text section - Evil Twin Publications

THE SUNDOWN SALON
UNFOLDING ARCHIVE
A PROJECT BY FRITZ HAEG
ESSAYS
PUBLISHER’S FOREWORD
BY STACY WAKEFIELD
p.6
WELCOME
BY FRITZ HAEG
p.7
LIGHT & SPACE
BY MALIK GAINES
p.11
AMERICAN HOMEBODY
BY LISA ANNE AUERBACH
p.13
CASTLES IN THE AIR
BY MATIAS VIEGENER
p.16
TRANNIES, GRASS & LITERATURE
BY TRINIE DALTON
p.19
INFORMED INVENTION,
FORMED INFORMALLY
BY KIMBERLI MEYER
p.21
HOME WORK
BY ROBBY HERBST
p.23
THE SUNDOWN SALON
UNFOLDING ARCHIVE
A PROJECT BY FRITZ HAEG
ESSAYS
PUBLISHER’S FOREWORD
BY STACY WAKEFIELD
p.6
WELCOME
BY FRITZ HAEG
p.7
LIGHT & SPACE
BY MALIK GAINES
p.11
AMERICAN HOMEBODY
BY LISA ANNE AUERBACH
p.13
CASTLES IN THE AIR
BY MATIAS VIEGENER
p.16
TRANNIES, GRASS & LITERATURE
BY TRINIE DALTON
p.19
INFORMED INVENTION,
FORMED INFORMALLY
BY KIMBERLI MEYER
p.21
HOME WORK
BY ROBBY HERBST
p.23
#
DATE
THE SALONS
TEXT
PHOTOS
#01
04.01.01
SALON INAUGURAL
p.26
p.1
#02
05.06.01
FILMS BY CHRIS PETERS
-
-
#03
07.01.01
NOMADS & RESIDENTS
-
-
#04
10.26.02
MY BARBARIAN’S NIGHTMARATHON HEXTRAVAGANZA
p.30
p.2
#05
03.07.03
THE HOLE PREMIERE
-
p.7
#06
04.13.03
INSTANT INSTALLATIONS
p.34
p.9
#07
05.18.03
LIGHTS>MUSIC>MAGIC
p.39
p.24
#08
07.27.03
HOT RODS ’N’ HOT PANTS
p.41
p.26
#09
10.22.03
SUNDOWN @ THE SCHINDLER HOUSE
p.46
p.32
#10
02.01.04
BOYS! A VERY GAY SALON
p.58
p.47
#11
02.22.04
KNITKNIT
p.67
p.52
#12
04.04.04
L.A. MASTERMINDING
p.74
p.66
#13
06.06.04
RADICAL GARDENING
p.77
p.68
#14
09.15–12.12.04
SHOWDOWN!
p.86
p.74
#15
11.20.04
SPECIAL DELIVERY
p.99
-
#16
11.28.04
GIANT MARGARITAS, DOG TACOS & VIDEO CONVENTION
p.102
p.91
#17
01.08.05
SYDNEY BOTANIC MIXER (Cancelled)
-
-
#18
02.20.05
K48 IS AN ANIMAL
p.107
p.94
#19
04.24.05
BAROQUE GEODE
p.111
p.102
#20
07.10.05
SALON SALON
p.119
p.115
#21
10.23.05
L.A. LITERARY
p.127
p.127
#22
10.30.05
JANFAMILY: PLANS FOR OTHER DAYS
p.138
p.132
#23
12.04.05
LTTR: DO YOU WISH TO DIRECT ME?
p.145
p.141
#24
01.29.06
SCANDINAVIANGELENOS
p.149
p.146
#25
02.05.06
SUPERM SALON FOR BOYS
p.157
p.155
#26
05.20–06.02.06
SUNDOWN BOOK SALON
p.161
p.155
#27
05.21.06
WHERE:
p.163
p.156
#28
06.18.06
THE YOUNG ONES
p.168
p.171
#29
07.09.06
DANCING CONVENTION
p.172
p.179
#30
09.10–11.11.06
HUMANS WERE HERE! BUILDING IN L.A.
p.178
p.187
CHRIS ABANI
#21
LIDA ABDULLAH
BICYCLE
KITCHEN
#24
#08
AJ BLANFORD
AMY ADLER
#19
#10 #27
BLINKER
#08
YORK CHANG
#08
NORWOOD CHEEK
#04
CHE’LA DEMUIR
#08
EVE FOWLER
ERIC HEIMAN
#12
#08 #10 #18 #20 #23
#26
COLIN DICKEY
WILL FOWLER
MARC
HERBST
DELIRIOUS L.A.
#21
DIOSCURI
#14
#08
#08
OTTO KARVONEN
ROBBY
HERBST
DAWN KASPER
#12 #13 #24
#06 #09
MARCUS HERSE
VANESSA KAUFMAN
RAE SHAO-LAN
BLUM
#23
#14
ERICA CHO
#29
#08
#08
BODYCITY
SUSAN CHOI
LECIA
DOLE RECIO
MALIK
GAINES
MARK ALLEN
#29
#08
BON & GING
PHYLLIS
CHRISTOPHER
#24
ANDY
ALEXANDER
#01 #07 #12
ANDREW ANDREW
#14
LISA ANNE
AUERBACH
#11
SETH AUGUSTINE
#27
AUTHOR AND
PUNISHER
#27
ASSUME VIVID
ASTRO FOCUS
#18
FRANKO B
#25
VIVIAN BABUTS
#23
KATIE BACHLER
#29
MÉLANIE BADALATO
#27
FELICIA BALLOS
#29
MATH BASS
#23
EDEN BATKI
#23
MICHAEL GERALD
BAUER
#06
MADELINE BAUGH
#14 #20
BOOK OF
GIANT PETS
#01
BORDERMATES
#16
LAMIA BENSOUDA
#15
CHARLES BERONIO
#15
DAKOTA BERTRAND
EWAN BRANDA
#24
KATIE BRENNAN
#20
BROKEN ARM
#08
INGRID
BROMBERG
#14
GINGER BROOKS
TAKAHASHI
#23
REBA BROOKS
#29
DAVID BURNS
#20
JEFF BURTON
#10
CACOPHONOUS
SARCOPHOGOUS
#13
JOYCE
CAMPBELL
#18 #24
#27
KRIS CANNING
#14
#11
#11
DRAWING CLUB
PAIGE CLARK
#27
RICHARD
GLATZER
#16
COLLECTIVE
STATIC
LALA ENDARA
#11
ZAK COOK
#14 #18 #19
LYNN CHAN
#08
HIGH DESERT
TEST SITES
#12
HJÄRTA SMÄRTA
#24
#30
ZEREK KEMPF
JEN HOFER
#27
#11
BLAIN KENNEDY
KATE HOFFMAN
#14
#01 #07 #30
#27
BRIAN KENNY
VINCE GOLVEO
SEAN HOFFMAN
#25
#08
#07
CHOSIL JAN KIL
RITA GONZALES
EVAN HOLLOWAY
#22
#13
MARIANNE KIM
ADAM GOLDMAN
#03
JADE GORDON
HOT BOY CIRCUS
#04 #14
#25
HOT N’ HEAVY
#08
LAURA COOPER
#28
ESCHER
GUNEWARDENA
GRAFT
SUSANNA HOWE
#09
#09
COOP
HIMMELB(L)AU
MORIAH EVANS
JO ANNA GRANOVETTER
BETTINA HUBBY
#14
#27
CLARE CRESPO
SU EVERS
#28
#20
MATT GREENE
SCOTT HUG
#11
#08
#08
SAROLTA CUMP
KIRSTEN
EVERBERG
KATIE
GRINNAN
#08
KRYSTEN
CUNNINGHAM
#06
SARA DALEIDEN
#14
#06
#15
KELLY & DAVID
#08
#11
#14 #30
#20
CASSANDRA KEGLER
NGUYEN TAN HOANG
SARA GRADY
#13
#18
ADAM HUNDT
#09
ASHLEY HUNT
#29
SOO KIM
#28
DRED KING
#08
BYUNG-OK KOH
#08
TERENCE KOH
#18
ALICE KÖNITZ
#09 #19
JENNIFER
KRASINSKI
THE EXTRAORDINAIRES
JULIAN GROSS
#08
#09
#01
YOKO IIDA
#24
SABRINA
GSCHWANDTNER
CHRISTOPHER
KREILING
INDEX MAGAZINE
#20
#20
DAMIAN KULASH
EDIE FAKE
#23
#19
TRINIE
DALTON
FALLEN FRUIT
D’ARGENTO
FERAL
CHILDE
ASDIS SIF
GUNNARSDOTTIR
#06 #24
#27
RACHEL
KUSHNER
ERIKA FIGEL
KAREN HALLOCK
JANFAMILY
L.A. EYEWORKS
#08 #09 #18 #21
#09
MAYUMI DATE
DEADLEE
#10
DEANNA ERDMANN
#07
DANIELLE KAYS
#27
MORIAH
CARLSON
CLINT CATALYST
#08
#10
#24
#06
#13
#15
#12
KEN EHRLICH
LIZ COLLINS
VALERIE DAVIS
C-LEVEL
#27
#19
#30
#11 #14 #20
JULIA DZWONKOSKI
#29
MEGAN CAREY
KRYSTAL CHANG
#30
JIM DRAIN
#20
#08
#08
#08
CHURCH OF CRAFT
#07
KELLY BESSER
BARBARA BESTOR
GIZMO
#28
ALAN CALPE
#22
#27
#27
TIM DURFEE
PATTERSON
BECKWITH
NINA JAN BEIER
EVELYN DONNELLY
#09
JEFF CAIN
#01 #07 #30
TIBORA BEA
GIRCZYC-BLUM
KELLY COATS
JUSTIN BEAL
BEDROOM WALLS
CIRILO DOMINE
#29
#28
#04
#04 #10 #14 #25
SISSY BOYD
#29
#09
#08
YOUNG CHUNG
FUGUE
#08 #10
#08
#23
#12 #13 #24
HARRY DODGE
#19 #29
#18
STANYA KAHN
LAUREL FRANK
LAYLA CHILDS
ZANDRA AHL
K48
#08
JULIE DEAMER
#24
#11 #14 #20
#15
KIM FISHER
#04
FLOR Y CANTO
#12
#12
CARLO FLORES
DEARRAINDROP
ROBERT FONTENOT
#11
SASHA DELA
#15
SEAN DELEAR
#08
ROY DELGADO
#15
#30
#11
CHRISTINA
FORRER
#09
KATE FOWLE
#15
#11
#04
EMILIE HALPERN
#29
THE INSTITUTE
FOR ADVANCED
ARCHITECTURE
#12
JOCELYN JACOBS
#22
JANET PANTS
DANS THEATER
TANIA HAMMIDI
#08
#23
JOURNAL OF
AESTHETICS
& PROTEST
PENNY HARDY
#14
DANTE HARPER
#27
JULES HARTZELL
#13
SKYLAR
HASKARD
#06
#20
I.H. KUNIYUKI
#08
#21
#14
L.A. FORUM FOR
ARCHITECTURE
& URBAN DESIGN
#12 #28
ALIX
LAMBERT
#12 #24
#20 #29
GABRIELA
JAUREGUI
LIZ LARNER
#21
KATRIN JURATI
#28
#14
PAULINA LASA
#16
LAUREN LAVITT
#06
JESSICA LAWLESS
DEREK MARTIN
#23
#04
VIET LE
KELLY MARIE
MARTIN
#08
JBIRD LEARY
#29
CHRISTOPHER LEE
#08
JOSH LEE
#25
MATTY LEE
#25
#24 #30
IMRAN MASOOD
#04
MATERIALS &
APPLICATIONS
#12
MATRUSHKA
CONSTRUCTION
JOSEPH DEL PESCO
#24
#15
#27
MILENA
MUZQUIZ
CHRIS PETERS
FIONA RYAN
SASHA PETRENKO
MY
BARBARIAN
#26
DEAN
SAMESHIMA
TAALMAN KOCH
ARCHITECTURE
#08 #10
#30
OSCAR MIGUEL
SANTOS
NICK TAGGART
#06
JASON TAYLOR
#04 #14 #29
EILEEN MYLES
#21
#30
ALEX MAY
KELSEY NICHOLSON
#27
MARTINIANO
LOPEZ-CROZET
#09
RUBEN LORCH-MILLER
#08
LOS SUPER
ELEGANTES
#09
DAVID LOVERING
#07
LTTR
#23
KITTY LU
#06
CLAUDIA ROSA LUKAS
#20
#26
SABINA MCGREW
REBECCA
NIEDERLANDER
#08
DANIELLA MEEKER
#04
BENN MENDOZA
#25
ALTHEA MERBACK
#11
TONY MEREDITH
#08
KIMBERLI
MEYER
#09 #12 #14
#22
SHANA LUTKER
#06
MARINA MACDOUGALL
#08 #09 #10 #14
#26
MAX MILLER
MACHINE PROJECT
#08
#12
MICHAEL MAGNAN
#18
MICHAEL
MAHALCHICK
#14
MAK CENTER
FOR ART &
ARCHITECTURE
#09 #12 #14
KATHLEEN MALONEY
#15
ELENA MANFERDINI
#14
DANIEL MARLOS
#11
ASHLAND MINES
#14
#11
SANDEEP
MUKHERJEE
TINA MARRIN
RYAN MULRONEY
BRIDGET MARRIN
#11 #14
#08
#15
#29
#03
GUY OBRECHT
DINA PUGH
#27
#15
TOTALLY RADD
#08 #09 #10 #18 #19
#18
OK GO
LAURA PURDY
LAKE SHARP
EMMA TRAMPOSCH
#20
YOSHUA OKON
#09 #18
#28
TED PURVES
#26
IANA QUESNELL
PIPER OLF
#27
#09
AWNY RAEL
EUGENE ONG
#20
R A K E T A
#24
JESSICA RATH
CAMILO ONTIVEROS
#14
#27
IRIS ANNA
REGN
CATHERINE OPIE
#08
EAMON ORE-GIRON
#27
RENATO ORNELAS
#16
ANDY OUCHI
#04
OUTPOST FOR
CONTEMPORARY ART
#12
MOLLY OWEN
#20
JODI PAPER
#04
#24
AUBREY WHITE
SARAH WHITE
SLAVA
MOGUTIN
MORGANNE
#08
#27
TAISHA PAGGETT
JENNIFER MOON
NGUYEN HOANG THUY
CHRIS TONELLI
#29
#25
SHED RESEARCH
INSTITUTE
#30
#28
MIRROR PHASE
#27
SISSI
WESTERBERG
#04 #10 #14 #25
#27
ANNA SEW
HOY
#20
MODERN GARAGE
MOVEMENT
#05 #10
NILS TIMM
#13
ALEX SEGADE
#06
OUMI
MOBILE TOY THEATER
#01 #07 #11 #30
JOEL SEARLES
#03
NOMADS &
RESIDENTS_LA
#23
#29
WASH
WESTMORELAND
#12
#19
#03
#29
MELISSA
THORNE
TIMBRE SPACE
JEFF ONO
GILES
MILLER
#09
#11
#24
#08
MARIE JAN LUND
GAE SAVANNAH
ED PORTER
ROBIN POWLESLAND
#14
FLORA
WIEGMANN
DIANA SIERADSKI
JOSEPHINE
JAN MICHAU
LARS MIKKELSEN
#29
KYE POTTER
#28
#30
WE ARE LUCID
DREAMING
#15
#11 #14
#22
#18
#29
THE WATTIS
INSTITUTE FOR
CONTEMPORARY
ARTS
ANTONIO A.
PULEO
#28
LUCAS MICHAEL
#14
PONCE DE LEON
#27
#08
#20
#14
NANCY POPP
BRIAN
LICHTENBERG
DAVID MEANIX
RENÉE
PETROPOULOS
NEW ENERGY DARK
CONSORT
OF MUSICKE
#14
#24
ERIN SYLVESTER
#09
MICHELLE MATTHEWS
DEREK LOMAS
#25
#26
#27
BRETT LITTMAN
SUPERM
#02
SHARON LEVY
#20
STEVEN RUBIN
MUUNGANO
#23
#15
PHIILIIP
#18
CORRINA PEIPON
#14
KELLY PENDERGRAST
#27
FRANÇOIS
PERRIN
#30
#15
#04 #11
SHANNON SHELLY
TAM VAN TRAN
CHARLIE WILMOTH
#14
#08
#27
CHLOE SHERMAN
WU INGRID TSANG
MILLIE WILSON
#08
SHIMS
#08
TRISTAN SHONE
#27
ADAM SIDELL
#11
ADAM SILVERMAN
#08
#28
DAVON SLININGER
#08
#27
MICHELE SMITH
PIPILOTTI
RIST
#09
ADRIAN RIVAS
#28
SONYA ROBBINS
#19 #29
ROBBINSCHILDS
SABRINA SMITH
#08
AURISHA SMOLARSKI
#07
NATASCHA
SNELLMAN
#29
LAURA SPLAN
#08
#19 #29
JILL SPECTOR
ALEXIS ROCHAS
#14
#19 #30
MARK A. RODRIGUEZ
#28
DAN SPENCER
EMILY
ROYSDON
#23
JANE TSONG
#28
LD TUTTLE
#20
ROBERT TWOMEY
#27
CHRISTINA ULKE
#24
JOE WINTER
#27
WOODEN
MUSTACHE
#14
MEG WOLFE
#23
#24
BOBBI WOODS
UJEIN
GRANT WORTH
#11 #14
MARCUS RENE VAN
#08
KIMBERLY
VARELLA
#29
MARGO VICTOR
#29
THU HA VU
#08
NICOLAS WAGNER
#20
#29
#18
MICHAEL
WORTHINGTON
#28
ALICE WU
#11 #14 #20
HITOMI YAMADA
#09
MEGAN YELLOTT
#29
AMY YAO
#04 #08 #09 #14
#26
MISS YO
SARAH WAGNER
A.L. STEINER
#18
#24
ANDREW WAGNER
#13
THEO A. ROSENBLUM
#14
VERONICA WIMAN
#26
#23
#24
#23
IRENE TSATSOS
BECKY STARK
TIM ROGEBERG
ROR
#29
MEGAN
WHITMARSH
#29
STEPHEN REMINGTON
#06
PAE WHITE
#19
ELI SUDBRACK
#15
NINA WAISMAN
#27
CALEB WALDORF
#18
#27
LARIN SULLIVAN
ANGIE WALLER
#23
#06
NANCY SULLIVAN
KATE WALL
#23
#27
#08
AUSTIN YOUNG
#20
ROB ZABRECKY
#07
ANDREA ZITTEL
#12
KARLA ZOMBRO
#08
THE SUNDOWN SALON UNFOLDING ARCHIVE
A PROJECT BY FRITZ HAEG
Copyright © Fritz Haeg 2009.
Limited Edition of 500 copies.
Edited & Designed by Fritz Haeg and Stacy Wakefield.
Cover Artwork by Feral Childe, Katie Grinnan, Robby Herbst, Janfamily (Chosil Kil),
Shana Lutker, Melissa Thorne.
Covers silkscreeened by Rachael Hawkwind in Los Angeles.
Books printed and bound in China by Wafai Graphic Arts.
Copy Edited by Svetlana Kitto.
More Information: www.sundownsalon.com
ISBN: 978-0-9763355-1-1
Published by:
Evil Twin Publications
PO Box 2 Livingston Manor, NY 12758
www.eviltwinpublications.com
Distributed by D.A.P.: artbook.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Text Copyright © Chris Abani, Amy Adler, Zandra Ahl, Mark Allen, Lisa Anne Auerbach, Justin Beal,
Nina Jan Beier, Kelly Besser, Krystal Chang, Kelly Coats, Sara Daleiden, Trinie Dalton, Julie Deamer,
Joseph del Pesco, Ken Ehrlich, Frank Escher, Malik Gaines, Adam Goldman, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Ravi
Gunewardena, Fritz Haeg, Skylar Haskard, Marc Herbst, Robby Herbst, Gabriela Jauregui, Konstantin
Kakanias, Chosil Jan Kil, Alan Koch, Jennifer Krasinski, Rachel Kushner, Matty Lee, Marie Jan Lund,
Kimberli Meyer, Josephine Jan Michau, Eileen Myles, François Perrin, Emily Roysdon, Alex Segade, Anna
Sew Hoy, Asdis Sif Gunnarsdottir, Linda Taalman, Melissa Thorne, Matias Viegener, Stacy Wakefield,
Veronica Wiman, Alice Wu.
Photographs Copyright © Fritz Haeg unless otherwise marked. Additional photos and illustrations by
Amy Adler, Mark Allen, Lisa Anne Auerbach, Trix Barmettler, Eden Batki, Justin Beal, Bedroom Walls,
Tibora Girczyc Blum, Bordermates, Jeff Burton, Kelly Coats, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Laura Cooper, Krysten
Cunningham, David Dodge, Lecia Dole Recio, Ken Ehrlich, Courtney Fink, Eve Fowler, Sam Gordon, Sara Grady,
Amy Graves, Karl Haendel, Robby Herbst, Jen Hofer, Susanna Howe, Scott Hug, K48, Peter Kirby, Lauren
Lavitt, Sharon Levy, Janfamily, Jeaneen Lund, Marie Jan Lund, The MAK Center, Kelly Marie Martin, Alan
Marx, Alex May, Giles Miller, Slava Mogutin, My Barbarian, Piper Olf, Eugene Ong, Camilo Ontiveros,
Renato Ornelas, PS, Iana Quesnell, Emily Roysdon, Dean Sameshima, Shannon Shelly, Asdis Sif Gunnarsdottir, A.L. Steiner, Eli Sudbrack, Elizabeth Tobias, Emile Turner, Kazys Varnelis, Nicolas Wagner,
Nina Waisman, Caleb Waldorf, Kate Wall, Ulf Wallin, Michael Wells, Austin Young, Gerald Zugmann.
ESSAYS
PUBLISHER’S FOREWORD
BY STACY WAKEFIELD ••• This book documents a bunch of parties you weren’t at. I wasn’t
there either. Why should we care? I started going through these archives two years ago.
Seeing pictures of people milling around Fritz’s lovely house, looking at art and performances, I first wondered how these events were different from house parties and art
shows we’ve all been to. I started to understand how special these events were as I
read through the texts that now make up this book. The level of discussion and effort
and intention that went into making these very thoughtful salons — which appear so
loose and freeform — captivated me. The organizers didn’t put in the time because they
wanted a good turn-out to pay the performers — No one got paid, and no one paid to get
in. Instead, the organizers endeavored to create a unique moment just to share it and
see what happened.
This document will surely function as a yearbook for the people who were lucky enough
to be there. The openness with which participants have shared stories and photographs
as we put this book together shows what a special place Sundown Salon holds in their
hearts. But much more than that, these materials are significant in the way they open
discussions about community, about the role of entertainment and art in our lives, and
about private versus public venues. For me, the way the prosaic ideas of “fun” and
“friends” appear in these materials is especially thought-provoking. Subjects so significant to our daily lives and well-being deserve serious consideration.
People who showed up at the salons entered something more than a party. It looks to me
like they were expected to drop their guard and participate wholeheartedly in whatever
had been concocted. Some of the salons I wish I had been at, but some of them, I have
to say, I’m just as glad I missed. Many events were clearly successful at engaging participants. Others, reading between the lines, seem to me like they didn’t coalesce. And
that’s why it’s so compelling to go through the photos and writing in order, watching
the project develop over time. Fritz could just tell us what he learned. He could just
show us the best pictures — the ones that make us wish we were there. Instead he lets
us into the experience as a whole. Page by page, this book takes us through the process
he shared with his collaborators, so that we can draw our own conclusions. If you enter
here with the willing-to-particpate open heart of a Sundown Salon-goer, you’ll have the
same experience that I did — its like we were there.
[6]
WELCOME
BY FRITZ HAEG ••• In 2000 I landed in a geodesic
hugging the base of the foothills heading towards
dome on a hill in Los Angeles. This peculiar, par-
Pasadena, with the long jagged backdrop of the San
tially subterranean home was designed by William
Gabriel Mountains dominating the horizon. To the
King for a young pediatrician named Joy Gaertner.
west are Atwater Village, Los Feliz, Silverlake and
She died of cancer just months after it was com-
Hollywood. To the south are Mount Washington, Cy-
pleted in 1984. The realtor who sold me the house
press Park, Chinatown, and downtown. To the east
gave me a newspaper clipping showing her holding
are Highland Park, Garvanza, South Pasadena, and
an abandoned three hour old baby boy she nursed
the infinite flat expanse of the Inland Empire ex-
back to health at the General Hospital Children’s
tending out to San Bernardino over 60 miles away.
Ward. I think of her often and wonder
When I moved in, the land around
what she had in mind for this place,
the house was overgrown with weedy
what sort of life she expected to lead
shrubs and virtually inaccessible. I
in this unusual home.
spent my first year mostly outside,
Three levels of open spaces are
strategically clearing the vegetation,
connected by a circular stair. You
creating terraces out of the slope, by
enter from the street into “the cave,”
hand, with a shovel, digging up the
a poured concrete curvy space carved
native decomposed granite rock and
into the hill and illuminated by sky-
covering the roof and garden with it,
lights. Going up a few steps you land
planting
on
From
trees and vegetables and making a big
there a few more rotations up the
fish pond. The gardens, like the house,
stairs leads you into the small gath-
are a precarious balance of careful
a
stage-like
upper
level.
ering space of the kitchen, an angular
native
wildflowers,
fruit
design and casual chaos. I began my
woody perch with a long table facing the mountains.
occupation of the house with an architects’ pre-
One last spiral up the stairs deposits you into
ciousness for surfaces and desire for permanent
the middle of a 24-foot diameter geodesic dome, a
order. As I loosened my grip, the house and I
bright blue hemisphere. A triangular window faces
mellowed, becoming open to more wildness in the
the garden to the south, and the city below is
yard and unfinished, lived-in roughness inside.
framed by a large hexagonal window from which you
My house shares Sundown Drive with seven other
could imagine a Bond villain plotting world domi-
homes. It is a narrow dead-end street which each
nation.
new house has extended further into the hillside
The house faces north, overlooking the 2 Free-
meadow where it terminates. There are no sidewalks,
way as it snakes through Glassell Park towards Eagle
and barely enough room for two cars to pass. Shar-
Rock, then meets the 134 Freeway, which can be seen
ing a street this small could be an intimate so-
[7]
cial situation, but it isn’t. On the rare occa-
home on Sundown Drive, which delivered me into the
sions that I see my neighbors, we are moving in
new world of 21st-century isolation: work at home,
opposite directions separated by the two car shells
communicate by computer, travel by car... I knew
between us. It is a “diverse” street, featuring a
that if I didn’t create a structure for seeing peo-
variety of ethnicities and familial arrangements.
ple in a stimulating, meaningful way, I might lose
I suppose we have little in common, apart from ge-
touch completely. This eccentric house also seemed
ography, sharing this quiet cul-de-sac of Los An-
to be built for crowds and gatherings.
geles. Each home turns inward, creating it’s own
world away from the city and street.
In early spring 2001 I sent out an email, an
open call to everyone I knew at the time, describing the home and announcing the beginning of Sun-
I had three friends in Los Ange-
down Salons on periodic Sundays
les when I arrived from New York
as “a gathering place for the
City in 1999: Melissa Thorne and
free exchange of ideas and art
Katie Grinnan, artists with whom
through
I had gone to school, and Andrea
gatherings, meetings, pageantry,
Zittel, whom I had met when we
performances, shows, stunts, and
both lived in New York. Melissa
spectacles”
events,
and
happenings,
welcoming
any
was a recent MFA grad and through
proposals or ideas. The inaugu-
her I met the CalArts crowd in-
ral Sundown Salon was on April
cluding Mark Allen (Machine Proj-
4th, 2001. More than 100 people
ect),
Malik
Gaines
and
Alex
Segade (My Barbarian), Marc and
The view of the San Gabriel Mountains from
the Sundown dome. [FH]
Robby Herbst (Journal of Aesthet-
gathered in the cave just before
sunset to see my friend Melissa’s
band, Book of Giant Pets, perform
ics and Protest), Kimberly Varella (Department of
their gentle “romanticore” songs, illuminated by 20
Graphic Sciences), and many others. I was quickly
programmed, spinning hemisphere disco barnacles at-
indoctrinated into their world of self-organized
tached to the walls by Mark Allen.
culture — living room wrestling parties, curated
Over time the salons grew increasingly elabo-
closet exhibitions, etc. It was my first taste of
rate. Some were intimate gatherings, while others
what might be uniquely possible at home in Los An-
drew hundreds. With each event, the salon network
geles.
grew exponentially. The idea of community started
In New York I saw friends everywhere — on the
with geographic proximity on the east side of town,
street, in the stores, on my bike — even when I
and gradually expanded to encompass friends of
didn’t want to. Social plans could be loose adven-
friends with a similar spirit of homemade culture
tures that involved being swept away by whatever
from New York (LTTR), Mexico (Bordermates), and
events emerged or people were encountered. It be-
London (Janfamily). Each salon was catalyzed by a
came apparent that in L.A. human contact needed to
friend with an idea, an inspiration: knitting,
be choreographed. This became especially clear at
boys,
[8]
dance,
deliveries,
gardening,
haircuts,
children, magic, trannies, animals, fashion, po-
place of commerce. A line has been drawn between
litical ennui, and it grew from there. Who else
banal daily existence and the transcendent realm of
was thinking about this? The “project” of the salon
Art. The church that provides a sacred, spiritual
began with the preparation for the event, meetings
place for communion with a higher power has the
over potluck dinners, and climaxed as a gathering
same message: Religiosity happens here, and a sim-
of people for a moment of focused thought, activ-
ilar level of communion is precluded from occurring
ity, experimenting and sharing.
elsewhere. Part of the message of the salon and
The gatherings took place in a private home, but
other forms of homemade culture is that meaningful
anyone who found out about them could show up. In
Art can happen anywhere, even at the very core of
fact, I often did not know more than half of the
your daily life, at home with friends.
people who came, or how they had sniffed us out.
In a capitalist society our private property —
Because it was in a house, there was
and our home in particular — is one
an immediate intimacy and familiar-
of the few places we exert immediate
ity among friends and strangers. The
control. The way we administer our
house
small private realm can be a public
is
made
of
many
welcoming
places to gather — complex, diverse
declaration of what we believe in and
and assertive spaces that played a
what direction we would like to see
central role in how people inter-
things go. We want to connect; it is
acted with each other and the work
our most basic human need. Every step
that was presented. And even if a
forward in our increasingly homoge-
performance was boring or an event bombed, the
nized, processed and “connected” culture further
unique, intimate spaces of the house made every-
isolates us physically and numbs us mentally. In a
thing seem worthwhile as we shared a moment to-
world of engineered foods where every apple in the
gether, huddled on the floor of the cave or facing
market looks the same, we also long for the unique,
each other in a circle in the dome.
the eccentric, the handmade, the local, the unex-
Art schools, museums, studios and galleries are
More than anything, these moments together at home
pected, the not-quite-ready, the unformed thought.
still plagued by an assumption of solitude. Work is
on Sundown Drive gave us a taste of potential al-
often made alone in one white box to then be expe-
ternatives and unexplored possibilities.
rienced alone in another white box. Of course there
Reconsidering the role of the home in our so-
should always be a central place in our society
ciety has become a central theme in my work since
for both work and experiences of this sort, but
beginning the Sundown Salons. How do we make more
perhaps we need some balance, with equally serious
effective use of the rooms, landscapes, neighbor-
attention to the more collective, engaged and so-
hoods and cities that we have inherited? How can we
cial possibilities. Often it is assumed that to
make them more welcoming to the complex interde-
have an experience with art, one must leave daily
pendent lives of the plants, animals and people
life to enter into the enlightened institution or
that share them?
[9]
From the rather insular gatherings at my home
the goings-on here. Images and stories by hundreds
among friends, these ideas expanded in 2005 when
of people have been included in hopes that the com-
I started working with families in cities across
bination of these diverse and at times conflicting
the country to replace their front lawns with ed-
points of view will approximate some sense of being
ible landscapes. This ongoing series of Edible Es-
there. Ultimately, I hope this serves as a snap-
tate Regional Prototype Gardens extends the idea
shot, a record of a moment in time, of a loose net-
of the salons by repurposing part of the private
work of artists, dancers, designers, performers,
home for public function. By deploying the old
musicians, and writers at home on the east side Los
fashioned kitchen garden as a contemporary form of
Angeles in the process of figuring out their work,
gentle anarchy and poetic provocation, a previ-
creating their own culture, and sharing it with
ously unwelcoming, wasteful, and polluting space
those around them.
is transformed into a productive and social space
to be equally enjoyed by the owners and their
There are a few individuals who played pivotal
neighbors.
roles in the making of this book. At different
The social and cultural agenda of these gardens
times, Matthew Au, Katie Bachler, Krystal Chang,
is similar to the series of gatherings at my home,
Svetlana Kitto, Fiona Ryan and Sarah Skaggs have
in which the antiquated form of the salon is re-
worked on this project. They researched, collected
considered for a new generation. What does it have
materials, and assisted with editing. I must also
to offer us in an age of Blackberries and Star-
thank the people at Macdowell Colony where I did
bucks? I like the idea that anyone with a living
much of the heavy editing and early organization
room can try this for themselves. You don’t have to
of this book during an idyllic late summer resi-
live in a dome and this book is not a how-to guide,
dency. And finally, Stacy Wakefield of Evil Twin
but hopefully it may serve as inspiration for some
Publications ultimately made this book possible,
of you to open up your homes, you never know what
stepping in as an enthusiastic supporter of the
that will lead to.
project and taking on the simultaneous roles of
publisher, editor and designer.
This book is meant to serve as an archival record
Even though everyone involved with the salons
of the 30 Sundown Salon events from 2001 to 2006.
is acknowledged throughout this book, I would like
These events featured original work by many artists
to list a few who have had a regular presence and
who are sure to go on to significant careers. These
constituted the foundation of the loose network
moments together were fleeting, so it seemed im-
represented in the salons. Amy Adler, Mark Allen,
portant to create a thoughtful permanent record.
Anna Sew Hoy, Eve Fowler, Malik Gaines, Katie Grin-
While putting this together over the past few
nan, Marc Herbst, Robby Herbst, Gabriela Jauregui,
years, I have gone through all of the emails, let-
Kimberli Meyer, Giles Miller, Alex Segade, Melissa
ters, texts, project descriptions, announcements,
Thorne and Yoshua Okon are friends who participated
invitations, and detritus from each event to select
and visited frequently, doing work that I admire
the materials that might provide some insight into
in our little corner of Los Angeles.
[10]
LIGHT & SPACE
BY MALIK GAINES •••• For a dusty colonial pueblo
come that one monstrously brilliant master whom
with no past and no center, Los Angeles is pretty
they worship and despise. In L.A., a lot of this
cool. Rad, even. Barring a tremendous infrastruc-
making-it mania is relegated to Hollywood, which
tural collapse, the city is poised to become an
is basically trashy. The most celebrated artist,
international capital of the 21st century, finally
dancer or playwright is a nobody next to Tom
emerging as a cultural alternative to New York,
Cruise or Halle Berry. Even schmuck TV actors get
resting promisingly on the edge of the Pacific
better service. It used to be that personal earth-
Rim, sitting on historically Latin-American ter-
quake procedure included seeking the safety of a
ritory, home of the world’s most famous industry,
doorframe when the tremors began, but now the ex-
home to millions upon millions—from
immortal A-listers to the poorest of
the poor—and in old hilly neighborhoods, coyotes still run around at
night, staring coolly into your headlights before darting off into the
shadows behind the trees and garbage
cans. All of this energy is palpable
and, in comparison to other firstworld
megalopolises,
affordable.
As
MALIK GAINES’ theater work
has included a 2003 commission
for the Mark Taper Forum. Malik
also works as an editor and
teacher and was the recipient of a
2003 Penny McCall Foundation
Award for his writing and curatorial work. Malik sings, plays keyboards and other instruments and
serves as musical director of, and
dramaturge for, My Barbarian.
a
perts counsel that one should instead
find a potential air pocket by lying
beside a sofa or beneath a sturdy
table. In L.A., Hollywood’s enormous
structure provides a similar pocket of
air where artists can breathe deep
under the rubble.
For the endless stream of young
and young-ish artists who pour out of
result,
the area’s art schools and migrate to town from
artists from everywhere have flocked here in the
elsewhere, as well as those who are native Ange-
past decade, seeking what the brand-new film in-
lenos, this freedom engenders a playful sense of
dustry sought a hundred years ago: space and light.
possibility, one in which institutional entrench-
Though comparisons to New York can be tedious,
ments and Eurocentric avant-garde histories are
there are particular differences that highlight
but other important influences to be synthesized,
L.A.’s appeal as a supportive context for funk,
along with popular culture, personal relation-
quirk and kook. In New York, art is ART, dance is
ships, regional aesthetics and the real-life na-
DANCE, theater is THE THEATER, and so on. These
ture that still dwells in so many spectacular
are disciplines with history, huge institutional
forms within the incomparable California land-
support and entrenchment, as well as impenetrable
scape. So long as one is able to endure part-time
auras of high-art importance, and teeming with
jobs and hodgepodge institutional support, one can
panic-stricken up-and-comers who hope that if they
put all of this together and make the work one
live sufficiently horrible lives, they might be-
wants, even if that work is an interdisciplinary
[11]
hybrid of elements that is impossible to sell.
Hall, Dreamworks, New York, etc.) there have to be
Like the narrative fantasies that make up the
laboratories for development, experimentation, ac-
movies, L.A. is all a matter of vision. And since
cident, flirtation, gossip, imbibing, etc. At the
movies are so bad these days, an artist might end
dawn of the 21st century, Sundown Salon met this
up feeling pretty good about his or her own per-
need for a nexus of artists on the east side of Los
sonal creativity in comparison.
Angeles. With more ideas than money flowing through
In this context, Los Angeles is a city that
the dome in which the salon was held, the project
creates subcultures. Historic divides, race and
grew over the years from a few friends and neigh-
class lines, real estate trends, freeway infra-
bors hanging out to a vibrant and enduringly posi-
structures and hills covered in dry grasses divide
tive space for low-budget interdisciplinary work
the city into a prism of sections. Some of these
from L.A. and elsewhere. The participants of this
sections harbor congregations of artists: Venice
scene could loosely be defined as the conceptually
Beach, Leimert Park, Chinatown,
trained,
queer-friendly
adult
Topanga Canyon. Each of these
children of the bourgeois left,
locales creates scenes, or tiny
though this characterization is
units of culture, all bound to a
not
particular space and time. Fa-
together with other hybridized
exclusive.
Sundown
Salon,
mous scenes were born in L.A.,
mini-institutions
especially in music (punk, hip-
creates a forum for alternative
of
the
day,
hop, etc.), while some scenes
publications,
remain contentedly insular (I
ments, protest ideologies, de-
imagine a few collegial glass-
sign
blowers in Malibu). These scenes
Palm tree landscape in Los Angeles. [FH]
don’t need to know about one an-
concepts
art-band
and
movegently
counter-cultural identities, all
of which form the fabric of an
other but leakages occur: a spoken-word poet/styl-
invaluable cultural intermediary. All of this is
ist dated a sculptor who knows a choreographer who
essential to the practical problem of making work
does yoga in Pasadena with a guy who makes his own
in L.A., where cosmopolitan reality meets major art
musical instruments out of gourds. But important
institutions that are still somewhat provincial.
to the city’s character, there is no real public
Further, this intermediate space helps develop an-
space for shared interaction in L.A. There are
swers in our West Coast present to the dead-ends of
only private spaces, large institutions and free-
European Modernism and its exhausted commodity
ways. This is why scenes and networks of scenes
structures. Most importantly, all of this happened
are so important.
without an air of importance; pretension and dema-
For scenes to work, temporary hybrid spaces
goguery are anathema to Fritz Haeg’s project. In
have to activate their participants. Somewhere be-
this sense, Sundown Salon has perfectly matched the
tween the backseat of your car and the final des-
broader ethos of our city. That which New Yorkers
tination (the Museum of Contemporary Art, Disney
call flakey, we call casual.
[12]
AMERICAN HOMEBODY
BY LISA ANNE AUERBACH ••• I ’ve heard that it’s ei-
where he grows tomatoes on his front lawn and op-
ther the people with the fewest keys or the most
erates the “Mt. Washington Slavic Bakery” whenever
toys who win in the end, but I totally disagree.
he expects visitors. It’s true for him, because
The ones on top are the ones that get to stay home
the world around him is expressly of his own de-
the most. Which isn’t nearly as difficult as you
sign, and it can be equally true for everyone in
might imagine given that home is where you hang
this ragtag, disjointed, long haul of a metropo-
your hat, and that here in the City of Angels, hat-
lis. At least it should be. Where else would we be
hooks are everywhere. In my world, it’s the social
if not at the center of our own universe?
spheres, food and familiarity that define home
Not everyone figures this out immediately or
more than the physical fact of where sleep hap-
even ever, but it took Fritz a lightning nanosec-
pens. The most successful folk might
have a lot of keys and no toys, but
they do their business from the bathtub, hold meetings in vegetable gardens, party on bicycles while riding
down streets and don’t let geography
stand in the way of defining their
neighborhood or bother with the idea
that blood defines family.
LISA ANNE AUERBACH runs a
publishing and propaganda empire
out of a stuccolow in South Los Angeles. When she’s not on her bike,
she’s knitting inflammatory, slogan-adorned sweaters and banners,
making photographs of overlooked
landmarks, and putting small publications out into the big world. Her
work has been exhibited internationally, most recently in “Nine
Lives” at the Hammer Museum.
When you rock the urban world as
ond to make the conversion from visitor to citizen and then from citizen
to emperor. One day he was new in
town, driving a Volvo and living in a
sleepy pad with a terraced garden in
Silver Lake, having get-togethers and
teaching
school.
And
then
(blink
twice), and shazaam!—Sundown Salon is
born in a geodesic dome on a dead-end
street in the hills and Fritz joins
home sweet home, you become the center around which
the exclusive club of kings able to conduct their
everything revolves. And when everyone becomes a
lives clad always in pajamas.
hub, a nexus and a shining sun, the city shimmers.
Turning his home into a public space by invit-
Daniel Marlos, my friend and frequent collabo-
ing people to mingle and create and converse and
rator, has social stationary letter-pressed with
dine, he became the center of a color-coded uni-
his address, “the center of the universe”. It’s
verse of transformative ideas, a magnetic pull
not because he’s an only child, megalomaniac, nar-
conjuring community from commonalities. Generat-
cissist or self-obsessed; he chose the slogan to
ing connections between the guests, onlookers and
describe his whereabouts because, for all intents
hangers-on has become the core of a multifaceted
and purposes, it’s true. It’s not just his loca-
and generously flexible program. Dialogues at the
tion, perched on a hilltop in the so-called Swish
dome translate into real-life post-salon relation-
Alps section of town just north of downtown proper,
ships, and the Sundown Family Tree’s branches bear
[13]
deliciously rich and drippy fruits, which then go
ily tree out of a disparity of misfits can be
on to sprout new possibilities, host new conjunc-
dizzying and difficult, arduous and forever. Its
tions
For
an obvious cliché to remark that no one is actu-
Fritz, it’s these sorts of interactions and subse-
ally from Los Angeles, though in fact, there are
quent active conversations which allow the ten-
babies born here every day. But when noting the
and
enrich
the
cultural
landscape.
drils of the Salon to go beyond Los Angeles and
provenance of my own peers and community, it’s ap-
into a global network, and this in turn expands
parent that most everyone is from somewhere else.
his own universe and enlarges his collection of
My closest associates hail from Maine and Col-
hat-hooks while still allowing him
orado, Virginia, Ohio, Texas and
the ultimate luxury. He can stay
Canada,
home, travel anywhere he wants and
being from here, they don’t take
still be home.
and,
on
account
of
not
California for granted. Making a
To be an active center is not
decision to relocate was the first
reserved for those who live in ar-
in a series of events culminating
chitectural marvels on the tops of
in the transformation of a seem-
hilltops. You are, and we are, and
ingly
I am the center of the universe, and
into familiar space and turning
that universe is expanding and elas-
strangers into family.
opaque
urban
circumstance
tic and mutating and, at the same
time, cozy and familiar and small
When I first got here, the events
and
that made national news were the
personal.
Touching
down
on
Planet L.A., the city at first seems
ones that helped define my home-
as impenetrable as vitreous porce-
scape. I moved to the city in 1991,
lain (the material of toilets). The
just in time for the riots that
fabled “sprawl” has a veneer of
sameness and a general mediocrity on
Yarn at the KnitKnit Salon. [JEANEEN LUND]
a casual first glance. But it does-
happened
the
following
April.
I
didn’t have a car at first, and
took a city bus to Santa Monica to
n’t take long for paths and furrows to be carved out
work at a job, which didn’t last very long. I had
by daily or occasional journeys and the city begins
no idea how far I was going or in what direction.
to yield to the patterns and paths, taking on a
I just got on a bus that got on a freeway and the
well-worn personality, distinct and individual,
freeways were a mystery. When the riots broke out,
custom fit for every citizen. These paths become
we watched out the window of our downtown loft as
our personal urban universe, routes radiating from
the smoke from nearby fires billowed into the air
the core like sunrays illuminating the landscape.
and saw the same thing on the television. The TV
And then the city becomes yours, and home is
news provided porno for pyros in other parts of the
everywhere. Finding the center of the universe,
country, but for us it was a live feed about the
cozying into a new urban pattern and growing a fam-
neighborhood, keeping us abreast of the conditions
[14]
just a few staircases away. I learned even more
Home grows, and it wasn’t long after this
about the structure of the city when the 10 free-
project celebrating the myth of agoraphobia that
way broke in half, forcing cars on surface streets
the universe I claimed myself in the center of
and letting everyone know that Pico is parallel to
expanded via the two wheels of my bike. To make
the 10 and reaches all the way to the ocean. I went
a long story short, I wanted to see if Los Ange-
to art school and made work about mapping routes
les was possible without a car at a time when the
through the city, but I still went “home” for hol-
U.S. was on the verge of a Mideast conflict and
iday breaks. It wasn’t until I graduated art school
I was involved with a man 23.5 miles across town.
and got stuck in that cross-town traffic jam dur-
Answering the constant questions about the fea-
ing the O. J. Simpson pursuit from the 405 to the
sibility of this experiment prompted me to begin
10 that I really became a committed citizen.
a small publication called Saddlesore. The ulti-
American Homebody, my small, self-published,
mate discovery was that the surface of Los Ange-
badly-distributed publication, was a celebration
les, a city I’d been living in already for a
of staying home, and the project’s surprise ending
decade, became a porous and personal playpen.
was the idea which emerged of a globally active
Routes that had been familiar in a car were even
community of homebodies, trading pie crust recipes
more exciting on a bicycle, as the grey lines on
and getting together for potlucks and conversation
a page of the Thomas Guide were suddenly illumi-
more than occasionally. American Homebody was the
nated by the smells of taco trucks and exhaust
center of the universe, and with the charade of
and the colors of newly harvested roadkill, ro-
having an editorial board and machine behind it,
tating hubcaps and shining rivulets of unraveling
the actual modesty of the project was decimated in
cassette tapes. It didn’t take long before the
the grandeur. It was my way of constructing a com-
city belonged to me, and my home expanded to in-
mand center for my universe, of positioning myself
clude certain routes. The urban expanses, con-
in a center of my own making while having the ul-
quered
timate extravagance of staying home.
familiar paths, while my associations with other
by
pedaling,
diminished
to
quiet
and
cyclists grew and connections and routes estabI met Fritz way back when. He turned up in my ex-
lished themselves. The crazy thing about all this
tended American Homebody family, a third cousin
is that the more my universe expands, the smaller
who had flown in from out of town, curious about
it gets. And with everyone commandeering the helm
the West Coast, considering relocation. He was a
of their own society, everyone a sun in their own
friend immediately because he was a friend of a
galaxy, everyone radiating and participating and
friend. American Homebody was all about making
visiting and crossing over, the resulting tapes-
connections and constructing communities while
try of coincidence and camaraderie becomes the
on the patio pinching suckers from the tomato
touchstone
plants (or debating whether or not that was even
global fabric, as in Sundown Salon’s dual virtual
of
an
urban
home.
Exploring
this
necessary to the health and ultimate productiv-
and physical manifestations, is the new way of
ity of said plants).
staying home.
[15]
CASTLES IN THE AIR
Who am I? I’m a poet. My business? Writing.
a gift with hardly an expectation of return. In an
How do I live? I live. In my happy poverty
art world governed by commodification, this alone
I squander like a prince, my poems and songs
is reason to celebrate it.
of love. In hopes and dreams and castles-inair, I’m a millionaire in spirit.
