We Want a New Object

2008 MFA Exhibition Takes Over Galleries in Los Angeles' Chinatown

Valencia, CA, April 2008--In an unprecedented move, graduating MFA candidates from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) will hold their culminating exhibition, We Want a New Object , in some of the leading art galleries of Los Angeles' Chinatown.

The exhibition runs from Saturday, May 31 to Saturday, June 7, 2008. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, May 31 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Admission is free.

Located on campuses or in off-site exhibition spaces, MFA exhibitions are typically isolated from the professional art world. This year, CalArts' exhibition will be integrated into one of Los Angeles' most vibrant art scenes--with work shown at Acuna-Hansen Gallery, Black Dragon Society, David Salow Gallery, Fifth Floor Gallery, Kontainer , Peres Projects and Telic Arts Exchange. Beta Level and the Mountain Bar will host screenings, performances and additional surprises.

"I do think that the CalArts graduates, in general, have greater latitude of play in their work," said visiting faculty member Benjamin Weissman. "It's the lush intellectual environment, minus the ghoulish pressures that other schools apply. The lovely CalArts vibe is palpable, joyous and necessary; the unprecedented Chinatown hookup is a testament to the school's multi-decade clout." Weissman's writing will appear in the exhibition catalog.

Since 1970, CalArts has educated artists in an environment founded on experimentation, critical reflection and the exploration of new forms and expressions. Each year, graduating MFA candidates from the School of Art organize and present an exhibition of their work, taking the strategic initiative on how they wish to introduce themselves to a wider audience.

For this groundbreaking exhibition, the graduates enlisted the assistance of writer, performer and faculty member Malik Gaines who recently curated Read Me! Text in Art at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, and Christine Y. Kim, Associate Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

The exhibiting artists represent the programs that comprise CalArts School of Art--Art, Photography, and Integrated Media.

MFA candidates participating in the show include: Ian Arenas. Allie Bogle, Michael Buitron, Mike Chang, Louisa Conrad, Mariechen Danz, Diana-Sofia Estrada, Bart Folkerts, Lindsay Foster, Nate Garcia, Liz Glynn, Sayre Gomez, Quinn Gomez-Heitzeberg, Nicholas Grider, Betsy Hunt, Kichul Kim, Sidonie Loiseleux, Justin Long, Suzanne Mejean, Alex Olson, Stephanie Owens, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Nate Page, Daniel Pineda, Nikki Pressley, Chris Revelle, Guan Rong, Alejandro Sanchez, Megan Sant, Astri Swendsrud, Kara Tanaka, Miller Updegraff, Carlin Wing, and Aaron Wrinkle.

Participating galleries are walking distance apart:
Acuna-Hansen Gallery, 427 Bernard Street, Los Angeles, 90012
Black Dragon Society, 961 & 971 Chung King Road, Los Angeles, 90012
David Salow Gallery, 977 N. Hill Street, Los Angeles, 90012
Fifth Floor Gallery, 502 Chung King Court, Los Angeles, 90012
Kontainer, 944 Chung King Road, Los Angeles, 90012
Peres Projects, 969 Chung King Road, Los Angeles, 90012
Telic Arts Exchange, 975 Chung King Road, Los Angeles, 90012
Betalevel, 963 N. Hill Street, Los Angeles, 90012
The Mountain Bar, 475 Gin Ling Way, Los Angeles, 90012

The nation's first art institute to offer BFAs and MFAs in both the visual and performing arts, CalArts is dedicated to training and nurturing the next generation of professional artists, fostering brilliance and innovation within the broadest context possible. Emphasis is placed on new and experimental work, and students are admitted solely on the basis of artistic ability. To encourage innovation and experimentation, CalArts' six schools--Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music and Theater--are all housed under one roof in one unique, five-story building with the equivalent of 11 acres of square footage in Valencia, California, 30 minutes north of downtown Los Angeles.

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Social Spaces, Part II

Social Spaces

Before I get to the feeback and critiques, I'm posting part two of the installation shots. This is the view when you walked in the door. The first post shows the unseen walls to the right--what Asher referred to as the interruptions in the wall plane--where I hung the pinhole photographs.

Detail, Social Spaces

In my reviews and crit classes, the central structure was referred to as the "sex hut." While I was installing in the middle of the night, the roving security guard thought it was an outhouse. The structure was made of luan and 1x2s, stained black on the outside and red on the inside. The roof is made of corrugated polycarbonate. There's a handle on the outside of the door, and a latch on the inside for privacy. There's also a small bench on the inside.

Social Spaces, Detail

The surrounding structure was modeled after a French parterre garden. The four plants in the corners are real, and the underlayment is crushed cocoa shells, sold as mulch for gardens. Most people noticed the chocolate-like smell, but were unable to identify it specifically. There was also a smell to the clipped hedges, which were strawflower; to me, they smelled a bit of curry.

Social Spaces, Detail

I went to Elysian Park, and using latex gloves, I gathered up two trash bags full of litter off the ground, taking about 1/10th of one percent of the trash there. Once back at A402 I separated the detritus by type, and tried to arrange it symetrically, in keeping with the French garden style.

