens showing simultaneous views of an African American man, speaking directly to the audience, listing a stream of offensive racial stereotypes: “I’m not dirty, I’m not horny, I’m not selfish, I’m not evil …” Piper’s work has transformed Conceptual art through her investigation into political, social and spiritual takes on the medium, addressing gender, race and xenophobia using tools such as humour and wit, using spiritualist forms such as yoga and philosophy to draw inspiration from. 

This immersive experience was so poignant, mainly due to the directness of the video piece. From whatever angle you were positioned, regardless of if the screen in front of you displayed the back of the subject’s head, you saw a full 360 view of the speaker thanks to the mirror which lined the room. After fitting yourself with shoe liners to protect the space, you too become part of the work, viewing it much like sporting events were viewed by the Romans. The words spoken by the subject were so simple, yet so resonating, and Piper’s work has made me think more seriously about how/where you display work... This piece could easily have been a simple video screen you plug headphones into in a white cube space, however she has chosen deliberately to transform an entire room into a highly stimulating concept where the viewer has no option but to sit and listen.

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Zines

Throughout my time in L.A. I have been fortunate enough to come across an abundance of sources of inspiration, namely, street art, illustrations in museums/galleries/shops... and design/architecture. 

One of the best elements of the places I visit, is checking out local art and getting my hands on some independent publishings which otherwise I would not have contact with - particularly in the form of zines/magazines/books.

The first two, found at The Last Bookstore on Spring Street, are full sized (A4) comics: 1. Roaming Foliage - Patrick Kyle, printed in Toronto @ Koyama Press just in October 2018: Is a fully black and white comic imagining the world through a distorted view of nature’s eyes. I was immediately drawn to Kyle’s style and structure, in terms of the page layouts. The unpolished, playful illustrative style really resonated with me, and so did the flow of the drawings, how the weight distributes in terms of line in order to create a unique texture.  2. A Western World - Michael Deforge, printed in China @ Koyama Press in May 2018 The varying work of Deforge really captivated me - from page-long short stories to much longer, varying in style and characters. His use of colour is stunning; a range of soft yet daring hues are set against a large amount of black really allows for the illustrations to pop and thus will be a strong source of inspiration for my zine work and may allow for a more ‘comic’ or ‘storytelling’ take on my work in the future. The range of layouts (landscape vs portrait, full images taking up full pages, variety in colour vs full block colour + white/black...) Deforge is a cartoonist and designer for Adventure Time which is perhaps what drew me to the visuals in the first place.

The next piece of work I picked up was from a bookstore in Venice, Small World Books on Ocean Front Walk.  1. The LAnd Around Us - Collaborative Zine by Bijou Karmon, Juliette Toma & Vivian Shih, printed in LA @ Tiny Splender in 2016 I was initially drawn to this zine from its cover and overall appearance. A mini square formatted collaborative 5-colour risograph project, illustrating a comical, humorous take on what it means to live in LA. The variety in style as you flick through is wide but works so smoothly in correlation; from photography/collage based work, to illustrations both blocky and fine lines. The quality of the line as a result of the riso print is so raw and unique, and having completed a workshop and learning the technique, I can appreciate the process. Choosing this process also allows the artists to work cohesively with a restricted colour palette which ties the whole work together.

Finally, attending an exhibition at the ICA LA, on East 7th Street, I picked up a further two pieces.  1. Frontier #10: Michael Deforge - ‘Sensitive Property,’ printed in San Fransisco @ Youth in Decline in 2015 Tackling surreal and mundane realities through highly stylised glasses, the political and social themes addressed through this project have been depicted using prose and colourful geometric, simplified imagery. Again, I was particularly drawn to the limited colour scheme, and the matter-of-fact storytelling, and the immersiveness of the drawings.  2. Epoxy 5 - John Pham A continuation of Pham’s EPOXY series, I absolutely adore the format and technique of this book. It includes a smaller Jay and Kay comic and mini Cool Magazine, both attached to the main A4 zine itself. Working with florescent inks, the zines are hand printed by Pham, and thus each piece has slight imperfections due to the heavy amount of ink he uses. Run marks, a fingerprint, and other various marks in the ink; each is unique. The zines within zines format is so inspiring for me, especially when I’m looking into breaking the boundaries of bookmaking. Surreal, dreamy landscape art mingles with goofy cartoony comic fun.

Each of these publications are from small local businesses, which I may have not discovered without attending this trip. They are all inspirational for different reasons, including format/layout, colour/line, and printing technique/general style. 