The idea of breaking from the pure exchange value
— Puccini, La Bohème
of a commodity has been part of Bohemian culture
for nearly two centuries.
In their many variants,
these subcultures almost all reject commerce and
BY MATIAS VIEGENER ••• T here is a lot of symbolism
search out iconoclastic and heady mixtures of sex,
at work in the Sundown Salons, beginning with the
delirium,
setting itself, which is like a body. Most of the
communities, which are based on ethnicity and
traffic moves through the mouth of the kitchen, on
class or tradition and location, they are are
the middle floor, and then trudges up to the
primarily cultural communities, people gathered
politics
and
art.
Unlike
most
geodesic dome perched on top like a giant brain,
around the production of cultural surplus, art,
with a deck outside and eyes to the panoramic view
fashion, hedonism and excess. Unlike traditional
of city, hills and freeway.
Eventually people
communities
they
are
self-chosen
and
often
settle downstairs in the gut of the cave, sprawl
utopian, based on a critique of the societies in
on the floor or on foam pillows. They talk, look,
which they arise. They are deeply marked by their
listen
contexts,
or
perform.
Contingents
often
wander
mostly
reacting
against
prevailing
outside, up and down the hill in the garden, which
politics and culture, and often attracting the
is always neat and messy at the same time. The
attention of the very society they want to reject.
lucky few can be found groping each other, either
Perhaps it means that the relation is not exactly
in the cave or having sex among the vegetables,
oppositional: one traditional function of the
which
of
avant-garde (with which the Bohemians overlapped)
fertility. Sex is good in the vegetables, whose
puts
eroticism
right
in
the
lap
has always been to predict or anticipate the needs
iconic shapes are as symbolic as the geodesic
of the society that surrounds it.
dome. The cucumber, the carrot, the eggplant.
Bohemian
communities
mostly
thrive
in
Vegetables are the right metaphor because they
repressive times and eke out a cheap and often
always give back more than they get. You add water
nomadic life in the unregulated spaces of ghettoes,
and good soil and they give you everything. The
industrial zones, immigrant neighborhoods, red-
basis of the Sundown is in this kind of exchange:
light districts and like the Sundown Salon, in
[16]
people’s homes. The salon has an aristocratic
Sundown Salon is much less like the salons of
history from the late Renaissance to the 19th
history than it is like another nearly evaporated
century,
social formation, Bohemia. Less a place (though
when
a
whole
upstart
of
artists
and
Bohemians outside proper society (and often with
named after a part of Czechoslovakia) than a state
political contempt for the ruling class) begin to
of mind or way of life, Bohemianism first appeared
gain power—not so much economic or political power,
in about 1830 as the Industrial Revolution rolled
but cultural power. The first salons were serious
into high gear. Cities swelled with all kinds of
gatherings of cultured “people of quality” to
people displaced both from the countryside but also
discuss the art and literature of the day, often
from other countries; political ideas fermented
run by women in their homes (salon being the living
with aesthetic ideas, so that Realism and then
room,
Naturalism came to be revolutionary aesthetics.
though
boudoirs).
others
They
were
were
held
in
exclusive
bedrooms
rather
or
than
They reflected the same liberal values that lead to
inclusive, formed either by a narcisstic desire to
the pan-European revolutions of 1848, many of whose
be seen as a person of culture or with cultural
principles had percolated through the Bohemian
capital, or from sincere interest in poetry or art.
world. For men of genius and distinction like
But in their origin, they rise from the will of the
Gautier, Baudelaire and Verlaine, Bohemian Paris
ruling class to retain their social power through
was a golden but transient experience. It was a
fluency and familiarity with contemporary art and
time and place where artists of all types spent
literature.
their lives outside society, choosing the freedom
Art has never been separate from power, but
its currency usually arises from a capacity to
resist
power
and
conventionality
while
still
creating material that the culture values. The
of
penury
convention.
and
squalor
The
new
over
wealth
of
prosperity
the
and
industrial
Revolution drove the creation of all kinds of more
marginal economies, including Bohemia.
salons of the seventeenth and eighteenth century
The Bohemians left their families behind and
often functioned oddly like the medieval guilds
moved to Montmartre or Greenwich Village—they
that began to fade from their great power over
clustered
the
decontrolled space and a crossing of classes and
arts,
especially
craft-based
artistic
in
cities
where
there
was
cheap
production. At their worst, salons were snake
often cultures. Unlike the artist’s guilds that
pits. They thrived on flattery and gossip, which
were the counterpart of the salons since the
along with food, were often their most resonant
Renaissance, Bohemian communities were eclectic
social
and
bonding
force.
Careers
and
aesthetic
fluid.
The
conversations
of
the
Bohemian
tastes were forged through intrigue. The salons
salons were not between art critics or aristocrats
were
they
and artists, but between artists of all genres,
focused on aesthetics over piety; appealing to
eccentrics, misfits, and the demi-monde of sex
the self, the gossip, frivolity and feasting
workers, drug addicts and alcoholics.
paved the way to sin and hereticism.
figures like Rimbaud could come from the middle
distrusted
by
the
Church
because
Radical
classes, which were coming slowly to predominate
[17]
over
art
members
of
production;
this
what
class
in
characterizes
Bohemia
was
the
work that has appeared in the spaceship of the
their
dome was often connected to new technology, video,
tendency to loathe their own class background,
sensors, feedback loops, projections.
generating the impetus for work that challenged
in this sense, but also full of zesty physicality,
and shocked the middle class. There are very
movement and dance. There was an emphasis on
Disembodied
visible Bohemian movements, Paris of the 1800s,
craft,
London of the late 1800s, as well as several
demonstrating a desire to connect art and everyday
twentieth-century periods including post–World War
life.
such
And
as
knitting,
issues
of
the
bookmaking
or
environment,
food,
natural
II, and the Beat and Psychedelic
materials and the earth reflect
movements,
a growing wave of ecological
but
there
are
far
more less visible ones.
thinking which has anticipated
The first salons were for
the swell of environmentalism
the elite, and over time the
now just beginning to arise.
bourgeoisie were offered entry.
Bohemia as an idea and a social
And why do we fall in love with
formation
Bohemians?
evolved
more
or-
They
are
young,
ganically, taking root also in
reckless,
the middle class but offering a
Because they move fast, they are
wilder mixture of classes and
exotic influences. Sundown Salon
is a reworking of this form-
The parking sign that greeted salon visitors to the
dead-end Sundown Drive. [FH]
ation, nomadic, fleeting and magical.
fast
and
bright.
thin and luminous. Because they
are reckless they don’t care
about mistakes, so they make
In this
things fast and make them without regard for
sense,Sundown Salon resembles what philosopher
existing ideas on how to makes things. They will
Hakim Bey calls a Temporary Autonomous Zone, a
never return our love, so we love them all the
momentary space and time in which alternate forms
more.
of thought, action and culture can arise. Fritz
stay and always move on. They are both moth and
Haeg’s geodesic dome is both spaceship and cave,
candle, more beautiful moths moving to bigger
hosting a set of utopian experiments that for a
candles until they finally burn up. They never sit
short passage of time changed the lives of those
still. They will eat with their hands, draw with
who participated in them.
Because they are nomadic, they will never
Buckminster Fuller
their feet and have sex with their friends because
conceived of the geodesic dome in an idealistic
they are not supposed to. They’re not interested
reformulation of a way to live, its geometric
in being nice; they want to be interesting. We
purity, hexagon, septagon, octagon, arguing for a
love them because they touch our deepest fantasies
new form of the idea that anatomy can be destiny.
of both rebellion and belonging, of making art
The constellation of aesthetics and politics that
that is unpredictable but also makes links between
appeared in the Sundown Salons reflects a post-
its making and how we live, or might live, if
millenial shift taking place in the art world. The
everything were possible.
[18]
TRANNIES, GRASS & LITERATURE
BY
TRINIE
DALTON
•••
My
first
impression
of
he
had
enlisted.
Fritz
Haeg
is
a
modern-day
Sundown Salon was formed at the Hot Rods ’n’ Hot
Germaine de Staél in his ability to bring people
Pants event, which led me to believe that the host
together, intuiting who would benefit from meeting
was some sort of sex freak. People were wandering
one another, not to mention keeping food and drink
around in their underwear, wearing leather, star-
flowing. The leader of a salon is, after all, half
shaped sunglasses and wigs. A disco band played in
curator and half host.
the house, and in the garage, artist Anna Sew Hoy
sold silk-screened thong panties. Anna and Giles
T he next salon I participated in, Sundown at the
Miller had curated my husband, Matt Greene, into
Schindler House, had the more formal feel of
the
choreographed performance, for which we had prep
art auction to raise money for Tranny Fest,
which it did brilliantly. Matt and I
listened
to
Giles
play
ethereal
synthesizer music, then we graciously
bailed, assuming that soon a huge orgy
would take place. Maybe we should have
stayed!
TRINIE DALTON’s books include
Wide Eyed (Akashic), Dear New
Girl or Whatever Your Name Is
(McSweeney’s), A Unicorn is Born
(Abrams), and Mythtym (Picturebox), a salon-style compendium of
her handmade zines.
meetings to discuss lighting, timing,
stage set-up, etc. The idea was to
utilize every space at the exquisite
Schindler House, originally built to
accomodate
large
numbers
of
people
indoors and out, ranging from rooftop
Each Sundown Salon had its own distinct flavor:
decks to vegetable garden plots. I was skeptical
sexycerebralphysicalnerdyserene. The events aimed
at first of this cross-genre lawn event planned in
to break participants’ daily habits by inviting
bizarre
nooks
and
architectural
spaces,
but
them into realms of heightened observation, even
somehow it all came together. Writer Jennifer
if
in
Krasinski and I were elected to read stories from
panties and chaps. Sundown Salons usually featured
a podium placed in grass under a tree, sandwiched
artwork, but differed from gallery art openings
between
because they were interactive—more akin to 1970s
Elegantes in the dining room and an ambient song
Happenings. Meals were cooked, art supplies passed
set by art rockers D’Argento in bamboo bordering
those
realms
involved
observing
people
a
musical
soap
opera
by
Los
Super
out, costuming encouraged, anything to break ice
the
among attendees. Success depended upon the guests,
filmmakers staked out unlikely spots to present
property.
Visual
artists,
designers
and
in keeping with the salon tradition. Invitations
their work. Alice Könitz screened a video on the
were thoughtfully tailored to each event, based on
house wall while, live, her robed actors crouched
Fritz’s vision in alignment with the co-curators
in bushes and perched on tree branches. Susanna
[19]
Howe
shot
portraits
in
a
booth
on
the
roof.
Reading on the lawn, at night, with a tiny light
shining
down
on
the
pages,
gave
my
story,
Chrysalis, about girls stalked in the woods, the
Halloween-ish
setting
needed.
reading,
After
invited him to participate in a Bay Area show.
The last event I participated in was L.A. Literary,
which,
was
the
smallest,
sweetest,
and
most
mentally rigorous Sundown Salon I experienced. Co-
it
curated
I
by
Gabriela
Jauregui, only people who
chatted with Italian artist
“like
Miltos Manetas about con-
invited, as this salon was
to
vincing visual artists to
dedicated
attend readings, and vice
Rachel
write”
to
were
verbage.
Kushner,
Eileen
versa. Fritz’s events were
Myles,
a mainstay in L.A. for those
myself read in the cave to
who reject the limited idea
about 25 people chilling on
that artists stick to open-
benches and floor pillows.
ings, authors to readings,
We ventured to mid-chalet
and musicians to gigs.
for
A year later I was involved
squares, then got down to
pasta
shots,
in
the
salon
K48
Is
An
writing
editor Scott Hug. Hug came
Robby Herbst writing in the garden at
Sundown Salon #21: L.A. Literary. [FH]
from Brooklyn to host this
consisting
Abani,
salad,
and
lime
and
tequila
jello
the tricky business of our
Animal! co-curated by K48
“Jamboree,”
Chris
of
exercise:
each
putting our name in a hat,
we were to write something
about the person whose name
outdoor “camping,” and an animal book library on
we selected. Normally, I would be totally opposed
the dome’s top floor. Totally Radd played, dressed
to this! If I make it out to a party, I want to
in animal ears, and Ponce de Leon barked lyrics in
visit, not write. Once again, I put skepticism
the
cave.
This
Kamp
Musik
had
a
New
Wave,
aside to be
surprised by the quality of the
Electroclash feel, and the dome became a loud,
writing and by the sincerity that imbued this set
glitzy disco. To cozy things up, Fritz cooked Pasta
of impromptu readings with a sense of lighthearted
Fagioli. Animal art by Terence Koh, AVAF, Theo
spirit.
Rosenblum and myself transformed the house into a
Each salon was purposeful, hugely creative, and
zoo, while Eve Fowler shot people sprawled out on
memorable. I’m grateful that I was involved in so
AVAF’s giant octopus floor sticker. I brought
many of them. They enriched our community by
Yerba Buena Center curator, Berin Golonu, to see
politically rejecting the isolationist lifestyle
Scott’s K48 event in action, and as a result she
that so many Angelenos lead. I will miss the dome.
[20]
INFORMED INVENTION, FORMED INFORMALLY
BY KIMBERLI MEYER ••• Because there is, famously,
of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los An-
no “center” in Los Angeles, the clustering of
geles at the Schindler House, my mandate is to ac-
like-minded endeavors need not be centralized —
tivate
instead, constellations of centers form. In L.A.
residence; it was therefore a great pleasure to
cultural life is based on networks, a constantly
welcome Sundown Salon as a collaborator at the
shifting yet sturdy association of spaces, public
house on a number of occasions.
Rudolph
M.
Schindler’s
landmark
1922
events and forums for creative thinking. Pockets
The avant-garde salons and gatherings origi-
of activity are connected discursively by media
nally held at the Schindler House provide an im-
and word of mouth, and physically by streets and
portant
freeways. In this model, urban life, though con-
Salon. The House and studio was designed in 1921
nected by high-speed technology, is compartmen-
and built in 1922 by architect Rudolph M. Schindler
talized, and the roles of subcultures,
underground activity and private cultural scenes are heightened.
Culture-making is thinking, which
is also talking, reading, building, rethinking and reinventing, using accrued
knowledge combined with the willingness
to take risks. In the megalopolis, the
salon is an important venue for cultural action. Benefiting from serialization, salons provide a discursive
thread played out in real space and
historical
KIMBERLI MEYER has been the
Director of the MAK Center for Art
and Architecture, Los Angeles, at
the Schindler House since 2002.
She has an MFA from CalArts, and
a B. Architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She was
co-curator of MAK Center exhibitions Showdown! at the Schindler
House, (with Fritz Haeg), Symmetry (with Nizan Shaked) and The
Gen(H)ome Project (with Open
Source Architecture). She was the
commissioner for the U. S. presentation at the Eleventh Cairo International Biennial of Art (2008).
time, protected by the privacy of the
L.A.
precedent
to
Sundown
for himself, his wife Pauline and another couple. Conceived as “a communal
dwelling for two young couples,” it
embodied the ideals and interests of
both Rudolph and Pauline. He was concerned with giving form to what he
termed “space architecture.” She believed that art and politics mattered,
and that they required social space to
evolve. Together Rudolph and Pauline
Schindler, as architect and clients,
produced one of the most significant
houses of the modern era.
domestic sphere. Distinct from the level of dis-
Rudolph was from Vienna, a student of Otto Wag-
cussion possible in public settings, discourse in
ner, influenced by Adolf Loos, impressed by the
the home is free to be both urgent and casual, rig-
southern California climate and invested in new
orous and social, performative and definitive. Sun-
ways of thinking about space, construction and ar-
down Salon was exactly this, a place where art,
chitecture. Pauline was the intense, smart, bo-
design, movies, music, politics, pleasure and media
hemian
were all topics to be dissected, explored and ex-
Chicago family, with an education from Smith Col-
panded by contemporary practitioners. As director
lege and training at Jane Adam’s Hull House. She
[21]
daughter
of
a
well-to-do
North
Shore
had passionate aspirations to create an atmosphere
The
dense
architecture
and
history
of
the
that would feed art, critical analysis and leftist
Schindler House provokes all who engage it. In col-
political action.
laboration with Sundown Salon on two events we
Notable in the Schindler House program is the
sought to expand the ways that the House could be
fact that the four main rooms were not “living
occupied and activated. In Sundown Salon at the
rooms” or “bedrooms,” they were called “studios,”
Schindler House (2003), the goal was to stretch out
and one was assigned to each of the four adults.
and occupy not only the core, but also the crannies
These were designated as places for each individ-
and far corners of the house and grounds. In Show-
ual to pursue his or her artistic and intellectual
down! at the Schindler House (2004) we used the
practices and meant to be flexi-
site in a series of ways: as a
ble, open spaces operating as
studio for artists-in-residence,
sanctuaries for experimental and
as a stage for an experimental
creative thinking. Such activi-
fashion show, and as a location
ties could take place in solitude,
for residency-responsive art per-
in partnership or in groups.
formances.
The Schindlers’ vision played
In
all
cases,
the
House at once dictated the scale
out; a great assortment of exper-
and
iments
events, and was overtaken by cre-
was
performed
at
the
Schindler House over the years.
From the twenties into the sixties, live music, modern dance,
Martiniano Lopez-Crozet and Milena Muzquiz of
Los Super Elegantes prepare to perform at Sundown
Salon #09 at the Schindler House. [FH]
poetry readings, film screenings,
the
proportions
of
the
ative action. The architecture
was both formative and responsive, fundamental and open.
Rudolph Schindler worked and
political meetings and home-cooked dinners were
lived out of the Schindler House until he died in
all part of Pauline’s social program. She was ded-
1953. Pauline Schindler stayed until her death in
icated to the salon life as a way to encourage
1977, keeping the house full of guests and tenants
artistic and political activity.
who fulfilled her strict political and aesthetic
Pauline and Rudolph’s marriage ended, but the
standards. Life at the Schindler House did turn
House provided them both with a life-long home and
out to be a generative intermingling of social and
studio along with room for guests and tenants. The
artistic practices, even into the twenty-first
two-family symmetry of the house needed only slight
century. In an era in which critical thinking is
modification to accommodate the maximum privacy re-
sorely needed on many fronts, the cultivation of
quired by the modern divorced couple. What began as
spaces that allow us to refresh and reframe our
a live/work space for an alternative family struc-
thoughts is as important as ever. Given favorable
ture became well adapted for exactly that. Their
conditions, intellectual growth will thrive, and
experimental model proved flexible enough to ac-
sites, ideas and debates will be renewed and re-
commodate a personal shift and reliable enough to
plenished as necessary, which Sundown Salon, the
generate decades of creative action.
Schindler House and their kindred prove.
[22]
HOME GROWN
taught how New England was a region populated by
We are graced with a little piece of land in New
Franken, Wisconsin, a two-tavern village, so we
tinkerers. Growing up next-door in New York,
can do some classic techno-peasant stepping. But
whenever driven around Connecticut I’d keep my
there are steps every life can take, choices that
eyes pealed inspecting the front lawns for
go one way or go another. They add, they lead to
unimaginable Yankee ingenuity sprouting like
other steps, to ways we need to find to pass
colorful vines from a leaf-shrouded window. I’d
peacefully through the oil age’s end. It is not
look for the crackpot but usually see
so much a question of what we will do.
ROBBY HERBST is interested in
We’ll do what we have to do as good as
the sign of the entrepreneur. The
many manifestations of art in the
we can. It’s more a question of who we
crackpot develops an idea despite
expanded field. He is a founding
will become. — Bill Hurrle
editor of the Journal of Aestheics
BY ROBBY HERBST ••• My drive home
takes me past a garage on Council
Street. Regularly a guy is outside
painting a canvas on an easel. It’s
rare that I see his work slower than
10 miles per hour, but I know he’s
good at what he does. He’s the most
and Protest, which curated the exhibition “Street Signs and Solar Ovens:
Socialcraft in L.A.” at the Craft and
Folk Art Museum in 2006. Other
projects include the book Failure!
Experiments in Aesthetic and Social
Practices and a series of liquid lightshow happenings performed with
Karl Erikson and a variety of rock
acts. He enjoys many other forms
of praxis, restive and vigorous.
herself; the entrepreneur markets an
idea to capitalize on the crackpot’s
genius.
When we believe in something, we
do our best to help it grow; plants,
dreams,
hope,
small
children.
The
home is the shelter of first choice
and last resort. Often it is tasked
to shed those things that are dear to
popular artist in the neighborhood—there’s usu-
us. At the same time that it stands as a metaphor
ally a crowd around him, chatting, watching, join-
for stability, it also serves as a metaphor for
ing in to listen to his radio while he paints.
personal strength. Because of this, Sundown Salon
It’s a nice thing sharing your art with the pub-
would not mean what it does if it happened out-
lic. He’s the neighborhood artist. He inspires
side of a funky home. Beyond the dome’s icono-
kids. I imagine he’s commissioned to make cards
clastic design, the culture which it stands for
for all kinds of parties. Like my neighborhood
sits in marked contrast to what our culture is
stippler, I too have a garage studio, but unlike
dictated to be.
him my garage is in the rear of my house hidden
from the street. And when I am in there, about the
last thing I want is company. I’m shy about my
work, unconfident about what I am doing while
doing it.
Every house is a kingdom, every room a nation, every garage a laboratory. As a kid I was
[23]
What happens here is more about the collective,
cumulative experience (a particular time with a
specific group of people and the work) than any
particular project or individual. The overall
effect is more important than any one thing. That
said, I could name a few particular episodes:
Eileen Myles doing a hilarious and shocking read-
to go out into the world and do something about
the fashion industry that housing is. I hope to
wean some people away from prosthetic devices for
their lame ego “McMansions,” onto prosthetic devices for their lame egos that are more appropriate for the historical situation. So if I help
the sexy cool of PV (photovoltaic solar cells)
move along because it is integrated into the home
structure, not add-on ugly, good. If the house
shows that thermal ZEDs are achievable with commonly used building materials if put together
carefully, good. If our chicken coop, shed, garden beds, little commercial greenhouse, shop,
studio, places to put-food-by show a way to make
a household a place for production, a way to relate to the piece of Earth it is on, and others
say “Cool” and do something likewise, good.
— Bill Hurrle
ing of her story with the most graphic and drawnout description of girl-on-girl sex I have ever
heard; male models in various states of dress and
posing for Salon Salon; robbinschilds performing
their dance “Broque” in the cave. — Fritz Haeg
For this essay I attempted to contact a guy who
ran a public bar from his den, a lady who makes
liquor stills and an indoor pot grower. The illegal barkeep was hostile when asked about his
business, the still maker believed she didn’t
have much to share and the pot farmer was evasive. I had hoped to use the metaphor of the illicit
home-druggist
to
stand
in
for
the
home-culturist, but was only able to cobble together this one statement:
I think I’ve been more excited about the idea
that I might inspire someone else to make their
own hooch, but this might be because I haven’t
yet put up a bell tree in my yard and started
spreading the word... I am beginning to think it
would be pretty cool to inebriate someone, kind
of magical. (Though maybe only a tiny bit more
magical than the thought of feeding a bunch of
people really amazing garden produce you grew
yourself.)
— Allison Wiese
Every homeowner is an evangelist in waiting. There
is a boisterous movement of folks who screen political films in private spaces. Often I’ll first
learn of these political docs through this network
and half a year later hear of a film making the
crossover from the home into the theater. While
this journey is very good, it need not be explained why the context for reception created by
the living-room theater differs from the Cineplex.
Through the modest home-screening’s infrastruc-
The pot farmer’s (Bill Hurrle) ideas have all gone
ture, filmmakers are personally supported and can
to sprout. In Wisconsin where he lives, he’s in-
develop word-of-mouth. More immediately they get
volved with the Green Party, he’s got a nice legal
their media to activists who use the info to do
organic farm going and is a major advocate for
what it is that they do.
solar energy and sustainable living. His new farm-
I asked Fritz to tell me who he imagined the com-
stead is a model home, meant to prove to the yup-
munity of Sundown was. He responded: “my friends, my
pies that sustainable can be sexy.
friend’s friends, and their friends and random locals of like mind that sniff it out; those who are
In the world, what it (growing pot) did was be
part of a ceremony of connection with other people who also enjoy the high. My house is designed
interested in creating their own culture, those who
are interested in being part of a community.” The
finest things in life grow from our homes.
[24]
THE SALONS
01
SALON INAUGRUAL
04.01.01
6:00-10:00pm
MUSIC: Book of Giant Pets including
Adam Goldman, Melissa Thorne & Julian Gross
LIGHT INSTALLATION: Mark Allen
[26]
TRYING TO
REMEMBER
THE BEGINNING
I’d been making robotic mirror sculptures
that year, and being friends with the band
and Fritz, they asked me to light the show.
A conversation between Adam Goldman and
Melissa Thorne of Book of Giant Pets (later
to become Bedroom Walls, and then Fol Chen in
2008) and artist Mark Allen (who went on to
found Machine Project in 2004)
M T : Early on, there was some effort to make
the piece site-specific. Fritz lives on Sundown Drive, and the idea was for salon events
to take place at sunset. Initially, there
were conversations between Mark and the band
about wearing costumes that would actually
illuminate, changing color to resemble some
idea of a sunset.
M A : That didn’t happen. I made 20 mirrored
hemispheres, each the size of a baseball.
Each sphere was connected to a motor, which
was connected to a computer. The mirrored
M e l i s s a T h o r n e : Fritz bought the house, and spheres were randomly wall-mounted in the
immediately conceived of having social events space. The lower level of the dome is like a
there. He was into Schindler and these L.A. cave, in fact I think it’s called “the cave.”
modernists, and I think he liked the idea of I was thinking of the spheres as a kind of unfollowing in the steps of their social/art/ derground growth, like those blind fish they
experimental scene, like the house could be find deep in caves, or the ones in the ocean
some sort of cultural gathering spot. Also, with little light stalks growing off their
the architecture really lent itself to being heads. The mirror balls would be like an orthought of as a performance space: the “cave” ganism that evolved to catch and reflect as
downstairs has a natural stage
much light as possible. Giant Pets
MARK ALLEN is the founder
formed by a split level and spiral and director of Machine Project, had a really beautiful song called
staircase. Giant Pets was pretty a non-profit performance/instal- “Dots on the Wall,” that Melissa
new as a band: we had played a few lation space investigating art, sang, and I think the idea of the
technology, natural history, scishows, including another “salon” ence and poetry. His research mirror lights might have started
at our friend Esther Mira’s house. interests include social and re- there.
lational art practices and the
We started practicing together creative applications of electronA d a m G o l d m a n : We played a set of
sometime around the fall of 2000.
ics and technology.
about 10 songs. Our music was
M a r k A l l e n : Fritz talked a lot about open- pretty quiet, so the cave seemed like a good
ing up the space and letting whatever happen. venue — no bar noise and chatter to interfere
[27]
with the sound. I decided to make a program
for the show because most of our songs at
that time were instrumentals. It seemed to me
that people might like some idea of what the
songs were “about,” which is funny to me now.
M T : But people really liked that program: a
few told me later that they had saved it.
When playing, when drinking, when people were
talking to me...all I was really paying attention to the whole time, were the lights.
M A : The mirrored spheres were individually
lit, and moved at semi-random: I programmed
about 8 different patterns so that each song
could have a different look. Humans love to
find patterns in everything, and although
there was no direct connection between the
lights and the music,
most people thought the
music was driving the
lights.
A G : My father happened to be in town on business when we did the
show. He came wearing one
of his classic outfits: a
charcoal grey sport coat
over a black turtleneck.
M T : I think we started
We played a song that I
had written for him as a
playing before sunset,
60th birthday present.
and as the light level
For some reason, I let
diminished in the house,
Julian come up with a
the swirling mirror pattitle for that one. Natterns became more prourally, it’s a completely
nounced. It felt like
Mark Allen’s programmed mirrored spheres fill the cave
with patterns of spinning dots. [FH]
ridiculous and inapprobeing slowly immersed in
priate title — “Smoothly
a dark, starry sky. It
Woven Arms.” We also covered The Smiths’ was a dreamy, sleepy, romantic atmosphere.
“Death of a Disco Dancer,” which was a kind People were sitting and lying on the floor,
of dream come true for me. I think there was or draped on the spiral staircase.
a moment during the climactic guitar cacophony when I actually felt that I could really M A : We thought a smoke machine would be a
enjoy playing long, messy guitar solos for nice touch, but people didn’t like it in their
thousands of people as a career.
faces. I remember running around spraying fog
everywhere to try and get the perfect look for
M T : I remember that we were still sort of the lights, and then looking at the audience
inept at the transitions between songs; Ju- and realizing they were gasping for air.
lian had to tell jokes to fill the gaps.
A G : It was also the birth of Bud Light: Fritz
J G : My favorite part was Mark’s lighting. wouldn’t let us have red wine in the space
[28]
(light carpet) — so we bought all of this
cheap beer. At the end of the night, there
were about five cases of unwanted Bud Light,
which became the band drink of choice.
M T : I remember feeling really happy about the
experience, which was essentially friends entertaining other friends. After we finished,
someone told me that we sounded like Yo la
Tengo, which I took to be the ultimate compliment. Also, after we finished and everyone
left, Fritz told me that his grandmother had
just passed away that night, just before we
started playing. He thought that the beginning of the salons that evening had been a
beautiful sort of elegy.
BEDROOM WALLS was hailed
as “the next breakout group
from Los Angeles” by the SF Bay
Guardian. They enchanted fans
with a voluptuous sound they
called Romanticore. Armed with
a narcotic grace and a bone-dry
sense of humor, the band’s
songs aimed to instruct listeners
in the proper use of melancholy.
Or, as Bedroom Walls told the
Los Angeles Times, “We just
want to make people sad.” In
2008 the band transformed and
was renamed Fol Chen.
I’VE BEEN THINKING A
LOT ABOUT DOTS ON THE WALL
traffic cones
overtones
senior citizens homes
parking lots
black socks
tied in a slipknot
i’ve been thinking a lot
about dots on the wall
and it won’t be too long
until they’re all gone away
magazines
lima beans
wear the same pair
of dirty jeans
i’ve been thinking a lot
about dots on the wall
and it won’t be too long
until they’re all gone away
{lyrics by Bedroom Walls}
[29]
04
MY BARBARIAN’S NIGHTMARATHON
HEXTRAVAGANZA
10.26.02
5:00pm – 11:00pm
PLAY & TABLEAUS IN THE GARDEN BY: My Barbarian
including Malik Gaines, Alex Segade, Jade Gordon
PERFORMERS: Patterson Beckwith, Kim Fisher, Karen Hallock, Derek Martin,
Imran Masood, Daniella Meeker, Jennifer Moon, Megan Whitmarsh, Amy Yao
MUSIC BY: My Barbarian
[30]
ABOUT
NIGHTMARATHON
By Alex Segade
The orange and black flyer promised, “Horrific dramatics! Ter- “actors” in Edward Gorey-ish costumery performed the play,
rifying monster ballets! Nocturnal orations! Ghastly cos- Picnic in the Ghostly Garden, from a script by Malik Gaines and
tumery! Shadowy sexual urges! Nightmarish rock ’n’ roll!”
myself. Freely associative in its regurgitation of horror-genre
The sky made its crepuscular fade to black for the length narratives, the play is a retelling of pulpy, melodramatic monof the three-hour performance—a silent and excellent par- ster romances in breathless hyper-action. “Nocturnal orations”
ticipant in the mise-en-scene. It is called Sundown Salon, is an apt description of the onanistic acting style employed:
after all, and the video documentation of the Nightmarathon highly declarative, awash in accents (no matter how bad!) to disshows the white fall sky turn to twilight blue, then velvet pitch, tinguish a performer’s changes of character (which were nuas the electric lights arranged throughout the garden become merous and instantaneous), we faced the audience and gestured,
harsh and the painted faces of the performers glow in garish gesticulated, emoted. The snaky narrative included the followhigh contrast.
ing characters: Edgar Allan Poe, Kaspar David Friedrich, Mary
At 5:00 PM the play started with introductions: “How do Shelley, Dorian Gray, Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living, Agatha
you do, Lucretia Borgia?” “May I have another fried bat wing?” Christie, HG Wells, HP Lovecraft, the Scarlet Empress, the
“Oh! Dorian Gray…!”
Swamp Thing, Barnabas Collins, Angelique the Witch, Miss
My Barbarian, the music-theaterSwitch, Anne Rice, Nostradamus, Rasputin,
ALEX SEGADE is a writer, perperformance conglomeration to which I belong, former, and video-maker with a Medusa, Bram Stoker, Emily Brontë, Ivan the
envisioned the Nightmarathon as a Grand- background in Renaissance liter- Terrible, Karl Marx and the Great Pumpkin.
ature who has shown work at film
Guignol-Haunted-House-Monster-Mash. The festivals across the country and in
The cast was cobbled together from availevent was divided into three parts: the play, the galleries including American Fine able friends. While My Barbarian founders Jade
dance and the rock show. The half-hour play Arts Co. in New York. Alex is a Gordon, Malik Gaines and I have had some
singer, songwriter, dancer in, and
and quarter-of-an-hour dance were performed artistic director of, My Barbarian training and experience on stage, painter Kim
in a loop: just as one ended, the other began,
Fisher and gadabout Imran Masood, for examrepeating three times during the night. We were thinking of the ple, had not, and this engendered some interesting moments in
scary dolls that pop out of medieval cuckoo clocks, a wind- front of the audience. Kim was supposed to play Emily Brontë,
up danse macabre.
who warns Edgar Allan Poe that “The Moors are depleted,”
The terraced garden became the primary playing area: dec- and “Wuthering Heights itself is threatened by environmental
orated with cardboard tombstones (“R.I.P. LOVE”), a cast of eight degradation.” Kim never memorized the monologue. Feeding
[31]
her the lines only seemed to confuse her. She would stop and able to find some emotional connection to their preposterous
return to parts that she had delivered and correct them. As the roles and made a moving moment happen: after the Swamp
audience and the cast, particularly professional actress Jade, Thing is napalmed, and then reborn, Abigail throws her arms
became uneasy, Kim broke from her stuttering trance and said, around the regenerated vegetable man. With a tearful release,
“C’mon!” I sense Kim didn’t care about Wuthering Heights, but she exclaims, “Oh Swampy, I’m going to live with you forever in
she came alive, embarrassed and somewhat put-out when the steamy bayou and eat the psychotropic sweet potatoes that
playing a sexually frustrated Medusa who puts snakes down grow on your back!” It was a public display of affection.
Jade played Mary Shelley with a Jaggeresque
Dorian Gray’s pants. In a weird reversal of the
MY BARBARIAN has made rock
British accent, and was wild-eyed in her tour-dealienation effect as Brecht describes it, Kim
operas, folk plays, theatrical situforce
recreation of Lara Parker’s Angelique from
acted as if the casting was a personal dig, but ations and musical videos for venues
such
as
the
UCLA
Hammer
60’s daytime soap Dark Shadows. But her priwe were casting against type! At the time, she
Museum, De Appel in Amsterwas working as a school teacher, so we wrote dam, Peres Projects in Berlin and mary focus was the dance section of the Nighther the role of Miss Switch, teacher by day and Torpedo in Oslo. The group was marathon, as she was director/choreographer
witch by night, who confesses, in steady excla- included in the Performa 05 Bien- and—star! Her cast included Derek Martin,
nial, the 2006 California Biennial
mation points, to being distracted by her stu- and the 2007 Montreal Biennial. Daniela Meeker and artist Megan Whitmarsh,
dents’ revealing outfits. Kim was comfortable
who made the flat, cartoonish props for a series
here, and created an interesting set of gestures for a scene in of tableaux vivant depicting typical wax-museum crimes such as
which she defeats “The Evil Witch Computer” (brilliantly ren- the assassination of Lincoln, the Donner Party, Lizzie Borden
dered by performance artist Jennifer Moon in stilted Robo- and, much to my horror, O. J. Simpson. The tableaux melted away
voice). Kim’s strained relationship with the characters she as the dance became more animated: rakish Derek, as Jack the
played was a study in the fallacy of performing the other.
Ripper, infiltrates a badminton match between the Witches of
Imran, on the other hand, never once said his lines right. Eastwick, kills them, and is then killed by them as they rise from
“And I, Rasputin, the Mad Monk…” was the only thing he could the grave. The dance, performed on the sloping lawn across from
remember under pressure, and when he sensed it was his turn, the terraced garden, became a high-energy Charleston, and the
that is what he said, regardless of the scene. “Horrific dra- troupe zealously vamped and camped until they fell on the grass
matics,” indeed.
and rolled away, down the slope.
These public failures are intriguing, and perhaps one of
Wordless except for title cards bearing place names, the
the most engaging aspects of the piece was the tension between physical vocabulary of the Nightmarathon dance was stiff,
the overwrought dialogue’s pretentious, filigreed oratory and hackneyed, frantic and, like the play it faced from across the
the difficulties faced by amateurs in parsing this language. As patio, overloaded. Derek had a performance group called
Malik and I wrote the script, we realized that the endless refer- Mime Control, of which Jade was also a member, and theirs was
ences, alliterative allusions and heaps of “vocabulary words” the pursuit of misfired expressions, a clowning technique
made the play a language game. And games are fun to watch (anti-technique?) built from lameness and ineptitude resulting
because some people are good at them and some are not.
in blown gags and simple miscommunication — all wordless
So, Karen Hallock (a trained actor and local politician) and and frustrating, like charades with no code. Along the same
her artist boyfriend Patterson Beckwith played Abigail Arcane lines, the sexual dynamic of the Nightmarathon dance was a
and her monster boyfriend, the Swamp Thing. The couple was sordid attempt at feminist redemption that, like the manic
[32]
prancing that expressed it, ended up falling down, apart, away. characters in HP Lovecraft stories, who, having seen the edge
At 8:00 PM, the outdoor program was over and everyone, au- of space, spend the rest of their lives howling in Arkham Asydience and performers, took a break and drank beer for an hour. lum, or, in some instances, like the characters in HP Lovecraft
At 9:00 PM, musicians (among many other things) Andy stories whose brains are removed from their bodies and sent
Ouchi, Norwood Cheek and Amy Yao, joined Jade, Malik and me in space-canisters to the planet Yog-Sothoth, aka, Pluto.
That is the power of performance.
in the underground cavern “stage” and the rock show started.
The Nightmarathon was an en-pointe turning point in the
Everyone, including the audience — some of whom had been in
life
of
My Barbarian’s project. Without going into too much dethe cast of the play and/or the dance — was exhausted and
drunk, but also relieved. In the muddy half-light of the concrete tail, and too many mea culpas, we learned a lot of what not to
cave, our boozy sextet plowed through all of the horror-themed do, and in doing those things, learned that some mistakes are
songs we had written together over the years. “Ryan” is an in- quite lovely, if, like fire, they are tended carefully. While self-incantation from the point of view of a police psychic describing dulgent performance can be painful to watch, it seems to me
that the only pain inflicted by our knowa crime scene. “Secret Ceremony” is a
ing
exploration of self-indulgence was
call-and-response soul number in which
on our own bodies. Malik’s costume
a gay vampire seduces a man away from
was an unbearable prison of bandages
his living girlfriend. “Zombie, My Friend”
too hot for California in the fall; Jade
tells a series of vignettes about undead
slipped on the grass and rolled down
acquaintances too shy to live and the
the hill; I hit my head on a rock in one of
title of “Dance You Witches, Dance” says
my death scenes and, three times in a
it all. In the years since the Nightrow, fell into a pond upon my exit. Thus,
marathon, we have not written many
My Barbarian performing in the lower level “cave” for
site-specificity gave way to site-resongs in this vein, perhaps because the
Sundown Salon #4. [MY BARBARIAN]
sponsiveness in our practice. And fiNightmarathon happened, and we were
nally, we learned that for all the campy utterings and
exorcised of our propensity for Goth metaphor.
During one of our songs, I thought I was going to throw self-reflexive mutterings, the truly memorable moments are
up, and dashed offstage to confront this nausea. I keeled over, those rare gem reflections from the light of another world.
In the best scene from Picnic in the Ghostly Garden, Malik
took deep breaths, loosened my tie and returned to the microphone, shaken but committed to rocking. Perhaps that was wrote of an encounter among mystery writer Agatha Christie
the moment when the haunted house in my mind freed me of its (Jennifer Moon), Romantic painter Kaspar David Friedrich
clattering confines.
(me), and Thundercats cartoon villain, Mumm-Ra the Ever-LivThe video of this portion of the performance reveals the ing (Malik). In the fading light of day, the mummy gestured at
dangers of melting face paint, as our colorful make-up be- the geodesic dome and declared it a pyramid.
comes a gray splatter of oil-slick sweat. The dark circles
around the eyes turned to black tears on our cheeks as we {My line was, “And thus, the Great Pumpkin slew the Czar, and
belted an attempt to harmonize, but after performing non-stop ate all the Fabergé eggs!” After it’s delivery, from behind a big
for five hours, we had become undead ourselves. Those cold, white Jack-o’-Lantern mask, I made my dramatic turn, and landed
stoney walls echoed a frightening music of madness, like the right in Fritz’s pool of lily pads. Some lessons are never learned.}
[33]
06
INSTANT INSTALLATIONS
04.13.03
2:00 –9:00pm
ORGANIZED BY: Pipilotti Rist with Skylar Haskard and Asdis sif Gunnarsdottir
INSTALLATIONS BY: Krysten Cunningham, Kirsten Everberg, Asdis sif Gunnarsdottir, Skylar Haskard,
Marcus Herse, Dawn Kasper, Shana Lutker, Lauren Lavitt, Pipilotti Rist, Angie Waller
MUSIC BY: Michael Gerald Bauer & Oscar Miguel Santos
[34]
Pipilotti Rist and her graduate
fine art students from UCLA
descend on the Sundown
house and gardens for some
instant installations…
LAUREN LAVITT takes over the sleeping hole in the
cave and installs a scene of characters in bed watching
her video.
ANTONIO PULEO presents a colorful new painting in
the cave.
PIPILOTTI RIST installs her collection of clear plastic
containers to the deck over the garden, they flutter in the
wind and reflect the light.
KRYSTEN CUNNINGHAM tethers copulating foam figures to bouquets of helium balloons, one of which escapes ANGIE WALLER stays up all night preparing ravioli that
into the sky.
eventually covers the kitchen table.
KIRSTEN EVERBERG installs three spectacular showstopping paintings of white house interiors (red room,
green room, blue room) in the cave.
ASDIS SIF GUNNARSDOTTIR screens
her videos in the cave and does performances in the garden in collaboration with a
drag queen.
SKYLAR HASKARD creates an elaborate
installation in the cavernous garage made
entirely out of the junk he finds there.
PIPILOTTI RIST burst onto the
international art scene with lush
video works and multimedia installations. She gained a following in
the mid-80s as a member of the
Swiss experimental post-punk pop
group Les Reines Prochaines, for
which she made some of her earliest video works. Pipilotti has crafted
a body of work in which she explores
the intersection of sexuality, technology, and pop culture. Born in 1962
in Grabs, Switzerland, Pipilotti lives
in Zurich.
MARCUS HERSE presents his larger-thanlife California Rolls and Cupcake in the garden.
DAWN KASPER simulates a violent death in the garden,
she is in a red bathrobe face down in the pond for hours.
SHANA LUTKER provides a walking tour of the gardens
related to the interview dialogue of a tour of George Bush’s
Crawford ranch.
[35]
From: pipilotti rist
To: fritz haeg
Subject:
Re: ...
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 22:42:50 -0800
Hi Lord Fritz Haeg.
The salon, the salon,
... the stars, the stars, stars, ...
the socks the socks, the socks.
The plants, the plants, the plants.
You’re really cool.
Thank you so much!!
pipilotti
CONFLICTING
SALON
MEMORIES
places that were beyond the art context i.e., not galleries
or museums.
SH: Then we proposed the idea to Pipilotti to make the
salon using the members of the class.
AG: Yes although we disagreed on how to make a show we
still agreed to do it. And then we introduced Pipilotti and
Fritz when the three of us went to Fritz’s house and all became involved in the making of the show…
SKYLAR HASKARD: Lets try and remember how all this
happened.
SH: We ended up rethinking the class too. Still using the
same pretense of impossible works in other places but
ASDIS SIF GUNNARSDOTTIR: The first thing I re- now the “place” became Fritz’s dome house.
member is that we wanted to make a collaborative installation. At the same time you had met Fritz and he offered AG: At that point Pipilotti was disappointed in some of
you to make a salon.
the fantasies because she was interested in helping people to realize art
SH: We were also in Pipilotti’s class at
works outside of museums and galUCLA and had the idea of involving the
leries but it turned out that usually
class in the salon. That’s how it started.
young artists have fantasies of showing
in the art world! And then the fantasies
AG: Then we started to argue! You said
that were outside of it were so big! I rethat we had to plan and control what
member I wanted to have an exhibition
people were doing beforehand and I got
in a cinema, one of the big cinemas on
upset because I wanted the show to be
Sunset! Takes a while to get that
chaotic where people could do whatever Pipilotti, Asdis and Skylar in the kitchen making though. So the salon was a perfect soplans a few days before the Salon. [FH]
lution.
they wanted without planning.
SH: It transformed the class, the class was kind of
falling apart because people were finding it difficult to
AG: I think that night we decided nothing was going to realize their ideas, I remember Pipilotti worrying about
her capabilities as a teacher and the outcome of the
happen.
class. After visiting the house we broke down possible
SH: What was our class about?
sites for installations within the Haeg compound. Then
we asked the class to think of works that would fit in
AG: Pipilotti had asked us to realize impossible works in these sites.
SH: I wanted to be a curator!
[36]
AG: It ended up suiting everyone.
SH: I think so. The very short time between the execution and showing of the work was a big bonus. There was
SH: Yes. We were both satisfied that both sides of our ar- immediacy in the response to the work, whether it was
gument were realized. There was control within the struc- critical or just being seen. I think everyone learned a lot
ture of the show and spontaneity in the time limitations. from this process. I also was happy that the show was not
We only had the weekend to install, so the ANGIE WALLER and her online confined to an art context but in a
work was made to be easily installed and re- presence, couchprojects, document house/home. Although a very designed
cultural interventions in shopping
moved. A lot of it was site specific, like and
space we still used it as a home and fit the
social networking. Her book
Shana’s tour of the Presidential Ranch Data Mining the Amazon aggre- art into it. The house remained a house.
adapted to Fritz’s garden, Angie’s Ravioli gates customer recommendations
from amazon.com to find relationtable in the kitchen and Dawn’s perform- ships between books listed under AG: This idea of making instant work reance in the pond. What do you remember of profiles for political figures and ally came through and Fritz’s idea of a salon
the CDs bought in conjunction
the work that was made?
where artists could exchange ideas worked
with these purchases.
very well for the class. This is not someAG: You made your installation rearranging the garage thing that usually happens and I recognized how imporand using Fritz’s car to screen a porn that was shot in the tant it is for the artist to curate shows. It saves the art
house. I did a performance about an abusive relationship world. Artists have curated the best shows I have seen. I
in collaboration with the transvestite Kitty Lu who played think it is funny that this began with a fight but we still
a guardian angel helping me out of an abusive relation- both got what we wanted out of it.
ship. We performed on the balcony and what we called
the “Eden platform” in the garden. The rest of the art was SH: The three of us worked well together. In the beginning
spread around throughout the whole house and garden. we were very ambitious. Pipilotti was very good at makLauren projected her video in the bedroom and I pro- ing our ambitions more realistic. Transforming them into
jected in the bathroom.
something very quick, practi- SKYLAR HASKARD received his
cal and effective. That is also MFA at UCLA and his BA at GlasSH: Krysten had sculptures tied to balloons that she set how we came up with the title gow School of Art. Skylar is a Los
Angeles-based artist working in
free off the balcony. Marcus had installed a giant muffin “Instant Installations.”
video, installation, sculpture, and
photography. His work was the
at the gate and some large sushi rolls in the garden. All
subject of solo exhibitions at Anna
ÁSDÍS SIF GUNNARSDÓTTIR
this while Dawn was lying dead in the pond. We also had
Helwing, Los Angeles and Transgraduated from UCLA in 2004. She
Antonio’s and Kirsten’s paintings in the “cave.” Pipilotti
mission in Glasgow.
is based Iceland where she performs
also made an installation of clear plastic containers hangthrough Skype online every week.
Her web performances
ing from the balcony. I called this her anti art piece. There
SHANA LUTKER’s work, in a variwere exhibited at the live
ety of mediums, questions the inwas music, cake and whiskey too.
art series “It’s not hard” at
CCA, Glasgow, Scotland.