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In Praise of A402

Over the door for A402 is a red circle with the room number, which is the visual designation of the campus spaces used as art galleries. Below this is the palimpsest of the original numbering system.

When I sent out announcements for my thesis show, there were several people who wrote back and spoke fondly of the space--either their own show or others that they had seen there. During Valentine's week in the mid 80's, I had a piece in the room as part of an campus-wide erotic art show. Around the corner in the mezzanine gallery (now turned into studio spaces) I saw my first Cathie Opie photograph.

Currently there are seven official art spaces for students to use, each with their own particular advantages and disadvantages. A402 has the advantage of being a contained space (with a lockable door) and even though the lighting is fixed fluorescents, the space is easily the brightest of all the spaces available. Because of the smaller size and suspended ceiling, A402 is acoustically the quietest of all the spaces. The terms intimate and distraction free come to mind.

Floor Plan

In Writings 1973-1983 on Works 1969-1979, Michael Asher wrote:

The gallery measured 27 feet 7 inches by 16 feet 8 inches, with a ceiling height of 9 feet. Two rows of fluorescent light fictures--the gallery's only source of light--extended the entire length of the room. The floor was covered with brown wall-to-wall carpeting. A series of rectangular wall facets--floor to ceiling projections which formed short strips of wall surface or wall planes on a north-south and east-west axis--interrupted the exhibition wall planes, breaking up any continuity that the installation space might have had as a rectangular volume.

Asher seems to imply a hierarchical preference for a purely rectangular space, and refers to the odd pop-out in the corners as interruptions. Since the time of Asher exhibition, the lighting has been changed to recessed fixtures, and the brown wool carpet is now gray painted concrete. The varnished maple baseboards have also been removed.

Just outside the room by the elevator is an emergency floor plan of the E block and surrounding area, showing the location of the fire extinguishers and stairwells. The floor plan shows A402 located in the E block, and probably should have been given an E designation. When entering A402 and looking down at the threshold, one can see the rubber expansion joint that joins the seismically separate blocks. This joint is covered in carpet in Asher's documentation, and is barely perceptible when viewing the expanded photograph I took below. Taking the elevator down to the 1st level, the room directly below A402 is the entrance to the costume shop. The equivalent door on the first level is appropriately labeled as being part of the E block. One could argue that one enters A402 through the A block, but if nothing else, the other floors show at minimum an inconsistency in the room-naming conventions.

Image from Asher's exhibition, looking north into hallway.

Image taken after de-installation of my show.

Image from Asher's Exhibition
January 8-January 11, 1973, Gallery A402
California Institute of the Arts
Valencia, California

Camera in hallway viewing south into Gallery A402 and installation. Photographs by Alvin Comiter.

Image from my exhibition Social Spaces
March 31-April 4, 2008, A402 Gallery
California Institute of the Arts
Valencia, California

As in painting, one's artistic practice carries the burden of history infused in one's medium.

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Social Spaces, Part I

Entrance wall, A402

Time to do some posting catch-up. Today and tomorrow: some installation shots, with commentary, critiques, and feedback to follow.

Northwest corner of gallery: pinhole images

Mounted on board with the backs painted pink, I was hoping for a slight 'glow' around the images.

Detail: XXX Adult Movies (the old Regent Theater on Main St.)

Alan Sekula liked the off-center images; he was also the only one who pulled the correct term out of his lexicon: the iris fade.

Detail: Pussycat Theater (now a Walgreens)

There were a few people who remembered the old corner of Western and Sunset.

Detail: Le Sex Shoppe #8 (now a strip mall parking lot in Bell Gardens)

Oddly, the location of the old adult book store was now a narrow landscaped strip dedicated to the children of Bell Gardens.

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Mutable Zones, Mutable Activities

At one point in time I was certified as an Expert Witness for the California Court System. My particular brand of expertise was the social dynamics of public sex environments. During one cross-examination I was explaining the different zones in an Orange County park where men could scope out the action without incriminating themselves, express their desires, and do the deed. Depending on the time of day, the zones could change: at night, activity that was limited to the bushes would move out into the open areas because of the lack of non-players and the cover of darkness. The prosecuting attorney couldn't make sense of this. Coming from the perspective of legal theory, places and actions should be well defined and unchanging: cars pass between the dotted lines on the roadway, and folks at Dodger Stadium spectate, play baseball, or sell hot dogs.

In real life, spaces are defined by the activities that take place: the party moves into the kitchen, the Pope's visit transforms stadia into churches, and the public square becomes the site of a demonstration. In recent times, artists have used relational aesthetics to temporarily shift institutional spaces towards other uses and museums attempt to shift their function with DJs, no-host bars, and the odd movie screening.

Christopher Knight notices the ill-fit when Kaprow's non-institutional Happenings get shoehorned into an institutional space. Moving from a conventional wall of paintings through documentation, to events outside their walls, appropriate viewer behavior becomes harder to gage. The visitor (and critic) has a much easier time on the other side of the Geffen, where their job is to stand and look.