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additional images

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The Broad - 7/11/18

Highlights 

1. A Journey That Wasn’t 

we all experience effects of time passing - waiting in lines, keeping schedules, and intimately ageing

time itself is a fragile concept 

instruments of measurement - time is quantifiable, but also immaterial and unfixed 

often perceived through emotion, imagination and the distortions of memory

exhibitions considers complex representations of time

nuancing our assumptions about linear time - artists employ variety of devices such as rhythm, repetition, duration, artifice and appropriation 

nostalgia/sentiment about ageing (through depicting specific places in states of decay)

documentation, memorial, symbol 

movement/narrative in singular images (historical styles/events = ruptured, collaged and decontextualised)

A) Bernd and Hilla Becher - Water Towers, 1972

document nondescript industrial buildings (smokestacks, water towers and factories) 

used large-format camera - placed at raised vantage point = developed crisp, chiseled and sculptural detail from distant structures through long exposure times 

subjects show neither human activity nor the beauty of the landscape, despite passively pointing to both

capture a fading world

B) Janine Antoni - Mom and Dad, 1994

exploration of identity - employed personal and everyday materials/experiences to blur the distinctions between performance, sculpture and conceptual art

features three photographs of Antoni’s parents in which they are made up to look like one another 

blending of their appearances - she both studies the relationship of her parents over time, imaging how intimacy changes our identity, and attempts to find herself within the fabricated family portrait 

exploration of gender roles, the parental unit as a merging of perceived personalities into a single entity

2. Permanent Collection 

A) Ellen Gallagher - eXelento, 2004

B) Joseph Beuys - 

C) Jenny Saville - Strategy, 1994

3. Yayoi Kusama - Infinity Mirrored Room - The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, 2013

mirror lined chamber - dazzling and seemingly endless LED light display 

experiential artwork ... limited capacity (one visitor at a time approx 45 seconds) 

trippy, immersive, and never-ending

“I am deeply interested in trying to understand the relationship between people, society and nature, and my work is forged from accumulations of these frictions”

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MOCA - 7/11/18

Highlights: 

1. Mungo Thomson - The American Desert (for Chuck Jones), 2002

An example of appropriation art

digitally manipulated pre-existing footage of The Road-Runner Show

thus arrived at an homage to the American West

erased the characters from the scenes

left only a stereotypical south western desert landscape = deep gorges, stone spires and precipitous mesas 

when the characters’ violent actions are stripped away, what remains is a slow-moving, soothing and sublime image of unspoiled nature 

symbol of American identity (idealised image of the American West)

2. Roy Lichtenstein - Desk Calendar, 1962

3. Manny Farber and Termite Art 

50s/60s, primarily known as a film critic - Hollywood B movies, European avant-garde cinema and ‘termite art’ 

made by artists dead-set on following their own paths, unconcerned with market viability/media popularity

the art of the everyday, invested in the details rather than the big picture 

made by artists driven by specify of their own experiences - not the trends of the day/pursuit of striking truths  

Farber’s wild energetic and colourful compositions break and scatter the things of daily life

results - ravishing, sticky and complicated images of the logic of everyday life

4. Taylor Davis - Flower, Mule, Fig etc, 2017

riot of images animating polygonal cross between drawing, collage, painting

multicoloured, eye crossing grid - complicated by maze of diagonal lines 

imagery from magazines, mail-order catalogues, newspapers and books 

summons the logic of the dictionary, encyclopaedia, library and museum 

suggest the profound difference between all things .. and the gaps/breaks in any system of organisation mark the more fertile terrain of our everyday experience. 

5. Roni Horn - The Selected Gifts, 1974-2015, 2015-16

celebration of the pleasures of life’s details  

self portrait narrated through objects 

comprised of 67 photographs - gifts received over the course of her life appear on a white background 

forming a portrait of the artist as seen through the eyes of others 

testament to the tenderness and insight of gift giving 

when sifting through these objects, she discovered a dialogue with friends/acquaintances built over the course of 41 years

hints at how the genres of still life and portraiture have a long had a secret love affair 

6. Moyra Davey - Empties, 2017

photographs of empty liquor bottles - discreet testament to evenings past, conversations had, music listened to, emails cooked..

friendliness meets loneliness, decadence meets habit, and daytime meets evening

after printing these images, Davey folded and taped them before mailing them to MOCA via the US Postal Service 

thus registering yet another kind of analog time 

sent one to every MOCA employee working on the exhibition ‘One Day at a Time’ - speaks to democratic view of the daily labour that makes the world function

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6th-13th November

A blog to document the week-long contextual research trip including:

1. exhibitions attended 

2. imagery sourced (photography, both Polaroid and with DSLR)

3. contemporary culture ... consumerism, tourism, mundane 

All contributing to the build-up of visuals surrounding the ideas explored in studio practice... the mergence of art, tech and science, ultimately in order to improve healthcare. 

Suburban 60s/70s imagery to highlight thematic research + visuals