AG: Do you think in the end people realized their fantasies and the class achieved its original objective?
[37]
vention of history, the real and
surreal. Lutker received her MFA
from UCLA in 2005. Her work has
been exhibited internationally and
she is an editor at X-TRA magazine
and a consultant to LAXART.
Salon Memories
alized is an absolute taboo, because people came to see me weeks
it was the day after my 30th birthday, 2003. i blacked out in my car
after to tell me that I had been totally off. I can’t help it but still
the night before and smashed into a wall. so i was in a pretty freaky
today when I watch it I still think it’s probably the
mood when i went to the salon the next day. i made
KRYSTEN CUNNINGHAM
best performance I’ve been involved in, or most defthese foam people having sex and attached them to
combines traditionally feminine
helium balloons and i think we put them in the arts such as sewing, weaving and initely the most memorable one...and that’s what it
dome. they kept getting out, flying away, getting knitting, with typically masculine was all about that day, to make fantasies come true
arts such as steel and woodworkcaught in trees etc. then the kids started playing with ing. She has exhibited at Los and to happily make “mistakes.”
the ones that floated to the ground. they loved them. Angeles Contemporary Exhibi- ASDIS SIF GUNNARSDOTTIR
i could teach sex ed. in elementary school with these tions, the Hammer Museum and
Sandroni Rey in Los Angeles,
pieces. somehow.
Ritter Zamet in London, and
DaimlerChrysler Contemporary
This afternoon was a lot of things. I mean there was
KRYSTEN CUNNINGHAM
in Berlin. She is represented by
just a fuck-load going on. As I remember it this was
Tom Soloman in Los Angeles.
the afternoon my band xVOYx got started. I had
been
playing
a
lil’
music with Michael Bauer on the side and today
Kitty Lu, “Get rid of that Lover”!— Wouldn’t we all want to have a
he was playing with Oscar Santos in their guitar duo the TWO. They
Guardian Angel? My fantasy was always to have a guardian angel
set
up on a rise in the garden and started to play to a loud and disthat’s a transvestite that makes the right decisions for me and we
interested crowd. Grad students can be so self-interested, proud,
solve problems over the phone when she dramatically tells me what
blind and dumb. I could see from the balcony the
to do. On the day of the Sundown Salon that fantasy
whole scene. Pipi was leaning in, out of maternal
came true. With the help of Fritz, Kitty Lu appeared
guilt, to try and hear them. Afterwards, discouraged
the day before the performance and stepped into the
by a shitty gig, we decided to form a danceable
planning with me. I had picked out a song by Dethreesome and Bauer called up “voy.” I’m pretty
peche Mode and had pictured that she would come
sure that was the TWO’s last gig. The moral is someout of nowhere and slap me in order to wake me up
times wonderful starts come from really crap
from being stuck in a bad relationship. Kitty Lu
crowds.
made this action verbal and totally wrote down a
whole play that we practiced and performed twice at
TOM TEXAS HOLMES
the Sundown Salon. Kitty Lu did not only bring herself but also a brilliant body costume of a female
body. I think I gave her a black long-haired wig to
wear. I think that we were a perfect match on stage,
Asdis dressed for her performance.
I was wearing a boa and some striptease stockings
[FH]
and sunglasses because in the play I had been hit by
my lover and like Kitty Lu said take the L out of lover and it’s over!
I think the performance affected my reality so it ended up being a
spiritual comedy performance. Doing a comedy in the art world I re[38]
07
LIGHTS>MUSIC>MAGIC
05.18.03
6:30–10:00 pm
LIGHTS: Mark Allen
MUSIC: Bedroom Walls, including
Kris Canning, Melissa Thorne, Adam Goldman,
Sean Hoffman, Vanessa Kaufman, Aurisha Smolarski
MAGIC: David Lovering and Rob Zabrecky
[39]
Subject: next sundown salon
> lights > music > magic
sunday > may 18 > in the cave
6:30 > arrive > drink > beer
7:30 > magic > DAVID LOVERING (of ‘THE PIXIES’) >
ROB ZABRECKY (of ‘POSSUM DIXON’)
7:50 > sundown
8:00 > lights >
KRIS CANNING plays bass and sings
for Bedroom Walls. Kris has toured
with Beck, Hot Tuna and Pram. In
her spare time she plants tomatoes,
welds metal, performs with an Alice
Cooper-esque mime troupe, and is
one half of the Pale Ryders.
installation by artist MARK ALLEN
SEAN HOFFMAN plays guitar,
keyboards, and glockenspiel for
Bedroom Walls) He is the strong,
silent type. He’s also a Texan.
MELISSA THORNE makes paintings that address the intersection of
vernacular craft and high modernist
design. She is also a founding member of the band Bedroom Walls.
8:15 > music >
BEDROOM WALLS >
10:30 > go home
AURISHA SMOLARSKI plays violin, keyboards and sings with Bedroom Walls. She is one of those
annoying Angelenos with neither
a car nor a cell phone. When not
burdening the rest of the group
with rides to band practice, she is
booking shows for El Cid and Zen
Sushi in Silver Lake.
no parking on sundown drive! > carpool if you can!
[40]
08
HOT RODS ’N HOT PANTS
07.27.03
2:00–9:00pm
ORGANIZED BY: Kelly Besser, Blinker, Anna Sew Hoy, Lucas Michael, Young Chung,
Sabrina Smith and Karla Zombro with Tranny Fest director Christopher Lee
ART AUCTION AND BAZAAR WITH WORKS BY: Lida Abdullah, Andy Alexander, Atwater Pottery,
Dakota Bertrand, Broken Arm, Lynn Chan, York Chang, Erica Cho, Susan Choi, Phyllis Christopher,
Young Chung, Sarolta Cump, Trinie Dalton, Lecia Dole-Recio, Cirilo Domine, Lala Endara, Su Evers,
Eve Fowler, Will Fowler, Laurel Frank, Vince Golveo, Matt Greene, Fritz Haeg, Nguyen Hoang Thuy,
Ashley Hunt, Byung-Ok Koh, I.H. Kuniyuki, Viet Le, Christopher Lee, Ruben Lorch-Miller,
Michelle Matthews, David Meanix, Tony Meredith, Lucas Michael, Max Miller, Sandeep Mukherjee, Cathy Opie,
Poole Cosmetics, Dean Sameshima, Anna Sew Hoy, Chloe Sherman, Devon Slininger,
Laura Splan, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Tam van Tran, Thu Ha Vu and Amy Yao
PERFORMANCES BY: Deadlee, Che’la Demuir, Sean deLear, Hot N’ Heavy, Dred King,
Janet Pants Dans Theater, Giles Miller and Miss Yo
[41]
WELCOME TO
THE TRANNYDOME
(excerpt from the L.A. Weekly, Aug. 8-14th, 2003, by Sandra Ross)
Several hundred sweaty art swingers, trannies and
trannie chasers turned out for HOT RODS N’ HOT PANTS, a
daylong fund-raiser for TRANNY FEST, a biannual San
Francisco film festival. The geodesic dome-shaped Mount
Washington home of FRITZ HAEG, renamed TRANNYDOME for
the occasion, boasted an indoor stage area where
performance poet MARCUS RENE VAN, dance group JANET
PANTS DANS THEATER, hip-hopper DEADLEE and techno-disco
queen MISS YO tread the boards for short sets. The
recently reunited SHIMS tore into a hard-charging
version of BTO’s “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” before a
raucous crowd that included Tranny Fest co-directors
CHRISTOPHER LEE and AL AUSTIN, Outfest’s SHARI FRILOT,
model JENNY SHIMIZU, actor GUINEVERE TURNER and artist
REX SAIZ. Between performances, MC CHE’LA DEMUIR
encouraged bidding in the silent auction for paintings,
photographs and videos donated by artists including
CATHY OPIE, LUCAS MICHAEL, EVE FOWLER, DEAN SAMESHIMA,
ANNA SEW HOY and MATT GREENE. A bazaar featuring items
such as unisex G-strings and baseball caps, many of which
featured transgender pride slogans, was set up in the
garage, while outside the house attendees munched hot
dogs and tit cakes (cupcakes with frosting nipples) and
drank ample quantities of beer. One neighbor did gripe
about the excess traffic generated by Hot Rods N’ Hot
Pants. But no one was complaining about the daisy dukes.
[42]
HOT RODS ‘N HOT PANTS!
A TRANS QUEER AND LADY
FRIENDLY EVENT! FEATURING
HOT ART, STEAMING
PERFORMANCES & SIZZLING
TRANNIES! TO BENEFIT SAN
FRANCISCO’S TRANNY FEST!
Beautiful, sexy, a little trashy. Have you
seen that car she drives, the huge American
coupe? I pressed play on the cassette deck,
and she sang a number of tunes, real singsong
manner. I don’t know if the tape was made by
her band but it sounded good. At times it’s
honky-tonk, there was piano. I remember
heels, a short dress, a jacket, good hair. It
was a short swank set — touché.
{As recounted by co-organizer Kelly Besser}
Giles Miller, the crew’s sound technician
testifies to the tight performances which
began with the floetry of Marcus Rene Van
followed by the Shims with Flipper and Slade
from Tribe 8 rocking hard before:
7:30 HOT N’ HEAVY - cute conscious electro
punk. Hot N’ Heavy came out looking so soft,
with their keyboards and cables, all busy
getting set up. Then they kicked out the booty
bass, and things got serious. Those two get
busy. It was real dancey for a while, and they
were being rude between songs,
talking about people, like how
Deadlee’s
dancer
had
ketchup
stains on his shirt, trying to diss
him for it. Rivalry is awesome!
6:30 DEADLEE - hardcore sexy queer
hiphop rep’n El-A. Deadlee was
serious as mutherfuckin’ ever.
Deadlee
and
his
boys
were
8:00 DRED KING – world-renowned
completely thugged out and hard.
dragalicious diva. Larger than
His dancer reminded me of the
life, complete permutations of
dancer for the band Happy Mondays
Deadlee performs in the cave. [FH]
gender, done with real class. I
in the movie 24 Hour Party People,
can’t remember how it unfolded; it
the skinny white dude who knows
how to swing. Awesome soundtrack, a great was so subtle, one minute afro disco king and
bunch of songs. Soon Deadlee had his pants next moment sexy voluptuous woman with a
around his ankles, still rapping. Hardcore completely commanding presence.
sexy queer striptease rap!
8:30
MISS
YO
disco-techno
orchestra
Yo
and
her
universe
of
7:00 SEAN DELEAR ON THE ROCKS - gLue’s kaleidoscope.
legendary lead singer lounges cabaret style. projections and dresses and me on sax. Miss Yo
This was pure Sean, nothing but Sean, a because you’re nasty. I never saw Yo get nasty,
stool, a bottle of whiskey and a microphone. but she does start to get naked sometimes.
[43]
TRANNIES TESTIFY
By Kelly Besser
The creation of Tranny Fest, North America’s and love, of families and friends and change
first film festival and cultural week that each one of us needs to hear: to choose
dedicated to celebrating tranny cultures is life instead of death, hope instead of
despair, love instead of hate.
living testament that our life
Tranny
Fest validates that our
stories are forms of resistance.
language
whether
spoken,
Tranny Fest was founded in 1997
written,
performed
or
imagined
by Co-Directors, Christopher Lee
visually transforms ourselves
and Al Austin in San Francisco to
and our worlds as we build new
create a cultural space through
ideas, shape other thoughts, tell
film
and
video
screenings,
other stories, fill silences and
performances, panel discussions,
move others to think and live in
parties, workshops and youth
ways
previously unimagined. Our
programs. The festival survived
language confirms and creates our
for many years through grants
culture. Tranny Fest’s testimony
from community-based non-profit
to this transformation was saved
agencies, but in 2003 its funding
was cut in half. The festival’s Sabrina wears her “Tranny heart” hat. [FH] on Sunday July 27, 2003, when
trannies, artists and allies
existence was endangered, another
casualty of the escalating attacks by the Bush gathered in Glassell Park at the Sundown
regime on oppressed communities struggling Salon’s ‘Tranny Dome’ for Hot Rods n’ Hot
Pants, a daylong benefit with a hot art
for social and economic justice.
The City of Lost Angels crew decided to auction and bazaar, steamy performances and
host an emergency fund raiser at Sundown Salon sizzling trannies.
Tranny Fest’s existence speaks truth to
to ensure that Tranny Fest lived to speak
truth to our cultures. We understood the our becoming: becoming ourselves through the
importance of our imaginings of another world, process of struggling to imagine identities
one in which our stories of survival exist, that move beyond those of victims and
the stories of hope and triumph, of struggle survivors and toward those of creators.
[44]
Salon Memories
I was hoping to hook up with a gorgeous guy or tranny or
somebody, so when they started auctioning for spankings,
I knew that this was my chance to get some kind of action.
I wasn’t gonna let that night end without some kind of
contact. We took it outside with a circle of people
watching. She used her silver platform boots to kick me
against the front door. It hurt, but I liked it. Actually,
I loved it. My ass needed it and so did Tranny Fest. It
was for a good cause.
the underdog, if you know what I mean.
EVE FOWLER {artist}
My friend bid on that badass Cathie Opie photograph. I
think she got it. I bought art, T-shirts, lil’ soaps. I
saw Dred perform.
BOOTSY
LUCAS MICHAEL {City of Lost Angels crew}
What struck me about the event was that even
though it was all up in the hills and away
from the clubs and enclaves like WeHo and
Silver Lake, it really looked and felt like
L.A.’s queer community. It really reflected
the diversity that’s here in the City of
Lost Angels.
We wanted to have an event to build community
between the San Francisco and Los Angeles
queer and trans communities while raising
money to keep Tranny Fest alive. We created
an organizing committee of artists. I’m not
trans but I traveled on an emotional rollercoaster with a trans man for many years.
KARLA ZOMBRO {City of Lost Angels crew}
SABRINA SMITH {City of Lost Angels organizer}
It was a dream come true; tranny magic live
and direct from tranny wishes. The collection
Lucas Michael wins a kick in the
of performers broke apart the predominantly
It was all new to me, all the tranny
butt in the live auction. [FH]
white tranny paradigm. It was transnasty
identifications. It was a learning process.
magic: hot and political and fun and sexy.
Before working with the City of Lost Angels
Crew, I only thought of people as gay, straight or lesbian. The crowd was soooo sexy.
Gender opened up. There are a lot of people who aren’t
CHRISTIAN DE LA CHRIS {Lost Angels trannyfag}
familiar with the whole gender, sex, sexual orientation,
sexuality, surgeries, hormones, drag questions that
Why did this Texas cheerleader sounding like Jenna Bush,
trannies face. Everyone knows what a drag queen is but
wearing tons of make up totally hit on me? She was a
really understanding what it means to be trans every second
straight up lesbian who thought I was a trannylesbian.
of every day is a lot.
She was staring at me for awhile until she
ANGEL FRANCO {City of Lost Angels crew}
GILES MILLER grew up on the
honed in on me, complimented my breasts, told
mean streets of New Haven and
me she didn’t usually date outside her race
now spends his time in Los Angebut I was beautiful and gave me her card. She
There were five or six performances by
les. His artistic practice is primarily
was in her late 40s, started coming out to
transgender people and they were all
related to music, and he has played
flute and saxophone for over
herself in her late 30s, passing through Los
incredible. There were a lot of artists
twenty years. Recent projects inAngeles, exploring her sexuality and deciding
who gave work to auction off. The crowd
clude the scary-sexy music of D’Arif she wants to stay in L.A.
was the most diverse I have seen at any
event in L.A. The salon raised over gento and the freeform cover band
Shifty Disko. Giles performs and
PREVIOUSLY STRAIGHT GIRL
$7,000 for Tranny Fest. There was a lot
records with My Barbarian, and has
{who asked to remain anonymous while she
of love there, which there usually is at
collaborated with artists including
engages
in lesbianage}
the salons, but this was a real fight for
Terrence Koh and Anna Sew Hoy.
[45]
09
SUNDOWN @ SCHINDLER
10.22.03
5:00 – 8:00pm
I N L O C AT I O N AT: The Schindler House. MAK Center
W I T H : Justin Beal, Graft, Paige Clark, Adam Hundt & Hitomi Yamada,
Dawn Kasper, Yoshua Okon, Alice Könitz, Anna Sew Hoy, Trinie Dalton,
Jennifer Krasinski, Los Super Elegantes, D’Argento, Susanna Howe
[46]
From : fritz haeg
Subject: invite to present > salon @ schindler
Date: September 11, 2003 1:06:05 AM PDT
Cc: mak center
I’m writing to invite you to present your work at the mak center (the schindler house
in west hollywood) next month. sundown salon will be presenting an evening of
events & performances at the schindler house on sunday october 19th. this will be
part of the cultural events in the city to coincide with the opening of the
disney concert hall, for which there will be many out-of-town visitors. MAK CENTER
after it was built in the ’20s, the schindler house became a center
of los angeles art and culture:
“The Schindler House enjoyed a vibrant social-intellectual life from
1922 through the 1950s due to the activities of Pauline Schindler.
Her salons, dinners and political meetings brought the discussion
of far-reaching ideas into the intimacy of domestic space.”
FOR ART AND
ARCHITECTURE is a satellite of
Vienna’s acclaimed MAK (Austrian
Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art). It has been in residence
at the Schindler House since 1994.
Through exhibitions, publications,
performances, events and international exchanges, the MAK Center
explores the intersections of art and
design with an emphasis on experimental, boundary-defying work.
sundown salon has attempted to continue this tradition by offering the house on
sundown drive in mount washington as a venue for artists to present their work
to each other. so it is obviously an exciting prospect to be able to take these
events to the home that inspired them.
events and performances will be scheduled throughout the day and evening; a
series of moments that together capture the current creative energy of los angeles. this is an opportunity for you to share what you are working on & thinking
about at the moment. this may include dance, d.j., fashion, film, gaming, installations, lectures, lighting, music, plays, performance, politics, readings,
slideshows, theater, video...or anything else you may want to propose.
let me know if you would be interested in participating, and/or if there are others you
would like to recommend. i look forward to hearing your ideas, thoughts & proposals.
many thanks,
fritz
[47]
The Projects & Performances
A D A M A N D H I T O M I perform an improvisational dance responding to the unique
beauty of the Schindler House. They begin the dance moving through the audience, interacting if they so choose, or appearing to be oblivious to them. Hitomi and Adam eventually meet on the central lawn, responding to each other, then departing the
ADAM HUNDT was born in Dayspace, dancing through the audience as they began.
ton, Ohio. He studied ballet at Indiana University and was a member
of Ballet Pacifica in Orange County,
CA and the American Repertory
Ballet in New Jersey.
Belly dancer PAIGE CLARK greets the audience as they arrive and
depart, accompanied by live music.
LO S S UP ER ELE GANTE S , the collaborative team of Milena Muzquiz and
Martiniano Lopez-Crozet, perform in the west courtyard.
LOS SUPER ELEGANTES are a
punk-mariachi-hip-pop group from
Los Angeles (via Buenos Aires and
Tijuana) who have been featured in
Vogue, ArtForum and Fader. Martiniano Lopez-Crozet and Milena
Muzquiz performed at the Whitney
Biennial and the Frieze Art Fair,
and in 2006 at Vive Latino in Mexico City and Art Basel, Miami
Beach. Los Super Elegantes have
played with Beck, performed Nirvana’s “Rape Me” in French, DJ’d
throughout Europe and North and
South America.
JUSTIN BEAL fills the house with clear balloons. He covers the Martin Kippenberger subway station in the front lawn with massive blocks
of ice. It is backlit from below and the Sapporo beer cans are served
on top.
Inflatables are trippy, cheap, light, imaginative spaces,
not architecture at all.—Lloyd Kahn (from The Whole
Earth Catalog)
Inflatables suggest a schizophrenia in the mind of the
designer who is torn between his utopian vision and
something much more perverse.
—Marc Dessauce (from an interview with Justin Beal in
July 2002)
HITOMI YAMADA was born in
Nara, Japan. She studied at the
Akemi Ishikawa Studio, the National Beijing Dance Academy and
the School of American Ballet in
New York. Hitomi has danced with
Ballet Pacifica, the Connecticut Ballet Theatre, Ballet El Paso, Ballet
Chicago and James Sewell Ballet.
She has been a guest artist with the
Chicago Festival Ballet and Minnetonka Dance Theatre.
PAIGE CLARK prefers the risk of
improvisation to planned choreography and live music to recorded.
Her favorite dance experiences to
date have been at Middle Eastern
Music and Dance Camp in the
Mendocino woodlands. Paige’s
performances have been seen at
the Staples Center, Club Gitana
and Café Metropol. She has an
MFA from CalArts and a BFA in
painting from Carnegie Mellon.
She recently relocated to Seattle.
TRIN IE DALTON reads her short story Slumber Parties. It is about teenage memories
of staying up late with girlfriends, while other teenage girls are being stalked in horror
movies.
JENNIFER KRASINSKI reads an excerpt from her short story The Dead of Winter.
[48]
D’ARGENTO performs it’s haunting music from within the grove of bamboo at the back
of the Schindler house gardens. They lovingly reproduce the cool modern sounds of
the crowd, and then rip them apart with horrible results.
D’ARGENTO is inspired by the horrific sounds of Goblin, the group
that scored many of Dario Argento’s
movies. The typical Dario Argento
film involves an encounter with evil
in which the hero or heroine witnesses a stream of terrifying bloodbaths. is the death scream of a pretty
ballet student as her neck is sliced by
the glass of her dorm room window,
or the soundtrack for a meat cleaver
slamming into the back of a sophisticated publicity agent. D’Argento is
a collaborative of artists and musicians and Giles Miller, Anna Sew
Hoy, Jason Taylor & Amy Yao.
DAWN KASPER presents a new piece inspired by the Schindler House, Evil
Series #16: Murder at the Schindler House. Visitors may happen upon her
throughout the course of the evening as she lies face up in a dark corner of the
garden. A pitchfork is sticking out of her neck and blood is everywhere. The Evil
Series is an ongoing, multimedia-based, performative project that explores the
blurring boundaries within and around the concepts of “evil.”
ALICE KÖNITZ presents the first screening of her new video Owl
Society. After a strenuous 800-mile hike through sun and forest the
models Chicago and Baltimore and their Agent find their temporary
home on a tilted tree in a lush sub-tropical forest area of Griffith Park.
Actors: Erik Bluhm, Paul Gellman, Skylar Haskard, Alice Könitz and
Mari Murao. Camera: Michael Rashkow and Isabel Spengler. Masks, costumes, sculpture, play, direction, editing and production: Alice Könitz.
YOSHU A O KON, an artist who divides his time between Los Angeles and
Mexico City, presents a video work.
ALICE KÖNITZ was born in Germany and is currently based in Los
Angeles. She works in sculpture,
video, collage and performance.
She received MFAs from Cal Arts
and Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.
She has shown in exhibitions including ‘Owl Society Part Two’ at
Hudson Franklin, New York, ‘If the
Hippies Cut Their Hair, I Don’t
Care, I Don’t Care’ at Galerie
Michael Hall, Vienna and ‘Play it as
it Lays: 17 Artists from Los Angeles’
at The London Institute, London.
Designers C RISTINA FORRER and PIP ER OLF present a utilitarian object that can
be directly used by people at the Schindler House for entertainment purposes.
YOSHUA OKÓN’S work blends
staged situations, documentation
and improvisation. In Oríllese a la
Orilla (1999), Okón convinced cops
to perform absurd tasks (twirling
their nightsicks, dancing). Okón has
shown his work internationally at
venues such as the Kunstwerke in
Berlin, P.S.1-MoMA and the Istanbul Biennial. Since 2002, Okón has
also been a visiting teacher at the
University of California, San Diego
PIPER OLF was born in Castleton,
New York and attended Rochester
Institute of Technology to learn
woodworking, and then received a
degree in Environmental Design
from Art Center College of Design.
CHRISTINA FORRER, from Zurich,
Switzerland, pursued an education
in architecture and attended Art
Center College of Design in Pasadena.
[49]
LAST
STOP
WEST
the Forum Roman. In fact the beginning of a new “classic” growth drinking California sap.
— Rudolph Schindler speaking with Esther McCoy
shortly before his death in 1953 2
When the Kings Road House was completed in the early nineteen-twenties, it changed the look of domestic architecture in
Southern California forever. Together with his more celebrated
contemporary Richard Neutra, Schindler combined the Viennese
sophistication of his early mentors Adolf Loos and Otto Wagner
and the American spirit of his longtime employer Frank Lloyd
Wright into one of the few architectural styles Los Angeles can
truly consider its own. Schindler’s open-plan house, with outdoor
fireplaces, sleeping porches, concrete slab walls and sliding exterior doors set a blueprint for modern living in Southern California, but what is remarkable about this house is not only its
influence on domestic architecture in Los Angeles in general, but
One of my dreams, Mother, is to have, someday, a litalso the influence of the social life of this specific place on the
tle joy of a bungalow, on the edge of woods and moununique activation of domestic space as a cultural sphere in Los
tains and near a crowded city, which shall be open just
Angeles. Few homes find their place in architectural history based
as some people’s hearts are open, to friends of all
on design alone—an architect can design a good house, but it
classes and types. I should like it to be as democratic a
is the life that that house takes on after it is built that makes it
meeting-place as Hull-House, where millionaires and lagreat, and Pauline’s contributions to the house’s
borers, professors and illiterates, the splenJUSTIN BEAL is based in L.A. He
did and the ignoble meet constantly received an MFA from USC and a legacy become indispensable in this respect. In a
letter to her mother, Pauline wrote that Schindler,
together.
BA from Yale and has participated
in
residencies
at
Skowhegan
and
“has simply no talent for cherishing a property
—Pauline Gibling in a letter to her mother
the Whitney Independent Study
from 1916, two years before she married Program. He has had solo exhibi- once it is built. Only for designing and executing
Rudolph Schindler. 1 tions at Sculpture Center in New them. They are different functions.” 3
York and at LA><ART. His work
The extent of Pauline’s influence has come
has been seen in group shows at
to
light
in recent years, owing in part to an extenI came to live and work in California. I Casey Kaplan, Bortolami and Elizabeth-Dee
Galleries
in
New
York,
sive archive of her letters recently made available
camped under the open sky, in the redthe De Appel Centre in Amsterdam
at the University of Santa Barbara. From her corwoods, on the beach, the foothills and the and the 2007 Moscow Biennial.
respondence, we learn of Pauline’s work with the
desert. I tested its adobe its granite and its
Worker’s
Defense
League to preserve labor unions, the Walt
sky. And out of a carefully built up a conception of how
Whitman School in Boyle Heights and at the Hollywood Art Asthe human being could grow roots in this soil-unique
sociation. Her letters offer fragmented details of the house’s soand delightful, I built my house and unless I failed it
cial calendar, such as the following account of one week shortly
should be as Californian as the Parthenon is Greek and
by Justin Beal
[50]
after the house was completed: “one night a committee meeting tional international Metro-Net subway ironically marked the front
to plan the resuscitation [sic] of the Modern School… Next night lawn as both the middle of nowhere and the center of somesome rather ‘arty’ people… And last night Lloyd Wright brought thing. We gathered there for the Sundown Salon on the evening
over his cello, and played with me till
of October 22, 2003. For the first
another midnight… We had really
time, the Sundown Salon left its
lovely music together.”4 The letters also
domed home for the most domestic
catalog the Schindler’s many guests,
of public venues. The evening’s proranging from the Swiss Architect
gram is not a timeline but a plan, literWerner Moser to the self-described,
ally drawing onto Schindler’s blueprint
“mad, bad, and slightly red poet,”
for the house—a diagram of how all
Sadakichi Hartmann; long-term tenthese things could happen at once,
ants of the house’s second apartment
with a title font borrowed from the
include early Hollywood actors, Arthur
short-lived French Architectural collecRankin and George O’Hara, progrestive Utopie. The complexity of
sive dancer John Bovingdon, then unSchindler’s fabled pin-wheel design,
Setting up the simulated bamboo by Graft (PVC pipes illuminated
known composer John Cage and a
which unfolds in a succession of small
from within by Christmas lights) in the vegetable garden. [FH]
founder of the Chicago Little Theater
spaces, becomes evident with the vaMaurice Browne who, writing in his own biography, described riety of activity that the house can accommodate simultanePauline as “brilliant, warm-hearted, bitter-tongued… trying to cre- ously—Alice Könitz’s video Owl Society in a hidden exterior
ate a salon amid Hollywood’s cultural slagheap.”5 Richard and courtyard, Yoshua Okon’s Wilkommen in the modest front enDion Neutra shared the house with the Schindlers from 1925 to trance and Graft’s light installation in the Vegetable Garden. The
1930. In a 1978 interview, Dion gave the following account of intimate and easy feeling of the small house that seems to exone of John Bovingdon and Jeanya Marling’s early performances, pand so effortlessly to accommodate the crowd makes it impossible not to imagine the original events that took place there
“They would dance together. And they would dance practically
fifty years ago.
As a whole, the roster of projects, though not overtly political
in the nude, which was, of course, at that time for Hollywood
(post-recall election apathy?) followed diligently in the footsteps of
quite an event. But it was very beautiful. At night they wood ilPauline’s vision of a domesticated Angeleno avant-garde. So
luminate the garden and for music they had gongs, which
closely, in fact, that it is here that I run the risk of arguing against
were hung on ropes, and they would hit the gongs. And I rean idea, which I believe is so fundamental to Fritz’s understanding
member one dance where he danced The Ascent of Man;
of a salon, namely its position on the margin. It is my underfirst, man was crawling on all fours and then slowly, slowly he
standing that Fritz, and in all likelihood Pauline, would embrace
became erect and then walked on his legs, and this he
6
the idea of the salon as a forum for the expression of marginalized
danced. So that was quite thrilling.”
cultural expression connected to a rich history of cultural gatherToday Kings Road is a crowded West Hollywood street and ings ranging from book clubs and knitting circles to underground
the Schindler House is the satellite of the Austrian MAK Center. political movements. The salon is a forum for culture that knows
The western-most ventilation shaft of Martin Kippenberger’s fic- no home in the mainstream. These events distinguish themselves
[51]
by their location, determined presumably by a lack of any alter- that the house assumed—as a forum for radical art, music, pernative, in a domestic environment. It seems to me, however, that formance and politics—was inspired largely by the European
the domestic environment plays a more privileged cultural role in utopian ideas of the salon, as is so evident in Pauline’s letters. As
Los Angeles than anywhere else. There is no other contempo- I consider the influence of those gatherings on us now, I am
rary city where the home (and in Los Angeles this often means struck by the extent to which these sorts of events have been
freestanding house) plays as important a role as a metropolitan folded into the cultural landscape of the city in much the same
destination or as an integral space for social and cultural interac- way that Schindler’s house was swallowed up by a city of buildtion. A number of circumstances—the affordability of comfortable ings, so many of which were literally built in its image. It is temptspace compared to prohibitively small domestic spaces in cities ing, in retrospect, to imagine that Pauline’s gatherings helped
like New York or London, the unreasonably puritanical hours of bring the tradition of the activation of the domestic as radical or
local bars and restaurants, and the relative dearth of quality al- avant-garde to Los Angles and that these gatherings, which histernative cultural spaces—all
torically occupied the margin of
contribute to particularly lively
European and even earlier
activation of the domestic enviAmerican cities, took on a new
ronment as a space for diarole in a city that is comprised
logue and exchange of ideas.
only of margins. And here I find
On the one hand, this centrality
myself slightly at odds with
of the home could be viewed as
what I understand to be Fritz’s
the inevitable and unfortunate
thesis, that the salon needs to
consequence of life in the origiexist because it is the expresnal suburban metropolis, while
sion of the marginal. It seems
on the other, it could be seen
to me that on the contrary,
as one of the wonderfully intiFritz’s series of Sundown Samate experiences that makes
lons are an attempt to find the
The back garden of the Schindler House. [GERALD ZUGMANN]
life in Los Angeles tolerable. The
core, not the margins of new
domestic environment (literally the house) can situate itself at the Los Angeles culture—an attempt to describe a city without a nucenter, rather than margin of cultural activity precisely because cleus through a constellation of different events. Not so much an
Los Angeles is a city without a center—a city of margins. Indeed, expression of what is happening on the periphery of Los Angewhen Rudolph and Pauline Schindler built the Kings Road house les culture, but rather an articulation or better still a celebration, of
it sat in a field on the edge of a young Hollywood. The cultural role precisely what that culture is.
1. Sophie Pauline Gibling to her mother may 1916 (Pauline Schindler collection, currently in the possession of Lionel and Maureen Vidler March)
2. Schindler to Esther McCoy 4-5, 18 February 1952 box 26/architects files/correspondence with McCoy/R. M. Schindler, Esther McCoy papers, archives of american art, Smithsonian institutions, Washington, D.C.
3. Sophie Pualine Gibling to “Mother,” [2 September 1936] The Pauline Schindler Collection in the Architecture and Design Collection at the University of California, Santa Barbara
4. Sophie Pualine Gibling to unknown, [17 November 1922] The Pauline Schindler Collection in the Architecture and Design Collection at the University of California, Santa Barbara
5. Maurice Browne, Too Late to Lament: An Autobiography (London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1955)
6. Dione Neutra October 1926 In To Tell the Truth. Dione Neutra, interviewed by Lawrence Weschler (1978). Completed under the auspices of the Oral History Program, University of Califronia,
Los Angeles. Copyright 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
[52]
Dead of Winter
By Jennifer Krasinski
(excerpts from an unfinished story, read by the author at Sundown Salon #09)
There’s this curly-headed cocksucker in class who likes to call my
It’s just funny to think about if I did.
stories ‘sentimental’ and one time he even said ‘nostalgic’ and noAnd it takes my mind out of this room full of these people and
body stopped him. I hate him so bad that every time he starts talk- puts it back where it belongs, which is inside my head.
ing, all I can think about is how I could kick his
ass twice around this whole campus until he
The man who teaches this class is famous,
would just be beat bloody and rolling around,
but you’ve probably never heard of him.
begging for something sentimental. I would
His first novel won prizes, and everyone
make him cry hurricanes and then announce
said he was a genius.
to the audience that his final dying wish is to
The story he wrote is about a famous
watch Walt Disney slip down from heaven on
writer who wants to meet the son he dea white-light funny-slide to tap dance on his
serted when he was young. It begins as the
fucked-up face.
writer waits for his son at his favorite bar.
Once I wrote a poem about how much
As the writer orders another drink, he
I hate him, and how my boots would leave
looks up to check the clock because it’s
marks on his mouth, and how his teeth
getting late and he worries that his son
Jennifer reading at The Schindler House.
[ELIZABETH TOBIAS]
would shatter, and how it would all sound
might not be coming after all. Suddenly, the
like sticks and stones and broken bones —
writer catches a glimpse of himself in the
it was full of clever content.
mirror that hangs behind the bar and thinks that someone must
But I never turned it in.
be sitting in his usual seat because he doesn’t recognize his own
I figured everyone would just assume I was sick.
face.
Or derivative.
The rest of the story takes place as a flashback of the writer’s
And no one would figure out that I’m only kidding, and that I life that happens in his lightning-second of confusion.
know my stories always suck anyway.
In the last chapter, the writer gets a phone call at the bar telling
So.
him that his son was killed by a car on his way to meet him, and
the writer is asked to go identify the body. When he gets to the
But I wouldn’t really do that.
morgue, he sees his son for the first time in his life as a corpse, and
Beat him up, I mean. I wouldn’t.
[53]
when he looks at the face of his dead son, he sees his own
face almost exactly. At the very end, the writer realizes that
his son has died at the exact same age that he (the writer)
was when he abandoned him (the son).
Whatever.
Three weeks ago, this one girl in class read her story
about a girl who kills her twin sister and then has to pretend
to be both of them to cover up the murder. The week after
that, a guy wrote a story about a speed freak who works at
Kinko’s and spends one night taping up hundreds of photocopies of his nut-sack all over the shop windows.
Last week was Cocksucker’s turn to read.
His story was called ‘Summer Release,’ and it was
about this bored suburban kid who likes to masturbate while
listening to the Moviefone voice.
Cocksucker explained that his story was simultaneously
a critique of film culture and an ironic dissection of the voice
of consumerism.
When I asked Cocksucker if he could expound on the
homo-erotics of his story, I wasn’t really doing it for revenge,
but he just sharpened his teeth and told me he had no idea
what I was getting at.
This week it’s my turn to read, and the story I wrote is
about you.
I should tell you I’m sorry be- JENNIFER KRASINSKI is a filmmaker and writer. She received
cause I’m not a really great reader, an MFA from Art Center.
and most of the time I’m not even
sure if the way I put words together makes sense.
I should also say I’m sorry because none of these people ever seem to pay attention, and your parents made me
promise not to write your name so no one would know for
sure who you were.
So your name goes unwritten so no one will know, because I am a girl of my word.
Slumber
Parties
By Trinie Dalton
(read by the author at Sundown Salon #09)
When I take Benadryl for my allergies, the heavy-eyelid, sleepytime
feeling I get reminds me of lying in a sleeping bag during slumber parties while dozing off between screams and shrieks of girls being shredded by Freddy Kruger in Nightmare On Elm Street, and girlfriends
gossiping about boys at school. Benadryl produces the sensation of
being asleep and being awake simultaneously, like being insulated
from the world in a cocoon-like sleeping sack—I remember my slumber party girlfriends as pupae who were about to turn into teen butterflies. We lay around in warm sacks awaiting metamorphosis so we
could buy bras with bigger cup sizes.
The objective of a slumber party—to stay up as late as possible—is reiterated in Freddy Kruger movies by the fact that if the characters don’t STAY AWAKE they’ll die. When I pop a Benadryl
mid-afternoon, I feel like napping, but I usually make coffee with a
similar goal in mind. My life isn’t threatened by a man in a boiler-room,
but I don’t want to be lazy.
One Saturday night as seventh graders, some friends and I
stayed up watching scary movies until the first pink streaks in the sky
appeared, then we dressed in sweats and headed out to TP the
church down the street and to visit a 7-11 for slurpees after our mission was completed. I had fun throwing rolls of Charmin over the trees
in the church’s courtyard, but the chapel itself was much too large to
chuck toilet paper over. In my mind, I’d planned to TP the giant cross,
[54]
I’d envisioned it littered with white streamers when church-goers ar“We could go skinny-dipping,” one girl started as she looked out
rived Sunday morning, and the image was beautiful to me, it made a at the dark swimming pool.
festive statement as if, for once, church was an exciting place to go,
“Oh yeah, let’s stare at each other naked,” someone snapped
instead of a deadly boring place that sucked ass and that all children back.
hated. But since we couldn’t throw the TP high enough to do the
“You are so lesbian,” I said.
cross, we took pictures of ourselves making out on the church lawn
“Well then, let’s dress up like lesbians and sneak into the church,”
in front of the cross, thereby defacing the sacred grounds with ho- someone said sneakily. No one disagreed, so we did.
mosexuality.
The first time a slumber party actually
To prepare for the attack, we snuck botturned bad was when this skinhead, a friend’s
tles of Malibu and Bailey’s from the liquor cabolder sister’s boyfriend, locked me in the bathinet, stole a jar of whole cloves off the spice
room and told me to strip. He was teaching
rack and smoked them in rolled-up post-it
me how to chop lines. He pressed me up
notes, then applied “slut” make-up to wear
against the mirrored wallpaper and I felt like
on the journey. I owe it all to Freddy Kruger.
there was someone behind me, sandwiching
Six of us were lying around on the floor,
me in, because his reflection showed up in
watching a girl walk down the upstairs hall in
my peripheral vision. His dragon breath made
her dead friend’s house, opening each door
me wince.
slowly, to check for clues. I was half watching
“Come on, let me feel them,” he said,
the movie and half hating my pre-algebra
forcing his hands up my shirt.
teacher, who was grouchy and ugly. She had
“It’s three in the morning, and your girlpoodle hair and a huge ass that her polyester
friend is out there sleeping. Don’t you think
Trinie reading her short story in the west courtyard
pants barely stretched over.
this is a little weird?” I asked.
of the Schindler House. [ET]
“You know,” I said, “having a teacher that
“She doesn’t care.”
isn’t butt ugly really would make math class better. Fat teachers should
“I’m too young for you,” I offered. I was 13, he was 20.
be illegal.”
I thought of my sleeping bag, covered with Snoopies and Belles,
Everyone ignored me. “Why do they always do exactly what I Snoopy’s twin dog girlfriend, and how it should have had me in it, it
wouldn’t do if Freddy was in the house?” my friend asked.
should have been keeping me warm this very minute. Instead, a dude
“I know, it’s not even scary. She’s so stupid you want her to die,” was pushing me really hard against a towel rack.
another girl said.
“Ow! You’re hurting me. Let me go,” I said through my teeth.
“Be quiet,” he said. I could feel his hard-on on my hip bone.
“Um, does that mean you all like math?” I asked. “You like looking
“Let go or I’ll scream,” I said finally.
at Mrs. Farris’ big-ass ass?”
I wandered back down the hall and crawled into my sack,
“Stop talking about asses,” someone mumbled.
happy to be surrounded by all my sleeping girlfriends. Picturing
Blood splattered on the camera lens.
We had seen Freddy kill one too many people. The plot was pre- Snoopy and his gentle female companion, I petted my sleeping
dictable, and we didn’t get surprised anymore, there was no rush or bag’s flannel lining in the dark.
tension. The moon was bright, and it lit the shrubbery while we gazed Another time two years later, I went to a super lame slumber party
where the mom tried too hard by making bowls of “brains” out of cold,
out windows to devise a plan.
[55]
cooked spaghetti, and “eyeballs” with frozen grapes. Theme parties
were out of style; to plan anything out, especially if it was supposed
to be scary, was the most uncool thing ever. We watched Halloween,
and took turns in the kitchen making English muffin pizzas, muffins
with tomato sauce and jack cheese melted on top of them in the
toaster oven. During my solo muffin shift, I was spooning on tomato
sauce while imagining it was bloody guts, and I got the idea to set
one out on the porch, as a snack that would attract killers. The party
needed a boost.
I made an extra muffin, put it out on a paper towel behind the potted petunias on my friend’s porch, and went back inside to watch the
movie. Michael Myers wandered stiffly through backyards on the
screen. Once in awhile I looked out the window to see if a man in a mechanic’s suit was feasting on the pizza.
“What are you looking for?” my friend asked.
“I’m just seeing if anyone’s out there,” I replied.
“You’re afraid!” they all laughed.
“I don’t think so. I’m bored. Let’s go out or something. I’ve seen this
movie a million times,” I said.
We all got dressed and took the parents’ car up to the Haunted
Forest, at the top of a street that dead-ended at the beginning of
mountainous foothills. Wrought-iron gates guarded the entrance to an
abandoned estate where an eccentric millionaire lived during Victorian
times. There were relics, like the house’s crumbled foundation and random bricks scattered in the dirt, and it was a great party spot.
The moon was out, not full, but bright enough to help us get to a
hill above the old house. We had some wine coolers, and a joint to
smoke. Sitting around on the rocks, checking out the view, we were
pretty chill until two dark human shapes appeared on the trail we’d
taken up, then two guys stood in front of us, kind of blocking our
way down.
They made conversation with us, about where we were from,
what school we went to, what we liked to drink, but they wouldn’t really leave us alone. They were our parent’s age, bearded, gruff like bikers. By the time they started getting creepy, only one girl was still talking
to them, probably because she was afraid to shut up.
“Do you girls have underwear on?” one guy asked.
We all giggled nervously, and said yeah, duh, of course.
It was weird, the other guy was silent now, but he had the most
evil energy, like his silhouette in the moonlight was darker than the other
guy’s. His shadow was longer on the ground, too.
The evil guy said, in a lowered voice, “If you show ‘em to us, we’ll
let you girls get back to your party.”
So I offered to show him my underwear, but nothing else. You
can’t even touch it, I said. I wanted them to go away, and this was the
quickest way. We made a deal, and I presented from under my long
skirt a pair of dark pink satin underwear, that had small ruffled fringes
around the seams. Small white polkadots, too, that glowed in the
dark. I’d just got them at the mall a few weeks before. They’d looked
so cute in the store, but now the dots took on this sickly appearance,
as if the panties had measles.
He took the underwear from me and rubbed the back of his other hand
on them. We all sat quietly, waiting to see what he’d do next. He spit
in them, a big loogie that he hocked up, not just spittle, rubbed it
around, and handed them back.
“Put ‘em on,” he said firmly.
I pulled them half way on, thinking he’d never know, but he told me
to lift up my skirt to make sure they were pulled all the way up. He
brushed his paw up against my crotch to make sure the spit was
touching it. I was so pissed, but totally quiet. After all, I could take a
shower when we got back.
The next day on the phone, in hushed tones behind locked bedroom doors, we talked about how twisted those guys were, how disgusting and perverted and pathetic men could be, how desperate
they must have been. There was no real issue of whether or not I
was alright, because he didn’t hurt me. I just kept thinking about how
slimy the spit was, and I tried not to picture it in the light, how it
could’ve been brown and dark yellow, like men’s loogies are, if they
smoke. I pictured my underwear, out in the middle of the road where
I tossed them out the car window, being driven over by car after car.
They were the last possession I ever wanted near me physically. I
thought, if I saw those underwear on the rack at the department store
[56]
where my mom bought them for me, I’d rush to the bathroom. The
Salon Memory
worst part was, I pictured the guy at home alone afterwards, thinking
of my crotch and the silence, getting busy in his loser armchair with
Murder at The Schindler House—I had the pitchfork in my
a can of beer in his other hand.
neck and I was lying there motionless. Time just melted away,
It’s not that I was afraid to watch horror movies after that, but we
I could recognize people’s voices but couldn’t move my head
just got out of the habit because we were always sneaking out to get
to see anyone. People felt compelled to talk to me, but I
drunk instead of staying home in our pajamas like a bunch of pussies.
needed to stay in character. Someone put a beer on my belly
As an older teenager, I thought back to
and then removed it immediately after
the slumber party days, and wished we
some giggling. Other people set up a
had done more things at home that
little picnic area and began to eat dinwe’d seen in the movies, like have pilner. I could hear Los Super Elegantes
low fights in our lingerie. But we didn’t
and then after a while D’Argento took
even have lingerie. Did polkadotted pink
over and I couldn’t hear anything but
panties count? I didn’t think so. I didn’t
an ambient beautiful sound that made
understand what steps I’d missed; we
me feel like I was in a movie for the
went straight from watching gory
rest of the evening. After a few hours
movies to getting bored with those
I decided to get up and walk around.
movies to getting drunk or high beI pulled the fork out and slowly started
cause we were bored. But now that I
moving. The flashlight that was
wanted the innocence back, I couldn’t
placed next to me as my last minute
Dawn
Kasper
sprawled
out
dead
in
the
back
corner
of
the
gardens
get it. Pillow fights were fake, idiotic and
lighting solution had burned out. I got
performing “Evil Series #16: Murder at The Schindler House.” [ET]
messy. Flipping through yearbooks was
up and walked around, thought about
fine, but it wasn’t a Friday night activity. Mostly, I just wanted to hang
getting my portrait taken but there was a line so I walked
with my girlfriends, smoke weed and not be harassed.
around front to catch the belly dancer. Leaning against the
Now, when I watch Slumber Party Massacre, or The Last Slumpitchfork for support I watched transfixed as the belly dancer
ber Party, and I see girls chewing gum with their tits bobbing up and
moved and shook, activating the space around her. I wished
down beneath their cropped T-shirts, and in their cutest, whitest
that I could let go of my muscles and fall to the ground.
panties that look so clean and perfect, I trip out on how they seem
DAWN KASPE R
so carefree and cheerful while getting their lives interrupted by men
DAWN KASPER is a Los Angeles
based performance and mixed
who can’t control themselves. I think of a reverse chrysalis—like
media artist exploring the web of
they’re kids who come out of a paradisiacal state only to enter their
questions that are the meaning of
own personal hell. Picture a butterfly emerging from a cocoon and
life and death. She has exhibited at
the Migros Museum Für Genencrawling directly into a different, evil one. I didn’t like being ensnared,
wartskunst in Zurich, the J. Paul
but at least now I appreciate watching it happen on screen—the satGetty Museum, Los Angeles, Art
Basel Art Positions Miami Beach
isfaction comes from knowing the girls’ fates ahead of time and from
and shown video at Art in General,
having a god-like, omnipotent perspective.
NY and Copy Gallery, Philadelphia.