LACMA seems to be having a similar problem, with the recently removed Tulips by Jeff Koons. Michael Govan states:

"We have displayed it responsibly. We have put up barriers and we have guards. I'm not sure if people have become more aggressive or if we have become more protective, but it deserves more care than the public so far has given it."

Suzanne Muchnic describes some of the damage:

In one case, a toddler was so entranced by the art that he slid under a protective rope and threw his arms around one of the flowers.

I guess that Govan is used to entranced toddlers showing more care at Dia Beacon. In Los Angeles, our children are raised by wolves.

In defense of the average museum-goer (who enters LACMA after meandering through the touchable gauntlet of Chris Burden's street lights) the only indication that the rules have changed is a line of poles with retractable webbing, like those one walks through before being X-rayed and felt up at the airport. The viewer is still outside, where the old rule was that touching was OK. At some point one could encounter a Feliz Gonzalex-Torres candy spill, with the guards encouraging and the parents hold the toddlers back. Eventually, the push-pull of relational interaction and obnoxious beeping proximity sensors (last paragraph in link) becomes a tedious trope and one refuses to play the game.

It's no wonder painting fares so well: in its presence, we know what to do. For my own practice, moving outside the institutional space allows for a more generous range of action or interaction, and the viewer/participant can make their own rules.

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CalArts 2008 MFA Open Studios

Directions Here

Studio Map Here
(I'm in Broad 5)

Website Here

Press Release Below

*CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS (CALARTS) INVITES THE PUBLIC TO ATTEND
OPEN STUDIOS 2008*

March 2008, Valencia, California
Current MFA students in the School of Art's Art, Photography and the Integrated Media programs at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) are pleased to announce the annual Graduate Open Studios Day. For one afternoon, Sunday, April 13 from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m., approximately 60 graduate students will open their workspaces to the public. Visitors are invited to take an inside look at the diverse projects undertaken at CalArts¯where students test the limits of their mediums and explore definitions of contemporary art making.

The open studios event provides a rare opportunity for visitors to CalArts to preview works in progress and converse with artists in a comfortable and informal setting. Each artist will be present in her or his studio and available to answer questions and discuss their artistic practice.

The MFA program in Art, Photography, and Integrated Media at CalArts have produced an impressive range of influential contemporary artists. Notable CalArts alumni range from graduates from the 1970s such as David Salle, Matt Mullican, Jack Goldstein, Lari Pittman, Eric Fischl and Mike Kelley to Liz Larner, Cathie Opie, and Stephen Prina in the 1980s, and more recent alumni Mark Bradford, Ruben Ortiz-Torres, Sam Durant, Andrea Bowers, and Rodney
McMillian.

Directions: the CalArts campus is only thirty minutes north of Downtown or L.A.'s Westside by freeway, adjacent to Interstate 5 at the McBean Parkway exit in Valencia. A campus map showing the open studios is available online and will also be available in the main lobby upon arrival.

The nation's first art institute to offer BFAs and MFAs in both the visual and performing arts, CalArts is dedicated to training and nurturing the next generation of professional artists, fostering innovation within the broadest context possible. Emphasis is placed on new and experimental work and students are admitted solely on the basis of artistic ability. To encourage experimentation, CalArts' six schools¯Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music and Theater¯are all housed under one roof in a five-story building with the equivalent of 11 acres of square footage in Valencia, California, just 30 minutes north of downtown Los Angeles.

CalArts site:
http://www.calarts.edu/news/18-mar-2008/calartsinvitespublicattendopenstudios2008

Cityzine:
http://www.la.cityzine.com/2008/04/09/upcoming-exhibition-calarts-mfa-open-studios/

abLA:
http://art.blogging.la/archives/2008/03/calarts_open_st.phtml

Digital Consciousness:
http://digitalconsciousness.net/directory/artcalendar.php

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The Fall of the Roman Empire

Different theories have been put forth to explain the decline of the Holy Roman Empire. Edward Gibbons in his famous book blamed it on the loss of civic virtue: with the advent of Christianity, the polis of Rome took less interest in the here and now, instead preparing themselves for the eternal hereafter. Others point to technological advancements (like the horseshoe and compass) of the invading Germanic hoards.

The egg roll in the picture above might point specifically to the Ostrogoths, or "Eastern" Goths. Then again, the Moorish armies were known to eat Medjool dates stuffed with cheese, so the cheese might offer a clue that the invasion was from the south.
Other historians proposed that is was a moral decay that brought about Rome's eventual demise. This is a likely scenario, as one need look no further than the detritus of used condoms for evidence of their Libertine lifestyle.

One last detail is worth pointing out. Sometime between Thursday's opening reception, and my return to photograph the installation on Friday, someone gave a good hard kick to the wood frame, moving the cocoa mulch and exposing the plastic sheeting below. This evidence shifts the accusatory finger to the Vandals.

All kidding aside, I'm in a bit of a quandary. I give my fellow CalArtians the benefit of the doubt that they would understand that dumping food on a work of art (like a painting) would be considered an act of vandalism. That would leave only two possible explanations:

Either the materials of my art are so far outside the norms of conventional art practice that my installation seemed like an OK place to throw one's trash, or the work created such a visceral response that the viewer was compelled to react by defacing the work.

What do you think?

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