[57]
10
Boys! A Very Gay Salon
02.01.04
7:00pm–midnight
WALL PAINTINGS BY: Anna Sew Hoy
READINGS BY: Matty Lee, Clint Catalyst
ARTWORK BY: Amy Adler, Jeff Burton, Eve Fowler, Dean Sameshima
FILM SCREENINGS BY: Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland
MUSICAL PERFORMANCES BY: Hot Licks (Giles Miller), Alex Segade & Malik Gaines, DJ Lecia Dole Recio
[58]
a very special, very
superbowl sunday,
very homosexual salon
Any Boy Now
By Anna Sew Hoy
This time, we were gathering in the Dome to celebrate our Desire.
My favorite boy is Jenny Shimizu. Once I co-starred with
Unveiling of new wall paintings
her in a Super-8 film. In the movie, Jenny stole me away
from my nerdy bicycle-riding boyfriend,
by Anna Sew Hoy
JEFF BURTON is a photographer
threw me on the back of her Triumph and
based in Los Angeles. His work has
been exhibited internationally. He
we rode away through industrial L.A.
Readings by authors Matty Lee
is represented by Casey Kaplan
After a fast turn around a corner, my finGallery in New York.
and Clint Catalyst
gers pressed hard into her hips. Jenny
turned her face toward me slightly and said, “Ok?”
RICHARD GLATZER earned a
Ph.D. in American Literature from
I was supposed to act scared. When the shoot was
University of Virginia. Glatzer’s
Film screenings in the dome the
over, she joked around with her motorbike brother,
first feature Grief won top prize at
San Francisco’s Frameline Festival.
curated by Richard Glatzer His television career includes stints Danielle, and shot Cheez Wiz from a can onto my
cracker.
on The Osbournes, Road Rules, and
& Wash Westmoreland
I had been at Fritz’s the entire week previous,
America’s Next Top Model. Glatzer
and co-director Wash Westmoreworking
on a mural, which wrapped around the freeincluding Jean Genet’s
land’s latest movie Quinceanera
standing bathroom in the lower cave. I wanted to
won the Audience Award and
‘Un Chant d’Amour’
Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
paint Fritz’s object of desire, and he chose certain
male models in Calvin Klein underwear
WASH WESTMORELAND, a writer
ads.
I layered line drawings of these boys
Artwork by Amy Adler, Jeff Burton, and director originally from Leeds,
over the charcoal-colored walls in darker
has emigrated to America, sired a
Eve Fowler & Dean Sameshima
child by sperm donation, married a
and
lighter greys. His obsession was now
bearded lady, spent six months unpart of the architecture of the house.
dercover with the Log Cabin Republicans, obtained a degree in
Amy Adler’s piece was also of a Calvin
Special musical performances by
Political Science, made several acKlein model, eyes gently closed, renclaimed gay adult movies, become a
dered in black and white. Fritz put in
‘Hot Licks’ on saxophone and the
member of a religious cult, lived in
Japan, won Sundance, and preworks from his series of larger-than-lifeduo Alex Segade & Malik Gaines
sented Jean Genet’s “Un Chant
size male models catwalking, rendered in
D’Amour” at Sundown Salon #10.
diamond dust. These were works of idealized
males,
served
up
for an admiring populace.
Dancing to the music of DJ Lecia
Eve Fowler photographed a kid passed out on the grass. He
Dole Recio
has acne and a shirt covered in skulls. She told me how it went:
[59]
It was 1994. Eve was taking pictures of boys she found on Santa Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer screened flesh flix and
Monica Boulevard for her “100 Hustlers” series. She found classic queer films. We looked up at the ceiling to see movthe kid, a junkie, and offered to buy him a FatBurger in ex- ing pictures of men in sailor suits smoking and undressing.
change for taking his picture. He ate the burger, and they Night fell, and we could see through the triangular window
went to a park on Curson Avenue. She
of the dome, headlights and brake
posed him on the grass. He started
lights twinkling from the 2 freeway.
sinking lower and lower to the ground,
The performative part of the show
finally nodding off. Eve told me that
was beginning back down in the cave.
when she took the picture of him lying
Boys and those in boy-drag lay on
on the grass, eyes closed, he mumbled,
lounge pad furniture. Matty and Clint
“What did you put in my burger?”
read their stories. Various hustles and
Dean Sameshima hung snapshots
sex acts were described as the audience
salon-style, sharing a wall with my
oohed and aahed. Malik Gaines and
mural. Some were of the graffiti that
Alex Segade got on stage and took off
had collected in a certain place on
their pants, giving us a great view of
Sunset Boulevard, which existed as
their thighs. They started with an
an impromptu Elliot Smith memorial.
acoustic set of songs they had written,
Anna’s wall paintings of underwear models in the cave. [FH]
The graffiti read: “lost in this world,”
but could not play with their band My
“no one deserves it,” “I’m a junkyard
Barbarian because they were deemed
full of false starts,” and “we barely knew ye, too soon.” Dean “too gay.” They headed a campfire sing-along of “The Rose,”
mixed these with photographs of Esteban, a shirtless boy and we all sang with passion, getting rowdy, drunk and horny.
wearing a tie and jeans. Dean described the work as “a way There was making out amongst the crew. “Hot licks” aka
of doing a self-portrait, as well as dreaming of being someone Giles Miller busted on stage with a boombox and a fedora.
of importance, yearning for adoration, to be
The tape played a hip-hop medley and Hot
ANNA SEW HOY is a New Zealandsomeone’s hero.”
Licks blew the horn to it, making the sound
born artist living in Los Angeles. In
2007
she
was
included
in
“Eden’s
Jeff Burton contributed a slide show of an
bigger and bigger, a soulful saxophone freakat the Hammer Museum in
awkward, skinny blonde doing a striptease. Edge,”
out. He had a black eye to boot! The crowd
Los Angeles and in “One Way or
This was a departure from his classic photo- Another,” at the Asia Society in New went wild — after sitting so long feeling each
graphs, which show only the edges of a York. She has exhibited interna- other up, we had to dance.
tionally and had solo exhibitions in
pornographic scenario. The striptease was New
DJ Lecia Dole-Recio, the best of Echo
York and Los Angeles. Anna is
photographed directly, and the added sound- the recipient of a United States Park and beyond, hit the decks with a tranFellowship, and was an
track made the piece seem like a short movie. Artists
scendent mix of electro soul. The boys went
artist-in-residence at the Marie
The stripper grins unevenly, and gets his red Walsh Sharpe Foundation.
wild, tearing each other’s clothes off and jumpbriefs stuffed with dollar bills. For this
ing up and down. L.A.’s Finest, the AsianSalon, Eve, Dean and Jeff were interested in finding de- lady DJ crew crashed the party in moustaches. They bared
sire in the flawed boys.
their chests, which looked just like the chests of young boys.
We were pounding beers. Upstairs in the dome, Wash We danced and posed and dry-humped into the night…
[60]
Paper Cut Bob
By Matty Lee
(An excerpt from the book “35 Cents,”
Read by the author at Sundown Salon #10)
I got to the gas station where Bob worked as a mechanic at
close to five o’clock and found him standing by the dumpster
out back. He hadn’t seen me yet, so I just stood there for a
minute thinking things over. Was I sure about this? If I had
a type, Bob was definitely not it. He was about five foot four
and two hundred and eighty pounds; pudgy to say the least.
Even in his mechanics’ coveralls, he looked like a fat, messy
little kid. To call him ugly would be too kind. Weird and a little scary was a better way of describing him. His curly black
hair was always covered in dandruff, his skin was always
greasy and his breath always stank. He wore those athletic
tube socks with red and blue stripes that only dorks and small
kids wore. I would have felt sorry for him if I hadn’t known
he was a great big, fat, fucking pervert.
So I just stood there watching him for a couple minutes,
wondering if I was making a mistake. Then Bob flicked his
cigarette into the wind, which flicked it right back at him.
He freaked out and started patting his chest like a baboon to
put out the smoldering ashes. I started to laugh. “Why the
fuck not,” I thought, “at least he’s entertaining.”
“Hey, Bob. Don’t get too close to the pumps while you’re
burning like that!” I joked.
When Bob saw me his face turned redder than usual. “God
damn cheap cigarettes,” he said. “What are you up to kiddo?”
“Nothing man, when are you getting off work?”
“Oh, I can get outta here in about twenty minutes, why
you asking?”
“I need a place to stay, Bob.”
That was one of the most painful things I had ever said,
but I tried to look enthusiastic. Bob didn’t need to try. He
looked like he just remembered it was his birthday and he was
hungry for cake.
It’s only about a 40-minute drive from Miami Beach to
Bob’s house in Ft. Lauderdale, but that day it seemed like
the longest drive of my life. Bob didn’t shut up once the entire ride. He told me all about his “connections.” He knew
Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Ozzy; all the great rock stars.
And if things worked out well for us, I might get to be a stagehand for the Stones. How lovely for me. I knew he was full of
shit, but something in me wanted to believe him anyway. It
was strange how much I wanted to believe back then. So I
just tuned Bob out and started daydreaming about being a
roadie for the Stones, until some distraction would bring me
back to reality and I’d find myself riding in fat Bob’s filthy
fucking car. It’s no wonder I daydreamed so much.
In my daydreams I was living with a beautiful librarian. I was always taking out the trash or fixing the leak under
the kitchen sink. We would lie in bed reading every night and
then discuss the books in the dark. Somehow we always ended
up making passionate love—in my dreams; in reality, I had
fat fucking Bob and his bad breath and dandruff. He went on
talking about his famous friends for the entire ride. You know,
a guy could really go far hanging out with Bob. Like right
to bed; or so I thought, but Bob had other stranger plans.
When we got to his house Bob played it cool for a couple of
hours, then out came the pornos. Straight ones right off the bat.
“Right on,” I was thinking, “this could work out after all.”
But there was something strange about Bob’s attitude towards
the pornos, it was like he had a purely scientific interest. Then
he got out a pad and a pencil and started taking notes.
“Damn,” Bob yelled, “that’s not the position I designed.
This director is always screwing up my moves!”
Then, once he knew he had my attention. “Oh, sorry,
kiddo, I have to get some work done. This is my second job, the
one that makes me rich.”
[61]
He didn’t look rich to me.
“Yup,” Bob said, “I invent new positions for these adult
movies.”
All I could say was, “What?”
“Oh yeah, they run out of new positions to do it in, and
that’s where I come in. I design the new ones.”
Did he think I was buying this shit? “I bet that pays
well,” I said sarcastically.
“Oh, sure,” Bob replied, “they pay me ten dollars a position and I can do about twenty positions in a night. The only
problem is I need a helper.”
So here it came; the question, they all had a different way
of getting there, but the question was always the same.
“Do you know anyone who wants to make some fast
money?”
“I don’t know. What do you have to do?”
“Just help me invent new positions for the movies is all.
It’s easy. You just have to pose in these new positions while I
create a template.”
“OK,” I said, trying not to laugh. “How much will I
get paid?”
“I’ll split it with you kiddo, and that’s a good deal. After
all, it’s me who’s coming up with all the ideas; you just have to
lie there.”
“OK,” was all I could say; I mean I had come this far
already, right?
So Bob turned off the movie and took all the dirty clothes
and damp towels off his bed and then he told me to take off all
my clothes. That was for realism, he explained. And then the
freak show began. It was fucking hard to believe how seriously Bob took his act. He got me to pose on all fours, and
then on my back with my legs in the air, and then he covered
me in these dirty old newspapers. I mean literally covering me
in filthy fucking newspapers! I’d been wondering what all
the newspapers were about; they were stacked everywhere.
His apartment looked like someone was doing a paper drive.
And all the time he was wearing these ugly bifocals with a
black magic marker stuck behind his ear. To make matters
worse, fat Bob got undressed too.
So picture this, if you can. A five-foot-four, fat, naked
and extremely hairy guy with bad breath and dandruff, wearing only bifocals and dirty Fruit of the Loom underwear, running around the bed making marks on newspapers that are
covering my naked body. And Bob was fucking frantic. He
kept yelling stuff like, “Perfecto!” and “Bravisimo!” or,
“Hold that one, don’t move a hair!” The only reason I could
keep a straight face was that he was a little scary. Then he got
this pathetic, little boner and I was terrified that I might
start laughing. I mean, this was fucking ludicrous right?
But I didn’t laugh. Actually, it wasn’t really all that
funny, this position I was in. Not literally, just the fact that
I was now stuck in Ft. Lauderdale with fat Bob the freak.
“OK,” he said, “that’s enough of the solo poses. Time to
do the action couple shots!”
“Wait a minute,” I asked. “How many was that?”
“Ten,” Bob said.
“It felt more like thirty!”
“Well it wasn’t,” he said. “We only did ten usable new positions. Now you’re distracting me. Do you want to make more
money or what?”
“OK,” I mumbled.
So then Bob climbs into the bed with me and starts arranging us into all kinds of sexual positions and once we were
in a suitable “new” position, he would drag the newspapers
up on top of us. Then he would make little tears in the paper
where our bodies were touching.
“These are the templates,” he explained.
“Whatever,” I said.
This went on for about half an hour and then Bob would
exclaim, “I’ve got it,” and we moved on to another so-called
“new” position.
Bob achieved bliss in about the one-hundredth new position. He never took his underwear off. I guess he was thinking that if he didn’t cum, then what we did was legit. So he
[62]
shot his load into his shorts and I wasn’t supposed to notice. badly that I just shut off my ability to reason for a little while.
The filthy creep never even changed his fucking underwear. I suspended my disbelief. I couldn’t hear Bob anymore. I
He just stood up and announced, “That’s a wrap!” Then he was gone, starring in my very own child porn film.
started getting dressed. So I didn’t even get to cum? This was
Later, when we got home, he went into his bedroom for a couabsolutely the worst trick I’d ever done. When I finished tak- ple of minutes while I watched TV. When he reappeared he was
ing a shower to get the smell of Bob off me, not to mention all carrying a large manila folder. He walked over to where I was
the fucking black newspaper ink, Bob said he wanted to go out sitting on the couch and dropped the folder down next to me.
to eat at Morrison’s Cafeteria. Well, where else would a guy
“There you go, champ, all the girls in this folder are
like fat Bob eat?
available for work next weekend. Take your pick.”
Later on, when we’d finished our “home-cooked” meal, I
I opened the folder and found a neat stack of photos cut
asked him for the cash and he said he couldn’t pay me until right out of magazines. They were all of young girls from
he got paid, which was thirty days after he submitted his about twelve to sixteen. He must have cut them out of “Sevwork. “But the royalties,” he explained, “the MATTY LEE received his GED from enteen” or “Miss Magazine,” but I looked
royalties are where we make all the money!” the Dade County School Board them over anyway. I spent hours trying to desometime in the late eighties. He
Now I was fucking pissed. “What the fuck went
cide which girl I wanted to work with. When I
on to attend Los Angeles ComBob, you owe me a hundred bucks!”
finally made up my mind I handed a picture to
munity College but lost interest after
I. He’s been employed as a
“Sorry, champ, can’t help you out until I Spanish
Bob
and said, “I like her.”
tree climber, bartender, medical reget paid. We’re both in the same boat.”
It was a full-length shot of a young girl
search patient, deckhand, gravedig“Like hell we are Bob! I’m not even in ger, telephone repairman, salesman, sitting at a small wooden school desk, chewing
fabric librarian, night watchman,
the same fucking ocean with you!”
on a pencil and trying to look perplexed. She
and customer service representative.
Bob handled my outburst like a patient fahad big dark eyes, and wore black plastic eyether. “Take it easy, kiddo. We’ll get paid soon enough. I’ll glasses like Elvis Costello. She had medium-length chestnut
cover your expenses until then and you can pay me back. Be- brown hair and a fair complexion. Her breasts were just startsides, I haven’t even told you about the best part yet!”
ing to develop beneath her white blouse. Under the desk you
“Oh, I’m fucking quivering with anticipation, Bob.”
could see her plaid school skirt and just enough of her milky
“OK,” he said, “joke all you want. But you don’t wanna white thighs to make you squint and try to see a little further.
miss out on this opportunity.”
My eyes kept drifting down further to her white knee-high
I fell for the bait. “What opportunity Bob?”
socks and black patent leather shoes. Don’t get me wrong.
“Well, you’re great at modeling the new positions, but I I’m not into schoolgirls with plaid skirts and all. I mean I’m
think I need someone smaller than me to work with you. Be- not into schoolgirls in the Japanese fetish sense or anything.
sides, I can’t work and pose at the same time anymore.”
But she just looked so damn smart. She was the hot sexy li“So what are you trying to say Bob?” I asked.
brarian of my dreams and I fell in love immediately.
“What I’m saying is that we need someone closer to your
“Oh, nice choice,” said Bob. “That’s Dianne; let me give
size that you can pose with. Don’t worry, champ, I’ve already her agent a call.”
got a few girls in mind.”
And off he went into the bedroom. I could hear him makAnd I’ll never forgive myself for falling for that one. I ing his fake call in a voice way too loud for the phone, and
mean I knew he was lying, but I wanted to believe him so couldn’t help but chuckle. Bob was definitely a fucking freak.
[63]
Salon Memories
When he came back to the living room he said, “OK, champ. She’s
available for next weekend on Saturday. It’s all set up.” He took back
the folder, but I kept the picture of Dianne. Well, what else was I
I admit I haven’t been to all of the Sundown
going to call her?
Salons, but that doesn’t matter, as I’m certain
I knew Bob was full of shit and all, but I couldn’t help dreaming
that my favorite was one of the best Salons
about Dianne every second for the next week. Everyday, Bob got home
EVER! Though #8: “Hot Rods n’ Hot Pants”
at seven or so and I met him at the front door. Of course he didn’t let me
is a VERY close second. My absolute fave was
stay in his house alone during the day. I just wandered around Ft.
#10: “Boys: A Very Gay Salon.” That was the
Lauderdale daydreaming and smoking. At night we did the usual newsnight/morning I ended up in jail for “driving
paper routine and pretty soon Bob was into me for like fifteen hundred
under the influence” which, funnily enough, rebucks, minus the five he gave me everyday for food and cigarettes.
minded me how Very Gay I am. When the
The following Saturday, I was all nerves. I was at Bob’s door at
“Boy Salon” came to an end, despite my
five pacing up and down the corridor. Of course, Bob showed up at
friends’ objections, I stubbornly insisted I was
seven-thirty with the bad news; Dianne’s agent had called him at work
able to drive home. After a “few” illegal lane
and they had to re-schedule for the next weekend. But hey, the Stones
changes and numerous failed sobriety tests I was
were on tour and Bob had made a call to his buddy, Turtle, who guarcuffed and driven to some Pasadena jailhouse.
anteed him that there was a job for me starting next Sunday and payAfter much questioning, the confiscation of my
ing two hundred dollars a day! On
possessions, and another pat-down,
tour with the Stones! Wow, maybe I
an officer asked me if I wanted to
could even bring Dianne. Then
be in a gay or straight cell. I
again, maybe not…
replied, “What the fuck is that
Like I said, Bob gave me five
supposed to mean?!” I was inbucks a day for food and cigarettes.
sulted, as I assumed I “passed” as
So, I didn’t eat. I was squirreling
straight, HA! I know I was sluraway some cash for a rainy day. I
ring, but perhaps I was lisping
would steal food while Bob took his
and slurring at the same time?
morning shower and then eat like a
Now that’s talent. The arresting
pig at night when he got home. I
officer insisted I get my own solistayed at Bob’s for over two months,
tary cell, as I was “very uncoopAlex
Segade
&
Malik
Gaines
passed
out
the
lyrics
to
every night another story, and every
erative” (damn! The gay cell
“The Rose” by Bette Midler for a pantsless sing along:
night the same “position game.”
could
have been productive!).
Some say love it is a river, that drowns the tender reed
Some
say
love
it
is
a
razor,
that
leaves
your
soul
to
bleed....
After about ten more stories and the
Anyhow, earlier that night
[FH]
subsequent let-downs, I had about a
when I entered “Boy Salon,” I
hundred bucks saved up.
found myself surrounded by many dear friends,
One day I woke up and just split. I didn’t think about it or plan
past tricks and cute possibilities. After a few
it; I just got on a bus headed back to Miami. I never saw Bob again,
glamour photo ops with my partner in crime,
but that happens a lot in my line of work.
Javier Peres, we ran straight for the booze. Sev[64]
eral (?) drinks later I tried to catch the readings. I was too
restless to sit, concentrate and focus. I think I made out with
Tom Texas Holmes? I do remember seeing my ongoing crush,
Beckett, in the arms of another. Then came Malik and Alex
singing in their underwear and their voices were superb as
usual, though the snug underwear they donned was a bit distracting, in a good way of course. I kept shouting to them to
take their shirts off, but no luck. I think we did a sing-along
to “The Rose” by Bette Midler, right? Gosh I love that
song. If there weren’t so many people around I would have
cried. Then there was Giles blowing his lungs away on the
sax, unfortunately with his pants on, DARN! Next, Lecia
was on the wheels of steel pounding out the jams (yeah she’s a
great artist, but she’s also a master DJ). I proceeded to drink
whatever I was handed while dancing all over the place.
Richard and Wash screened my second favorite film ever,
“Un Chant D’Amour,” somewhat fitting as my desires seem
to never be fulfilled, not even in a Pasadena jail cell.
Matty doing his first ever reading, seeming kind of fragile and maybe on the verge of tears right there in Fritz’s
cave. I was on the verge of tears.
Eve Fowler had a gorgeous photo of a nodded-out
street urchin on display (which Matty incidentally became obsessed with and may end up using on the cover of
his book “35 Cents”, forthcoming from Suspect Thoughts
Press).
DA R I N K L E I N
It was during that moment when my chest turns into an open
space, an interminable length of time when it seems like a
panel of chain-link fence gets peeled back, lies in wait for a
surge of emotions to slip inside.
Then. Just as my mouth rearranged itself around the poem’s
final words— “A wad/of cold sheets/on my bed ”— it was then,
when I no longer recognized my voice but rather the blink of
silence
following. That’s when I noticed him.
D E A N SA M E S H I M A
I’m sure I stood frozen in some exaggerated pose, arms
akimbo or even more likely, right hand extended with a copy
Christopher Russell and I showed up to support our of “Cottonmouth Kisses” still perched in the air, armor to
friend and collaborator Matty Lee. I reshield me from what would or wouldn’t happen
DEAN SAMESHIMA lives and
member Matty’s girlfriend, Lucia, and I works in Los Angeles and Berlin. next. Applause. The immediacy of approval
sitting on either side of him with our arms His work has been exhibited at Tate every performer yearns for, even and especially
Modern, Gagosian Gallery, Gallery
wrapped around him after he read “Paper- Sora,
those who claim they don’t.
Tokyo and Indianapolis Mucut Bob.” He was really shaken up from seum of Art. His work has been feaThen came the clamor of acclamation, the
tured
in
periodicals
such
as
Art
stage fright I guess but also from telling this
sounds of hands clapping, of slurred hurrahs
Forum, Index, and The New York
intense story, and our arms were kind of in- Times.
and a high-pitched whistle. My cue to step
“Instilled and Lost,” featuring
selected
works,
was
published
tertwining across the back of his shoulders to
from the stage not really a stage in this home
Peres Projects. Other catalogues
make a safe and comforting place for him. by
not exactly a “home” as I knew it, but a geoinclude “Hysteric Seven”(2002),
Clint Catalyst read work at that salon too, and “Young Men At Play, vol. 1 & 2.” desic dome.
and it was such a good combination, Clint
For a hot second, our eyes met. His: dark,
and Matty. Clint is so sure, so performative in his story- with a sparkle that followed when I looked away. Not as in
telling, and the stories are always funny and fierce and “tracers,” the stuff of flash-backs, symptoms from drugs
filled with pearls of wisdom. So you had him sassing you with consonants for names.
with his veteran literati stage presence and you also had
More like: as I navigated my way to Pedro, Wash and
[65]
Richard—the few people I knew at this hormone-charged I remember it being pretty chilly and dark when I rolled in,
salon with “Boys” as its motif—
a lil’ high maybe, to what was a real steamy sausage party
the text of my body was besieged with active CLINT CATALYST is a native of which included the best queens, a few girls and
Giles. God bless Giles, he really kept that
Arkansas now based in Los Angeles.
verbs and question marks. Would I dare to He
is not only a writer: in his multicrowd
real. I was feeling a lil’ like how you feel
venture upstairs with him?
faceted creative career he has modat a fag bar—self-conscious and mean.
eled, made a name for himself as a
Despite its cred as the white-hot center of spoken word performer, worked as a Tillmans had shot Morrissey for Index that
stylist and art director, edited fashWhere Art Lives, I recognized this dome from ion
month and I struck up a conversation with
stories, and acted in films.
another context. Recently I’d seen The Hole,
pornographer Wash West about how the
a skin flick in which the final scene culminates in a luscious Smiths were probably the real generative output of
free-for-all on the top floor.
straight/queer friction. We also agreed that watching porn in
I’d heard whispers of a similar scenario happening in me- a not-so-anonymous screening situation totally fucking
dias res, and as much as I tried to listen to the performer who sucked—porn just demands a more meditative viewing space.
followed me, it was. I was. Hard. With that beautiful boy, litDownstairs everybody kicked their shoes off and piled
tle more than an arm’s reach away.
onto the modular furniture all slumber-party styles, super
My imagination is active; though my physique at the cute. Eli was making out in front of me when Malik and
time? Puffy, post-speed flab that
Alex pulled their pants off and
rendered me uncomfortable in the
sung a few songs “too faggy” for
flesh I inhabited.
their band My Barbarian. They
And my skin? Remained
had passed out lyric sheets to
clothed, not “ho”ed out, as I wish
Bette’s, “The Rose,” and you
it would’ve been.
could tell this was going to be just
I didn’t even introduce myself to
way too much for these uptight
that spiky-haired little number, let
guys. Everybody started singing
alone coax him into my own take on the
along though. Maybe it was ‘cause
Triple-X.
I was a lil’ wasted or maybe I was
Thin and long-limbed: same as the
pissed for not having been asked to
memory I have of him, stretched-out. Tom Texas Holmes & Dean Sameshima in a tender moment. [FH] be a part of the show but, I started
Three? Four? Has it been five years
singing out really loud just taking
since then?
over the song and making it my thang. It was embarrassAll this time, and I still see his caramel-hued complexion ing and awesome and what I imagine Bette would have
screened in my mind. A story of me, a beautiful boy, and what wanted. There is a pic from that night of me and Dean and
might have been. Really not so much a story, as it is.
he never looked cuter. I’m sure I made out with someone
The description of an absence.
that night but I can’t for the life of me remember who. I
remember
walking back to my car thinking this was a real
C L I N T C ATA LY S T
fine time to be a faggot in L.A.
TOM TEXAS HOLMES
[66]
11
KnitKnit
02.22.04
1:00–9:00pm
ORGANIZED WITH: Sabrina Gschwandtner of KnitKnit, Sara Grady
WORK BY: Lisa Anne Auerbach, Church of Craft, Liz Collins, Clare Crespo,
Dearraindrop, Jim Drain, Feral Childe, Robert Fontenot, Jen Hofer,
Daniel Marlos, Bridget Marrin, Tina Marrin, Althea Merback, Eugene Ong,
Adam Sidell, Michele Smith, Melissa Thorne, Tiny Industries
[67]
THIS CELEBRATION OF EXTREME KNITTING,
RADICAL CRAFT AND THE HANDMADE INCLUDED:
(1) PEOPLE MAKING STUFF ALL OVER
Everyone is invited to find a cozy spot in the Sundown
residence to get comfortable and spend the afternoon
working on projects. By the end of the evening, the house
is littered with yarn and fabric scraps from dome to cave.
(2) UNRAVELING GATHERING
Vintage sweaters are unraveled and the yarn is reclaimed to
re-knit into new incarnations.
(3) HANDMADE CREATIONS
& INSTALLATIONS
People wear things they made & projects are on view:
LISA ANNE AUERBACH - knitted geodesic hat!
LIZ COLLINS - masks, clothing and knitted dresses
CLARE CRESPO - a crocheted ham dinner
DEARRAINDROP - incognito in handmade costume
JIM DRAIN - knitted armbands and eye of god
ROBERT FONTENOT - embroidered messages
DANIEL MARLOS - knitted placemats with homemade
pies on top
BRIDGET MARRIN - knitted regulator, hands & dioramas
TINA MARRIN - knitted boots + dome full of other
creations
ALTHEA MERBACK - knitted miniatures
EUGENE ONG - knitted wedding dress & more
ADAM SIDELL - installation & knitted cocoon performance
MELISSA THORNE - paintings
TINY INDUSTRIES - embroidered scenes & dioramas
(4) CHURCH OF CRAFT MEETING
The regular monthly meeting of the Los Angeles chapter
of the Church of Craft is held in the dome.
The Church of Craft aims to create an environment
where any and all acts of making have value to our humanness. When we find moments of creation in our everyday activities, we also find simple satisfaction.
The power of creating gives us the confidence to live
our lives with all the love we can. By promoting creativity, we offer access to a non-denominational spiritual
practice that is self-determined and proactive.
The Church of Craft maintains no dogma or doctrine beyond what every member believes for themselves. Allison
Dalton is the ordained reverend and Jenne Patrick is vice-reverend of the Los Angeles chapter.
(5) MUSIC TO KNIT TO
Musicians are invited to submit one song or composition
that makes good knitting listening, a new piece, or an old
one. Music by My Barbarian, Steven Vitiello, Jeff Goddard,
Dan Perlin & Becky Stark, and Tan As Fuck are included.
(6) PERFORMANCE BY FERAL CHILDE
Participants are solicited from subways and sidewalks
alike for “Kung Fu Shek (Shek-in-the-Box)” featuring
original music by Jenahk, and quoting teevee, J-pop, and
anime anything, balloons and whirligigs.
[68]
(6) KNITTED LIGHT
Films and videos related to radical knitting and handcraft
are screened against the cave wall after sundown:
STEPHEN BECK - “Video Weavings” 1976 - 9 min - video
CHARLES & RAY EAMES - “Textiles and Ornamental Arts
of India” 1955 - 11 min - video
MICHEL GONDRY - Music video - 2004 - 2 min - video
not necessarily against technology but rather employ existent materials, techniques and sensibilities in a more
immediate, hands-on approach to art making.
KnitKnit functions both as a forum for these ideas
with interviews, reviews, profiles and articles and as an instructive tool (Issue #2 consisted entirely of project
directions and recipes).
In addition to the publication, KnitKnit also produces,
often in collaboration with other organizations, exhibitions, film and video screenings, and musical performances.
YAYOI KUSAMA & JUD YALKUT - “Kusama’s Self Obliteration” - 1967 - 24min - 16 mm film
MICHELE SMITH - “Like All Bad Men, He Looks Attractive” - 2003 - 23 min - video
(7) ESCRITORIO PUBLICO
Jen Hofer sets up her Escritorio Publico services in the
dome to write letters for you. ($3 for a letter, $5 for a
love letter)
(8) KNIKNIT ISSUE #3 RELEASE & SALES
Conceived, curated and produced by artist Sabrina
Gschwandtner, KnitKnit reflects a growing cultural interest in traditional crafts informed by a contemporary, critical perspective. Traditional crafts offer a mode of
working in which form and function are constantly engaged, situating them squarely in the center of contemporary art polemics.
Perhaps as a reaction against both the homogeneity of
mass-market culture and the contemporary art that responds to it by mimicking its slick and seamless forms,
young artists are discovering and creating craft and craftlike practices that have utility and accessibility.
Heirs to the do-it-yourself legacy of hippie, punk-rock
and zine cultures, this new generation of craft artists are
[69]
ISSUE #3 CONTENTS INCLUDE:
Writings of 19th-century architect
Gottfried Semper
(introduced by Brian Sholis of Ten Verses)
“Everyday Knitting - Treasures from a Ragpile,”
book review by Emily K. Larned of Booklyn
“Clotheslines in Winter” by Emily Drury
Beadwork by Joe Beuckman of “Beige”
interview by Cory Arcangel
“Althea Merback Knits Miniatures”
by Emily Spivack
“Message Delivery Notice: Failure”
Kathy Grayson of Deitch Projects
on Sarah Shapiro’s embroidered emails
“Home Sewn: Three Centuries of Stitching History”
at the New York Historical Society
review by Elana Berkowitz
Foldable House concept by Sarah Dunbar
Review of specialty yarn shop Habu Textiles
by Rose White
TINY INDUSTRIES makes bags,
wallets, cases and accessories fashioned from the highest quality,
most brightly colored vinyl available to Americans. The Tiny Industries critically acclaimed “Snowmonkeys” and “The Life of a Yeti”
stop action movies crisscross the
USA in film festivals.
TINA MARRIN’s art consists of
drawings, cuttings and hand hooked
rugs which are totally pre-planned.
Her knitting is approached expressionistically, casting on without an
agenda and letting the piece evolve.
SARA GRADY produces documentary and educational film and television and directs music videos. She
has also worked as a designer of educational multi-media projects, a set
decorator for films and commercials, a builder of architectural models, and a costumer for the circus.
CLARE CRESPO turns yarn and
other inedible stuff into food. She
wrote The Secret Life of Food (hyperion books/Melcher Media). She
showed her crocheted food at
George’s Gallery and her fantasy
cupcake land at the Annex project
space of Alleged Gallery.
DEARRAINDROP 1980 joe grillo
born in meteorcity arizona 1981
laura grant born detroit rock city
1984 billy grant born norfolk va.
1995 laura and joe meet 1997 earlly
early stages of dearraindrop 1998
dearraindrop born va. beach va.
1998-2004 fuck school, drop out,
do drugs , draw till yer hands hurts.
ADAM SIDELL retired as a music
industry executive to create Polydesignlab, a multi faceted design studio producing jewelry, accessories,
textile and t-shirt designs and
knitwear.
JIM DRAIN says “Knitting is like
painting, looking at the shelf, you
never know how the colors are
going to work together — in pattern, in texture, after being washed
or fluffed or felted.”
DANIEL MARLOS is in the process
of completing a Community Quilt
for the city of Glendale. He is also
designing a MTA Orange Line station based on the classic quilt pattern Snail’s Trail. He is represented
by Blum & Poe.
LIZ COLLINS teaches at Rhode Island School of Design and designs
knitwear under her own label. Liz’s
series of performance-based installations, “Knitting Nation,” employ
uniformed machine knitters to create a multi-sensory experience. Liz’s
work was included in “Radical Lace
and Subversive Knitting” at the Museum of Arts and Design in New
York and can be seen in the book
Fashioning Fabrics, By Sandy Black
and Elyssa da Cruz (Black Dog).
BRIDGET MARRIN is model maker
and filmmaker, living in Los Angeles. She is expanding the boundaries
of model making using yarn. She
uses her models, including knitted
dioramas and people for scenes in
stop motion animated films.
Knitted hands by Bridget Marrin. [JEANEEN LUND]
ALTHEA MERBACK was awarded
Artisan Status by the International
Guild of Miniature Artisans in
2003. Her workshop is at her home
in Bloomington.
[70]
EUGENE ONG is the designer behind the Ujein label. Ong studied
architecture and design at Cal Poly
San Luis Obispo. While continuing
his studies in Copenhagen, he
learned to knit. In an effort to merge
architecture and fashion, Ong’s
knits are the result of the study of
volume, movement, and shape in
relation to the human figure.
Left Coast Knitting
By Sabrina Gschwandtner
Sara Grady’s work is in gathering people together for elab- ing: anxiety-producing political/economic times; excessive
orate picnics, film shoots, garden parties, circuses and computing; an increasingly fast-paced society; war; suhot chocolate tours. Fritz Haeg creates buildings, gar- perfluous and inhospitable technology. Sometimes I
dens, occasions, homes and bridges. I don’t know how speak about the evolution of feminism, how craftwork
they first met, but I imagine it was an immediate and ef- no longer carries negative connotations about a woman’s
fortless commingling of vision and enthusiasm.
expected role as a homemaker. I started knitting in colTogether they hatched a plan for a Salon about knitting. lege, as a way to pass time while I was waiting to gradThen Sara called me. Because they were in L.A. and I was uate. Knitting allowed me to make things without
in Brooklyn, the three of us planned the KnitKnit Sundown deliberating their semiotic meaning. I liked to space out
Salon mostly through email: I would bring artwork out while knitting, to just move my fingers without over
with me, and they would invite local
thinking. After graduating I developed a more
SABRINA GSCHWANDTNER
artists/crafters/designers to show and received a BA from Brown and MFA critical relationship to the activity, centerfrom Bard. Her journal KnitKnit is
make work inside Fritz’s dome.
ing my artistic activities around the idea that
dedicated to the intersection of
I thought knitting couldn’t be big in Cal- fine art and handcraft. She has handcraft could challenge long-held artistic
ifornia—it seemed too warm for wool there. curated exhibitions and events and social values.
I realized I was wrong immediately after around issues raised by the publiI started KnitKnit to gather together a
cation, including: “The Handmade
landing in Burbank, as I waited for my lug- Goes Digital,” at the Museum of group of people who were thinking about
gage next to several women dressed in long, Arts and Design, New York and art and handcraft the way I was—people
“Political Textiles,” at ThreeWalls
hand-knit shawls. Sara and I drove around Gallery, Chicago. KnitKnit: Pro- who had come to knitting, like me, via other
town to pick up yarn donations: first to files and Projects from Knitting’s artistic pursuits.
Riding my bike home from Prospect Park
Wildfiber in Santa Monica, and then over to New Wave was published by Stewart, Tabori and Chang in 2007.
one
autumn day in 2002, I thought, I’m
Melrose to meet with Suzan Mischer at
Knit Café. Both stores were packed. When we stopped for going to interview Jim Drain and Jamie Peterson, and make a
lunch at Joan’s on Third, every woman there was wearing zine about handcraft and conceptual art. As I was riding,
pushing down on each pedal, I thought, “knit,” “knit,” “knit,”
a knit shawl. Knitting is, in fact, huge in Los Angeles.
I don’t know why knitting took off the way it did. Peo- “knit.” “KnitKnit” became the name for my zine, my art projple ask me that constantly, and I wish I had a passion- ect, and my way out of having to choose either knitting or
ate or definitive answer. I usually try to explain its fine art. As a biannual zine and a name under which to cupopularity as a reaction to a combination of the follow- rate art shows and events, KnitKnit continues to express my
[71]
interest in the extreme, the unconventional, the direct, the casso sweater was exhibited, my sisters were selling
weird, the funny, the shocking, the anti-craft and the anti- copies of KnitKnit issue #3 while wearing Liz Collins
art. I want to find people who have taken and pushed ideas dresses with Jim Drain armbands and Laura and Joe of
about craft as far as they can go. These types of knit- dearraindrop looked incredibly suspicious in handmade
ters—and their votaries—were the ones that Sara, Fritz and cloth masks. Moving down the spiral staircase onto the
I invited to the KnitKnit Sundown Salon.
bottom floor, Adam Sidell was wrapping someone into a
Our pictures will better describe the activities of the cocoon using a very long knit fabric, Melissa Thorne’s
event than I can, but I’ll make a list for you here, a run- paintings were displayed, Feral Childe did a performance, old
on sentence that starts at the top of the geodesic dome sweaters were unraveled to make new things, knitting lesand works its way down: While the L.A. chapter of the sons were given and received. Art films like “Kusama’s
Church of Craft had their monthly meeting, Tina Marrin’s Self-Obliteration,” historical pieces like Stephen Beck’s
wild, knitted boots, psyche“Video Weavings” and music
delic sweaters and chandelier
videos
like
Steriogram’s
rug were on display, next to
“Walkie Talkie Man” were
which her sister Bridget’s
projected. All day we played
knitted dollhouse complete
“music to knit to” as subwith working lights and a
mitted to us by artists like
tuft of white knitted smoke
Stephen Vitiello, My Barbarwas presented, Daniel Marlos
ians, Becky Stark, Jeff Godserved homemade rhubarb pie
dard, Tan As Fuck and
on his knitted placemats,
others. When event attendees
Robert Fontenot’s embroipacked up the craft projects
dered words (“discomfiture”
they had been invited to work
and “miasma” ) were for sale,
on throughout the day, they
as were Megan Whitmarsh’s
left behind bits of fabric,
Knitted work by Tina Marrin fills the dome, where people gather to knit. [JL]
neighboring embroidered canyarn and thread in a dotted map
vasses and wallets. Michele Smith’s film “Like All Bad Men that we followed up the stairs and out the front door
He Looks Attractive” looped on one of Fritz’s computer when it was time to go home.
monitors. Jen Hofer tabled a typewriter for her “EscritoIt wasn’t just the quality of the work inside the dome
rio Publico” performance, wherein she composed and typed or the abundant activities that made the event momentous;
out letters by request. I think it was inside the top of it was the complete reciprocity with which the work was
the dome where I first spotted Eugene Ong’s knitwear, in received. I hadn’t experienced that level of engagement at
the form of an ornate yet revealing wedding dress worn any other art show. For eight hours of a gray February
with matching headpiece by a svelte Anna Sew Hoy. On the day in Los Angeles, the KnitKnit Sundown Salon existed as
second level of the dome I met Lisa Anne Auerbach who a utopic, three-tiered marvel of handmade wonders, and a
was modeling her geodesic hat, Clare Crespo’s crocheted communal undertaking that gave me hope for the rise of
ham dinner was on view, Althea Merback’s miniature Pi- a new social order.
[72]
Salon Memory
“Fritz, you will be getting a box in the mail. It is ‘Shek-in-the-
were so inspiring! Some other people I met were Krystal and
“Kung Fu Shek” performance. Kisses, Feral Childe”
fabulous in a knitted wedding dress by Ujein. I helped Sara, very
Box’ and contains everything you need to put on a Feral Childe
In the end I decided to follow our box to L.A., because
I just couldn’t bear to miss out on the fun. So I booked my
flight, NYC–LAX. Somehow I made it up Sundown Drive and
stepped inside the Dome. There were around two
dozen people milling about, some sitting on the
floor, some people knitting, some just laying
about. I asked around and met gracious hosts
Fritz, Sabrina Gschwandtner and Sara Grady up
in the lookout/kitchen.
Jade Chang, also sisters, and Giles Miller and Anna Sew Hoy,
regal in a flowing, crafty number, unravel a sweater for yarnreclamation. . . before I knew it, the crowd had gathered in the
pit, Sabrina was up there on the stage/cave with a mike, intro-
FERAL CHILDE was raised by
wolves. It is the wild-haired collaboration of Moriah Carlson and Alice
Wu, Brooklyn artists with a common
affinity for continually reinventing
their everyday selves through dress.
ducing Feral Childe’s performance.
The lights dimmed and we turned on the
projector and the CD player. Jessica, playing the
Warrior Girl, emerged slowly out of the ShekBox to sneak up on Dahlia the Evil Peddler, to
steal back Magic Mooncakes. The whole thing
What a fantastic view! I didn’t know anybody, so I went
culminated in an all-out wooden swordfight involving The Wise
out of the Shek-Box. I had some technical difficulties hook-
cool caterpillar move, four as one snaking across the floor,
showed up and lent a hand. We projected the video onto the
as much as I did!
back down to the cave to set up. I pulled the CD and dancepads
ing up the dancepads to Fritz’s laptop, but Ben Liao, architect,
bumpy cave wall. Ben and Chris Wong, a software engineer,
danced a coupla rounds. Another tall skinny Asian dude friend,
Miljohn Ruperto, joined in. I was worried about
how the performance would turn out, but
Miljohn was a really calming presence (none of
the performers had arrived yet and I was still
working out the thing in my mind anyway).
Then Jessica Meyer and the three dancers
she’d promised arrived in a heap. From there it
was blur. I read them the script, then they put
Sage and The Lover. At one point, the four of them did this
then broke apart into somersaults. I hope the crowd liked it
More friends in the audience: artists and bandmates Megan
Sullivan (who lives in Berlin) and Jena Kim (from New York—she
MORIAH CARLSON is an artist,
educator, and fashion designer,
originally from the Southwest and
now based in Brooklyn. Between
gadding about the Garment District
and hopping transcontinental planes,
Moriah manages a local cricket team,
deconstructs Fassbinder films, and
bets on motocross.
on some of the outfits I had in the Shek-Box, put on some
music and started working out their moves. There they were
I
had
made the music for the Kung Fu Shek performance) came with Jee Young Sim (artist, and
Pillow Lavas provocateur). The three of them
make up the very awesome Butterknife Krush. . .
and would perform at a later Salon - Showdown! with Feral Childe. As the evening grew
darker we watched some films, also projected
onto the cave wall.
really
been
looking
forward
to
seeing
Yayoi
Kusama/Jud Yalkut’s Self Obliteration. Dots everywhere! Even-
dancing in the cave, tossing around the fake Chinese vases Mo-
tually it was closing time, and Miljohn helped me re-pack the
I left Jessica and the dancers to rehearse on their own, and
on good times as I waved goodbye Fritz, goodbye Dome, goodbye
riah and I had made, in some kind of weird bucket brigade!
went upstairs to hang out. I tried on some crazy fuzzy green
crochet boots by Tina Marrin, and met her sister Bridget. They
unwieldy Shek-Box. He drove me down the hill and we caught up
Salon, ‘til next time!
ALICE WU
[73]
12
L.A. MASTERMINDING
04.04.04
2:00–6:00pm
WITH: A+D
Museum, Casa del Pueblo, C-Level, Center for Land Use Interpretation, Flor y Canto, Foundation for
Art Resources, High Desert Test Sites, The Institute for Advanced Architecture, Journal of Aesthetics & Protest,
L.A. Forum for Architecture & Urban Design, Machine Project, MAK Center for Art and Architecture,
Materials & Applications, Outpost for Contemporary Art, Timbre Space
[74]
Our Social Dynamic
By Julie Deamer
in meeting and acknowledging one another’s work, and supporting
each other’s projects. As a result, the Salon’s geodesic dome was
packed with enthusiastic people who are finding an unbelievable
variety of ways to affect positive social change through their creative work as cultural producers.
I left that day feeling like I found real camaraderie for the
first time in Los Angeles, and this after living in L.A. for four years
(!), albeit primarily absorbed in the gallery world, where, admittedly, my love for art had begun to wane. I sensed a connection
that was based on a few key values: a belief that art plays a crit—From a study called “Institutions: Los Angeles 1,” July 28, 2003, produced by Fiona Whitton,
ical role in society, a strong interest in creating a space for an onSean Dockray, and Tim Pilla and Center for Advanced Architecture
going conversation that doesn’t end with a single exhibition or
Sensing a new cultural vitality in Los Angeles orbiting around a event, a desire to make crazy, unexpected shit happen (and, for
growing network of non-commercial art organizations and collec- better or worse, a willingness to do this work for free…), and a
mindset that favors group action.
tives, Sundown Salon organized “L.A. MastermindANDREA ZITTEL divides her time
In a context like Sundown Salon, which gening” and hosted what turned out to be a very large between A-Z West (located in
round-the-room preamble with over 30 represen- Joshua Tree California) and Los An- erates enlivening occasions in a totally amazing
geles where she teaches New Genenvironment, what could be described as a simple
tatives from various groups in attendance.
res at USC. Her practice entails all
“L.A. Masterminding,” the 12th Sundown facets of personal explorations and meeting, which “L.A. Masterminding” was, can also
Salon, happened on April 4, 2004 and followed experimentation; from living “with- be considered, as suggested in the quote above, as
out time” for a week in a Berlin
other Salons with names like “hot rods n’ hot basement, to building a habitable a performance. Like the other Salons that had prepants” and “lights>music>magic.” With no featured 54 ton concrete floating island in ceded it, it created a platform for something to
artists, musicians, dancers, or planned activities, the sound between Sweden and happen on, in this case a conversation.
Denmark. She is a co-organizer of
All together in one room were representatives
or a particularly creative theme from which to draw the High Desert Test Sites, and
founder
of
the
A-Z
Smock
Shop
in
from more established non-profit’s like MAK Cena crowd, this Salon brought people together with
Los Angeles, and an as of yet una simple “call and response” action, working on named campsite in the High Desert. ter, Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban
Design, and Center for Land Use Interpretation, to
the assumption, or hope, that the invitees1 (those
collectives
like
The
Journal of Aesthetics and Protest and The Inidentified as fellow participants in the growing network of independent art organizations in Los Angeles) would share an interest stitute for Advanced Architecture (with activities now housed
It was apparent in each conversation that the group wasn’t simply a thing (or, a “sum of its parts”), but rather a
performance. Perhaps this is most evident by listening to
the way the representatives adopt the pronoun “we”:
When does the “I” become a “we”? What actions can the
“we” perform? It’s through this pronoun that one begins
to hear the structure of the organization. It is not that
the structure lies behind some institutional surface but
that structure and surface are one and the same.
[75]
within a new non-profit called Telic Arts Exchange), to experi- participate on a deeper level, which for me means building friendmental labs like High Desert Test Site, to cooperatives like C-level ships and positive relationships and trust in each others inten(now called Beta Level longer active), to community meeting/read- tions. I think this is the most interesting part.
“Getting to it, sharpening the trajectory, really the opposite
ing room Flor Y Canto (no longer active), to new non-profits like
Machine Project and Outpost for Contemporary Art, to casual fo- of what we want, which is—not perfection of mode—which
rums like Sundown Salon. The variety of interests, continuance, would be hell—but starting at the outcome, in order to get
started on the fathoming of it.”2 I like this line
and organizational structures was compelling. And
MACHINE PROJECT provides edwhile some groups have disbanded (usually to re- ucational resources to people from a poem by my friend Suzanne Stein because
constitute into something new) the network has working in technology; collabo- it speaks to the process involved when comrates with artists to produce sitecontinued to expand with Fallen Fruit, Shed Re- specific works; and promotes pelling something into existence. If we do things
search Institute, ESL (Esthethics as a Second Lan- conversations between scientists, that matter to a community, that invite commuguage), Telic Arts Exchange, LAXArt and others. poets, technicians, performers, and nity support and engagement, chances are we do
the community of L.A. as a whole.
This list by no means complete, others like Bicycle
these things not because we are making money
Kitchen, Echo Park Film Center, L.A. Independent Media Center, but because we are making friends in the process and making a
LACE, Self-Help Graphics, were not present at this meeting but difference, we hope, in our lives and the lives of others. We do
should be mentioned nonetheless.
these things not to be noble but because it’s interesting and enI’d like to say that an incredibly generative discussion ensued gaging to imagine a certain outcome. Sometimes we decide to
but I’d be lying. The group was too large perhaps, or maybe we make these things we imagine actually happen. Sometimes they
needed a moderator, or maybe its success is relative depending on work sometimes they don’t work. What ends up happening is
what one was looking for. I was there looking for a world I want something changes—a mindset, the way one might do things
to live and work in, a dream world that includes a community of differently next time, an approach, a relationship, whatever, the
passionate people who are motivated by possibilpoint is that something changes and its usually
ity and the inspiration that comes from producing JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS AND for the better.
PROTEST is a Los Angeles-based
stuff that isn’t standard, that doesn’t have to exist collective. The magazine sits at the
All of this is stuff we know. It feels redundant
discursive
juncture
of
fine
art,
but because it does (even temporarily) it opens up
to even being writing it and I have struggled to
media theory and anti-authoritarnew ways of thinking.
find the point of this essay. Every essay needs a
ian activism. The Los Angeles ediI also came to talk about a new organization, torial team includes Marc Herbst point, right? Well, the main points are easy to
Outpost for Contemporary Art, publicly for the first (co-founder), Robby Herbst (co- overlook. I think the major point here is that unfounder), Cara Baldwin, Ryan
time to find acknowledgement and support for this Griffis, and Christina Ulke.
less people make the time to get together they
endeavor, which was still in the planning stages,
miss the point.
and to see if our reasons for doing it would make sense to others.
Overall, I think most attendees discovered that day that our
I don’t know for sure what motivated other founders of Outpost, kinship with one another is not an illusion and that our will to
but I know that I was looking for a way to step into a community exist is worthwhile and important, and that it’s probably time to
and add something meaningful to it, to expand its offerings and get together again.
1. Present were artists, curators, publishers, architects, activists, educators, writers, and I’m probably forgetting one or two categories, with most of the participants making use of multiple vocations, occupying them in
interchangeable ways.
2. Suzanne Stein, excerpt found in TOUT VA BIEN [Everything’s Fine], self-published, 2005.
[76]
13
RADICAL GARDENING
06.06.04
GARDEN INSTALLATION BY: Katie Grinnan
READINGS BY: Marc Herbst, Robby Herbst
PERFORMANCE BY: Cacophonous Sarcophogous
including Tim Rogeberg, Zak Cook, Joel Searles, Jules Hartzell
& special guest Evan Holloway
[77]
Sculpture
The installation ‘Adventures in Delusional Realism’ by Katie Grinnan has it’s
inaugural planting of herbs and vegetables. Fresh from the 2003 show at the
Whitney Museum of American Art Altria, it is installed in the Sundown gardens.
Evoking contained, self-sustaining ecosystems and utopian communities,
Katie Grinnan uses moldable plastic and computer-altered images of corporate spaces to create large-scale photo sculptures and installations.
Grinnan’s installation work spatializes the intersection of photography, sculpture and architectural environments. By incorporating her recent research of rain forests in Costa Rica, the Great
Barrier Reef, the Biosphere, and Arcosanti (a utopian community
in Arizona), Grinnan draws on the site-specific aspects of the
Sculpture Court to create elements of her own hybrid, self-sustaining utopian community. This includes a small crop of corn
planted in the existing flower beds and inverted trees suspended
from above. Seamlessly combining high and low-tech processes,
KATIE GRINNAN received a BFA
from Carnegie Mellon University
and an MFA from University of California, Los Angeles. She has had
solo exhibitions at ACME, Los Angeles and her work has also been
featured in group exhibitions at
Pond, San Francisco; Galeria d’Arte
Moderna, Bologna; Exit Art, New
York; Museum of Contemporary
Art, Tucson; and the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Her
work was included in the 2004
Whitney Biennial. Grinnan lives
and works in Los Angeles.
the installation features organically contoured sculptures growing
over existing architectural structures and photographic forms that mimic
objects in the space. These photographic sculptures and murals are derived from images taken by Grinnan of Altria public and office spaces.
—The Whitney Museum of American Art
Music
By Cacophonous Sarcophagus. Fresh from Topanga, this is their debut.
Readings
By Marc and Robby Herbst, their words follow.
[78]
Land. Time.
aware of his or her cultural isolation that the work is asked to fanatically act out an imaginary culture in that way that wedding-
by Marc Herbst
cake icing is made of sugar.
What if a plant had a name? Not a name like Acer Rubrum (Red
Oak) but a name like Ted, or Antoinette, Kaisha or Mario?
Finally there is that clearly asocial work, those daring doodles
and marvelous castles to the misty egocentrism.
…imagine a social interface with the non-social world. How
So what was great about the Radical Gardening event was its
would it be to shake the hand of a plant and then say to yourself;
creation of garden society. For an afternoon, we formed a leafy civic
“I’m hangin’ with Kaisha right now!”
organization to christen a new public works in our village square.
Root go deep in soil.
Or we were the counterculture lazing drunk on an afternoon lis-
Ivy grow over rock.
tening to rock and dreaming—knowing of the fruits our orchard
Flower petal fall, fruit comes to bear.
would yield. We were dark intellectuals all, publicly chewing an
Sundown Salon join plant, art, humanity.
idea 25 different ways. We were a bowling team at a new alley,
breaking it in with balls and beers. It
On the instance of the Radical Gardening
could have been a celebration of any art-
Sundown Salon for the inauguration of
work, though the particulars of Katie’s
Katie Grinnan’s sculpture, Adventures in
work were apt. For one afternoon in a
Delusional Idealism, Katie’s work was dis-
very conscious way there was around a
played. Her boyfriend Tim Rogeberg’s
sculpture a civilization.
band Cacophonous Sarcophagus rocked
Its not that this doesn’t occur else-
their spacerockjazz. My brother Robby
where; the dancing, drinking and
Herbst presented an art project. I read
singing that occurs around wedding
an annunciation for both Katie’s piece
table settings, the stage-set for and the
and Fritz’ salon.
hip-hop concert, the banner, slogans
Native plants and certain arts have much
Christina Ulke, Marc and Robby Herbst lounge under the plum
tree in the Sundown Gardens before the readings. [FH]
in common. Particular plants and certain
and screeds around a protest. It’s that
this was an art world event—where we
care to write about such things and where
endemic practices common to L.A. appear as non-social; that is,
we can actively experiment the possibilities of culture.
they seem to exist independent of society. These plants need no
sprinklers, they have no need for fertilizer. Without effort, sunlight
For the afternoon Robby Herbst invented wholesale books for a
arrives to leaf. They appear as islands to themselves.
front-yard garden. We learned together from his invented knowl-
And so to it appears the same with some artwork—and here I
edge how asparagus means so much. Cacophonous Sarcophagus’
refer to the assumed social vacuum of the studio. There is an as-
tones illustrated the angles of sunlight we’d seen on the leaves in
sumption that L.A.’s art is most social only when made in a grad-
the sun. I read a call to arms for the roots of Artemisia Californica
uate school studio. There appears an L.A. art object whose creator
and all those gathered.
ignores their social sphere—abstracting potential content to such
a degree that it remains hidden.
Before planting it at the Sundown Salon, Katie’s sculpture was
created as a community garden for office dwellers—the ultimate of
There is also the L.A. art object whose creator is so painfully
imagined cultureless workers. Inspired by Arcosanti and Bios-
[79]
phere2, she made this plastic-bucket garden wondering how
together we might sustain life despite the contemporary social
and economic norms. In the inhospitable environment of the
Whitney Altria Center in Manhattan, the garden died. Back in
L.A. we dreamt that our culture could nurture this garden…
It was interesting to take part in this dreaming at the convergence of fine art and social practices. Its not that Katie normally has asocial tendencies or that the other participants pray
only to the temple of self… it was that in Fritz’ yard on this
warm day, one could touch several strands of L.A. coming together and dreaming about the possibilities of OUR culture.
Sleeping Where
You Aren’t—
A Christening
by Marc Herbst
(Read by the author at Sundown Salon #13)
The radical gardening event contradicted an innately conservative stereotype. Art is not an individual practice but both a
I turn to you and in this garden say “Bliss is all around me now,
social need (we need metaphor to survive) and a tool for social
everything is beautiful.”
This said truthfully, is of course a lie.
construction.
Everything is not beautiful when members of the Critical Art
Ensemble are subject to an FBI Grand Jury investigation for their
Salon Memory
Gallery openings are never about the work, ever. This afternoon
art practice. Just yesterday five more soldiers in Iraq bit it, and goddess knows, countless Iraqis keep dying. What passes for the “economy” is now state religion. Abstract numbers passing like corn
was as cool a celebration of the ideas and energy that can come
through a mill, slipping out the hopper to scatter on the floor for
out of a sculpture I’ve ever been a part of. It was so literally like
rat food. Economics on the grand-scale the way it is practiced
what I imagine a “consciousness-raising” meeting must have
today is not about feeding people, not about blossoming people’s
been like—the hippieness of it embarrasses me. The Herbst boys
lives. It’s about massaging numbers and making a profit from our
read from the punk rock zines of the gardening underworld. It
poverty. When I say our poverty, I am including our creative and
was a lil’ like listening to the Violent Femmes for the first time,
artistic classes.
Quoting Brian Holmes, an au currant French Philosopher at
with a hard-on. Katie and I began talking about working on a
cookbook together around this time, a cookbook of sculptures
length.
that could grow from the kitchen or a half-eaten lunch or straight
The immaterial laborer who thinks, speaks and creates on the
job, then finally leaves that job behind to practice a form of creative expression, very soon feels the fragility of her position.
Nothing permits her to survive while doing what she had
nonetheless been consistently encouraged to do. Reflecting on
her own predicament, she can meet all kinds of people: similar
individuals marginalized by the effects of the same contradiction, then many others who have never been fully integrated into
out of your head. Katie really has figured out the grand potential
complexity of spatial relations as they relate to all the things
pleasurable that sustain and destroy us. Katie rocks so hardy!
TOM TEXAS HOLMES
[80]
dreamers to this piece of land at the mouth of the Columbia Gorge.
the productive system. By making the comparison between one’s
own situation and those of others, one attains a broader understanding of contemporary social relations, with their hierarchies
of inclusion/exclusion extending across the earth. A personal experience of marginality, of precarious labor conditions, can encourage all kinds of solidarities, near or far.
And so, here we are back in the garden. The
garden, the primeval source of sustenance, of
beauty, of pleasure. Of all things cultured and mundane.
Dirt, lettuce and orchids.
Have you ever noticed the way the tiny yellow
tomato flower dangles down from its stem like a
chandelier, have you tasted the fuzz of a fresh
green bean?
A garden is radical only because it has the
I would sleep in the run-down tree fort.
My friend Sue slept in the trailer,
Others camped in the tall grass below the yurts.
As the results of the Salvage Rider Bill continued tearing up
MARC HERBST is an artist and coeditor of the Journal of Aesthetics
and Protest. Projects have included
haunting posters containing economic analysis specific to the neighborhoods where each is located,
and an installation at the Topanga
Canyon Earth Day Festival. He also
works in social science research for
organizations including Catholic
Relief Services in Bolivia, The City of
New York’s Police Complaint Review
Board, The National Park Service
and The L.A. Unified School District.
forests and we were all learning how global capitalism rips the heart out of traditional societies in
places far away like Malaysia and Chiapas, freight
trains rolled down the coast from Olympia and
Seattle– and up from Eugene, Oakland and San
Francisco bringing in the detritus wild-children.
On break from the Umpqua forest blockades, or
the loving communities in resistance to the heart
of greedy urban America, or from fucked up love,
fucked up life, fucked up jobs, fucked up dreams,
and a fucked up planet.
ability to give us all what we need without a boss telling us what to
do, without having to be ideologically right or wrong.
Sue came after college because her parents said that she
Again, quoting Brian Holmes;
would never
As André Gorz writes in his recent book, L’immatériel: The more
work calls on talent, virtuosity, the production of the self... the
more these capabilities tend to overflow their limited application to any determinant task. Therefore the worker will locate his
dignity in the free exercise of his capacities, outside of the working context: journalists writing books, ad designers creating artworks, computer programmers demonstrating their virtuosity as
hackers and developers of free software….
John came whacked out on the chemicals he’d cooked up
amount to anything,
in the
chemistry lab,
Peter because of beauty,
Sage came stewed with anger over patriarchy,
Joe because he didn’t want to end up like his father,
River came shrieking, her sense of balance permanently
misaligned from
And so to the artists- building edible monuments, and archi-
clearcuts, strip-mining and the very idea of a sweatshop,
tects like Fritz challenging us to collectively dream. We are more
Bison came shocked by the Freddy’s,
then our little profession.
Cat came queer and angry.
I once lived on an organic farm, a commune in Gresham, Ore-
And me, I knew that the other world had no place for
gon called Arbor Eden. Over the course of time, the farm became
artists- or was it
an EarthFirst! Way-station and heart in the circulation of the Pa-
because I was fucked up and heartbroken?
cific Northwest freak-o-system. Young upset twentysomethings
looking for a place to heal; not only themselves but the planet, too.
Tides of discontent and non-conformity carried freaks and
On a farm, anyone is valued, even the most shell-shocked
could weed a pea-patch.
[81]
stepping forward into the art and style of the culture. An inevitable intersection.
There are two projects afoot here. One project is to learn
our natural system, learn our region, to such a degree that we
can be sensitive across the centuries and boundaries of cultures.
We should know what the life cycle of salmon is, or what grows
well here, but also become sensitive to what kinds of songs you
might sing if you thought like a salmon. That’s the learning that
brings the place visibly into culture, into culture now moving
from anthropological culture into
aesthetic culture.
One day I was out among the basil speaking with Rain, talking about farm gossip, something about how Gabe was power-tripping over Sue. Even in the small community like this, he wouldn’t
say hi to her; everyone knew Gabe had power issues ‘cause he came
from a broken home.’
But anyway, Rain got to talking about how she’d just come
from California City down south in the Sierras. Reaching down
into the ground, planting basil with the moon and the sun. She
tells me about rituals they practice,
mythopoetic three-day fertility rights.
I want to know what it’s like to be
In Fritz’s back garden here eight
in one spot, not a drifter in an angry
years later, in this city Los Angeles
world, to actually own something.
that Oregonians call the Great Cancer
to the South, Gary Snyder seems part-
The beat poet, Gary Snyder is
sage and part-romantic— he doesnt
one of California City’s Shamans.
I can’t get this question out of
have to grapple with the facts of this
my head: Is loving something just an
Great Cancer, this unhealthy city, its
act, or is it something I can feel, like
truly irrational planning and water
the dirt between my fingers?
systems, its racism, its innate alienation.
“They are making life down
there,” she says, “just not eating any-
Fritz’s salon, Katie’s artwork, all
thing which is grown beyond the 40
our work that dreams outside of
miles of Grass Valley.”
Is it just so flaky to say, “I love you,
Katie’s sculpture in the Sundown Garden. [FH]
“work” can or is a part of being a city
that sings its songs within its borders
and sings these songs proudly.
we can work this out together, here and now?”
From her overalls, Rain pulls out a piece of paper. It’s wrinkled
and muddy. “Gary Wrote this…”
Garden, shade this city’s hot tar sprawl with a nurturing culture
that heals planets, heals cities, heals communities and ourselves.
Marxist would like this: a culture is profoundly shaped by its
economy, its model of production. The mode of production is
enormously shaped by the materials. The materials here in Ish
Nation are cedar and saltwater, and rain and clouds and lots of
fresh water– fifty inches of rain a year, and up.... That helps shape
the culture. Its no accident that North West Coast people spoke
in so many ways, and made so many metaphors with salmon and
with killer whale, and used as the primary mode of artistic expression the finest wood-working tree in the region: the western
red cedar. So that’s where you see the systems of place literally
I suspect the rest of the country looks at L.A. with an ugly eye
because it can’t distinguish our beloved smog from their racism
and classism.
Garden, heal this sick economy that justifies the abuse of our socalled “poor.”
Garden, heal this sick racism that makes us see our neighbors
as freaks. Garden, tear down fences between our little suburban
city homes. Let us build this city as a garden.
[82]
Propagation of Local Cultural Journals As
A Map of My Front Yard 3424 Council Street
(TITLES AND SELECTED CONTENT FROM MAGAZINES PUBLISHED OUT OF MY FRONT YARD )
By Robby Herbst
SHARE:
A JOURNAL OF
GIVE AND TAKE
How to Build Community,
adapted from a poster by the
Syracuse Cultural Workers:
•
Sit on your stoop
• Turn
off your tv
• Ask
•
for help when you need it
Know that no one is silent though many
•
Know that no one is silent though many
are not
are not heard—work to change this.
How to build global community,
adapted from a poster by the
Syracuse Cultural Workers:
URBAN TALL
GRASS
• Think
A poetry review from the overgrown
•
of no one as “them”
Don’t confuse your comfort with your
safety
and wild parts of our yard
Haiku Corner
•
Barter for goods
•
Listen to music you don’t understand
•
Start a tradition
•
Question consumption
I am an insect
•
Leave your house
•
Know where your coffee comes from:
Plants Explode Flowers Big Green
•
Support neighborhood schools
wake up and smell the exploitation
•
Look up when you’re walking
•
•
Help a lost dog
• Acquire
•
Have potlucks
• Visit
•
Garden together
tourist attractions
•
Put up a swing
•
•
Pick up litter
•
Redefine progress
Imagine city anew
•
Dance in the street
•
Understand the global economy in terms
Wilderness of sage
• Talk
to the mail carrier
•
Help carry something heavy
•
•
Look for Fair Trade and union labels
few needs
people, places and cultures—not
Learn people’s history
of people, land and water
•
Refuse to wear corporate logos
Organize a block party
•
Pledge allegiance to the earth: question
Bake extra and share
nationalism
[83]
Impossible sky
Lizards Bees Mouses Ants
you call my garden your home
Well I do too
Me urban planner
COMPANION CULTURE JOURNAL: ISSUE #1
Companion Culture aims to explore the metaphoric quali- and tomatoes with basil and marigolds are but one example
ties between agriculture and culture. We know that the of a functional/productive relationship. Together they form
roots of civilization come to us from simple and innovative an organism that is able to manage one another’s pests, profarmers, whom through the science of culture discovered vide nutrients for each other, provide shade or alternatively
the possibilities of settled group living. To these ends we space for sunlight, share water resources equitably, even enrich one another’s fruit’s flahope to foster the arts of plantvors. Additionally by being
ing seeds to revitalize bio-cenaware that some plants are nattric, local agriculture and
ural antagonists to one ansociety. We are fiercely opother, a gardener can manage
posed to factory agriculture as
both conflicts and diversity in
well as its demonic cousin—
their garden by planning
corporate institutionalized and
ahead.
hierarchical culture, the barThe companion to Permabarians of our day. Instead we
culture
is a lively self-sustainargue for homegrown- pasing community. One based on
sionate/tasty/even erotic foods
the values of mutual aid, incluand relationships. This journal
sion, and dispersal of cultural
hopes to advocate and foster
resources. We all know that
research and actions to the
stagnant, dysfuntional and
ends of creating local smallDrawing by Robby Herbst.
top-down culture sucks. The
scale garden farms and backyard
cooperatives
as
well
as
self-motivated liveliest arts, rituals and events are those brought to us by
community-based societies such as salons, bloc parties, our own friends, peers and lovers. Our cultural ecosystems
dances, people-run galleries events and venues. We grow are ridden with blight, fertilizer is disproportionately spread,
our food! We are our culture! As cultural producers, prolif- beds are often left unattended. The difference between a
erating these open-ended structures are our responsibility gardener and someone who digs a ditch to chuck seeds into
the ground is that a gardener is interested in attending to
to society.
Companion planting stems from observing your plant and their plants, while the ditch digger- upon experiencing some
recognizing the natural affinities or antagonisms within the feeling of lack- tears their plants out, jumps into their car,
system of the garden. With knowledge of this systems-per- motors to home depot, buys a six-pack of flavor savor best
spective one can create a riotously healthy prodigious yet boy tomato hybrids, drives home, plops the tomatoes into
small-scale and low-impact garden ecosystem. Together the bed and prays for the best. Our Lives and loved ones
plants can form sympathetic relationships that aid in their deserve more in order to prosper- Companion Culture Journal
mutual developments. The pairings of peppers, eggplants hopes to provide this.
[84]
ROT REVIEW
Decomposing daikon
THE TWO YEAR
ASPARAGUS TIMES
Leaking leftovers
For those with a serial relationship with their asparagus patch…
Atrophying eggshells
Rotting smelly tomatoes
Deconstituting scraps and detritious figs
It is recommended that an asparagus bed sit two years before
Foul fenugreek
being harvested. In the meantime read Asparagus Times.
Putrid peas
Expanding Pusstulous peppermint tea bags
Souring sorghum
Table of Contents
Ripe cabbage
Pg. 1. Watching your plants grow.
Ammoniamated artichoke hearts
Pg. 3. When to feed.
Stir fried vegetables peppered with feasting bugs
Pg. 7. When to water.
Unnamable innumerable insects so many that when they move
Pg. 9 Watching your plants grow some more.
they migrate
Pg. 11. When to cut browning stalks.
Corroding cantaloupe
Pg. 13. The joy of an emerging tip.
Cucumbers coming apart
Pg. 17. The fears accompanying an emerging tip.
Soiled strawberries
Pg. 19, Is that an insect in my asparagus patch or just a speck of
Over aged okra
dirt—let me investigate.
Watery potatoes
Pg. 21. Fertilizing.
All served up nightly in my kitchens garden.
Pg. 25. Imagining your asparagus patch as the whole world.
Pg. 23. When to apply mulch.
Pg. 27. Considering companion plants for your asparagus.
Pg. 29. What does my asparagus patch say about me?
Pg. 31. Why does my asparagus grow short gnarled and bunched?
Pg. 33. Innovating ways to grow tall straight and evenly spaced
stalks.
Pg. 36. Watching your asparagus a little more.
Pg. 37. When to amend the soil.
Pg. 39. On being tempted to cut a spear prematurely.
Pg. 41. Managing this by imagining asparagus cuisine.
Pg. 43. Upon sharing your obsessions with others.
[85]
14
SHOWDOWN!
09.15.04 –12.12.04
AT: the MAK Center’s Schindler House
PHASE I: Studio Residencies / 09.20.04 –10.17.04
PHASE II: Runway Shows / 10.22.04 –10.23.04
PHASE III: Exhibition / 09.15.04 –12.12.04
Phase IV: Performances / 10.30.04 & 11.04.04
ORGANIZED AND PRODUCED WITH: Kimberli Meyer, director of The MAK Center
WORKS BY: Andrew Andrew, Bon & Ging, Ingrid Bromberg & Blain Kennedy, Dioscuri, Escher Gunewardena Architects,
Fugue, Gizmo, Michael Mahalchik, Elena Manferdini, Tina Marrin, L.A. Eyeworks, Liz Larner (with Jill Spector, Cory Peipon,
Matrushka Construction—Laura Howe and Beth Ann Whittaker), Claudia Rosa Lukas, Renée Petropoulos, Ujein,
We Are Lucid Dreaming, Millie Wilson & Jessica Rath, Wooden Mustache, Amy Yao
PERFORMANCES BY: Feral Childe, My Barbarian, Morganne
MUSIC BY: Giles Miller’s Shifty Disco Band (with Jason Taylor & Greg Burns)
STAGE AND RUNWAY DESIGN BY: Coop Himmelb(l)au
GRAPHIC DESIGN BY: PS (Penny Hardy & Shannon Shelly)
STAGE MANAGEMENT BY: Sara Daleiden
[86]
Runways over the Schindler House
by Kimberli Meyer
Showdown! at the Schindler house took a cross-disci- portions of the house to generate a design that both replinary look at fashion as its subject and starting point. spected and transformed the house and gardens. The
The project engaged the Schindler house in a series of house itself served as backstage from which models
ways: as a studio for artists-in-residence, as a stage for emerged onto two runways, one to the front and the
an experimental fashion show, and as a location for res- other to the back. The models, when crossing through
the house to get to the other
idency-responsive art perrunway, had to pass each
formances. The process of
other
in the narrowest pastransformation was built into
sage of the house, at the centhe program, along with nonter of the pinwheel. The
standard and historically releaudience sat in the front and
vant uses of the house. Its
back gardens, bifurcated by
multi-facetedness generated
the house. In each garden,
artistic, social, cultural and edon
each side of the site,
ucational networks that relied
metallic stair towers raised the
on thorough study, planning,
catwalk above the plane of
communication, construction
the Schindler house roof. The
and improvisation.
towers were taller than the
Of particular note was the
Coop Himmelb(l)au’s runway. [AMY GRAVES]
house, even hovered over it in
runway architecture by the L.A.
office of Vienna-based firm Coop Himmelb(l)au, whose spots, but did not touch it. It was a stunning design; the
Karolin Schmidbaur and Christoph A. Kumpusch de- scale was outlandish yet the proportions were perfect.
signed and built, with the help of architecture students The shiny materials contrasted with the rustic concrete,
from three area schools, the quite literally over-the-top redwood and glass of the house. Though the runway
(of the Schindler house) catwalk for the event. The ar- path could be physically challenging to navigate, it renchitecture of the runway utilized the module and pro- dered each model chic, adventurous and free-spirited.
Credits: Stage and set design by Coop Himmelb(l)au / Graphic design by Penny Hardy and Shannon Shelly of PS / Stage management by Sarah Daleiden with Amy Hood, Lauri Firstenberg,
Bobbi Woods, Nizan Shaked and Angelica Fuentes from the MAK Center / Thanks to Andrea Moarozas, Susan Benningfield, Chanteuse Morganne, Krystal Chang, Amy Lee, Natascha Snellman,
Jake Leslie, Dante Cervantes, Corey Oberlin, Tania Nyberg, Jennifer Kolmel, Axel Prichard-Schmitzberger, Uyen Tran and the students of Art Center College of Design, cal Poly Pomona and
SCI-Arc including Seohaa Choi, General Wadkins, Colleen Coghlan, Jonathan Zabala very special thanks to the Federal Chancellery, Department for the Arts, and the Federal Ministry of
Education, Science and Culture of the Republic of Austria, the lafetra Family Foundation, the Los Angeles County Arts commission and the West Hollywood Visitors and Convention Bureau
[87]
Showdown!
This multi-phased presentation was organized by the
MAK Center and Sundown Salon. Showdown! at the
Phase II: Runway Shows
October 22nd & 23rd, 2004
Runway shows were held on catwalks designed and built
architects, designers, musicians and performers to by the Los Angeles office of Vienna-based architecture
explore and present frontiers of fashion, using the firm COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. Models walked a cirucuitous
path snaking across the site, up and down, offering
unique indoor and outdoor spaces of the Schindler
dynamic perspectives framed by R.M. Schindler’s
House as forum and inspiration in a three-month event
architecture. Designed to accommodate audiences on
in four parts.
both sides of the house and to maximize views, the
catwalks featured sculptural two-story stair towers.
Presenting 75 pieces produced by more than 20
Phase I: Studio Workshops
participants, the show incorporated sound, light, spoken
September 20th – October 17th, 2004
word and architecture to the accompaniment of
The inaugural phase reactivated the studios of the ambient soundscapes and live music by Giles Miller’s
Schindler House to their original purpose, as a place for Shifty Disco Band. Participants included: Andrew Andrew,
creation and production. In the Clyde Chace Studio, Bon & Ging, Ingrid Bromberg & Blain Kennedy, Dioscuri,
My Barbarian, a Los Angeles performing
Escher GuneWardena, Feral Childe, Fugue,
CLAUDIA ROSA LUKAS is based
art troupe comprised of Malik Gaines, in Vienna. She studied at the Uni- Andrea Lenardin Madden and Raegan
Jade Gordon and Alex Segade, wrote, versity of Applied Arts there and at Kelly, Gizmo, L.A. Eyeworks, Liz Larner,
created music and invented costumes for HDK in Berlin. Her label won the Caudia Rosa Lukas, Michael Mahalchick,
fashion award of the city in Vienna
their site-specific nuevo-medieval morality in 2001 and was a finalist in the Elena Manferdini, Tina Marrin, My Barbarian,
play. In the adjoining Marion Chace 17th Festival International des Arts Renée Petropoulos, Jessica Rath with Millie
de la mode à Hyères in France.
Studio, architect-turned-fashion designer Claudia also works in the fields of Wilson, Ujein, We are lucid dreaming,
Wooden Mustache and Amy Yao.
Elena Manferdini worked on dresses using multimedia and costume design.
3D computer technology and laserJESSICA RATH was commissioned
cutting . In the Schindler wing of the house, Feral Childe by the L.A. County MTA to create
manically stripped and sewed found clothing articles “Return Engagement to Garment
FUGUE is Andrea Lenardin Madand fabric swatches to generate a new series in their City,” a theatrical work about 1930s den and Raegan Kelly. Andrea’s
organized garment workers who
studio, instant days, focuses on arKung-Fu Shek line of club-hopping wear.
used high fashion marches in L.A.
Schindler House brought together an array of artists,
BON & GING was established in
2003, by sister designers, Nanette
and Grace Sullano, both born and
raised in Los Angeles
to support their cause. She has exhibited at London Street Projects,
L.A. and the Ben Maltz Gallery.
[88]
chitecture and the applied arts.
Alongside Raegan’s work in film,
she runs ‘toutes les’, a silkscreen
design and production studio.
Where their passions intersect,
fugue happens.
Phase III: Performance Showdown –
My Barbarian vs. Feral Childe
Phase III: Performance
Showdown – Michael Mahalchick
vs. We Are Legion
October 30th, 2004
Starting in the afternoon and continuing into darkness, November 4th - 7:00pm
art band My Barbarian and design duo Feral Childe New York-based artist Michael Mahalchick is known for
each commandeered half of the Schindler House to his electric, colorful and noisy performances, which
orchestrate competing performance events.
draw on subcultures and pop entertainment to explore
On the Chace side of the house, My Barbarian themes of love, lust, sex and death. His spontaneous
presented “Nightmarathon 3: Web of the Ultimate,” a performance work, which often involves music,
tangled musical legend that read the Schindler House collaborators and costumes, is an extension of his
like a modern Da Vinci Code. Less period piece, more sculptural creations. Much as fashion cannibalizes styles
pieces of periods, this original play used ANDREW ANDREW is a highly di- from
earlier
eras,
Mahalchick’s
costume, video, song and dance to versified company. Its corporate di- Frankensteinesque creations brought old
channel the distant medieval, the murder- visions include: Just Desserts (baked clothes back from the dead. At the
goods), Andrew Andrew DJ (musical
mystery twenties and our own mysterious entertainment), Respect Me (fashion Schindler House, the artist orchestrated an
present. They also presented “The Web of line), Information Media (communi- invasion by an “army of zombies.” These
cation services), The Beetles (rock
the Ultimate!” a time travel adventure, band) Curatorial Services (art show zombies, while presenting themselves as
and “Medieval Morality Play!” in which coordination), 2nd Impressions entirely human, lack consciousness. They
troubadours lead the audience through (modeling and styling), and Ad- understand how to behave, how things
vanced Settings (home décor).
Everyman’s struggle to find a decent job
work, how to engage with sentient beings,
in the creative field. Collaborators included artist Pearl but cannot fathom “what it is like” to feel the sting of a
Hsiung and Scott Martin of Snake Versus Wizard. On the bee, the kiss of a mother, the
Schindler side of the house, Feral Childe offered three hatred of a killer. They are ELENA MANFERDINI is the principal of Atelier Manferdini, an arsimultaneous performances. On Stage One: Feral slaves to a higher power that chitectural office that specializes in
Childe presented its latest collection, Kung Fu Shek, at a manipulates their will for its the computer-aided design of exotic
forms. Her practice applies conspecial version of the perennial favorite, Dance Dance own benefit.
struction and manufacturing technologies from the aeronautic and
Revolution. Stage Two: a mosh pit of Baby Dingo Derby,
car industry to architecture, object
a confectionery caucus race. From the inner ring, the
design and fashion. Her work has
Kung Fu Shek Dance-Pak RENEE PETROPOULOS, based in
been exhibited internationally.
WE ARE LUCID DREAMING is a
cheered
them
on.
Stage
L.A., has created public art works
clothing line designed by Trang
DIOSCURI is a New York-based deChau and Anh Co Tran. In addition
Three: Feral Childe called on for the MetroRail El Segundo Stasign collaborative focused on print
tion, the downtown public library,
to catering to a private Japanese
longtime collaborator Jenahk and the MTA’s Douglas/Rosenmedia, textile manufacturing, and
distributor, it is carried at Scout,
architecture. DioscuriSILK is a label
Los Angeles and Marvonek, Costa
and her cohorts in Butter- crans station. Her work has been
created from 100% Thai silk that is
featured in exhibitions including
Mesa. Initially a couture line that
knife Krüsh to perform.
both designed and hand-woven in
“Trespassing: Houses X Artists” at
started in late 2003, it has since
branched out into ready-to-wear
for women and men.
The MAK Center and “The Politics
of Memory,” at Occidental College.
[89]
Dioscuri’s mills in Thailand.
Runway
as Relayed
by the
Backstage
Manager
It follows naturally that the challenge to explore a fashion
show on the grounds of this social and spatial experiment would
likewise involve a bifurcated stage design. Under the jurisdiction
of Coop Himmelb(l)au led by Karolin Schmidbaur, the earthy
materials of the house—redwood, canvas, glass and concrete—
were contrasted with a sleek-lined, aluminum-coated system,
which flooded out of the house like frozen, silver water. This
contrast was extreme, but respectful, and was carefully
constructed in the weeks prior by Christoph Kumpusch and his
entourage of local architecture students. Rising from the green
spaces like contemporary Aztec ruins, runway stairs traversed a
hedge while a wide plane of walkway hovered above an ivy bed,
dead-ending into the house. The audience lined the edges of
these structures still retaining a frontal relationship to the “stage,”
By Sara Daleiden
but also being guarded by these larger-than-life forms. In the
distance, a second dramatic set of stairs could be seen on the
{backstage manager for Showdown!}
opposite side of the house, giving hint to the reality that another
wave of performance was happening simultaneously. In the low
Transforming the elegant, warm and demure spaces of the historic
Schindler House into a laboratory for fashion design by creators
outside the discipline was an impressive undertaking as seen from
my eclectic experience of cultural production. The
Schindler House is known for its permeation of
normal boundaries between inside and outside.
The gardens surrounding the house form living
rooms as comforting as the sheltered rooms within.
It is easy to notice that the footprint of the house is
a mere third of the property and greenery both
horizontal and vertical abounds. The house
embodies a symmetrical, pinwheel logic with four
significant “universal” rooms, designed to give
competing with the stages glowed in a romantic knowledge of
the experiments to be revealed.
Behind the scenes, each room of this low-ceiling home was
SARA DALEIDEN creates installations, identity systems and interventions within the city. Recent projects
include the 2006 Interstate Road
Trip Specialist, generated for High
Desert Test Sites and Socrates Sculpture Park. Sara has also worked as a
coordinator with the MAK Center for
Art and Architecture at the Schindler
House. She earned a Masters in Public Art Studies at the University of
Southern California.
each adult a live/work space within this two-family, communal
housing project. This intimate, yet spacious environment becomes
a perfect vehicle to explore the human tendency to shelter the
body, not only on an architectural scale, but as an immediate shell
to the human form as well.
light of an autumn evening, the plant life enveloping and
filled with the hubbub of preparation to “walk the
walk.” Through the glass windows that usually only
communicate
with
a
protective
world
of
vegetation, the privileged audience could catch
glimpses of the process behind stage. There was
vulnerability and honesty in allowing a preview to
the models, as well as a disclosure that it took
many cooks in the kitchen. There was no illusion to
this beauty, only the energy of raw life.
As a backstage manager of a low budget
production, I could only really have one set of eyes and needed
to rely on a trusty headset to keep me connected to the dual
experience. The basic structure of the performance would
involve a set of simultaneous “launches” in the west and in the
east. The opposite sides of the building operated like coasts that
[90]
released the models into a strictly glossy sea. When a “go”
dresses softened the waif models and accented them with lines of
manager, musicians and sound and lighting techs, fashion-laden
knitted dresses and knit dancing shoes decorated the stage.
moment was indicated by me via headset to the second stage
volunteers were sent on their way to highlight
scarves and belts. On the flip side, Tina Marrin’s vibrant, hand-
the dimensions of their particular stage while
ROUND
them. Upon completing one stage, the
clothed and unclothed their models in a
the center point of the house’s pinwheel to
and red rose petals. Continuing the
also animating the clothing that formed
THREE:
Andrew
Andrew,
an
indistinguishable pair of black suit experts,
runway inhabitants would breeze through
ceremonial space set by sweet children
gracefully begin the stage on the other side.
exploration of public undressing, Wooden
This switch was challenging for the models
Mustache followed with an array of solids
and asked them to reformat their walk and
and stripes that had models unleashing
agenda while on stage, responding to the
further layers of wintery clothing, as a
needs of each side.
woodwind quartet set a classic rhythm.
Giles Miller and the Shifty Disco Band set
the pace for the revelation with their
ROUND FOUR: Generously allowing her
acoustic and electronic, live and recorded.
wardrobe for proclamation of personal
customizable sounds from existing sources,
performers to pick clothes from her personal
Their improvised transitions caused sweet soul
to move into industrial, triumphant rock to
move into toy electronic. Ambient “slow
downs” helped the audience breathe during
choice
Stage manager Sara Daleiden consults her clipboard
before the show begins. [ULF WALLIN]
the gaps in activity. The show concluded in a contagious disco
that led to an epilogue which found the cast coagulated
throughout structures.
To follow one strain of viewing as experienced
from the Chace (east) side of the house while
remembering a mirror performance began on the
other side:
ROUND ONE: Half of Feral Childe’s overgrown
punk baby clothes from their latest collection,
troupe My Barbarian and other friends. Licking lollipops and
throwing balls, the group was brimming with zealous team spirit.
ROUND TWO: Quietly following, Amy Yao’s solid-color cotton
the
runway,
artist
Renée
Petropoulos investigated how the meaning
of clothes shifts depending on who’s
wearing them. Her eclectic team of models
flooded both sides of the stage in tandem and asked Renée’s
question “How is the mass production of clothing individuated?”
LIZ LARNER’s work has been featured in two Whitney Biennials.
She has had solo exhibitions at venues including The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles,
MAK-Austrian Museum of Applied
Arts in Vienna and Kunsthalle
Basel in Switzerland. Liz received
the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1999.
Kung Fu Shek, bounced onto the stage worn by the performance
on
ROUND FIVE: With a commanding and sophisticated
presence, L.A. Eyeworks’ diva, Morganne, sang her
way across the runway structures in a 1920s black
evening dress and rotating myriad eye-enhancing
custom frames fabricated by high-end eyewear
designers, Gai Gherardi and Barbara McReynolds.
She was followed by a band of 1980s-inspired
zombie clothes by Michael Mahalchik who finds existing suburban
blouses and shirts and sews new scar-like veins across them.
Artist Liz Larner’s carefully composed performance piece
had several models passing a sculptural object built of
interlocked, thin copper rings as they wore layered dresses
[91]
silkscreened with the same ring-based pattern. Transitioning to a
ROUND NINE: As a undeniable call for civic responsibility, Fugue
school girl blouses and skirts were thoughtfully pressed to form
commander stressing the importance of voting in light of the
moment of atmospheric relief, Claudia Rosa Lukas’ mature
simple lines in fine fabrics.
ROUND SIX: Ingrid Bromberg and Blain Kennedy’s
Meet Mr. Tape Jockey was a one-man sound
machine with a sash made of a tape player and
a handyman’s apron full of amps sewn in to
create sounds and mics. In a victorious release
to the invigorating Teenage Wasteland, Ujein’s
erotic, graceful and darkly soft sweaters were
showcased on a fleet of intoxicating male
darkened the stage and focused on the chilling voice of a female
upcoming month’s presidential election. As they were called one
GIZMO is Danelle Briscoe and Judith K. Mussel. Both are architects
and have worked in the office of
Frank Gehry. Briscoe studied at Yale
and the University of Texas, Austin
and works in Los Angeles as an architect and product designer. Mussel
studied at the Technical University
Berlin, the University of Applied Arts
in Vienna and the Southern California Institute of Architecture.
by one, figures with dark text on dark t-shirts
emerged from the audience onto the stage and
were spotlighted to divulge the names of
outspoken political revolutionaries.
ROUND TEN: Creating a contiguous flow of
fabric swatches Dioscuri, a pair of irresistible
brothers,
presented
scarves
that
seemed
powerful enough to revolutionize even the most
models in fur boots and very short shorts. In a hygienic white
basic of outfits. Building a crescendo to this thoroughfare of
stapling paper fashion directly around models, making it easy to
almost overloaded with husky long-haired chaps, a “punk and
flurry, Gizmo presented their solution for office printout errors by
appreciate waste.
ROUND SEVEN: Through a stiff, bird-like performance involving
the unraveling of a renaissance style corset dress with billowy
arms and an accordian collar, We Are Lucid Dreaming’s duo
captured a dream-like space where a collapsible framework in
the clothing changes the spatial relationship
between the body and the garment. Bon & Ging
methodically transformed the natural, native
garments of the Philippines into simple and
delightful outfits
In an impressive display of eveningwear,
Elena Manferdini used her understanding of 3D
computer technology and laser-cutting to sweep
fashion, Rath & Wilson playfully consumed the stage as a couple
ornate” coat dress and a cornucopia headdress of natural ruins
and grasses. This “nod to the demise of mid-century idealism,”
embodied as the artists call it “a ragpicker opulence and a
prairie baroque.”
Frank Escher and Ravi Gunewardena showed off the
versatility of their modular fashion system. Four-foot, solid-color
MILLIE WILSON teaches at the
California Institute of Art. Her work
has been exhibited at The Whitney,
the Museum of Modern Art at
Heide, Walker Art Center, and Los
Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions.
Wilson has received an NEA Visual
Artists Fellowship, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship and a
City of Los Angeles Artist Grant.
repetitive lines across cotton and satin allowing the body to be
seen below delicate petal windows.
ROUND EIGHT: An interlude of ambient sound stepped in from
Giles Miller and the Shifty Disco Band to give ears and our eyes
squares edged with snaps were composed
around the body and reconfigured onstage to
form dresses, shawls, pants and other wraps.
FINALE: In a denouement encompassing a nearly
paralyzing range of style research, Frank and Ravi
led the entire cast back onto the stage once
more with a short and sweet, princessesque
wedding dress formed of pure white snappable sheaths. A
mélange of solutions on an array of body types and ages
confirmed that Showdown! was exploding conventions of both
what fashion is and who can wear it.
a deep breath.
[92]
Some Participants
Bon & Ging
Giles Miller
natural surroundings and native garments of the Philippines.
social arenas, from street life to Dodger games, with live and
For their Spring 2005 collection, Bon & Gin take inspiration from the
The Shifty Disco band combines ambient soundscapes from various
sampled music inspired by the traditions and forms of Soul music.
Atelier Manferdini
Elena Manferdini presents “Clad Cuts” —garments
Renee Petropoulos
laser-cut textiles.
various ages to access her closet, selecting two
that are digitally produced and assembled with
The artist invites a group of men and women of
ensembles to wear on the runway.
Feral Childe
The work is often cannibalized, re-used and recycled
We are Lucid Dreaming
include leather, fake fur, elastic, water putty,
especially for the Schindler House are presented for
components of past projects. Their favorite materials
Garments
spandex, MDF, puffy paint, copper tubing.
Gizmo
The idea of “paperless office” actually increased the
amount paper used in offices. Taking the fluctuation
of fashion to the extreme they present “One - Day -
inspired
by
insects
and
designed
Showdown! Collapsible frameworks change the
spacial relationship between body and garment.
Artists Emily Roysdon & Anna Sew
Hoy are among the Feral Childe
models performing aerobic moves
on the runway. [AG]
Wooden Mustache
The clothing is derived from and inspired by flags,
and accompanied by a performance entitled
Flys” (one day highs), paper clothing.
“Spinning,” which incorporates flag spinners, models, a baton twirler
Their project combines a ragpicker opulence with a prairie baroque
Michael Mahalchik
suggested by Pauline Schlinder’s lush bedroom interior as a site of
stitched totemic objects. Improvisatory and fanciful, his raggedy
and a woodwind quartet.
Jessica Rath & Millie Wilson
with references to formal gardens and 18th century costumes
bohemian socializing.
Discarded old clothes and trash are reanimated into woven and
sculptures evoke festish objects, the homeless and childhood
imaginary friends.
Liz Larner
Matrushka Construction (Beth Ann Whittaker and Laura S. Howe), Jill
My Barbarian
Larner prints.
Schindler House” are presented. The former was shot entirely on
Spector and Corrina Peipon present garments out of fabrics with Liz
Tina Marrin
location at the Schindler House, which was transformed into a sexy,
Her highly personal collection of knitted creations is presented with
her famous knitted boots in all shapes and colors.
Their latest video projects, “Morgan Le Fay” and “Séance at the
druidic fantasy fortress! The latter documents a real séance held by
the band (with the help of one of their mothers) and a cast of
unsuspecting invitees.
[93]
Questions for Michael Mahalchik
AND SCARED PEOPLE.
THE FIRST TIME I SAW ONE OF YOUR CLOTHING PIECES WAS WHEN YOU
might not be the most palatable fashions—you might want to
WORE ONE TO YOUR OPENING AT CANADA GALLERY THIS PAST
WINTER.
MM: And then everyone wanted to kill him. So these fashions
destroy them.
MM: I started making them earlier, when I got a handy stitch.
ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE THE RUNWAY MODELS SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS
IS THAT THE CURTAIN REPAIR TOOL I’VE SEEN ADVERTISED ON TV?
MM: The only instruction will be “walk like a zombie.”
MM: Yes, I was making artwork out of clothes. I use scavenged
ON HOW TO WALK?
material— clothes people would give me or I would find on
ARE THEY NICE ZOMBIES?
doing this I realized that clothes already have a form so why
Zombie trait. The models will wear their standard model make-
the street. I forced the materials into sculptural forms. While
not work with that.
DESCRIBE WHAT THE CLOTHES LOOK LIKE. YOU STITCH PATTERNS INTO
THEM, RIGHT?
MM: They don’t have to eat flesh, even if that is usually a
up, not zombie make-up. I hope that the walk, the movement
and the raggedy-ness of the clothes will make the zombie
point.
MM: There are a couple different types of things I have going.
THE FIRST FASHION SHOW I SAW YOU IN ABOUT 10 YEARS AGO, YOU
folds in it, and then stitch those lines in, it becomes a skin.
MM: That was back when I was a model.
One, where I take the fabric and follow the natural wrinkles or
Clothes are like a skin. The clothes that I use are old, like
people’s discarded skin. So that is how I get into this whole
Zombie thing. There is a certain cannibalistic aspect to
making these clothes.
SO FOR THIS LINE, ARE YOU ARE THINKING OF THE RUNWAY WALKERS
DIDN’T MAKE THE CLOTHES THAT YOU WORE.
THAT WAS AN ART EVENT; IT WASN’T A TRADITIONAL FASHION SHOW.
TWO PEOPLE INVITED YOU TO MODEL—
MM: and they both made knitwear. One of the designers was
Tina Marrin, who is in also in this show. She made a series of
crocheted halter tops for my two buddies and me. Each of
DOING A PERFORM-ANCE?
them got progressively smaller. I, of course, had the smallest.
them to be more like stumbling zombies than fashion models.
YOU WERE THE BIGGEST MODEL.
MM: Yeah, it is not going to be a typical runway walk. I want
These clothes are back from the dead, they are re-animated
a little bit, and they are raggedy. Clothes, when they become
MM: And I had the smallest halter top.
old, and people throw them away, become rags. So I just
WHAT WAS THE OTHER ONE?
together. They are Frankenstein-ish, but I like them more as
It was very tight, and it had a bit of SM.
take these rags and re-animate them by stitching pieces
Zombies. Although Frankenstein is a Zombie of sorts too.
YEAH, HE CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD. AND HE ROAMED AROUND
MM: Marcos Rosales made me a macramé plant holder dress.
I REMEMBER YOU GETTING A DOLLAR DURING YOUR RUNWAY WALK.
MM: Yeah, Tom Lawson gave me a dollar—he put it in my
[94]
underpants. I guess I was enticing in a stripper kind of way.
Then that girl came on the runway.
WHAT IS THE NEW BLACK?
MM: Nudity is the new black. It’s versatile, makes a statement
and comes in all sizes.
YEAH, SHE TRIED TO HAVE SEX WITH YOU ON THE RUNWAY.
MM: Both of those outfits were very see-through and exposing.
DO CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN?
underwear. My body is not necessarily any kind of body that
you are a bum. In fact just the other day someone on the
YOUR BODY IS NOT STRONGLY MASCULINE OR FEMININE. IT IS IN-
WHERE DOES FASHION BEGIN AND END?
MM: I was doing the “Greatest Love of All” dealing with issues
choose articles of dress in order to communicate. Fashion
hate to sound super uplifting and cheesy.
communicate through clothing choices.
In a lot of my work at the time, I was performing in my
you would really covet.
BETWEEN.WHAT WERE YOUR PERFORMANCES LIKE?
of the body and gender. Finding pride in your differences. I
MM: Of course they do. If you dress like a bum people will think
street mistakenly put a quarter in my cup of coffee.
MM: Fashion begins when we make a conscious decision to
ends when we are unable or are unwilling to choose to
YOU DID A LOT OF PIECES WHERE YOU WOULD SING A POP SONG
WHAT IS THE SEXIEST GARMENT OF ALL?
MM: The pop song became a narrative for the performance.
on someone I want to take them off.
removed the tuxedo to reveal pasties on my tits, and I made
WHAT ITEM OF CLOTHING FROM YOUR PAST DO YOU HAVE THE
man tits, using the song as a metaphor for believing in yourself
MM: my denim jacket. I bought it when I was 15 and still wear
COVER.
For “The Greatest Love of All” I was dressed in a tuxedo. I
them spin It was a simple idea, I was taking advantage of my
even when you have a lot of flaws. I think people could see
my empowerment. It made me feel not so strange about my
atypical body.
I think of the clothes in a similar way as I think of my body. It is
MM: Tighty whitey underpants because anytime i see them
STRONGEST EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT TO & WHY?
it. it signifies the moment i began to develope a sense of style
that was different from my parents.
funny for them to be in a fashion show because they are
Questions for My Barbarian
current fashion trends.
WHAT IS THE NEW BLACK?
PUTTING ON CLOTHES IS SUPPOSED TO GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE TO
Malik Gaines: Purpura.
nothing like a Helmut Lang jacket, they are not invested in
WALK OUT IN THE WORLD.
Alex Segade: Sequins.
MM: or to individualize yourself. This past year I have been
WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF FASHION?
catastrophic event you would be able to take these quilt-
class. To co-opt style, which is among the last strategies for
making quilt-like works. I fantasize that if there was some
like tapestries off the wall and wrap them around yourself
for warmth.
MG: To create artificial bourgeois hierarchies that aestheticize
individualization we have left, and commodify it into
something icky.
[95]
AS: Fashion distinguishes the hoi polloi from the riff-raff.
to stand next to them. Actress Karen Hallock has fantastic
WHERE DOES FASHION BEGIN AND END?
Kim Fisher knows how to wear official fashion with distinct
California.
AS: Malik is the best dresser because he always looks
internal glamour, artist Eli Sudbrack has fun individuality, artist
AS: Fashion begins in Paris, France and ends in San Diego,
elegance.
effortlessly classy. I also really like to look at artist Lara
DO YOU HAVE A MUSE?
JG: Yes, several. The ghost of my mom as a 33-year-old Art
Nouveau hippie in 1978 Northern California.
Schnitger, who has made lots of costumes and set pieces for
us, because she is a futurist euro-sprite.
(She’s not dead) Old pictures. Somewhere in
WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE A FASHION
of Boca Raton...
JG: Stirrups. Where did they go? Why can’t
Time / Pretty Baby. Laurel Burch and Emily Ann
TRAGEDY?
anyone look good in them?
AS: I have 9 muses.
WHO IS YOUR ALL TIME FASHION HERO?
IN YOUR WHOLE LIFE WHAT ITEM OF CLOTHING MADE
Mutantes, Labelle, The Pointer Sisters, and The
JG: My unicorn headdress.
MG: I have a soft spot for the early ‘70s. Os
YOU MOST EXCITED?
Cockettes all made incredible use of colorful
theatricality and third-hand rags. Perfect.
AS: my own favorites, from a variety of eras
and epochs: Bob Fosse, Cecil Beaton, Jean
Jade at the Schindler House. [FH]
IS THERE A GARMENT YOU WANT TO MAKE, BUT
HAVEN’T YET? DESCRIBE.
AS: I want a fancy suit of armor and a pointed
Harlow, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Teri Garr, Laura Nyro,
helmet decorated with wings.
Gigolo, Mink Stole, Rudolf Valentino, Nijinksi, Dietrich & Von
ARE STRAIGHT GUYS DRESSING MORE GAY & VICE VERSA?
Morticia & Gomez, Liza Minelli, Richard Gere in American
Sternberg, Penelope Tree, the Factory, Jack Smith, Anna Mae
Wong, Ben Vereen, Jem & the Holograms, Stevie Nicks, Buffy
Sainte-Marie, Valerie Harper as Rhoda, Kid Creole & the
Coconuts, Alfalfa, Lucy Van Pelt, Cobra and the Baroness from
GI Joe, all the elves in ElfQuest, Kate Bush, the X-Men, Diane
MG: Instructive here is the example of Paris, where straight
guys walk around with their beautiful girlfriends and each are
wearing fine linen pants and the best shoes and beautiful
scarves. They look dignified, simple and in love.
Keaton & Buster Keaton and even Alex P. Keaton. Etc.
WHAT ITEM OF CLOTHING FROM YOUR PAST DO YOU HAVE THE
WHAT IS THE SEXIEST GARMENT OF ALL?
MG: I like my Jesse Jackson 1988 T-shirt. I also have a row of
STRONGEST EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT TO & WHY?
AS: Dance belt.
early ‘90s fashions in my closet, documenting the time I
AS: Fringe.
would spend maxing out my young credit cards at the brand
WHO IS THE BEST DRESSER YOU KNOW & WHY?
unacceptable, but will hurl me onto the top tier of glamour
new
MG: Alex and Jade have so much style integrity, it’s an honor
Barneys
in
Beverly
once they bounce back.
[96]
Hills.
These
are
currently
Camp Classicism
to Avant-Garde
[and back and forth]
Fashion in Los Angeles
by Konstantin Kakanias
Sometime in 1950 in his fashion salon in Beverly Hills (decorated
by the ingenious Tony Duquette), the couturier Adrian
presented his spring-summer collection. Pasadena society
and an all-star clientele watched enchanted as elegant
models in intelligent and super-sophisticated suits walked up
and down with a detached expression and unsurpassed style.
They were holding satin ribbons that were attached to black,
the “studios,” they, and others, opened independent couturesalons and went into the fashion business for themselves.
But who would their clients be? During the 1950s in Los
Angeles one could not even find a decent restaurant. Except
the occasional stars (and kept starlets), and some executive
wives, who could wear and afford their clothes?
Despite the lack of restaurants, clients, press and other
beige, brown and white sheep—real sheep—wonderfully hair-
urban stimulation, the Los Angeles designers were dedicated
Adrian, the celebrated costume designer (and one of the
clothes. Isolated and separated from the civilized world by
styled, walking as elegantly as the models.
reasons I moved to Los Angeles), had transformed Garbo into
to their art and continued to create innovative and beautiful
mountains, rivers, canyons and deserts, far away from the
“Mata Hari” and “Camille,” also created the mythical
New York market, and the so perfectly structured chic Parisian
Antoinette. After a brilliant career in the movies, he had the
groves, palm trees and coyotes, under the ever-shining
costumes for the Wizard of Oz and the beyond camp Marie-
audacious idea to open a “couture salon” in Beverly Hills.
His example was followed by other talented costume
designers, including Travis Banton who created magnificent
world, here in this no season paradise, between orange
Californian sun, they created woolen suits, capes, hats and
furs! It is the strength of the individual artist and creator that is
admirable in Los Angeles, a city where no real structure exists
costumes for Marlene Dietrich and Mae West, and later the
beyond the world of movies. There are no rules, no reality, only
Hayworth in Gilda. Tired of the manipulations and caprices of
not you can always play tennis…that’s ok too.
French-born Jean-Louis best known for his iconic dress for Rita
you and your work. And if one feels like working, great, but if
[97]
Is it a coincidence that the ultimate American couturier
not too many) in all possible combinations, the perfect fashion
for his atelier? Although his career and market were
fashion continued with a series of photographs of supermodel
(but Paris-educated), James Galanos chose the West Coast
established in New York, it is in Los Angeles that his exquisitely
statement of the perfect fashion victim. His fascination with
Tatiana Patitz, “The most beautiful woman in the world.” She
crafted designs were executed. Made in California! During
was not posing like a model, but as herself, at home like
conceptualized futuristic fashions, celebrated in hundreds
that Ray had his supreme victory over fashion. An oversized
the sixties, the Austrian-born Rudi Gernreich introduced
of photographs of his muse and model L.A. icon Peggy
Moffitt. His clothes were practical, sometimes even
anybody else. It was with his monumental sculpture “Fall, 91”
mannequin in a dark pink suit, an ode to powerful banality,
towers over everything. Could this sculpture be derivative of
economical but really eccentric. Later, in a classic
Dynasty, without the bitchiness?
models, all shaved, man and woman, unisex. In the opposite
the same. Young and current L.A. artists, like Kim Fisher
Californian fashion, he bared it all, and presented naked
direction Bob Mackie, who started to design for television,
continued the tradition of outre’-camp with an Erte-goes-
Apache sort of thing—a total blast!
Alas in the late seventies and eighties, fashion in Los
Art and fashion by now have become very close, almost
comment both on minimal art and commercialism with her
gorgeous logo paintings. The tragicomic fashion shows and
performances of Los Super Elegantes (starring the exquisite
Milena Muzquiz) are a must for the L.A. art crowd. The clothes
Angeles became stagnant. The mega-power-bitch ultra-
of Rick Owens, whose style recalls Adrian, Madeleine Vionnet,
Nolan Miller created for Dynasty were, unfortunately, copied
Californian designer (even though they are now made in Italy
in real life the gym-crazed outfits of Michael Kaplan became
Paris, a very conscious decision, and re-introduced
camp (this time not on purpose) costumes that designer
throughout the world. Although very amusing in Flashdance,
associated with horrid taste.
With the hippie movement, gay liberation and militant
feminism, West Coast fashion was reborn into conceptual and
performance art. This is the moment where fashion becomes
a basic instrument for art making, and with its rich and
Mad Max and Joseph Beuys remain the work of a true
and presented in Paris). Jeremy Scott moved to L.A. from
Hollywood drama for the new millennium. Will I wear it?
Maybe not, but it doesnt matter. I will wear more easily Loy
and Frank’s soft-porn-inspired outfits, so exotically Germanic
in the Californian context.
Fashion in Los Angeles is like the city itself, sometimes
accessible vocabulary it became a way to express and
classy, mostly trashy, chic or not, but ultimately totally
with installations of boots and other objects convey serious
and artistic achievements of Charles Ray and Paul McCarthy,
communicate deep ideas. The early works of Eleanor Antin
unlimited. And if my brain is preoccupied with the intellectual
political and religious messages with whimsical humor. In the
my heart is entirely given to the anonymous pedestrian. How
are also fashion fantasies, as a sailor (with mustard) or as a
lilac, with white powdered faces shaded by parasols, neo-
grotesque performances of Paul McCarthy, sublime travesties
Suiss doll (with dildoes).
Finally with the inspired work of Charles Ray (another
reason that I moved to Los Angeles), fashion found its
antidote, its real mirror. In early works, like “All my Clothes,” Ray
photographed himself wearing all the clothes he owned (alas
about ancient Hollywood ladies, dressed in symphonies of
punks and gothic creatures dressed in layers of black with
heavy silver jewels, elaborate hairstyles, make-up and
tattoos? This is what I really love, pure self-expression. Fashion,
color combinations, patterns and mood statements liberated
from any sort of artistic or commercial ambition.
[98]
15
SPECIAL DELIVERY
11.04.04
4:00-7:00pm
AT: California College of Art {CCA}, San Francisco, CA
WITH CCA GRADUATE STUDENTS: Lamia Bensouda, Charles Beronio,
Valerie Davis, Sasha Dela, Roy Delgado, Erika Figel,
Cassandra Kegler, Kathleen Maloney, Ryan Mulroney,
Joseph del Pesco, Jodi Paper, Robin Powlesland, Dina Pugh,
Emma Tramposch, Sarah Wagner
[99]
Amateurs United
by Joseph del Pesco
A CCA student in a hand-made naked suit arrives in a car covered in wrapping
paper to DJ for the awaiting crowd. [SASHA DELA]
D espite the liberal academic climate of the
Echoing the multidisciplinary spirit of
San Francisco Bay Area, where experimental
the Black Mountain College, Sundown Salon’s
curricula and progressive hybridity are
visit to California College of the Arts
generally encouraged, career specialization
(CCA)
tends to mean departmental isolation. And
graduate
involved
assembling
students
an
nominated
array
from
of
each
in the graduate programs of art schools,
discipline:
where the overabundance of criticality
Photography, Visual Criticism, Sculpture,
can
Design, Writing and my camp: Curatorial
be
divisive,
having
a
productive
including
Architecture,
conversation about academic topics external
Practice.
to your chosen profession may be encouraged
consensus was to focus our energy toward
but it’s not necessarily common. It could
transforming a derelict courtyard adjacent
After
our
first
meeting,
the
be the result of a need for a creative
to the MFA studios. Already slated for
initiative to get individuals from multiple
redevelopment, this group would push the
fields working on the same project.
administration to develop a vision for this
[100]
de facto multi-purpose site, and stage an
of beer and an array of live bands. In
event
addition
that,
at
least
for
a
moment,
to
the
seating
blocks,
two
integrated the efforts of participants from
vehicles were added to the courtyard for the
all corners of the institution.
duration of the event. One was an oversized
Our
conversations
directions,
wandered
eventually
in
many
a lounge area and video projection in the
semester-end event. We decided to combine a
back, and the other a “mobile backyard” of
pragmatic
sod and a garden rock laid into the bed of
response
to
school bus with an interior converted into
a
architectural
leading
to the
A truckload of performing poets is delivered to the crowd in the courtyard,
one in a series of regular deliveries to the CCA salon event. [SD]
courtyard with an array of performances.
a pick-up truck (a project by Marc Horowitz
When our hope of planting a giant tree in
and Jon Brumit).
the middle of the courtyard became too
food
complicated,
funds
appearances at the large metal gates of the
the
courtyard, delivering accordion players, an
available
for
we
redirected
the
project
the
toward
service
Another standard-sized
truck
made
repeated
purchase of two fiberglass bench-blocks,
opera singer, a chorus of spoken word. Later
offering seating on four sides and a planter
in the evening a car skinned with painted
in the middle. One was occupied with a dry
paper delivered two students, one enclosed
garden (succulents, grasses etc.) and the
in a modified mattress and another in a
other became a temporary site for a solar-
naked suit. This strange variety show arose
paneled fountain by Charles Goldman, CCA
from our collective discussions, and the
Artist in Residence.
The
final
event
realization that perhaps the amateur and
included
a
spread
prepared by a nearby taco-truck, bins full
off-hour
activities
of
our
professions are what united us all!
[101]
future
16
GIANT MARGARITA, DOG TACO
& VIDEO CONVENTION
PRESENTED BY:
11.28.04
2:00–9:00pm
Bordermates including Paulina Lasa, Renato Ornelas, Kelly Coats
[102]
From: border mates
Date: Sun Nov 07 21:55:53 2004
To: fritz haeg
Subject: GIANT MARGARITA!!!
Hello Fritz!
Yoshua Okón gave me your address and showed me the
kind of events you hold in L.A. (through your website). I
belong to a collective named Bordermates and we put
About
Bordermates
By Kelly Coats
together events in which food and music, alongside all
Bordermates was initiated in the summer of 2002 when I moved from
trip to L.A. in the next couple of weeks to make a giant
zone of Mexico City. In respect to our relationship as a North
sorts of expressions, make the day. We are planning a
margarita and cook tacos made out of the
Ohio to Mexico City to live and work with Renato Ornelas in the Juarez
American/Mexican couple and collaborative
team, we coined ourselves, “Bordermates.”
mexican hairless dog (xoloitzcuincle),
being this last one a prank, of course. We
On a regular basis, we frequented the
of November and we were wondering if
economical
“comida
are planning to do this event sunday 28th
corrida”
meal
(a
typical
three-course
in
Mexico)
restaurant “Chyg’s” that was conveniently
there’s a possibility of doing such an event
located on the first floor of our apartment
over at your Sundown Salon???? I’m
sending a dossier over with Yoshua so you
building. As regular customers, Renato and I
visit our webpage www.bordermates.org.
of the locale.
quickly became good friends with the owner
can get an idea of what we do, or you can
This trip-action-performance is possible
due to the support of the Rockefeller
The picnic feast laid out in the Sundown Gardens. [FH]
Foundation and the Mexican Art Council (CONACULTA)
but pretty much comes close to the end of our activities
as a collective for the next 6 months.
Best
Renato Ornelas
BUEN PROVECHO HAPPY MEAL
BORDERMATES
RENATO
www.bordermates.org
Chyg’s was open from Monday to
Friday, catering to the masses of people who
work in the surrounding business district. On weekends only a few
residents populate this area. Because of this circumstance we began to
organize bi-monthly events at Chyg’s on Saturdays, making use of the
commercial facility on a day that it was normally closed. For each event,
we invited 7 participants (one which volunteered to cook) to install works
that either responded to the physical characteristics of the restaurant or
to the coinciding themes of food, transience and circumstance. We
normally invited friends who were emerging artists, filmmakers,
musicians, designers, etc.
These events, known as “Sabados de Chyg’s” (Saturdays at Chyg’s),
were facilitated out of generosity and exchange. We paid Chyg’s for the
[103]
preparation of several a la carte items that were inexpensively sold along
more official, with articles in the newspaper and art magazines, lectures
with beverages. The little money we earned was used to cover the
in Mexican Universities and the administrative responsibilities of
who volunteered to help us in the kitchen. The participant who
and making quarterly reports to grant coordinators. In addition, having
production expenses of participants’ works, and sometimes to pay friends
volunteered to cook was provided with assistance and ingredients to
devise a meal for about 60 people. This food was served for free to our
visiting public, allowing for an experience in
obtaining permission from the various locales, seeking more sponsorship,
a greater budget occasionally has allowed participants to realize more
ambitious projects, which has often meant more work on our end.
Coincidentally, we began hosting events
which the visitor ate, participated and
the same month that Mexico City’s 8-year old
observed mutually.
artist-run space, La Panaderia, closed its doors.
A week before Renato and I separated in
In a city with just a few art spaces available for
the summer of 2003, we had submitted a
emerging artists, approaches like ours have
grant proposal to Cultural Contact, The US-
played a vital role and become more common
received the grant and putting our personal
Miniplugs opened El Mirador, in which bi-
Mexico Fund For Culture. In 2004 we
in the past few years. The collective Los
differences aside we invited several new
monthly exhibitions are viewed through the
members (Paulina Lasa, James Young, Yvonne
peepholes of a kiosk outside of one of Mexico
Dávalos, Alex Dorfsman) to help us continue
City’s busiest metro stations, and artist Mau
the project. Since the owner of Chyg’s had
Limón organized a series of three group
sold the restaurant and moved to the beach,
exhibitions in the city’s natural history
we expanded the project to a citywide (and
museum.
core element.
submitted for our second grant, which we
later international) level, with food always a
We are about to complete the proposal we
The locales selected ranged from a
parking lot in the downtown area, to
Daimler-Chrysler’s corporate headquarters in
received from UNESCO’s International Fund for
Renato mans the grill. [FH]
the Promotion of Culture (IFPC). This has
involved coordinating several events in other
Santa Fe (Mexico City’s prime financial and commercial zone), to the
Latin American cities like Buenos Aires and Guadalajara. It is a good time
atmosphere for viewing works has often proved to be less stifling than that
managed to stay together for almost 4 years now is the simple fact that we
owner or employees of the locale. Although we spend several weeks to
ourselves. Although there are normally three of us who handle all
Sundown Salon to finish off the year. In most of these spaces the
of the gallery or museum setting. We have often collaborated with the
several months in preparation, there is always a sense of risk coordinating
one-day events, we never know exactly what will happen or what to
expect. It is quite rewarding to witness how artists, people involved with
the locale and passers-by work together to make everything possible.
With the extra financial support, the project essentially has become
to take a break and re-evaluate the project. One of the reasons we have
are constantly working with new people rather than just amongst
administrative responsibilities, Bordermates has grown in membership,
usually making it possible for each member to take a break when due. It
is gratifying that a personal project that started between two people has
grown and allowed many young artists to realize new works in versatile
environments, and for countless people to be involved with those works.
[104]
Road Trip
North of
the Border
family waiting up to greet us at 11pm with a feast of tacos, salsas, frijoles,
quesadillas, etc. The next morning Renato’s uncle, a surgeon, was able to
transfer his knowledge of veins and arteries into the realm of circuits
and cables, rapidly fixing the car stereo, and providing us with music as
we smoothly crossed the border into the US.
Our reaction when we finally arrived at the Sundown Salon by far
superseded that of the Griswald family upon their arrival at Wally World.
For one thing it was open! And to say open is an understatement as we
immediately witnessed our host’s generousity and mellow demeanor as he
showed us around the salon, and offered suggestions of how we could set
the event up. His flexibility was extremely evident in the single fact that
By Kelly Coats
he allowed us to serve meat tacos and margaritas even though he himself
consumes neither of the two.
The Giant Margarita – Video Taco Conference proved to be the most
In November of 2004, Bordermates went on vacation. We traveled from
laid-back event we have hosted to date. Preparation was mostly
completed in one day. Renato’s friend Alvaro, an immigrant to Los
Mexico City to Los Angeles by car instead of plane for financial reasons,
Angeles from Singuilucan, Mexico guided us to all the Mexican goods.
border by land would provide a more tactile experience. A month before
instead of our usual practice of producing new pieces for the event we
but also for collective bonding. We assumed that crossing the US-Mexico
We limited our production to what could fit inside of the Chevy and
leaving we were still trying to select a location for an event in Los Angeles.
shared video programs from past events and other artist videos from
we began to correspond with Fritz, it seemed like the perfect match. Like
and viewing stations were located in the dome, kitchen, and cave. The
Yoshua Okón and Gabriela Jauregui suggested the Sundown Salon and as
the series of salons, we had for several years been facilitating ephemeral
events that offered a venue, a vacation if you will, away from the normal
Mexico. Participants that day were invited to share their videos as well
detachable car stereo system was moved to the Salon’s upper deck,
providing music for the conference. We decorated the grounds with
gallery/museum setting; a place for people of different disciplines and
party streamers, floating candles for the pond, plastic margarita flowers,
for planning, we agreed on hosting a giant margarita and video-taco
and vegetarian quesadillas were served, nourishing the bellies of all
tequila left over from a previous event, some paper mariachis to give to
satisfying meal. The grill was also utilized as a heating device as winds
unmentionables that filled Renato’s small two-door Chevy.
dropped to 50 degrees fahrenheit. Paulina and I prepared the giant
backgrounds to engage in out of the ordinary activities. With little time
convention and packed up some clothes, our mascot Sr. Tortilla, a case of
Fritz, spices for the food we planned to cook, and a bunch of other
The appropriated Griswald Family Vacation image that we used for
etc. Renato’s Tacos del Rancho Chamaco (ancient Aztec dog-meat tacos)
visitors. Renato made an offering to the Aztec gods, and everyone had a
soared to speeds of up to 15 miles per hour and the temperature
margarita, and it was so successful that we had to make several batches,
the event invite, proved to be very indicative of our trip. With a lost gas
the last of which was an improvisational pineapple margarita.
a somewhat dysfunctional family affair. Our late-night arrival into
drink a little more, ultimately departing from the Sundown Salon with
cap, broken stereo, indigestion, refusals to eat, speeding tickets, etc, it was
Ciudad Obregon where Renato’s relatives live marked a change in
Bordermate morale. We were surprised and welcomed by the entire
As the sun set in the clear Sunday sky, people went inside to talk and
the fruit of the ancient Aztecs in their stomachs, and a Bordermates tshirt to wear sometime in the future.
[105]
Salon Memories
about the giant margarita and video-taco convention, i remember it was a sunny
day after 3 or 4 days of clouds. we were very happy to have the luck of the sun in
the sky because the food was taking place outside... but then a super super strong
wind changed our expectations. i was wearing a short skirt which was flying up
and down all day, so at some point i just forgot about shame. perhaps that also had
to do with the margaritas i was drinking... i think the event was succesfull in the
sense that people had fun and ate all the food and margarita we prepared, i could
see videos by people i never met before and probably won’t see again, and i could
show them mine too. the only thing that didn’t work was that i didn’t have the
energy to go find the candies that i, myself, had hidden in the garden.
PAULINA LASA
we (myself, paulina and kelly) traveled for 4 days, departing from mexico city to
l.a. for our special event at sundown salon. I took the car to the mechanic shop and
then, it’s really weird now that i think about it, we stuffed as many things as could
possibly fit into this 3rd world compact automobile. We
never thought that we were going to meet so many army
and police stands throughout the road, it seems that we
chose to ride the same route druglords use to get their
merchandise up north. I thought that it isn’t a clever idea
to transport cocaine through regular highways since there
is all this security going on, but then we were asked to get
out and show our id’s at least 12 times. i mean we looked
pretty harmless but probably they thought that the artist
Bordermates T-shirts. [PAULINE LASA]
disguise might work to contraband a few pounds of blow
into the usa. Among the things we traveled with there was
a whole case of tequila (12 sponsored shiny bottles) that were transformed into a
big bowl of margarita, dj set (mixer, amp, cd players and speakers (ridiculous),
100 t-shirts (we wanted to sell them, but no one bought a single shirt, so we ended
up giving them away) gladly those shirts made all the way to a pepsi commercial
which is actually airing right now, so we came across many borders, both
metaphorically and literally.
RENATO ORNELAS
[106]
18
K48 IS AN ANIMAL
02.20.05
2:00-9:00pm
ORGANIZED WITH: Scott Hug, K48
WORK BY: Anna Sew Hoy, Terence Koh, Yoshua Okon, phiiliip,
Michael Magnan, AVAF, Trinie Dalton, Theo A. Rosenblum
PERFORMANCES BY: Totally Radd, Ponce de Leon including John P. Hogan, Greg McKenna,
David Reich, Carrie Collins & Jonathan Butt with performers Diego J. Garza,
Julia Brown, Jeff Cain, D. Jean Hester, Christina Ondrus, Austin Patteson & A.J. Pyatak
[107]
The Sundown K48
is an ANIMAL
Salon jamboree
K48 MAGAZINE is produced once a
year. Each issue is filled with works
by emerging artists, photographers,
fashion designers, musicians and
writers. Past issues have explored
teenage rebellion and kults, the environment, our return to nature, and
exploring our inner animal.
you are invited to sundown salon #18
in the cave
nyc’s K48 & scott hug go wild west
4pm….……...the never ending story will be shown.
2pm sharp..….....……….........tent pitching will begin.
with a day of events to celebrate the l.a. launch of
6pm............……….…....performance by totally radd.
‘K48 is an animal’ issue #5.
7pm...............……............……….performance by barr.
8pm.......…….…….…..performance by ponce de leon.
sunday, february 20th 2005 2:00 – 9:00 pm
phiiliip’s summer collection video by grant worth.
david bowie narrates prokofiev’s peter and the wolf on the record player.
no parking on sundown (park on cazador)
screenings of ‘masters of the universe’ and ‘the never ending story’.
carpool if you can / b.y.o.b.
a secret installation in the hidden forest sleeping hole to the sounds of
bring $10 to get your copy of the new K48!
the new K48 soundtrack by phiiliip.
in the dome
in the garden
video & slideshow presentations with:
commune with the local species of feral cats, wild goldfish and the rare
a down under wildlife slide show.
mount washington sparrow from the comfort of the vintage boy scout
‘join the resistance’ movie trailer by hug & magnan.
tent encampment in the sundown gardens. be on the look out for a possible
‘the age of the pink pony and his boy’ by terence koh.
visit by our friendly los angeles urban ranger for a tour of backyard fauna.
custom geodesic jellyfish wallpaper by michael magnan.
a giant floor octopus in the dome by assume vivid astro focus.
the 2005 K48 sundown jamboree will be held in the wilds of la on mt.
in the watch tower
geodesic dome where participants will take part in many fun activities
washington at the campsite of mr. fritz haeg. on site is a state of the art
animal reading library including
including the release of K48 is an animal, issue #5.
vintage issues of ‘boys life’ & ‘ranger rick’.
please bring cash for K48 #5 - $10 - thanks!
make your own pasta animal art and craft table.
drawings by trinie dalton, theo a. rosenblum, and anna sew hoy.
hope you can join us,
the mess hall with snacks and treats (animal crackers), b.y.o.b.
fritz & scott
[108]
The Dead
Hummingbird
in the Dome
THE 2005 K48 JAMBOREE
MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the jamboree is to provide a
diverse group of K48s and K48ers a
meaningful and memorable experience that
will instill the lasting values and traditions
of critiquing America, and our highest
priority will be to conduct the jamboree in
By Krystal Chang
a safe and secure environment.
(Written on the occasion of the Sundown Salon #18
and displayed on a table beneath the dangling corpse.)
Beware!
What is natural anyway? Looking
for ward 100 years makes me wonder...
Above your head hangs the final resting spot of this
If our only interaction with nature is at
fine specimen of a ruby-throated hummingbird
best a planned garden area, a sort of
(Archilochus colubris—archilochus: “chief among
conservatory on a shuttle or moon base,
[birds]”; “colubris”: perhaps a spelling mistake on the
then the entire value system and
part of Linnaeus as the latin “colubris” means
prioritizing for that person will be
“serpent”
different. It is in effect a different
“hummingbird”).
while
the
French
“colibre”
means
race of human animal: one that is totally
dependant on manufactured goods—
On an autumnal afternoon the unknowing bird, lured
themselves the only organic creature
perhaps by the unwitting geodesic dome’s resemblance
inhabiting a manufactured world.
to the heavens, flew in the door way, in and up! Alas,
—Matt Murphy, from “The Daily Plastic
Intake of Mechanized Animals”
The story of this hummingbird that flew into the
dome and died is told here by Krystal Chang. [FH]
with no up to go to, for the dome was not af ter all
the sky, the hummingbird desperately circled the
perimeter of its new confines.
Is that a real owl?
—Decker from Blade Runner
KRYSTAL CHANG designs, draws,
builds furniture, writes stories,
reads, re-reads, eats, watches trashy
TV, walks in long strides, uses SPF
25 but still tans, wears silver flats,
thinks up projects, goes to farmers
markets, takes pictures, prefers Inn-Out, likes the emptiness of downtown, makes borscht, grew up, lives,
and works in Los Angeles.
Wise then, for it did not simply die of sheer panic, the hummingbird found the wire
dangling from the center of the dome and made this its resting point, pausing for a
few moments bet ween its increasingly hopeless forays to return to its skies. The
humans below were helpless.
The next morning, a glance up drew dismay˜for the life of the hummingbird had fled
in the night, leaving behind its exquisite case, still gripping the wire, throat more
gloriously jewel-colored than ever, wings spread, head down, as if to take the plunge.
[109]
Salon Memories
“Qu’est-ce que c’est- Le Sundown Salon? I was an SS virgin.
It was raining that day. I remember because I apologized more
Ever yone is a Salon onto themselves, what Sundown does, or
than once to the kids in from NY. When in L.A. I always felt a lil’
rather did, was provide context. Realit y cannot be experienced
sad for the tourist if the town didn’t live up to “Sunny CA” post-
unless its reflected back to you —the photographs I shot there
card images. Perhaps I always felt like a tourist there myself.
reflect the geodesic interior onto the land-
Something should be said about how awesome
scape—a blur of inside and out, the liminal
it was for J Perez to import all these super
state of bet wixt and bet ween. A perfume of
cool NY kids af ter a long spell of art-world
smoke filled the dome, the sober host popped
isolated localism. His program supported a lot
his head up the spiral stairs, “hey, perform-
of work that would never have gotten play in
ance downstairs!” Did I miss something, while
L.A. other wise. The event had a lot of con-
I was busy being in the thick of it upstairs? I
tributors out of that crowd and they all
was talking for a while with a young local
looked so good in L.A. No, perhaps L.A. looked
curator, engaging in an interesting dialogue,
good on them. I made out with someone at this
or so I thought, when later I realized it was
event too. The salons were the best place to
not my conversational skills that were en-
meet smart queers in the sunshine.
tertaining, but rather someone was warm for
TOM TEXAS HOLMES
my form, and when I didn’t reciprocate,
well—that was the end of our utopian mo-
Scott Hug wears his Siegfried & Roy tiger shirt. [FH]
ment. Up and down, round and round, e ach
Salon is a roller coaster through your mind and body. A preMandrake era Los Angeles, a socialist Salon where people from
your past, present, and future converge. Some of my favorite
L.A. couples: Drew and Flora, Anna and Giles, Malik and Alex,
mixing with the quintessentially L.A.: Mungo, Javier, and Dean.
While at times its a mob scene, some participants are vorte xes onto their own.
Skylar me ticulously built a honeycomb
wonder at the craf ts table out of macaroni that echoed his sculptural practice,
while Eve continued her screen test portraits of everyone who came through, a
project that ran its course over a number
JEFF CAIN investigates cultural,
technological, and natural systems
and creates work that intervenes
and remodels these structures. His
work has been presented at the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art,
Musee D’art Modern de Ville de
Paris, CalArts, the Armory Center
for the Arts, and other Southern California venues. He is based in L.A..
of Salons, and should prove to be a valuable historical document of its time.
SAM GORDON
[110]
JOHN P. HOGAN works in performance and drawing. His band
Ponce De Leon (primarily a collaboration with musicians Greg
McKenna and David Reich) is a
satirical critique of western imperialism masquerading as a Floridathemed party band. Recently,
Hogan created a musical entitled
The Island of Florida: A Foundation
Myth. He was included in The Zine
Unbound at the Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco, and Kamp 48 at
John Connelly Presents, New York
TERENCE KOH was born in Beijing, China, raised in Vancouver,
British Columbia, and now lives in
New York City. He received his
Bachelor degree from the Emily
Carr Institute of Art and Design,
Vancouver. He was also known as
“asianpunkboy,” though it appears
that name has been retired. Koh
creates handmade books and zines,
prints, photographs, sculptures,
performances, and installations.
Much of his diverse work involves
queer, punk, and pornographic
sensibilities. Koh’s work has been
exhibited around the
SAM GORDON is an artist, writer,
world. He is repreand filmmaker who lives in New
sented by Peres ProjYork City. His work has been exects in Los Angeles
hibited at Feature Inc. and is in the
and Berlin.
collection of the Museum of Modern Art and the Walker Art Center.
19
BAROQUE GEODE
04.24.05
2:00–9:00 pm
DANCE PERFORMANCE BY: robbinschilds including Layla Childs, Michael Helland & Sonya Robbins
SETS BY: A.J. Blandford
VIDEO BY: A.L. Steiner
INSTALLATIONS BY: Alexis Rochas, Yoko Iida, Alice Könitz, Jeff Ono, Anna Sew Hoy
READING BY: Ken Ehrlich
VIDEO PORTRAITS BY: Eve Fowler
[111]
IN THE CAVE
IN THE DOME
Broque by robbinschilds
Dreamcatchers by Anna Sew Hoy
A site responsive dance is presented, a psychedelic study in the extra-
Dreamcatchers are tools for capturing and controlling dreams. They
pedestrian, investigating robbinschilds’ interest in everyday places,
represent a belief in dreams as visions, as important signs that have an
public spaces, hotel hallways, camouflage and filigree. The piece was
effect on life outside of sleep.
originally performed in New York in 2004, and was adapted for the
Sundown residence.
Evil Biology by Jeff Ono
Choreography: robbinschilds
paperboard, clay, plastic — 39 x 44 x 33”
Perfomers: Layla Childs, Michael Helland and Sonya Robbins
Original Music: The Malarkies
Reconstruction by A.L. Steiner
Costumes: Ellis Kreuger
A video story of the robbinschilds weekend in Los Angeles, preparing
Set design: A.J. Blandford and robbinschilds
and performing.
Video: AL Steiner
Late Stage Bucky Inversion by Ken Ehrlich
Read by the author.
ATTACHED TO THE HOUSE
Aeromads by Alexis Rochas
Serving as a threshold and continuum between the garden and the
cave, a semi-pressurized shape moves through the operable skylights.
The almost-inflated shape records pressurized interaction between the
two spaces, a sequence of slight breaths.
Geode Windows by Alice Könitz
A series of tinted triangulated mylar window prosthetics are attached to
the lookout windows in the kitchen of the Sundown house. They echo the
geodesics of the dome and shade the sun.
YOKO IIDA is a Los Angeles- based
artist from Toyota, Japan. Her recent work is temporal, transportable, and site-specific. Her
work will be exhibited at Shoshana
Wayne Gallery this summer.
SONYA ROBBINS, a native
of San Francisco, graduated
from Bard College with a
BA in Choreography. In
1998 she co-founded KICK STAND
DANCE, an experimental dance
collective based in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn. Since then Robbins has
participated in numerous KSD
productions, and has collaborated
with architects, rock musicians and
fashion designers.
IN THE GARDENS
Untitled {Mountain} by Yoko Iida
An installation of paper is made on-site. It is a mountain, a mound or
a pile. It is located on the small lawn, under the plum tree, on the hill in
the garden.
Video Portraits by Eve Fowler
A 15-second video portrait of each visitor is recorded as an ongoing
Sundown Salon project.
[112]
LAYLA CHILDS grew up in New
York City. She earned a BA in
coreopgraphy from Bard College.
Childs was a co-founder of the
KICK STAND DANCE collective,
which opened Triskelion Arts, a rehearsal and performance space in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
MICHAEL HELLAND studied
Community and Environmental
Planning and Dance at the University of Washington and is now
based in Brooklyn. His work addresses the human body in relation
to the communal body. His choreographic work has been presented in
venues such as Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Chocolate Factory Theater,
Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project and Studio 303 in
Montreal. Michael curates Brink, a
quarterly performance series at
Dixon Place, and performs with
robbinschilds and Daniel Linehan
LATE STAGE BUCKY INVERSION
INCLUDING CUT UP’S FROM THE 1968 TEXT INTUITION: METAPHYSICAL MOSIAC
BY KEN EHRLICH
(Written for the occasion of Sundown Salon #19 and read by the author in the dome.)
“Time,
relativity,
and consciousness
Are always and only coexistent
Functions Of an a priori Universe,
Which, beginning with the twoness of secondness,
Is inherently plural. Ergo: All monological explanations of Universe
Are inherently inadequate And axiomatically fallacious.There can be no single key Nor unit building
block of Universe. In addition to inherent duality of Universe There is also and always
An inherent threefoldedness and fourfoldedness Of initial consciousness And of all
experience.For in addition to (1) action, (2) reaction, (3) resultant,There is always
(4) the a priori environment, Within which the event occurs,
I.e., the at-first-nothingness around us Of the child
graduated from the womb, Within which
seeming nothingness (fourthness)
The inherently threefold
Local event took
place”
I
should
begin timidly
or perhaps boldly
with entirely convincing
conviction. Or I could speak
or write in rhetorical flourishes
both pretentious and pseudo-scholarly.
I should say “the plastic works and texts of
Buckminster Fuller are a revelation and also riveting.”
I might begin by saying “I’m always slightly anxious at these
sorts of things.” Or “when asked by Fritz to respond to this site and
by extension to reflect on sites seen and sights unseen, we turn to Buckminster
Fuller, to the utopian systematics of the latter day renaissance man as a starting point, a
launching pad, a springboard… a point of origin. But what does Bucky tell us about
this place now? Why resuscitate this myth, this man who has become a fable…
this paradigmatic amalgam of music and science already so recuperated?
Already recovered in the pages of design magazines and on the
Face of a stamp as a revolutionary who didn’t need a
revolution… this failure turned success story, this
once nearly blind toddler who needed a pair
of glasses to see the world as something
other than color and shape… In
these moments cynical-oh-so-cynical,
what sort of speculation on this site
might looking and thinking through
Bucky’s historically-clouded
lens provoke?
[113]
KEN EHRLICH’s video, sculpture
and photography have been exhibited internationally. His work interweaves architectural, technological
and social themes. He often collaborates with architects and artists in
site-specific and/or communitybased projects. He is co-editor, with
Brandon LaBelle, of Surface Tension: Problematics of Site (Errant
Bodies Press) and the ongoing Surface Tension Supplement series. He
teaches at The California Institute
of the Arts and at the University of
California, Riverside.
“Thus
loving humans
Have unwittingly tutored
Their young to acquire a whole body
of reflexes labeled as knowledge, All of which has since
been invalidated by experimental science’s findings –As armed with
powerful instruments for exploring the ninety-nine percent of reality,
Which is inherently untunable directly by the human senses.
Humans grope for absolute understanding,
Unmindful of the a priori mystery
Which inherently precludes
Absolute understanding.”
In
an
autobiographical
monologue scenario,
Fuller describes falling
in love with various shades of
purple or green. When fitted with a pair of glasses
at the age of four and a half, he witnessed
for the first time a world full of detail and complexity.
He noticed the eyes of his cat and saw human emotion
communicated through facial expressions. He attributed his
swirling approach to design to flow, in part, from his
impaired vision. Always struck by the interlocking complexity of phenomena,
visual and perceptual phenomena, rather late in his career, Bucky, always searching for
holistic solutions to social ills took a metaphysical turn. From ‘maximizing efficiency in sailing
vessels in the navy’ to ‘the a priori mystery? From designing a three-wheeled vehicle in 1933
that sat eleven passengers and averaged 22 MPG to that
unspeakable vastness of space and time beyond human understanding?
All which is untunable by the human sense… This metaphysical
turn was both a break from the design logic of his earlier thinking and
at the same time entirely consistent with his expansive
contemplation of systems large and small. These fruitful
contradictions point to a series of possible
angles through which to re-think
a site or a location.
This geography.
1. THE FULLER PROJECTION: Flat maps of the world reckon with the inevitable distortion that comes from representing spherical, three-dimensional space in two dimensions. Most maps
push the so-called misrepresentation far to the north pole and to Antartica. Greenland usually takes the brunt of this injustice, appearing proportionally enormous next to much larger
countries. In 1946 Buckminister Fuller designed the Dymaxion Map — Dymaxion: a word invented by as a compound of the words Dynamic Maximum and ion; an atom or group of
atoms with an electrical charge — which minimizes this sort of distortion by representing a map of the earth with a complex shape that can be folded into a cuboctahedron. (A polyhedron with eight triangular faces and six square faces.) This corrective scheme does indeed allow us to see a 2-dimensional representation of the planet with minimal distortion AND
suggests an impulse to tune visual (or cartographic) representation to a particular frequency? Are we left with a series of scientific inventions that embrace or at least acknowledge the
need for models and systems while remaining mindful of and looking for inspiration from the a priori mystery?
2. BUCKY’S DECONSTRUCTION OF THE NOTIONS OF UP AND DOWN: “There are those that say, ‘Never mind that space stuff, Let’s get down to earth.’ So you say, where is that?
Where is that non-space? This simply assumes that there really is a great and infinite (flat) world that goes on and on. And above it is something we call up – there is something we call
space. Down is something called Hell. The words up and down refer to this flat concept of the world. The words up and down have no meaning when we’re dealing with a spherical
earth. And the spherical earth is moving, rotating, moving on through space all the time. We’re all aboard a spaceship!” When thinking in spatial and spherical terms, ‘in and out’ becomes more meaningful than up and down and refers to gravitational forces rather than an illusionary hierarchy. Up and down also has the unfortunate psychological association of,
say, a mood swing—while in and out generates a more arousing connotation.
[114]
3. A DEPARTURE FROM THE GRID: Well known for designing the geodesic dome, Bucky conceived of the space as a series of interlocking triangles. The experimentation that led to the
dome involved the discovery that the square or the rectangle, the shape so fundamental to architectural design, was relatively weak structurally. The triangle, as he demonstrated so often
in performative lectures, is, simply put, a more structurally efficient form. In 1954, the first geodesic dome was presented to the public at the Milan Trienalle and was constructed from
cardboard. Bucky’s deviation from the orthodoxy of boxy… the recuperated form of so much modernist architecture, is more or less contemporaneous with a return to the pared down
minimalism of the architecture now so famously celebrated in L.A. mid-century Modernism. Not far from here, in 1951 Richard and Dion Neutra designed the Hinds House and then in
1953 completed the Eagle Rock Park Clubhouse. Both are extremely elegant studies in reductive, planar architecture… but when compared with the fracturing geometry of the geodesic
dome, these oblong boxes appear almost staid. The efficiency of the dome is superior to much of the modern architecture often described in terms of simplicity and efficiency. The dome
actually has less surface area than most buildings and so requires less building materials. Heating and cooling are aided by the advantageous circulation of the spherical space.
“It
is, furthermore
In experimentally disclosed
Evidence that there is A synergetic
progression in Universe–A hierarchy of total
complex behaviors entirely unpredicted By their
successive Subcomplexes’ behaviors. This means that there
exists A synergetic progression Of ever more encompassing systems
Of human experience discernibility Which are spontaneously differentiated
Into unique levels Of cognitory consideration which the contained micro Of any adjacent
macro level Never predicts the existence Or the observed behaviors
Of the adjacently next most encompassing Macro level complex.”
Helicopters
function as
a way to read the
geography of the city in
multiple ways… macro and
micro. As anyone who has flown out
of or into the city knows, Los Angeles from
the air appears endlessly horizontal and the skyline
of the city is constantly dotted with helicopters. The LAPD
tracks the movement of suspects from the air much like t.v. news
relies on the helicopter to create spectacle out of events like car chases, natural disasters and
the on-going display of excess. Aerial photography has become ubiquitous in most big-budget
film and television productions and those who can afford to travel by helicopter can avoid
‘troublesome traffic.’ The rest of us on the freeways tune to radio stations to check traffic
reports that are delivered “live” from the air. After the recent deluge of rain, helicopters
buzzed overhead in this neighborhood to check the
stability of areas threatened by mudslides and were used to assess the
safety of hillside homes. The helicopter is completely wedded to the
infrastructure of Los Angeles.The format of the grid, the basis
of perspectival space, is fundamental to formal strategies
still employed in so many urban planning schemes.
The varying rectangular frames of the urban grid
also refers us back to the many “screens”
through which we constantly observe images:
film and television, the internet, billboards
and other forms of advertising, as
well as the architectural framing
of windows. When seen from
above, Los Angeles, blurring,
appears as rigid grid with
constant breaks
and fissures.
[115]
“And
the astronauts
Go in toward various
celestial bodies And accelerate
outwardly from them And into the spatial
nothingness Out of which space they steer themselves
To come in to another Of the always orbiting celestial bodies,
Around any of which they may locally orbit In great or lesser circles.
All of us go outward, inward and around Any object, or system of reference,
Such as planets, stars, houses, things, and atoms. Atomic events transpire Inward, outward
and around their respective nuclei.We direct an astronaut into the moon: We will soon direct
her into Mars. Out is common to all bodies And is outward in all directions From any one of them.
“Out”
is omnidirectional,
“In” is unidirectional.“In” is unique.
In is always specifically oriented. In is individual.
The
word “invention”
Uses the prefix “in”
To identify this specifically.
It means a “coming in,” A coming into our
thought of a unique conception, Which we in turn
Realize in a special physical case demonstration Thus in-troducing The in-vention to society.
Now
it seems
the kind of utopianism associated with R. Buckminster Fuller is not so different from the corporate motto,
the language of the management seminar or the inspirational workshop that can teach us to feel good about our selves AND succeed in business.
We’ve inherited a systematic addiction to systems AND we revel in the dreamy non-spaces within and without.
We see the helicopter as a tool that helps implement a society of control AND we marvel at the in and out flights around Los Angeles. Looking at the city from out there,
we see the helicopter as a technology that enables us to read the geography of the city AND to map it in alternative ways.
We wonder what this dome looks like from up there…, no from out there… not up there...
We know that to consider this site is to look out AND in… to site the dome in a neighborhood, in a community, in a city, near a place, for a moment, for this event.
We might see these images as an alternative mapping strategy that moves towards an acknowledgement of multiple distortions rather than the erasure of misrepresentation.
We witness the city as excessive
AND we scrutinze images for artifacts of the digital technology that shaped them.
We imagine the helicopter as an aspect of technology that has
become intrinsic to how the geography of the city is read AND we wonder why most architecture is so tame.
We hunt for closure
AND we sense that things remain unfinished.
[116]
A REVERSE
CRYSTALLIZATION
PROCESS
Remembering Baroque Geode by Krystal Chang
Around the entire form is overgrowth of native vegetation. Resident flora
and fauna both, creeping, twisting, budding, swimming, batting, feeding.
One April afternoon, new, cultured forms emerged, sprouting from the
host structure itself, each manifested in a different configuration. Here in
the dome, one attaches itself by a fibrous line, hanging collected in a
shiny twisted maze of crevices. Another nearby stands apart, a geometric composition growing legs and lifting itself up from the table surface.
Still another slips into a hexagon of the dome, its coat of colors a catalog of the city from above. In the garden, a crumpled paper mass suns
ba·roque (b -r k’) pronunciation
adj. 1. also Baroque Of, relating to, or characteristic of a style in art and architecture developed in Europe from the early 17th to mid-18th century, emphasizing dramatic, often strained effect and typified by bold, curving forms,
elaborate ornamentation, and overall balance of disparate parts.
2. also Baroque Music. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a style of composition that flourished in Europe from about 1600 to 1750, marked by expressive
dissonance and elaborate ornamentation.
3. Extravagant, complex, or bizarre, especially in ornamentation: “the baroque,
encoded language of post-structural legal and literary theory” (Wendy Kaminer).
4. Irregular in shape: baroque pearls.
[French, from Italian barocco, imperfect pearl, and from
Portuguese barroco.]
itself in arborescence. In the very deepest part of the cave, the interior has
taken on a pattern covering. Four dancers assume the same appearance
in mimicry, emerging from the surface and creating a new space to the
tunes of traffic and birdsongs. Within the captive audience, another organism grows, a massive silver cocoon dropping into the cave from the
skylight above, welded to its outdoor counterpart in the garden above, an
impenetrable form, an interior of light that can only be seen through the
transparent gridlines that connect the faceted surface, sustained by air.
The Making of the Aeromad
ge·ode (j ’ d’) pronunciation
n.A hollow, usually spheroidal rock with crystals lining
the inside wall.
[French géode, from Latin ge d s, a precious stone, from
Greek, earthlike : g , earth + - d s, adj. suff.; see collodion.]
3 HOURS EARLIER:
We switch on the smiling panda-shaped
blower and watch as the Aeromad, impercep-
Begin with the mineral forms, defined by geome-
tibly at first, and then slowly, rises from a crum-
try, the ground conditions, starting from the depths
pled pile and assumes shape. The silver
and proceeding upward in a spiral formation,
material catches the sunlight above the skylight
each state becoming warped, dramatic, by juxtaposition: (1) the cave, a subterranean space with
The aeromad seen from the cave. [FH]
and reflects it into the darker cave below. The
thing breathes in its own fashion—air slowly
leaks out and the drama of re-inflation occurs
grey rock walls, lit from above, a sink of cool air
in summer heat, (2) the look-out, a crow’s nest from which to survey the
for the lucky ones who catch it in that state.
surrounding sea of houses and trees and the magically lit freeways glittering red and white at dusk (3) the dome, 16 feet high, geodesic, mind
4 HOURS EARLIER:
over matter, hummingbird-catcher, painted a light, bright blue, with trian-
Driving to Sundown, in my rearview mirror I can see Alexis and Betty
gular windows and circled by a walkway covered with grapes in the fall.
in a LeBaron behind me, top down, with a cartoonish silver mass in
the backseat. To my left, a marathon’s worth of cyclers speeds by in
cave : look-out : dome = earth : sky : heavens.
colorful counterpart.
[117]
6 HOURS EARLIER:
62 HOURS EARLIER:
My phone rings, I wake up, it’s a golden afternoon light and I immedi-
I get a hopeful call from Betty as I’m leaving work—so, are you free
ately think I’ve missed the entire salon.
tonight? Want to come over and cut some pieces? Alexis is out of town
and Betty and Victoria are left to deal with the
9 HOURS EARLIER:
beast.
I could tell you what an 1/8” looks like dead
on now. That’s the width of every seam and by
168 HOURS EARLIER:
now we’ve seen it so many times we don’t need
Dinner with red wine and pasta. Betty adds a
to measure anymore. The sunrise catches my
drop of honey to the tomato sauce. Alexis and
mountain of scrap clear duct tape and it glis-
Victoria are arguing: dog run vs. skylight.
tens dazzlingly in the light. The windows of the
corner loft open up east and south. To the south
52 HOURS LATER:
another building façade fills the windows while
I miss it, but see the pictures afterwards-—
to the east the view opens up toward the city
Betty and Alexis and Lucas looking like a punk
beyond. The day before we watched as a city
art band with their all black clothes inside a
bus caught on fire and burned in the street
golden cave. The aeromad was left on Sun-
below.
down the day of the salon and Alexis and
Betty picked it up a few days later. That night
14 HOURS EARLIER:
The two halves are almost complete. Lucas
climbs in to tape the last pieces. It’s hot and
they took it to the rooftop of their building, had
Robbinschild at the end of Sundown Drive. [AS]
dark in there—we hold a flashlight and a fan at
the blower going while surgically cutting it
open, and amid the downtown skyscrapers,
windows lit as dusk became dark, crept into
the opening and wish him luck. Tonight it’s ravioli again—this time from
that gold interior, tunneling through, cracking open like a geode into an
the 99-cent store. We agree it’s better than the organic.
unmappable space of sparkling facets.
38 HOURS EARLIER:
We only have a third of a roll of mylar left and I go into the bedroom
area to spread it out. There’s no bed anymore—it’s been rolled up into
a corner. Every square foot of the loft has been taken over by the aeromad. I lay out the remaining pattern pieces on the mylar and MAKE
THEM FIT. A while later, we’re left with a good bit of the double-sided
material—silver on one side, gold on the other. Probably shouldn’t have
been so stingy. Ravioli tonight—fancy, organic. We’ve gotten into a
schedule, sleeping from 6 am to noon, working from noon to 6 am. It’s
easier to work at night, when the rest of the world is quiet and the buzz
of daytime hours is gone.
[118]
JEFF ONO was born in Los Angeles and attended The Cooper Union
in New York. His practice involves
material patterns and anomalous
forms in an exploration of seemingly perfect systems (geometry,
organic patterns) executed from
fundamentally unstable detritus,
office stuffs and hobbyist supplies.
A.J. BLANFORD is a bi-coastal designer/builder. She studied art and
architecture at Columbia University and collaborates regularly with
robbinschilds.
A.L. STEINER‘s video, photographic, performance and
curatorial work has been exhibited internationally and
is featured in the permanent
collection of the Brooklyn
Museum of Art. She’s a collective member of Chicks on
Speed, is the co-editor/curator of
Ridykeulous, collaborates with choreographers robbinschilds and is an
instructor at the School of Visual
Arts. Steiner is based in Brooklyn,
NY and is represented by Taxter &
Spengemann in NYC.
20
SALON SALON
07.10.05
2:00–9:00pm
ORGANIZED WITH: index magazine
DESIGNERS: Bruiser & Gamut {Christopher Kreiling & Alex May}, Bettina Hubby, Brian Lichtenberg, LD Tuttle {Richard
Lidinsky}, Oumi {Mayumi Date}, Bon & Ging {Nanette & Grace Sullano}, Feral Childe {Moriah Carlson & Alice Wu}
PHOTOGRAPHERS: Eve Fowler, Alix Lambert, Sabina McGrew, Dean Sameshima, Nicolas Wagner , Austin Young
HAIR & MAKE-UP: Katie Brennan, Aiko Hachisuka, Molly Owen, Awny Rael
FACIALS & TAROT READINGS: Dave Burns
STYLIST: Danielle Kays
PERFORMANCE BY: OK Go
[119]
Dear {participant},
I am writing to tell you about the next big event on Sundown Drive. It is called Salon Salon
and scheduled for Sunday, July 10th 2005. Sundown Salon will be host to an afternoon
and evening of transformation through clothing, hair, make-up, manicures, facials, tanning, waxing and all things salon.
Willing and able stylists, designers, artists and general laypeople with
OK GO is Damian Kulash, Tim
a dream will be invited to spend the day both making over and being made
Nordwind, Dan Konopka and Andy
Ross. OK Go are expert craftsmen
over. Guests will enter the lower-level cave where they will change NICOLAS WAGNER is a photograof intelligent, catchy rock songs.
into clothes and accessories by various designers, and visit the dome pher originally from France. He
From the influential how-to guide
studied graphic design and adverthey published for bands hoping to
for hair and make-up. Later they will roam the deck and gardens tising in Paris before moving to
unseat President Bush, to the
for styling and shoots. All the while they will be documented by nu- New York in 1995. He contributes
monthly column they wrote for a
to Interview, Kaiserin, Flaunt,
Japanese rock magazine, to their
merous photographers roaming throughout the Sundown house and Composite, Tetu and Vibe. His curtour of America as house band for
public radio program This Amerigardens, including the geodesic dome, the subterranean cave, the rent projects include videos, a book
about L.A based hip hop dancers,
can Life, OK Go always seems to
mountain overlook deck, the fish pond, the oval lawn, the vegetable and a monthly fanzine on a variety
find a new corner of the world to
of obsessions. He lives in TriBeCa
explore and make their own.
garden and the bat-cave garage.
with his cat Misha.
Everyone at Salon Salon, including the designers, photographers and stylists from New York and Los Angeles and beyond, ALIX LAMBERT’s feature length
documentary “The Mark of Cain”
will have their hair and make-up done while wearing clothes by vari- was nominated for an Independent
Spirit Award and aired on Nightline.
ous designers, or outfits styled for the event. As a climax to the day She went on to produce additional
of transformations there is a special musical performance by OK Go in segments of Nightline and segments
for the PBS series Life 360. Lambert
the cave at sundown. This salon will be like a marathon preparation for is an editor at large and writer for
the big photo-shoot that never happens. The preparations will be the Stop Smiling Magzine and for the
literary journal Open City. She wrote
project, exposing the process of childlike dress-up and human vanity for the HBO series’ Deadwood and
at its best. The salon of hair and make-up will become performance John From Cinicinnati. Her book
Mastering the Melon is available
and sculpture. The salon of conversation and ideas will consider our through D.A.P.
fascination with human appearance and transformation.
A team from Index magazine will be on hand to conduct interviews, which along with
the photos and documentation from Salon Salon will become a 24 page fall fashion editorial in their September 2005 issue.
There will be a limited guest list for this gathering, so please let me know (1) if you
plan on attending and (2) if there is any special skill or material you will offer for the
day and (3) if there are others you think should participate.
xo Fritz
[120]
The Salon
Salon
Report
by Alice Wu
Salon Salon Day! I’m awakened by sunbeams streaming in from
skylights in the cave. I roll out of the felt boat in which I’ve had the
most delicious night’s sleep. Our host and the dogs have been
awake for hours puttering about tidying and setting the stage for
the day. Feral Childe is from New York and we have been overnight
guests the night before the Salon.
I was hanging out with my friends Anna Sew Hoy and Bea Valenzuela. Anna is an artist and they both cut hair for fun too. We
were talking about cutting hair as a “project,” which naturally
led us to consider a whole day at my place dedicated to such hair
transformations in the garden. This then spiraled out to makeup and all things salon. I was in NYC a few weeks later and mentioned the upcoming event to Peter Halley at Index and he
proposed sending a team of photographers and interviewers to
cover the event as the fall fashion editorial for the magazine.
With that new direction, clothing by local designers was added
to the event. In the end, the catalysts for the salon, Anna and
Bea, were away the weekend of the event!
—Fritz Haeg
After black tea and conversation, my partner Moriah and I are
the first to add our fall collection to the garment racks that, along
with other indie designer wares, will serve as the day’s wardrobe.
Then Moriah and I go set up “Wax-tique and Body Decoupage by
Feral Childe” in the garage, our performance-spa and transformation treatment.
It’s only 9 AM when Nicolas Wagner shows up, a triple-threat
photographer/art director/long-time Fritz friend. Nicolas just shot
Cindy Crawford for a Flaunt magazine fashion story here a few
weeks ago. Index magazine staffers troop in shortly after. After
a round of introductions, Nicolas leaves to prepare his camera
and index gets to work, photographing each garment and accessory for inventory.
Two hours later, guests awkwardly trickle in, having shown up
with only a foggy notion of the day’s offerings. No time to hesitate after passing through the green Dutch door: the index
crew handles guest registration, snaps “before” photos (“after”
comes, well, check out the magazine), and commence clothing
check-out/check-in. Some guests start perusing the clothing
racks immediately; others stand in shock, agog at the house itself, the dome home on Sundown Drive. So far the air is filled
with nervous energy and all activity seems to be about getting
ready for something to happen, but what? Feral Childe heads to
the garage.
“Wax-tique and Body Decoupage” by Feral Childe is a salon
service involving bright little scraps of fabric and bits of string
from our Brooklyn studio, and tubes of our special adhesive. Our
first client wears a skimpy tank top and the abundance of fleshy
surface is perfect for showcasing our handiwork. With hot moist
towels we wipe her back left shoulder, where she has requested
adornment. Moriah and I select fabric bits from small plastic
bowls. In silence and serious concentration we snip round shapes,
we snip jaggedy shapes. With our special body glue, sticky and
cooling, we apply ivory, lemon, and kelly green pieces to create
a jellyfish on her shoulder. Done! More guests arrive for de-
[121]
coupage, and we continue to work collaboratively. “Come back
anytime for a touch-up,” I tell our clients.
Alice: Moriah, what’s your favorite decoupage moment?
Moriah: George.
Alice: Can you describe some of your decoupages?
Moriah: The ideas were not image-driven, but
a process of creating interesting layers that
would stick. Stickiness was my theme.
utes; it’s just enough time to get to know each other a bit plus a
tarot reading he says. He’s got Grace of Bon & Ging in a folding
recliner, with mud on her face and orange slices on her eyes and
looking glamorous anyway.
The tarot card readings were intense. We learned about recent
heartbreaks, and upcoming successes for the enthusiastic salon
set. One young man (one of the models) confessed that his card reading was eerily accurate, explaining that he was in a custody
battle with his ex-wife, and a local fashion
designer proclaimed relief when she saw
that her cards indicated imminent success
on her horizon for career and recognition.
—Dave Burns
Then a shirtless, hairless and nicely burnished male model appears. He’s got eye
makeup and some metallic powder on, and
he’s actually wearing a funny hat and biker
shorts that we made. The shorts are fesEveryone is either taking pictures, having their
picture taken, or both. [ALIX LAMBERT]
After a few hours of decoupaging, Moriah
tooned with all kinds of goombah in the
and I yearn to see what else is happening in
front and this makes Moriah and I giggle.
We nod as seriously as we can muster as George says he’s almost the house The day is now in full swing as half-dressed glittery
ready for his first photo session of the day but would like us to de- guests in full makeup madly peruse the racks throwing on different clothes to make themselves camera-worthy
coupage him first. We oblige, of course.
EVE FOWLER received an MFA in
Across from us, Eve Fowler has set up an ad- Photography from Yale University while strobes pop and flash all around. Clothes and
hoc photo studio complete with white seamless and is now based in L.A. She re- bodies and fake eyelashes are everywhere!
cently exhibited at Thomas
paper backdrop and light stands. It’s a hotspot of Solomon @Rental Gallery, Los Anprofessional portraiture. Eve photographs Shana geles Contemporary Exhibitions, I had just arrived and there was so much action
in a dramatic black kimono accessorized with a Ratio 3 in San Francisco and Partic- swirling around in the beautiful trippy house that
ipant, Inc. in New York. She co-cuheavy corded, jeweled red belt. She looks like rock- rated “Shared Women” at LACE I felt like I’d gone down the rabbit hole. I sat down
with Emily Roysdon and A.L.
star royalty.
on the floor upstairs and looked up saw Katie GrinSteiner in 2007. She is a recipient of
Meanwhile, Dave Burns entices customers the California Community Founda- nan which was so perfect because she’s always rewith his herbal facials and tarot readings. Dave tions Fellowship for Visual Artists.
minded me of Alice in Wonderland. I asked her if I
has brought his hot plate, large enamel pot,
could put some makeup on her. When I started makwooden spoons, wooden bowl, a mortar and pestle, assorted ining up her face I thought how funny it was that we used to play
gredients and three decks of tarot cards (“osho zen, power, and
around like that when we were little girls. It highlighted this
thoth”). He brews a fresh batch for each guest’s warm mud mask
child-like experience I had throughout the day. I carried that
(“fruits, herbs and bentonite clay...various combinations of dried
memory with me for awhile.—Katie Brennan
flowers (lavender and marigold) with thyme, hyssop and nettles; fresh citrus (lemons and oranges)...an infusion simmered So Feral Childe abandons the Wax-tique to join in the fray. Bewildown to concentrate the goodness”). The mask dries in 20 min- dered, we are quickly separated in the chaos. I wander around to
[122]
soak in this circus that seamlessly weaves in and out of doors. I
listen in on conversations and run away before I’m discovered.
Dean Sameshima holds court at the picnic tables; he’s been shooting exclusively Polaroids. Peter Halley strolls around with a tape
recorder conducting thirty-second interviews. Danielle Kays, coowner of South Willard, styles guests in their outfits in the kitchen,
serene and unruffled by the madness.
kit. It includes “fun colors, lashes, glitters” for the guests but she
has no time to participate in the great dress-up mash-up herself.
It doesn’t matter, she tells me, because she takes pleasure in making everyone feel so pretty, so cool, and she gets to make people
relax and enjoy good conversation.
Molly and I talked about hair and moving to L.A. – girl-talk...
informal just like a day at the salon. Very relaxing!
–Andrea Cherkerzian
Alice: What item would you have liked to take home with you?
Katie Grinnan: One of Bettina Hubby’s dresses.
Andrea Cherkerzian: Feral Childe’s spacemonster dress and
Tiffany Tuttle’s necklace!
Moriah: LD Tuttle’s Giant Safety Pin.
Shannon Shelly: I fell in love with Feral Childe’s purple leather
bag and did take it home!
Fritz wears a tunic and shows off smoky eyes, applied by makeup
artist Awny Rael. I decide I need a change of outfit myself and visit
the clothing racks downstairs, selecting a Bettina Hubby reworked I find Nanette and Grace (of Bon & Ging), Bettina and Mayumi in the
vintage dress and LD Tuttle pumps. The latticework of the Hubby kitchen. We talk shop: sample making, fabric stores, our fashion
icons. We admire each other’s goods, encourage
piece relates to the shoes perfectly — little mircollections-in-progress, and negotiate future
rors all over the vamp, fabulous! The shoes are
trades and possible collaborations. A photograway too small, but I don’t care! I tromp over to the
pher cuts into our conversation, asking us to
line for makeup to find out what picture-perfect
squeeze in closer for a group picture.
Miljohn and Jean are whispering to each other.
More on the clothes: I love Bettina’s meticuNext to them Alexis Persyko is boudoir-resplenlously reconstructed garments, embellished with
dent with her hair in a mile-high up-do by Molly
Owen. Alexis: lost in her own thoughts, barefoot,
lattice-like cutouts and colorful inserts, reflecting
languidly reading an architecture magazine
a thieving-magpie quality. I am lucky to just fit into
plucked from Fritz’s shelf, one nipple naughtily ex- Tom Texas Holmes befriends a model. Bon & Ging’s regal drainpipe wool trousers, but
[TTH]
posed from her long gown.
lament the dearth of full-length mirrors to check
out the goods on me. Jade Chang dons an amazing gray Brian LichtMost guests told me I could do anything and some wanted to stay
enberg dress while other guests both male and female take turns
simpler. I didn’t get to ruffle through the goods but I would have
with his other louche-glamorous tops; none of us invited designers
loved to meet Austin Young, who left before I had a chance to
really make clothes for men but today everything is declared unisex.
meet him. He is one of my makeup photographical inspirations. I
love his work. – Awny Rael
Hair and makeup lines snake through the dome and onto the porch.
While the word of the day is fun, the hair and makeup artists work
straight through with no breaks. I ask Awny what’s in her makeup
[123]
Two moments: One. On realizing that nobody has thought to
bring bobby pins Katie Grinnan’s hair is put up with a big black
paper clip – thrilling. Two. One of the male models that had
been planted in the crowd pops a boner in this ridiculous spandex number – thrilling. —Tom Texas Holmes
As I wander around the house I observe that the photographers,
now acclimated to the wonky architecture of the house, have
adopted favorite models and conduct fashion shoots throughout the dome and outdoors. Photographers and models make themselves
private performances as we look on,
and realize this is theater.
Molly and I agreed on big curls to go with the feel of the [space
monster] dress. It worked out perfectly. She cut my bangs real
short and gave me glamorous curls. —Andrea Cherkerzian
After some more time as Austin’s assistant, it dawns on me that if I want
my clothes to appear in the magazine
I’d better hustle. Although all of the
Alice: Who cut your hair?
designer wares are in heavy rotation,
Katie Grinnan: My friend Aiko. She left
getting photographs of people in the
it long but shaped it so it looked so much
clothes was going to require each of
better than before.
us to make the photographs happen.
Alice: What did you talk about?
So the afternoon kicks into a high-ocKatie: We talked about a bunch of stuff,
tane fashion feeding frenzy, and I
and the question of getting bangs, with
dash to the garment racks to dress as
Artist
Shana
Lutker
flanked
by
male
models
just
before
OK
GO
Katie B and Tom Texas Holmes.
many guests as I can and guide them
performs in teh cave. [FH]
to the photographers. Here’s graphic
Then suddenly someone grabs my arm and shakes me, shriek- design duo PS! I help Penny (New York) into our green stretchy
ing, Let’s go, let’s go, now! It’s Austin Young, photo-cowboy, in- dress, and accessorize her with a Hubby flower choker. Shanstilling fashion panic in me, running past me, calling out for non (Los Angeles) asks me what she should wear with a Vena
clothing and accessories to dress the perfect model to shoot in Cava silk-screened top. I suggest Feral Childe’s black satin digthe perfect location. It’s the patchy pit of grass and fruit ital knickers. Okay! I usher P & S to the nearest photographer
bushes just outside of the kitchen window where ALICE WU is an artist and fashion and he shoots them from various angles.
there’s the cloying smell of overripe, burst fruit. designer. Alice shuttles between
I bring Austin an armload of shiny things but Oakland and Brooklyn to continue I started the day in a sassy and sexy low-cut green
her work as one-half of dynamic
Austin rejects most of it and sends me back in- duo Feral Childe, whose fashions dress. I wish I knew the designer’s name. It was
side for more. Then we dress this faunlet in lit- have been celebrated as “chunky fun to wear, but my boobs kept falling out while I
chic” or “kinda ’80s, kinda punk,
tle green briefs, shivering next to a heap of kinda feminine” and have appeared was working so I put my apron on top of it. My
denim and cowboy boots. He’s Brian Lichten- on the runways of NYC, Joshua only regret is that I didn’t pass the dress along to
berg’s design assistant. He’s pallid, pliant and Tree, and Toronto. When not con- someone who could show it around better! I like to
ducting charm school class, Alice
easy to dress. We put him in a purple unitard enjoys her growing collection of take my time with each person; however, on that
and he lolls about on the grass while Austin cacti and succulents, birding, and day, it felt like I was moving swiftly from person
balancing her checkbook.
snaps away. The boy says he’s shy and has
to person. Everyone was so interesting to talk
never been in a fashion photo shoot, but I don’t believe him for
with, and I had a most enjoyable time. I saw at least ten difa minute since he takes to the camera like a natural. Let’s grab
ferent people. I had to turn some sad heads away as my time
models, let’s grab clothes, and start shooting!
winded down and I didn’t have a chop left in me.
– Molly Owen
[124]
Several outfits later, the sun is still blazing, and I’m tired. This
day seems to go on forever. I haven’t seen Moriah in a while. I’m
tired and want to hide away, so I sequester myself in the laundry closet and sink down to the floor, close my eyes, press my
head to the door and listen to the buzz out
there. I nod off and when I emerge from
the closet, the hair and makeup lines are
still endless, and stylists keep styling
away patiently, pleasantly. I spy Moriah
across the cave, complete in her transformation from decoupage technician to
stylist, to photo assistant and back to
stylist. We wave to each other before
being swallowed up in the crowd again.
the child within had a field day, if only we could do this every
day—get away with being fabulous and eccentrically dressed,
while drinking wine, eating colorful food, getting our hair and
make-up done, our bodies decorated with neon threads and glitter, being pampered, interviewed, mudmasked and tarot-ed, photographed at our
strangest/finest
—Bettina Hubby
Are you ready for your close-up now?
Months later, I get my issue of Index in
the mail. I felt happy, then empty! The
Salon Salon spread goes on for sixteen
glorious pages, with plenty of Feral
Childe representation, but represents the
tiniest fraction of the overall Salon Salon
For me, there is nothing sweeter than
spirit. I don’t mean just that hundreds of
hanging out with the subcultural fringe on
submitted photos were not selected for
the outskirts of Hollywood sipping herbal
the magazine. How to capture the imperteas and applying mud carefully above the
manence of a Sundown Salon? There is no
brow of strangers who quickly become
Playbill, no autographs or souvenirs to
friends. A random photograph, the flash
take home, and the dome is back to being
Make up, hair and styling complete, a salon guest
poses
in
the
garage.
[
AUSTIN
YOUNG
]
goes off in your face and you realize that
a home so there is no exhibition space to
you have cracked dried mud on your face
return to. Maybe this is the best, happywhile holding “SUCCESS” or the “six-of-cups” in your right
sad part about Sundown Salons. You can’t go back. OK, now
hand. – Dave Burns
there is this book. But until now, what other Salon so
unashamedly tried to make the magic spell of the day last forAt sundown on Sundown Drive, OK Go! clambers on stage in the ever? Salon Salon thrust itself headlong into the camera lens.
cave, about to begin the set that would finish off the Salon Salon. Salon Salon day was about getting ready for the photo shoot,
The cave’s lights go on and the houselights go off, so it’s perfect getting dressed and made up whether or not you actually
for designers and stylists to spirit away the goods in the dark. wanted your picture taken, or perhaps you simply brought the
The audience, mostly in their own clothes now, anticipate the mu- love of your chosen métier here and enjoyed beautifying othsical performance, and hardly notice the clothes whisking off the ers that day. The dream of a summer afternoon on a mounracks and into trunks, makeup cases clicking shut, the zipping of taintop in the middle of the city, the nervousness and delight
camera bags and the whispers of inventory lists. We’re striking of new friends and beautiful handmade creations. Maybe now
the set and it’s been a most satisfying day. The OK Go! guys make I’m just left with digital pictures that didn’t quite make the cut
their sartorial statement vintage suits with skinny pants. It’s a and last night’s eye-makeup to wash away. I want to wake up
raucous performance with some great dance moves.
in that felt boat all over again.
[125]
Salon Memories
This day was like eating cake till you want to puke. Thank God the
index magazine spread was so content-less, all the box quotes
from me were unattributed. The things you’ll say when you are
drunk on vanity.
TOM TEXAS HOLMES
A bevy of beautiful boys in boisterous outfits. A flutter of activity and clothing clatter. Digital cameras document the beginning
and the middle, and not so much the end because by then, even
the most glamorous had been there for 8 hours, plenty of images
of us all in various casually playful poses. It was the melting pot
of everyone’s ‘me me me’ viewed, captured and then
BETTINA HUBBY was born in New
A model is prepped in the cave. [TTH]
published. The rotundity of the space was the cherry
York. She was raised in Savannah,
Georgia and earned a BFA from the
on the sundae. Rotating through that space, spiralCollege of Charleston. She received
ing
up the stairs and being worked on like a conveyor belt of pampering while
her MFA from the School of Visual
Arts in New York, in sculpture,
watching through curved glass at strolling visions of dress-up.
drawing and photography and has
worked as an artist and arts administrator. She is based in L.A.
BETTINA HUBBY
Perhaps at some point during the afternoon you were reclining in a well-chosen chair in
a poly-carbon panel fronted garage converted work space with an area rug of the world
at your feet. I was your official facialist and on-call tarot card reader. I mixed small
batches of bentonite clay with my home-brew of fresh herbs and citrus fruits and applied
the herby mud to the soon-to-be youthful faces of the Los Angeles counter-culture. While
the mud cured, we read tarot cards and sipped tea (a mild reduction of the herbal infusion makes applying the facial mud in small batches twice as nice - good for the inside
and the outside).
DAVE BURNS
[126]
21
L.A. LITERARY
10.23.05
1:00 - 6:30 pm
ORGANIZED WITH: Gabriela Jauregui
WITH READINGS BY: Chris Abani, Eileen Myles,
Trinie Dalton, Rachel Kushner
[127]
Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have
Psychedelic / When you’re young, psychedelic is a primary
eaten and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.
color and a most mesmerizing high. Santa Monica was
—Samuel Johnson
full of free multihued trips. The color-burst free-love
murals on Main Street seemed to come to vibrant cartoon
Once I planned to write a book of poems entirely about
life when I passed them. The whales and dolphins
the things in my pocket. But I found it would be too long;
frolicked in the clouds and the sea lions and merry-go-round
and the age of the great epics is past.
horsies turned cartwheels in the street. The
— G.K. Chesterton
spray-any-color-paint-on-the-spin-art creations at the pier
were fifty-cent Jackson Pollock rainbow heroin hits that
In the Los Angeles Basin, the possibility of rain is ignored
made your skin tingle and the grains of sand swell up
until the rain falls. Since it hardly ever rains, ignorance has
and rise to the sky like helium balloons. Looking into the
prevailed as climate.
kaleidoscopic eyes of a scruffy Bukowski barfly sitting in the
—D.J. Waldie
lotus position along the bike trains fractured your
from Holy Land
soul into hundreds of disconnected psychedelic shards. Each
sharp piece of your mind begging for sobriety.
Like the film, the hamburger is a non-Californian invention
—Paul Beatty
that has achieved a kind of symbolic apotheosis in
from The White Boy Shuffle
Los Angeles; symbolic, that is, of the way fantasy can lord it
over function in Southern California.
What time is it where little Saigon meets Little
—Reyner Banham
Havana meets little Tokyo meets little Armenia and we all
from Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies
meet the sea speaking in tongues?
—Rubèn Martinez
What’s great about living in Van Nuys is that we
from Manifesto
uh... we have a pretty good variety of take-out.
Maybe that doesn’t sound like much, but it’s something
Well, well, perhaps I am a bit of a talker. A popular fellow
they sure don’t have in Minnesota.
such as I am—my friends get round me—we chaff, we
—Sandra Tsing Loh
sparkle, we tell witty stories-and somehow my tongue gets
from A Year in Van Nuys
wagging. I have the gift of conversation. I’ve been told I
ought to have a salon, whatever that may be.
A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest,
—Kenneth Grahame
remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself,
shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes
So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all
it in his own image.
that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only
—Joan Didion
for hours, nobody can say.
—Virginia Woolf
[128]
Dear
Absinth
Friend,
ing to have all our writer friends and some of their friends etc. but then it
became a matter of time: there wasn’t enough time for everyone to do a
reading, so who would get to read, who would have to sit on the bench?
I have a hard time deciding those things and I asked Fritz for some advice.
Fritz is a big-picture thinker, which is a precious talent, so he said to me:
“ok, forget about that for a minute. If you could have any writer come
and do a reading who would you invite? Any writer who lives in or around
L.A.” “Anyone, anyone? Really, really?” I asked—I tend to repeat myself
when put on the spot. “Really,” he said. “CHRIS ABANI,” I answered,
like I was pronouncing a sentence more than someone’s name. “Ok,” goes
Fritz. And I’m thinking he must be a little M but hey, it’s always good to
dream. To me, Chris’ novel Graceland is one of those rare books you not
By Gabriela Jauregui
only enjoy but you savor, you understand, I remember reading it and
thinking, fuck this was written for me; no, even worse—or better—this is
the book I wrote, the book I want to write. Fuck, Je est un autre, to quote
She tried to found a salon and only succeeded in opening a restaurant
Rimbaud—but another whom I’ve never even met…
Then Fritz asks me for more people in L.A. At that point I’m se-
—Oscar Wilde, collected aphorisms
cretly hoping to emphasize the poets cause I think poetry is always
Whenever I think salon I think of the decadent nineteenth-century sa-
under-represented—and I immediately think of EILEEN MYLES, who
lons where Baudelaire and Verlaine or Rimbaud would go and eat all
is brave, a poet and a woman and a presidential candidate, for fuck’s
the food they hadn’t eaten in a week, drink up and read or write and
sake, and lives in San Diego (and that kind of counts as a suburb of
argue art and politics and maybe even scare some well-heeled socialite
L.A., right?). And I had had the pleasure of sharing a madcap thanks-
who would be attending that particular evening with
a story about opium dens or whatever…
So in my mind, there had to be at least one Sundown Salon dedicated to writers and writing, which
was part of the spirit of the salons. So Fritz invited
me to co-organize a writing salon. We talked and
talked about it over dinners at Phò, sessions of America’s Next Top Model or at some art opening and we
decided we would talk about it some more when in
Mexico; organizing between the tropics is always
GABRIELA JAUREGUI is the author of Controlled Decay (Akashic
Books, 2008). Her critical and
creative work has been published
in journals and anthologies in the
US, Mexico and Europe including
Hayden’s Ferry, BOMB, The Aesthetics of Risk and the Canadian
Review of Comparative Literature.
She is the host of the ArtsBlock
Live! Podcast for KCET and is finishing a PhD in Creative writing at
USC where she is a Soros fellow.
more fun, I say (unfortunately, Fritz didn’t make it to
giving feast with her. A couple of years ago, Steve
Fagin, a mutual friend and crazy artist, decided that
Thanksgiving in Tijuana would be the best way to celebrate that problematic all-American holiday and so
(after having forgotten our passports and recovering
them) Yoshua, my husband, Roberto Tejada, Adrienne
Ferrari and Steve and I went to pick up Eileen and her
girlfriend. I remember being a little nervous because I
knew Eileen through her poetry and I always get nervous around great poets so I was a little stressed out. As
soon as we picked them up I knew everything would
DF that summer so we plotted via internet and our Barragán pilgrim-
be relaxed: they weren’t quite ready, beers were offered there was a bit
age is still on hold).
of chaos and a barking beautiful dog. We all hopped in one car and went
Once I got back to L.A. we decided to host the salon in October.
across the border to eat a feast of tongue in green salsa, huitlacoche and
Then started a dilemma: who should read? I thought it would be amaz-
other marvels of Mexican cooking that made me homesick. I hoped she
[129]
would remember the excursion, the hours spent in a car crossing the
have food but also absinthe. So I went on a worldwide-web search for
border back into SD and that she would come to the salon and read.
good, cheap absinthe and ordered some from the Czech Republic. Un-
Fritz said he definitely wanted to invite a friend of his, TRINIE DAL-
fortunately, we didn’t get it here on time. (Also the box said it was an
TON. “Trinie? I know Trinie, I know her work!” I told him. I worked
“unrequested sample” (huh, absinthe is still illegal??) and came
with Trinie for a while at Beyond Baroque, back when I was living in
wrapped in minor news items and used car ads in Czech. How excit-
Venice. I would go there to organize their archive and basically just read
ing, too bad the green fairy came too late to be able to inspire us that
anything I could get my hands on. Beyond Baroque is where I discovered
Sunday afternoon. Blast the Czech postal system, but it didn’t matter
an entire world of amazing fanzines—some of incredible historical value,
anyway because the geodesic dome proved inspirational enough).
some that were really interesting, crazy or just a bunch of photocopies that
Part of what we wanted to do at the salon, aside from the readings
someone had stapled together. Aside from fanzines, at Beyond Baroque I
and the food, was to have everyone write something, something site-
also discovered chapbooks and Trinie, I thought she was the coolest poet.
specific and read it out loud too and so we started coming up with all
I still have two of Trinie’s chapbooks from way back then. They’re awe-
kinds of potential prompts, questions and exercises. We hoped that
some: one is about cats and the other is called Beck Dream Journal. And
through the exercises people would interact with the dome, with the
now through Fritz, I found out that she’d just published her novel! I was
garden, the dogs, the cave, whatever, all of it! We came up with many
very excited and proud. Like an estranged rel-
silly ideas and some threateningly good
ative who finds out good news about some-
ones. We made schedules in the shape of
one they always looked up to at family
bookmarks. We had a dork-out and finally,
reunions when they were kids.
the day before the event, we sat down and
In turn Trinie recommended that we
decided we should have nametags for every-
invite RACHEL KUSHNER, another
one (fluorescent hued ones, of course) and
super talented young L.A. writer. The way I
then everyone should pick someone else’s
see these things is my friend’s friends are my
name out of a pile and just write (name as
friends. Especially if they write about colo-
catalyst, pretext, muse or specimen). We
nial decadence, Cadillacs and Cuba!
thought that would make everyone at least
So we contacted them all and we got al-
Gabriela Jauregui (left) and a literary friend working on the
writing exercise in the garden. [FH]
most immediate responses from all of them
look at everyone else and make everybody a
little uncomfortable, which is always good
when writing.
saying YES. I was totally blown away. Quite frankly I didn’t think Chris
Now imagine a geodesic dome, under which writers are gathering
or Eileen would ever even read our invitation. But Eileen had even
and plan to engage in various activities. There are bright-colored
heard about Sundown Salon (Fritz has mad street cred, you know)
nametags for everyone. The mutation begins. Readings start and every-
and remembered our outing to Tijuana and Chris just said yes, defying
one’s brought something somehow related to animals. Does it sound like
my laws of probability. So it came to pass, like things in the bible, that
the trailer for a science fiction film? A consipracy theory murder mystery?
we organized what they were going to read and for how long etc. Fritz
Well, it wasn’t, exactly. It’s what happened the day Sundown Salon or-
and I put some stuff up on his website, mainly quotations by other
ganized the L.A. Literary Salon. I will say no more. The readings were so
writers about writing or about L.A. and we came up with a guest list,
exciting and beautiful, the exercise very successful, the afternoon so full
wanting this salon to be more intimate than some of the larger ones.
of a sense of promise carried out that to say more would make it seem less
We also decided that any self-respecting literary salon should not only
than it was… All I can say is I wish you had been there.
[130]
1:30 pm Reception & Lunch
by the thread, is two primrose pools, the center of her face light gray,
2:30 pm Reading by Trinie Dalton
and upon each a patte de mouche has been tastefully set.
Free
Your Beast
My stories contain animal sex, and human characters fantasize about
the bridge of her nose above the long, black lips fawn, her cheeks white,
animals. In most cases, my human characters are turned on by animals, but opt for human sex rather than sex with the animals who
arouse them. In one piece, for example, a salamander in a local stream
reminds the narrator of a penis. But she doesn’t fuck the salamander;
she goes home to await her lover’s return from his excursion. Animals
are sexual talismans and aphrodisiacs. I’m no pervert. But I realize that
animals do appeal to our sensate selves with their tactile features and
wild demeanors. A purring cat is sexier to me than a man doused in
By Trinie Dalton
cheap cologne, but I don’t want to have sex with either of them. The
best animal literature shows not only how deeply animals and humans
can bond, but also that animals are sexy because they rekindle our car-
E.L. Doctorow, in the finest essay about Call of the Wild that I have
nal desires.
read so far, laments the disappearance of the “adult animal tale.”
I defend this opinion among friends who say that animals are only
The fact is that today the tradition of the adult animal tale has vir-
capable of arousing you if you admit that humans are animals. To a civ-
tually disappeared; it is less a possible literary expedient in the aftermath
ilized intellectual, animals are repulsive, reminders of an intentionally
of two World Wars, their attendant Modernist ironies and the rise of
forgotten fact. If one takes comfort in the idea of being a member of the
Walt Disney. But when Jack London wrote, in the days of Baden-Pow-
animal kingdom, then it’s no great leap to see how another species can
ell, formulator of the Boy Scout ethos, Americans from Teddy Roo-
be one’s mirror, providing license to think and feel thoughts that could
sevelt on down took their animals seriously, as Native Americans still
be construed as deviant. When I get horny from seeing puppies romp-
do, and it was possible for animals to speak for us and live for us in-
ing in the grass, I don’t feel ashamed—I feel glad that I’m capable of
structively as fables of ourselves—with thoughts or without them.
translating the fun that I see puppies having into the fun that I can have
After reading this tragic statement, I decided that one of my main
goals as an author would be to revive this tradition. The fact that J.R.
in bed, with a person. The wider the variety of things that turns one
on, the larger one’s sexual vocabulary.
Ackerley published, in 1965, his memoir My Dog Tulip—a book de-
I wonder if the loss of freedom that Doctorow laments doesn’t es-
voted exclusively to dog worship—gave me hope that there are still au-
sentially represent sexual freedom as well? The freedom to take one’s
thors challenging the notion that animals are beneath us. As I struggle
animals seriously, he says, without being mocked by ironic critics, psy-
to give animals genuine voices in my fiction writing, I find that devel-
choanalysts, and philosophers, without being accused of perversion,
oping their sexuality, or highlighting their sex appeal, helps to flesh
and without being called a simpleton (i.e. the Disney cartoon lover, a
them out as characters. I learned this from Ackerley, who describes
caricature of oneself, or one who lives in a fairy tale world) for finding
Tulip, his Alsatian bitch, with Lolita-esque accuracy:
more satisfaction in communing with animals than in humans who be-
Dark markings symmetrically divide up her face into zones of pale
lieve it constructive or meaningful to start World Wars? As I struggle to
pastel color, like a mosaic, or a stained-glass window; her skull, bisected
eradicate irony from my “Modernist” lifestyle, I find that a major mo-
[131]
tivation for this is my desire to enjoy irony-free sex, as a way of reject-
is currently fashionable. Didn’t I see Kate Moss modeling overalls in
ing any unrealistic notions of body image or sexual conduct I’ve ab-
Vogue? How can anyone be sincere? When I used to teach high school
sorbed through media. I’ve been taught that I should be embarrassed
literature, and hosted classrooms full of sophisticated teens dressed im-
about nearly everything, and that to participate in urban culture, with
peccably and talking on cell phones, I’d ask them, Don’t you know that
a certain degree of popularity, I have to buy my way out of embarrass-
you’re kids? That you can be total dorks, play in the mud, and have fun?
ment with a gym membership, overpriced salads at gourmet restau-
I wanted to bring my dog to class, because people, and kids especially,
rants, and designer clothing. Perhaps finding a rougher creature sexy, a
often become less self-conscious in the presence of animals.
dog for example, is my pathetic way of wishing that I could be desirable
Shedding self-consciousness, relinquishing control, sacrificing
without worrying about style. Or, it’s my escapist approach to politics.
those comforts that symbolize Civilization, that’s the Call of the Wild.
What if men just came up to me and sniffed my butt?
I may not so easily be able to heed the call these days, from my apart-
A couple years ago, at the County Fair Goat Judging Competi-
ment in Los Angeles, but I can certainly argue that it’s important to re-
tion, I became so obsessed by pygmy goats that tears welled up in my
member it. I imagine, in story form, humans getting off on animals, as
eyes when it came time for me to leave. I spent a whole afternoon talk-
a way to interpolate the distance between my complex, citified life and
ing to pygmy goat owners, buying yarn spun from goat fur, tasting
a life dominated by instinct. I sit at home with my pets, promising them
various chevres, petting goats, and learning about their specialty
that one day we’ll be tending the pasture together, content for now to
breeds, like the Nigerian Dwarf. I didn’t want to go home without a
pay my regards, in writing, to them along with all the other beasts who
goat in the rear end of our jeep. My dog would cherish a goat friend,
have stirred within me passions that I thought long gone.
I thought. He likes our cat, but he’d really like a goat. He’d like a llama
too, and some sheep, while we’re at it. The farm in my mind elabo-
And that he should be stirred by it marked the completeness with
rated itself. City Slicker Yearns for the Pastoral, my headline read. But
which he harked back through the ages of fire and roof to the
I meant it; I still envision my future with goats, sheep, dogs, cats,
raw beginnings of life in the howling ages. — Jack London
chickens, llamas, rabbits, ducks, bees, and wild critters who will visit
my dwelling seasonally or when desiring food. I’d like to live near a
2:50 pm Reading by Eileen Myles
pond in order to adopt beavers.
But Irony’s booming voice chimed in: Everyone wants what they
can’t have. You don’t know the first thing about beekeeping, goat herding, and llama shaving. Don’t you just want pets because you saw, in the
film, bluebirds singing to Snow White? If you buy the farm, you’ll be
just like those lousy Hollywood producers who commute, in Hummers,
to L.A. from their Montana ranches. Every thought you have, even those
Rose
that provide you sexual stimulation, were planted in your mind by some-
By Eileen Myles
thing you saw or read. Little House on the Prairie is so 80s.
Doctorow is right; everything has been done. It’s Paradise Lost.
But what Doctorow says makes our present position on the Loss of Innocence Scale seem outright lame. Every action can be seen as a state-
Rose was number one. Fairly light hair on a warm young mound. Later
ment, an ironic counteraction against something else. If I leave the city
I knew this poet from Boston, and he lived in a loft in Little Italy with
for a life with animals, I’ll be making a stylistic choice. Being a farmer
a girl who made art. Their life seemed perfect. And she was number two
[132]
— I got her. She was like a welder or something, though she was small.
time. I began to think of her pussy as an animal. We tended its coat. I was
Not tiny, but slight. Not really skinny, but normal looking, beautiful.
always willing to have sex with her, but I liked it better when she was
She was a little beaky, but with beautiful breasts. We started pal-ling
pretty and clean. One woman was told by a lover that she had a fat
around. She admired my straight leg jeans and Chinese shoes, immedi-
cooch. It was true — her outer lips were pillowy and fat. Full. Her inner
ately she got the same. When I think of our friendship we are walking in
lips were regulation healthy and her clit — it was a small red little spud.
the rain, getting the toes of our shoes wet in puddles. After they broke
It was however guardian of one of the most avid pussies I’ve ever known.
up she quietly called and wanted to hang out. I couldn’t believe that I
Not the biggest, but damn the most willing, most sporting. I fucked her
was soon taking her pants down on my bed. She liked to drink booze. I
once for ten hours straight. She puked and she wanted to continue. I
remember her smiling face looking down into a glass with about an inch
would never be allowed to sleep. I was hallucinating. I used this hand,
of whiskey. She wore glasses. She took them off and she was hot. Clits
then that. Fingers individually, in groups and my whole fucking hand,
were all different. Hers was larger. All rubbery, more like porn. I had
again and again. I used my dick. It was a nice fat boy, rather featureless
seen a pussy like hers before but not so close. It was like a lip going ver-
which at the time seemed correct, a white guy who appeared out of the
tical. I mean, if you had your head right there. It was
kind of a lippy trail, actually this is not her clit, it’s her
labia I’m describing, what I used to describe as a little
girl my gum. Outer gum. Hers was a very uncomplicated female and large a red road to a small swollen
button. I kept thinking I can’t believe she feels this way
EILEEN MYLES’ novel (The Inferno) is about the hell of being a
female poet. The opera (Hell) she
co-wrote with Los Angeles composer Michael Webster has been
performed in New York and Europe
and made into an animated feature.
about me. She came over to do this. I put my two fingers on the spot and
fly of my overalls, I was being a farmer boy and when
she felt it wagging between my legs as I bent over her
in front of a fire, her eyes lit up. Thanks to the fire I
was able to see this glory. She told me that she landed
in a hospital once because she had urged her boyfriend
to fuck her while she was hanging out a 23rd story win-
dow of a huge apartment building in Manhattan. Apparently this high
rubbed. I have always been an unpredictable masturbator, spending
intensity fucking caused some kind of lump in the walls of her vagina
hours for naught. Getting huge, and then having to go out in pain. Then
and she wound up in the hospital where she learned something or other
I’ll touch myself for a second in a public toilet (New York Public Library,
that was sad. Probably that her mother was dying. But there she was in
always great) and the walls of the world cave in. So I was just kind of
there for fucking. I mean that’s pretty good. There was a small woman
scrubbing away, moving her jelly part, not the button itself the way it
who had a lacy looking pussy that she hated. There was like this frottage
hangs, it wiggling sits. She groaned. It was a teeny way she sounded
over her clit. Instead of a hood it had a large mantilla. She wasn’t the
when she looked at art, but this was a deeper older oh. She was a woman.
kind of woman who could laugh at her puss. It made her sick what she
One by one the women I knew who seemed to be girls, or men, or just
considered her irregularity, the wave of skin that dangled between her
strangers — when all their muscles tensed then released, and they said oh
legs. I would have told her it was pretty if she let me. It was unique. She
it was like the deepest voice they had. Like the secret room behind all the
was not a girl even slightly about letting, allowing suffering anything at
other apartments now connected to mine. This oh. I didn’t think of it
all. She had levels of protection like the shaft of an elevator. She was way
then, but I think of it now, all the guy poet’s fake ohs. Next to this one
up there somehow, unknown but looking down like a little girl incred-
so female and true. Is that what man wants to do. Oh Brazil. O New
ibly mean who could issue commands. After her orgasms, screaming
York. O Poetry! Just let me come like her. She got mad. You can stop. I
ugh. Then I met a woman who described her clit as a monster. There is
mean I sort of knew, but I wasn’t sure. Between women if you’re having
nearly no woman who regards her pussy as normal. I remember seeing
sex, you’ve got to be sure. And slowly that’s where you live. Who would-
a pussy I recognized on the back outside cover of an art magazine. It
n’t give up being in a whole lot of shitty poetry magazines for this. Chris
was like it was supposed to be a big secret whose pussy it was. I mean
had rough black hair on her crotch. It got rougher when she drank all the
they didn’t say her name underneath though they did give you the name
[133]
of the photographer which was kind of a hint. But then everyone said oh
3:10 pm Readings by Chris Abani
yeah, you saw the picture of blank’s pussy, like everyone was really in on
it. But I recognized the pussy. I actually knew her tits better than her
pussy, because her tits were that kind that are indented, the tip of the
nipple goes in, not out. Which is incredibly common, or else coincidentally I had two such breasts’ (or girlfriends) back to back which made
Poems
me think it must be common. The first one’s did look odd to me. I can’t
imagine what straight women do, going through life only being looked
By Chris Abani
at by men and doctors. At some point you always have to have a frank
conversation about the tits or the puss, or the ass. If you live with her you
have it day in and day out. Maybe men do this too. The girl I described
as extraordinarily hungry — she in fact regarded her puss with the same
1971
enthusiastic love as any other part of her, perhaps that was her oddity
(to me). Her pussy was no more special than her fingertips or cheek.
Daphne’s diary spun a wish too precious to speak.
Sexually she was entirely alive, so neither liked nor disliked her clit, it
I want a man who smiles when he talks about me.
was her. It was the whole rest of the world she had a problem with, so
it was great she had this gift, her wonderful successful body. The woman
Smiles because he knows all of me and loves all
who regarded hers as monstrous nonetheless is entirely addicted to hers.
of me and does not want me to change any of me.
I was too. The tiny shelf of skin I slipped my tongue and finger alongside of, it’s like the backside of a rubber duck. And so I knew my sweet
I want a man like that. A man whose voice
toy’s edges in the dark quietly going to sleep with ducky in mind. The
is the pressure on my hips when he calls
hood of it was slick, so she had a small cap between her legs a bullet of
pleasure and power. Even after she had one of her outrageous sunset or-
my name. Whose shallow breathing traces
gasms which she details while still basking in its immense succulent co-
the arousal of my nipples as I cook him dinner.
rona slowly with an utterly generous and female smile on her face, a
satisfied smile and kind, she urges me to put my finger on her secret fin-
Whose laugh dips between my legs, catching
gertip and feel the blood pump as the pleasure is ebbing away. She’s al-
me by surprise and rocking. Whose hands
ways ready for a nap and then to go again. She’s always just finding it.
Every time we fuck she forgets that’s its ever been that great before. Her
are rough when he touches my face honestly.
eyes are closed and she proclaims that never, never before has she expe-
Whose embrace is desperate as though
rienced anything to even remotely approach what that felt like. Does sex
ever feel like this for a man. Does his tree change and spout. Does his sys-
I were the only thing keeping him from drowning.
tem get up, does he go. I once was laying in bed with her and she got me
Whose lips are moist with desire when he kisses me
off just by touching and I am still sinking backwards in that picture, a
morning in which I lie in bed looking out the window at a passing train.
and whose eyes dance with a dangerous fire.
It was raining, the world was totally green and the train made its racket
I want, I want, I want a man like that.
felt deep in my bones.
From Daphne’s Lot © Chris Abani. Red Hen Press, 2003.
[134]
The New Religion
The body is a nation I have not known.
enduring power of Coltrane’s A Love Supreme
and Miles’ Kind of Blue.
The pure joy of air: the moment between leaping
from a cliff into the wall of blue below. Like that.
It’s not that I have lowered standards
Or to feel the rub of tired lungs against skin
with a too grateful palate
covered bone, like a hand against the rough of bark.
Like that. The body is a savage, I said.
or that much espoused masculine
For years I said that, the body is a savage.
fascination for new toys and old jazz.
As if this safety of the mind were virtue
not cowardice. For years I have snubbed
But I am learning to taste my life
the dark rub of it, said, I am better, lord,
without judgement. I think.
I am better, but sometimes, in an unguarded
From Kalakuta Republic, © Chris Abani Saqi 2001.
moment of sun I remember the cow-dung-scent
of my childhood skin thick with dirt and sweat
and the screaming grass.
But this distance I keep is not divine
The Measure of Sorrow
for what was Christ if not God’s desire
to smell his own armpit? And when I
Fireflies caught in a jar die.
see him, I know he will smile,
A child mourns the passing light.
fingers glued to his nose and say, next time
Your father dies, your name on his lips
I will send you down as a dog
each syllable a curse. Or so you imagine.
to taste this pure hunger.
A clumsy Salsa, all left feet with your lover
From Hands Washing Water, © Chris Abani. Copper Canyon Press, 2006.
never finding the right cadence.
A filterless cigarette burning and the café
Changing Times
facing the river on a cold Parisian
evening cannot bear the weight.
What words can be said to rain and night
“These are the days of miracles and wonder”
—Paul Simon, Graceland.
and a car speeding through both?
Three lines stolen from you, old gypsy
Magician at his own revival
Three minute spaghetti. Boil in the bag fish.
Pot noodle. A mug of Batchelor’s instant soup,
Here are all the shadows that have fallen,
A single window smashed and bare with sky.
From Hands Washing Water, © Chris Abani, Copper Canyon Press, 2006.
amaze me nearly as much as
microwaves, my new laptop and the
[135]
I don’t remember which of my friends actually bought the tires,
3:30 pm Reading by Rachel Kushner
but I remember the beefalo. Two pounds of it, a mixture of beef and
buffalo meat It was June, my second year of college, and as classes
3:50 pm Time to Write
ended people were cleaning out their apartments and dorms and
going home. This is how the beefalo began its travels: someone
Find a comfortable place anywhere in the house or gardens. Take the
would clean out their apartment, and not wanting to throw away two
person whose name you’ve pulled out of the hat as catalyst, pretext,
pounds of good meat, would give the beefalo to a friend. That friend
subject, muse or specimen and write!
5:00 pm Time to Share
Meat
Stories
RACHEL KUSHNER is a writer
living in Los Angeles. Her fiction
and nonfiction can be found in
Fence, Artforum, ArtUS and Bomb
Magazine, where she is a contributing editor. She is currently
at work on a novel about, among
other things, colonial folly, air-conditioned columbariums, Raudive
voices and the Zazou aesthetic.
would move out a week later, and pass the beefalo
to someone else. In a matter of a month, it moved
through five or six different apartments; no one, as
far as I know, ate it. But you’d be somewhere, and
open up the fridge to get vodka or an ice cream
sandwich, and there it’d be. You’d think: so that’s
where it is now.
Being a vegetarian, I was never given the beefalo,
but I’ve always loved wrapped meat—the butcher
paper so clean and tidy, wrapped around the bloody, violent mess. Each
pound was wrapped separately, like they were a pair of shoes; they made
me think of the tailor’s dummies Quentin Compson buys the day he
drowns himself in The Sound and the Fury. Appearing suddenly in all
By Colin Dickey
those freezers, quiet and demure next to the ice cube trays, like they
(Composed during the Salon writing exercise)
changed hands, never eaten or disposed of. There’s a story about the
were pleased with themselves. There’s a story here, the way this meat
connections this meat traces, the relationship between the people who
1. Beefalo
sheltered it. A story here somewhere.
People who’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest know of Les Schwab, the
tire baron. His tire dealerships are everywhere in Oregon and Wash-
2. Chicken
ington, Among other things, he’s well known for a promotion that runs
In mid-October, a decapitated chicken appeared on our lawn. Nearly
every spring, in which customers are given free beef with their tires. the
plucked bare, there were still feathers on its wings, and the only con-
billboards showed a man dressed like a 50’s gas station attendant—com-
clusion we could come to was that it had come from Chinatown. But
plete with white jaunty hat—carrying a tray of meat; beside him in huge
we really weren’t sure; something about it defied explanation. It lay a
block letters, the words FREE BEEF NOW. Depending on the num-
foot from the walkway, and aside from its missing head, which was
ber and quality of the tires you bought, you got different amounts of
nowhere in sight, its leg had also been torn off, and lay a few feet away.
meat, anywhere from a pound of ground chuck to an entire side of beef.
The chicken was flatter than I expected, almost two-dimensional. Even
People have been known to wait all year to buy tires, which leads to an
with its head absent, it look outraged, filled with anguish over what
image of Pacific Northwesterners, waiting for free beef and skidding
had been done to it. When it began to rain, the chicken turned ghost
dangerously through the rain on bald tires.
white and puffy, like a gooey pile of rags. The next day the rain stopped
[136]
A Story
and it was a deep brown again like it’d been fried. I’m so rarely
around decaying meat that I have trouble describing the smell, the
strangely sweet tinge that burrows into the top of your nostrils like
sulfur. It was omnipresent, infiltrating our apartment, assaulting us
By Jennifer Krasinski
anew every time we left or came home. It was almost a week before
the landlord got around to removing it, and by then the grass
around it was an inch higher than the rest of the lawn, like it had
(Composed during the Salon writing exercise)
built a little wall for itself. Everyday I watched the flies go at it, so
In an era of big time small talk, he complained that there were no
thick were they that it pulsed with life.
catchy or convenient anagrams for his name, a fact which seemed to
weigh too heavily on a grown man obviously possessed of many
We couldn’t stop obsessing about where it came from. If it had
virtues.
originated from Chinatown, that still didn’t explain how it ended up
on our lawn. Was it tossed out the window by some haphazard
voodoo priestess, a curse lazily placed? Who buys a chicken and then
“You can make certain words,” he explained, “like ‘mit,’ its plural
abandons it? The question of its history, and how it came to be on our
‘mits,’ ‘son’ and its plural, ton and its plural, but nothing dazzlingly
lawn, grew constantly every day that it was there; it was as if know-
clever.”
ing its story could help us come to grips with the raw sickly fact of
death, a context and a narrative some kind of defense against the
“If the ‘j’ in your name was a ‘g’,” I offered, “you could spell ‘gist,’
decay whose path we had to cross several times a day.
‘gas,’ ‘git,’ ‘things.’ And if you had a single ‘e,’ you get ‘noses,’ smite,’
‘jones.’”
CHRIS ABANI’s novels are GraceLand (FSG/Picador) and Masters
of the Board (Delta). His poetry collections include Dog Woman (Red
Hen), Daphne’s Lot (Red Hen), and
Kalakuta Republic (Saqi). He
teaches at Antioch University, Los
Angeles and the University of California, Riverside. A Middleton Fellow at the University of Southern
California, he is the recipient of the
PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award,
the Prince Claus Award, a Lannan
Literary Fellowship and the 2005
PEN Hemingway Book Prize.
“It’s just like a bad game of boggle,” he continued, “I always envied
people who could re-arrange their assigned letters to receive a secret
message.”
“Like playing Led Zepplin backwards,” I giggled.
“No,” he corrected, “more like re-arranging Zepplin to find out that
Black Dog has become The Pachelbel Cannon.”
We then spent ten minutes trying to figure out anagrams for my
name, agreeing at the outset that proper nouns were totally illegal.
‘Rare,’ ‘kin,’ ‘fink,’ ‘sins,’ was what we came up with before we fell to
boredom, preferring instead to wonder aloud what would come up
in our next conversation.
6:30pm Time to Go Home
[137]
22
JANFAMILY: PLANS FOR OTHER DAYS
10.30.05
2:00–8:00 pm
JANFAMILY PARTICIPANTS FOR THE SUNDOWN SALON: Makin Jan Ma, Ingrid Jan Hora, Daniel Jan Mair,
Oona Jan Culley, Alexandre Jan Bettler, Martino Jan Gamper and Chosil Jan Kil,
Marie Jan Lund, Nina Jan Beier and Josephine Jan Michau
[138]
We are Janfamily.
“Each of us and all of us are called Jan. We are related but come from different
places. We speak in individual voices, together, we speak up. This is how much
we know. What we are made of and what makes us. We are making
sense. Sit down where it feels comfortable. Sit down where it does-
n’t feel comfortable. Do the book.” (From Plans for other Days, BoothClibborn Editions)
Janfamily went on tour with a new book Plans For Other Day. We
wanted to bring the book to life by using it as if it was a cookbook, try-
ing out recipes, altering and adding new ingredients and most impor-
CHOSIL KIL was born in Seoul and
lives and works in London. She
studied at Camberwell College of Art
and the Royal College of Art. She
was a member of Janfamily and
participated in the book, Plans For
Other Days. She has exhibited at
galleries including Riflemaker, London; Skuc, Ljubljana; Black Block at
Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Nyehaus,
New York and Cornerhouse, Manchester. She was short listed for
Jerwood Drawing Prize 2007.
tantly inviting people to eat with us. Sundown Salon was our last stop in America.
Janfamily: Plans for Other Days was our third and last publication. It is a collecNINA BEIER & MARIE LUND are
a London/Berlin-based Danish artist
duo. During their studies at Royal
College of Art they teamed up with
a group of fellow students in both
art and design under the name Janfamily and created a number of
publications concluded by a book
and exhibition tour. They have
shown at galleries such as Laura
Bartlett in London, Proyectos Monclova in Mexico and Wako Works of
Art in Tokyo; and taken part in exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery,
Tate Modern, ICA and Tate Britain.
tion of passing thoughts and ideas: a ‘how to’ book with a list of proposals on how to relate to everyday life.
Janfamily was an enterprise of individual artists and designers. ‘Jan’
was a middle name we took on to signal our connection to each other,
as a family, in reference to a commune created in Denmark in the
’70ties. Up to 10 participants took part touring Europe and USA from Au-
gust 2005–January 2006. We put up events and open studios where we
invited people to participate in new situations inspired by the ideas in
the book. We visited the following places: V1 Gallery in Copenhagen,
M+R in London, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Lungomare in Bolzano, Union Docs in New
York, Queens Nails Annex in San Francisco, Sundown Salon in Los Angeles, and
finally Display Gallery in Prague and Space Gallery in Bratislava.
[139]
From: Jonathan Maghen
all to adapt the concept to your place... we would love to do
To: “<Nina Jan Beier; fritz haeg>”
and such. looking forward to working with you and please let me
Date: Wed Apr 06 23:23:03 2005
some of the situations from the book outdoors as well as inside
Subject: An Introduction
know if you want to see some more things on our project.
very best,
Hello Fritz and Nina,
Fritz, I would like to introduce you to Nina Beier. Nina lives and
nina
works in London and has among other projects, one called Jan-
family. Nina will be touring with Janfamily to Berlin and Paris in
May/June, making performances and presenting their new book
from Booth Clibborne Editions. Nina asked me if I knew of any
spaces in Los Angeles that would be ideal for them to make a
performance in and I recommended the Sundown Salon. At-
tached is the Janfamily Proposal (for you Fritz), hope that you
are able to work together.
Best to both,
Jonathan
From: nina
Date: Sun Apr 17 09:36:51 2005
Participants embroidering each others shirts. [JANFAMILY]
To: Fritz Haeg
Subject: RE: An Introduction
From: josephine jan michau
dear fritz,
Date: Tue Sep 20 03:53:16 2005
I’m so happy to hear that you are interested. Your place looks
like my dream location for our project. We would like to do the
workshop around end of September or anytime in October, we
To: fritz
Subject: janfamily at sundown salon
haven’t yet set a date with the gallery we will be visiting in New
Dear Fritz.
this period, or keep it open for a while, as you prefer. The gen-
I got your adress from NIna.
for time to make things go in different directions, I don’t know
like to send you some material and thoughts on how to approach
do one day events. We want the workshop to be influenced by
you think...
York, so we can either plan around the date that will suit you in
eral idea is that the workshop should go on for 4 days, to allow
We have now finished our third stop on our tour and would just
if that would work for the sundown salon or if you usually only
the event at sundown salon 30th of October. Please tell me what
each venue, and I think it would be especially nice for the over-
[140]
How to make your mark
Embroider your message onto strangers’ shirts.
We imagine an event in your space where we ask everyone to bring an extra sweatshirt in the invitation. When
they arrive they are asked to place it in a pattern with
everyone else’s sweatshirts on the ground. Each person
can then look around and chose a shirt without knowing
who it belongs to and go embroider a message that he or
she would like to pass on to the world and maybe don’t
dare to stand by themselves (personal or political, any-
thing that is pressingly important to that individual person) after finishing the text they will put the shirt back
on the ground and it can either be picked up by the owner
or someone else who would like to comment on the text
(like proper old-style toilet graffiti) And in case you don’t
agree with whatever is written on your shirt, you can em-
broider your own comment too. When each person leaves
they will bring home their old shirt carrying a new im-
portant message or a dialogue from someone else. We
would like to create connections between the people who
come and join the workshop by becoming each other’s
messengers.
But how do you think this would work in the Sundown Salon?
How long do people usually stay for and how much would they
want to interact? Do you invite people for a specific time or do
they just drop by during the day?
Our friend Kirstine Roepstorff, who’s often in L.A., told us she
loves your place and we are very excited to go.
All the best,
Josephine Jan Michau
How to be taken away
{as performed at Sundown Salon}
Leave your jumper or T-shirt on the wall.
Pick a jumper or T-shirt from the wall.
Embroider something on it you have said or
someone has said to you, which has stayed
in your mind. Put it back on the wall.
Yoshua set out to embroider a long sentence. I noticed his
legs moving a lot while he was working and he stopped after
finishing the word ‘What’. He said he decided it would work
better as an open sentence.
Fritz embroidered the sentence ‘We are just horrible aren’t
we’. Some lady had said this to him because she felt bad for
watering her lawn. While working on it he repeated it to
himself. I liked the monotonous sound and the way it made
the sentence sound.
Others wrote:
Do you ever think of me naked?
Lateness never leads to greatness.
Alles wird gut.
You think of me even though you think you shouldn’t.
You looked so good together.
If I had a dime for every strange feeling I’ve had I would
probably have $5 by now.
How could you?
Keep in touch.
You make me smile.
You pretend not to remember that you do.
Tell me something.
It is smiling.
When I look at you I feel attracted to you.
[141]
Notes on situations
that took place
during the tour:
How to make company
If you are cold and have a sweater,
How to grow attached
Fritz had asked people to bring fruits from their gardens. We asked
the longhaired girls to join us in a tree.
How to find common ground
I was right, you were wrong
{video 7 min}
We cut out cork letters and sent them down the river in the order
of a sentence. People were waiting at a bridge to see them float
by, only a third of the letters made it that far.
How to reach out {video 7 min}
you can either chose to put it on
or put its arms around your shoulders.
How to remind someone what
they used to be
If you have bleached your hair
and it doesn’t look so good,
colour it back to its original colour.
When I met Andis #1
I met Andis in Copenhagen. I told him that I was into young Eng-
We didn’t know that it was the same evening Denmark was play-
lish boys. A week later we became soulmates.
How to cover your back {video 8 min}
I have met this guy called Andis at a party in Copenhagen on the
ing England.
The grass in Haggerston Park
We had asked everyone to come to the park on the first day of
When I met Andis #2
6th of August, 2005. He asked me if we knew each other. I replied
that we didn’t. Nina told him that she had met him before through
spring for a picnic. We hadn’t told anyone what we were planning
their common friend, Lise. Andis looked at her and said that he
lying down in the spooncircle people were making jokes.
wanted to have Andis’ junior with me and I was sick on his bed.
On our first stop, Copenhagen, I met Andis and I made a conscious
I moved in with Andis on Tuesday, the 9th of August 2005. At first,
and people brought food and musical instruments. When we were
How to get to know someone {video 8.45 min}
choice to move in with him straight after. During Janfamily tour, I
could not get rid of him and my experience with him in my mind.
I started producing work based on memories about my experience.
wanted to talk to me not her. That same night, he told me that he
When I met Andis #3
I felt very strange living with someone who has a massive airgun.
Therefore I used to like the fact that he went to work, so I could
have peaceful afternoons alone. After he leaves the flat, I usually
start cleaning. I enjoy cleaning. I would also go through his stuff
How to grow attached
in his bedroom.
to touch while growing, they sometimes
get so happy when he comes home. He brings food, sometimes
If you force the branches on a tree
will become one.
The more days pass, the more I wait for him to come back. I
beers and DVDs. He says he is my sugar daddy. And he is my muse.
[142]
How to get to know someone
I met Andis in Copenhagen on August 6, 2005. He came and asked
me if we had met before, I replied that it was a cheesy pick up
line. He never gave up on me and kept bringing me beer. He asked
me if I wanted to move in with him while I was in Copenhagen. He
came to pick me up with his van and I moved into his flat on the
because he likes airplanes. He wants to have a small airport one
day, he also likes to collect funny Japanese products. He has
been to Tokyo and he liked it very much because he thought
Japanese girls liked him. He also thinks that the influence of the
Western culture makes Japanese people kill themselves. He tells
me about his ex-wife a lot, how much he loved her or still loves
following Tuesday.
her. She cheated on him. He hates cheating. One day, he would
wanky legs. I didn’t know if he was referring to me. He says he
likes that he is my muse. It makes him feel special.
Andis says everything he really thinks. He likes fat girls with
finds me comfortable to hang out with. I find him very similar to
love to settle down with a woman and have kids with her. He
me in many ways.
How to cover your back
He doesn’t have taps in his kitchen. He likes drinking Coke so he
My sister Soffi was visiting from Denmark that week. She went with
In his flat nothing seems to be proper, yet everything works.
doesn’t need water. He also likes junk food, so it does not matter that he cannot cook in his kitchen. He likes drinking coffee in
the morning, at least 2 cups. He
Haggerston Park, Los Angeles 19th of March 2005
me to buy juice and plastic cups. We were the first to arrive to the
park and I called Marie to tell her which spot we had chosen.
Chosil was hung over and quiet
smokes cigarettes constantly but he
that day. I recognized that she was
take drugs but he tried most of them
I was worried not enough people
doing us a big favor by turning up.
doesn’t smoke weed. He does not
would come. I called Makin and his
for life experience. He also tried a
hooker who was a present from his
new girlfriend Hana. They were still
ago. Many of his girlfriends didn’t like
straight away.
at home but promised to come
friends for his birthday a few years
Chad had just moved in to our
that. I spend most of time on his bed
house two days before. I had met him
watching him. He has a small flat so it
in the kitchen and negotiated for him
is not so difficult to clean up, he says.
to come to the park. I had to promise
I look at him more, but if I don’t look
at him, he looks at me.
Andis is from Latvia which is a
country I had never heard of. Andis
Janfamily performs “How to cover your back” in
Haggerston Park. [JANFAMILY]
that I would let him photograph me
for some fashion thing in return. I
never did. We still bargain every time
drives a van but also he makes music with Jamie, an English guy.
we do each other favors.
after 3 days living together. He does not remember names so
Haruka in Japan when we went there last summer. Tomoko had
They are called Ape Recorder. Andis finally remembers my name
Hei brought Momo, Tomoko and Haruka. I met Tomoko and
much. Andis likes watching films a lot. Before he goes to work,
made Japanese red bean and sesame cakes for everyone.
because I make him feel like its a holiday; he thinks we will be
that Hei did too. She has been around ever since that day.
he likes to choose a film for me, whilst he is away. He likes me
good friends in the near future. Andis collects airplane-models
[143]
I had just met Momo the night before. I liked her and knew
Hei also brought Alexander and Ollie. They carried an ac-
cordion and a guitar. When we lay down they were playing and
It was nice that Helga came, but I can’t really remember how
didn’t join us.
she was or what we talked about.
Chosil had talked about learning to play the accordion for a long
was with a guy who had just moved into her flat. I invited them but
Afterwards Chad, Hana, Mike and Hei tried the instruments.
time. I tried to push her to get Alexander to teach her some. She
told me there was too much competition.
Earlier on that day I had bumped into our neighbor Manu. She
was surprised that they came.
The new guy didn’t want to lie down but sat next to me while
A month later we got her an accordion and Alexander as a
I was taking the picture telling me what he thought it all meant.
Hei’s friend Mike was not sure if he should join or not. I sug-
and I still don’t know his name. We all stayed in the park until it
teacher for her birthday.
gested him to lie down next to Makin. He did.
I had not seen Jim for a long time. He seemed happy and his
When I meet him now he gives me a hug. We haven’t spoken since
got too cold.
hair had grown long. He brought along some friends. I think that
Cha cha cha
funny. I still think that. We talked about all moving to Berlin. Jim
Marie had downloaded the basic steps of cha cha cha from the in-
was the first time I met Matthauish. I remember thinking he was
also brought a guy who I had met before at a party. I do not re-
17th of June, Sehnefelder Strasse, Berlin
ternet before leaving London. We met up in the morning and
member his name now but I remember he was very calm and told
taught ourselves the moves. It took longer than we had expected.
since. I am not sure but I don’t think I had ever talked to the last
Johs, Toke, Anders and Andreas in the evening before going out.
me he was something like a physiotherapist. I haven’t seen him
guy that came along, not before or since. When we were lying
We taught Chosil and Josephine in the afternoon, and we all taught
down they were all making jokes.
Benjamin was busy fixing his bike and I had to hurry him up to
make him help me carry the cakes and the blankets to the park.
Nina and Soffi were already there.
Patrick was one of the first to come and had brought some
Salon Memory
One of the first things I noticed at the Sundown house was the
boat shaped felt bed. It fit me perfectly. I was traveling
food. He is always happy to come and good to have around.
around Europe and the USA for about 6 months with our then
She had brought him and he had brought the papers. Their week-
our tour of the USA. By the time we got there, all of us were
Anna was back from Paris for the weekend to be with Paul.
ends are very precious and reading the papers together is one of
the things Anna misses most when she is away. I was very happy
collective, Janfamily, and Sundown Salon was the last stop on
emotionally and physically weary from the intensity of traveling together. We all missed having personal space. The boat
that they found a way to be together, read the papers, and still be
became a symbolic state of my mind. I am making a new body
the others and she told me how she had been.
to know the local residents and making a symbolic ‘nest’ with
with us in the park. Later Anna and I moved a blanket away from
We hadn’t seen Ginger Anna since last summer, but had met
of work, ‘Cocoon’ which involves visiting new places, getting
wooden bits given by the residents. Each one revisits my jour-
her the day before. She was very pregnant and I thought she was
ney of settling down in foreign environments. The first one
in the circle everyone seemed concerned that she was comfort-
much like the one at Sundown Salon.
very beautiful. She had brought Jack with her. When she laid down
able. Two weeks later their little Otto came around.
[144]
was built in Pouch Cove, Canada in 2007 shaped as a boat
CHOSIL KIL
23
LTTR: DO YOU WISH
TO DIRECT ME ?
12.04.05
1:00–5:00pm
ORGANIZED BY: Emily Roysdon, LTTR
PERFORMANCES BY: Harry Dodge, Stanya Kahn, Vivian Babuts, Becky Stark {Lavender Diamond}
PROJECTS BY: Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Ashland Mines, Edie Fake
Taisha Paggett,Tania Hammidi, Jessica Lawless & Meg Wolfe
[145]
A release event for
LTTR #4: “Do You
Wish to Direct Me?”
SCHEDULE
OF EVENTS
2:00
High Five for Ram Dass
read by Harry Dodge
LTTR #4 is finally here and definitely
OUT! Lay your hands on this hot new
2:45
Performances
by Vivian Babuts
issue. Fondle 80 pages of queer content
and poke your nose into the crack of
your new favorite book.
LTTR #4 Contributors include: Liz Collins,
Ginger Brooks Takahashi, K8 Hardy, Ulrike
Müller, Emily Roysdon, Lanka Tattersall,
Jocelyn Jacobs, Stanya Kahn, Christoph
Boots, Anna Blume, Harriet “Harry” Dodge,
Gregg Bordowitz, Johanna Fateman,
Mary Kelly, Matt Wolf, Anna Joy Springer,
Sarah Schulman, Tania T. Hammidi, Derek
Jackson, Jeanne Stern, Vivian Babuts,
A.L. Steiner, Discoteca Flaming Star, Moyra
Davey, Stephanie Gray, Rodney Harrison,
Laura Parnes, Andrea Geyer, Shelley Marlow,
Tobaron Waxman, Eden Batki, A.K. Burns,
Anna Gollwitzer, Ridykeulous, Klara Liden,
Youngblood, Nancy Brooks Brody.
3:00
Performance
by Stanya Kahn
3:45
Crazy Garbage Sale, No Toxic Waste
by Becky Stark
ON GOING:
Bunny Humping Quilters Forum
with Ginger Brooks Takahahi
Slowburn DJ
with Ashland Mines
Marzipan Fantasies
with Edie Fake
Game of Life
with Taisha Paggett, Tania Hammidi,
Jessica Lawless & Meg Wolfe
[146]
LTTR CALLS
...and We Ask, “Do You Wish to Direct Me?”*
by Emily Roysdon
panied by a dynamic band of willing participants we set
about to converse deliberately in the measured garden
plateaus of sundown paradise.
LTTR’s approach to Sundown Salon was rooted in our
commitment to collaboration and public dialogue. We decided to occupy the diverse spaces of the salon to create
independent spheres with their own focus and vocabulary
that engaged a critical feminist practice. The landscape
could be traversed quietly, with
your nose in the crack of issue 4,
or could become relational, moving from one conversation on
DIY life (Jessica Lawless, Tania
Hammidi, Meg Wolfe, Taisha
Paggett) to having your back and
ass video recorded by the performance duo Marriage (Math
Bass and James Tsang). Larin Sullivan and her mother Nancy SulStanya Kahn performing in the cave. [FH]
livan fleshed out the details of a
For issue 4 the LTTR collective relinquishes poetic mandates in favor of an enunciative possibility. We sneak seek
your agency in troubled times of vapid vocabularies and
encourage agonistic positionalities
• let us be directed by this community.
• drop your load in the new issue.
• elegantly propose your terms of engagement.
• be a bossy bottom.
Call back with bravado! Submit to
LTTR with a response, proposal
or completed project for inclusion
in the fourth coming of the explicitly feminist gender queer independent art journal.
So began the long road which is
issue 4. Out proud, we arrived in
December 2005 to mark the Los
Angeles release of LTTR #4, “Do
You Wish to Direct Me?” Accom-
* “Do you wish to direct me” is a command pirated from the 1973 Lynda Benglis video “Now.” She replays the image of herself on a monitor behind an image of herself on a
monitor behind an image of herself ... asking and declaring “Now?” “Start the camera!”... self-commanding, self-manipulating, self-touching, a self which is not herself at all...
Challenging notions of agency, temporality and polymorphous eroticism....the collapse of ‘you’ and ‘me’ into a colored field of layered feedback.
[147]
onetime sex kitten’s emergence into a feminist mother of
a queer child. Edie Fake pulled utopian texts from homemade pies and webbed an outdoor clearing with the
blood-red banners. Issue 4 contributor Harriet ‘Harry’
Dodge read from “High Five for Ram Dass,” and was followed with a brilliant improvisation by Stanya Kahn.
Under the trees LTTR editor Ginger Brooks Takahashi
taught people how to stitch in her bunny humping quilters forum, all the while DJ Ashland Mines played his favorite Diana Ross records. And as darkness fell Lavender
Diamond elegantly, prophetically and persuasively sold
garbage for pennies.
LTTR is a feminist genderqueer artist collective with a
flexible project oriented pracLTTR 4 was funded by the Printed
Matter Emerging Artist Publication
Series, and was accompanied by an
exhibition entitled “A Wave of New
Rage Thinking.” In 2004 LTTR organized “The Explosion” at Art in
General, a series of events, collaborative projects and exhibitions that
celebrated an international community of artists. LTTR projects have
also been held at LACE in Los Angeles, and The Kitchen and Andrew
Kreps Gallery in New York. LTTR
journals have been included in exhibitions at Cubitt Gallery, London,
Space 1026, Philadelphia, and projet Mobilivre/Bookmobile project.
LTTR is Ulrike Mueller, Emily
Roysdon, Ginger Brooks Takahashi
and K8 Hardy. Lanka Tattersall
joined the team for issue 4.
tice. LTTR produces an annual independent art journal,
performance series, events, screenings and collaborations. The group was founded in 2001 with an inaugural issue titled “Lesbians to the Rescue,” followed by
“Listen Translate Translate Record,” “Practice More Failure,” and most recently “Do You Wish to Direct me?”
LTTR is dedicated to highlighting the work of radical
communities whose goals are sustainable change, queer
pleasure and critical feminist productivity. It seeks to create and build a context for a culture of critical thinkers
whose work not only speaks in
dialogue with one another, but
consistently challenges its own
form by shifting shape and design to best respond to contemporary concerns.
Edie Fake’s installation in the garden. [EMILY ROYSDON]
EDIE FAKE is notoriously morally
bankrupt and has an insatiable appetite for destruction. He helped
misorganize Pilot TV with other
radical vagabonds and performed
in the PeaceCore Book Tour across
the whole country. He draws the
queer mytho-log of Gaylord
Phoenix, the food fetish zine Foie
Gras and the comic Rico McTaco
about dykes and magic living in
Valhalla, the viking hall of the slain.
GINGER BROOKS TAKAHASHI
lives in New York, maintaining a
social, project-based practice—
which includes LTTR and projet
Mobilivre-Bookmobile project, a
traveling exhibit of artist books and
zines. Takahashi completed the
Whitney Independent Study Program and has exhibited widely.
EMILY ROYSDON is an L.A. and
New York-based interdisciplinary
artist whose projects engage language, gesture and memory. She is
an editor and co-founder of LTTR,
a feminist genderqueer artist collective. Roysdon’s work has been
shown at Artist’s Space, The Kitchen,
Art in General and Deitch Projects
in New York; MIT List Visual Art
Centre; and Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania. Roysdon has
completed the Whitney Museum
Independent Study Program and
earned an MFA at UCLA.
BECKY STARK was born in Maryland. She attended Brown University
and is now based in L.A. She sings in
the band Lavender Diamond.
[148]
24
SCANDINAVIANGELENOS
01.29.06
2:00–7:00pm
ORGANIZED WITH: Civic Matters, a project with Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
by the curators Zandra Ahl, Brett Littman, Irene Tsatsos, Veronica Wyman
PERFORMANCES AND PROJECTS BY: Ewan Branda, Fallen Fruit, Asdis sif Gunnarsdottir, Hjärta Smärta,
Otto Karvonen, Shed Research Institute, ROR, Sissi Westerberg
VIDEOS BY: Muungano, r a k e t a
MUSIC BY: Kelly Marie Martin, The Bicycle Kitchen, The Extrodinaires
[149]
A SALON FOR SCANDINAVIAN
ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS
WITH THEIR ANGELENO
COUNTERPARTS FROM
THE CIVIC MATTERS PROJECT…
EWAN BRANDA gives a presentation on “Skansen and the informatics
of the Open-air Museum.”
ASDIS SIF GUNNARSDOTTIR performs “Don’t you want to love her”
in the dome:
Don’t you just want to love her, just love her and forgive
FALLEN FRUIT makes guacamole and fruit salad from the neighborhood.
her for being jealous, she’s jealous of you, she’s crazy in
While doing so they talk about food, politics, art, culture, hospitality,
love with you, .....don’t you want to love her? Don’t you
guests, global trade and neo-colonialism. Muungano videotapes them as
want to be with her for the rest of your life? She’s your
they do so. Afterward everything is eaten!
dark haired lady, your blonde. She’s the
business lady, she knows business,
OTTO, LENA & BRETT present a cultural
she’s your dark haired woman, the one.
exchange group cooking project. Brett (USA)
She’s suspicious sometimes, sometimes
makes something Swedish, Lena (SWE) makes
sad, but hopeful, she’s happy, your
something Finnish and Otto (FIN) makes
happy dark haired woman, you blissful
something American.
red blonde, the thoughtful one, she’s
thoughtful, she’s thinking of you, your
MUUNGANO screens the video Hip hop in bed
with Muungano that they produced during their
The Scandinavians visitors pose in the cave
at the end of the event. [FH]
last ten days in Los Angeles
blonde woman, the business lady, the
movie star, charming, she’s happy, your
happy lady.
R A K E T A projects the video ‘r a k e t a at Fritz’s’ and ‘Everything
THE SHED RESEARCH INSTITUTE AND JEFF CAIN presents a live
Matters’ throughout the house.
online documentation of ‘Public Sculpture Part 1’ by Alice Könitz. It
is a singular sculpture on view for the duration of 24 hours from
SISSI WESTERBERG brings her portable pink-latex-spray-gun to the
11:00 am Sunday, January 29, 2006 to 11:00am Monday, January
salon. She sprays objects she finds as part of her L.A.-skin project. It
30 at ‘24 Hour California Donuts’ located at 3540 West 3rd Street,
is an ongoing happening throughout the day. She collects shapes and
Los Angeles (at the corner of 3rd Street and New Hampshire near
fragments from everyday life in Los Angeles by spraying them with latex
Vermont Ave). The artist is present for the duration of the project.
and then taking the “skin” off, creating a copy that can be brought back
In collaboration with the artist, the Shed Research Institute assists
to Sweden. She sprays it, lets it dry and peals it off.
Könitz in the use of a camera phone to upload pictures, audio, and
text to blog her experiences to the web.
BICYCLE KITCHEN is represented by Kelly Marie Martin who presents
copies of her ‘zine “Ideal Bicycle Rides from the Bicipandilla of the Bicycle
THE EXTRODINAIRES pass through L.A. on a west coast tour away
Kitchen.” She strolls through Sundown Gardens with Ben Guzman
from their home of Philadelphia and make a last-minute command
performing on their guitar and violin.
performance in the cave.
[150]
From: fritz haeg
From: Mary
Date: Tue Jan 17 12:52:28 2006
Date: Fri Jan 27 18:40:45 2006
To: Civic Matters Group
To: fritz haeg
Subject: SCANDINAVIANGELENOS/proposals/sundown salon
Subject: Re: sundown salon #24 / SCANDINAVIANGELENOS
#24/sun, jan. 29th 2-8
/ this sunday / 2-7pm
hi to all civic matters related people...
Hi Fritz,
we are planning a sundown salon event called
Chris and I will be at the Chinese New Year Parade most of
SCANDINAVIANGELENOS for the last day of the civic matters
the day Sunday. Weare comfortable with your guests walking
project, sunday, january 29th 2-8.
through our yard to yours if you want them to come to your
yard that way.
let me know if you have an idea for a happening, installation,
meeting, pageant, performance, show, stunt, spectacle, or
Mary & Chris
other sort of project to present that day. (food, drinks, music,
stories, songs, dances, plays, costumes are all good too)
the work may be yours, a collaborative
effort, an impromptu creation, or you
may invite someone that you met this
week to come & do something.
also let me know when it should be
scheduled (from 2-8) and where in
the house or gardens it should be
located. check out the website
(www.sundownsalon.com) to get a
sense of the place and what has
happened here before.
A Swedish potato dish prepared by an Angeleno. [FH]
i will be continually updating the webpage with the schedule of
the days events & projects as i receive them.
http://www.fritzhaeg.com/salon/events/24scandinaviangel
enos.html
regards,
fritz
[151]
HJÄRTA SMÄRTA is a graphic design and illustration collective of
Samira Bouabana and Angela Tillman based in Stockholm. Hjärta
Smärta, (“Heart” and “Pain”) works
with clients such as advertising
firms, magazines and cultural institutions. The collective has also produced books, furniture, graffiti
wallpaper, and interior design.
SISSI WESTERBERG
is based in Stockholm.
Having studied metalcraft and jewelry-art, Sissi’s interest in body-adornment manifests in
video, installation and sculpture. In
her collaborative works, she investigates processes and the language
of material culture to engage the
public in the dialogue of design and
mass-production.
The press release
from Los Angeles
Contemporary Exhibitions,
January 1st, 2006
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) is pleased to present Civic
Matters, a two-week cultural exchange and residency project that brings
together an international curatorial team with a diverse group of
artists and collectives from Sweden, Finland and Los Angeles to
explore the complex roles of art, craft, design, architecture, and
community in contemporary society. Civic Matters raises
questions about the production of art, craft and design as it
relates to the distinct cultural histories and traditions found in
the United States and in Scandinavia, and will provide an
opportunity for participants to explore the dynamics of artistic
collaboration.
R A K E T A is a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration and experiment within art, design,
architecture and digital media.
Based in Stockholm, Raketa creates
spaces outside ordinary art venues.
By using public space for their projects and inviting other artists to
participate in their efforts, they
open up the possibility for new autonomous artistic activity.
Civic Matters is organized by four guest curators: Zandra Ahl/Craft In
Dialogue, Swedish artist and project manager of Craft In Dialogue at IASPIS in
LOS ANGELES FORUM FOR
ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN
DESIGN was founded in 1987
and plays a vital role in Los Angeles by initiating and supporting
events, publications, and symposia in this city and beyond. The
Forum has produced lecture series, special events, a theory reading group, a quarterly newsletter,
nine pamphlet-sized books and
initiated a number of book projects published with major presses.
Stockholm; Brett Littman, deputy director of PS1 in New
York, Irene Tsatsos, Los Angeles-based independent curator
and former Director/Curator of LACE; and Veronica
Wiman, independent curator based in Stockholm. Civic
Matters participants - visual artists, craft artists, writers,
architects, graphic designers, public planners, curators,
and more - include: Bicycle Kitchen (LA), Mike Blockstein
(LA), Jeff Cain (LA), Fallen Fruit (LA), Sundown Salon (LA),
Hjärta Smärta (Sweden), IC-98 (Finland), Journal of
Aesthetics and Protest (LA), Otto Karvonen (Finland), L.A.
Forum for Architecture and Urban Design (LA), Muungano
(Sweden), Outpost for Contemporary Art (LA), r a k e t a (Sweden), ROR
(Finland) and Sissi Westerberg (Sweden). While the creative work of the
participants varies greatly, all share a demonstrated interest in producing work
that engages with an audience in a manner that is social as well as aesthetic.
[152]
NOTES FROM THE
CIVIC MATTERS MEETING
between the realms of the aesthetic and the social/cultural/
political.
10.01.05
2. Project Goals
PARTICIPANTS
group(s) with which they are involved, will be able to somehow
One goal of Civic Matters is that all the participants will be able
to benefit from the exchange of ideas – that participants, and the
Mattias Viegener (Fallen Fruit)
advance their objectives as a result of collaborating with
Cara Baldwin (Journal of Aesthetics and Protest)
colleagues from abroad in problem-solving and idea-sharing.
Jeff Cain (RHZ Radio)
Cory Peipon (Outpost for Contemporary Art)
3. Craft component of Civic Matters
Fritz Haeg (Sundown Salon, Gardenlab, etc.)
We discussed briefly the difference between the role of “craft”
Irene Tsatsos (curator)
in the States as a kind of “lowbrow,” non-art or design
Karl Erickson (LACE)
homemade product and in the Netherlands where it operates
Carol Stakenas (LACE)
more as a one-off or prototype object produced by artists
which, if/when mass produced, becomes identified as design.
UNABLE TO ATTEND
Jimmy Lizama (Bicycle Kitchen)
4. Structure of Civic Matters
Tom Marble (LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design)
How will the participants connect/convene/communicate with
ITEMS DISCUSSED AND QUESTIONS RAISED
begin communicating prior to arrival in L.A. Irene suggested
each other? The curators feel it’s important that participants
1. Project Origin
that all participants begin by thinking about what kind of
This project originated as an exhibition of Swedish design,
assistance or information they need to advance their projects
organized by Brett Littman, which was of interest to Irene given
or ideas — in other words, that each participant think about a
the role design has played in L.A. historically and
at present. Brett invited Zandra Ahl and
Veronica Wiman to help curate the project, and
the four met in L.A. a year ago to discuss the
project further. The idea of the value of welldesigned objects led to the discussion among
the curatorial team of the role artists choose to
have in public discourse, and the recognition of
FALLEN FRUIT is an online project of Dave Burns, Matias Viegener
and Austin Young. Their activist
artwork maps all the fruit trees
growing on or over public property
in L.A. and other American cities.
First published as a project in The
Journal of Aesthetics and Protest,
Fallen Fruit has been included in
a variety of art gallery shows.
the phenomenon in Los Angeles and in
goal, something he or she would like to achieve
by participating in the project.
5. Guest/Host relationship
The
L.A.
participants
are
aware
of
an
obligation/desire to host their colleagues from
abroad. How do we partner up? What will the
visiting artists do while they are here? The
visitors will have every day free, but the L.A.
Stockholm of artists choosing to work collaboratively to create
participants will still have the distractions and obligations of
and participate in socially-engaged activity and critique.
their regular lives. What are the responsibilities of the hosts?
Many of the artists from both sides of the Atlantic work
To what degree are L.A. participants to act as hosts? One idea
collaboratively, and many share an interest in the connections
was the “pocket” host idea, where one visitor would “shadow”
[153]
a host for a predetermined period of time, in order to get a
feel for L.A. life.
6. Role of LACE as a site for Civic Matters
How should LACE function? What is the role of LACE to
gallery visitors? What will visitors see, and how will they
interact with artists in the galleries? Ideally they would see
some activity and be able to leave feedback on the projects,
whether written or verbal. Big paper on the walls for
SCANDINAVIANGELENOS:
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
OR JUST ANOTHER ARTY
PARTY?
By Zandra Ahl and Veronica Wiman
participants as well as visitors to leave notes?
In the van in the direction of Sundown Drive we were talking
7. How much time will participants actually be at LACE?
about the desert music played previously, how at home we felt
If we envision a scenario where artists form small groups to
in our “child molester van” and other random thoughts passing
work on projects, how will the participants communicate with
through the group. As we had every day for the past two
each other outside of their small groups? Can LACE serve as
weeks, we were gathered in the van with Brett at the wheel on
hub, where folks check in and leave messages for one
another excursion in Los Angeles. As for many Angelenos, the
another? How can this happen?
vehicle was our home and where we spent many hours
Fritz was interested in hosting events for the participants,
“Swedish Sundown Salons,” perhaps at the
beginning of the project and at the end.
8. Who is the audience for Civic Matters?
together discussing new experiences, enjoying “In and Out
OUTPOST FOR CONTEMPORARY
ART is a non-profit founded by
Julie Deamer with the mission to
cultivate creative exploration, international cultural exchange and a
setting conducive to discussion.
9. Material vs. Immaterial goals.
curatorial
team
would
activities/partnerships/collaborations
than two years since Veronica took the city bus
up to the Sundown house, arriving 3 hours late.
Fritz had a meeting at the house to talk about Civic Matters.
A tasty and improvised mix of Finnish pirogues, food
need to be realized? Can they be just actions? Irene stressed
the
parts of the city. Today was our final day as Civic
Matters curates Sundown Salon. It was more
One year ago Zandra, Irene and Veronica and
Do the prototypes/projects need to be witnessed? Do they
that
Burger’s” and from where we perceived many
like
to
see
among
some
the
translations, live performing bands, avocado theft, movies in
bed with artists, lectures about an open air museum in
participants have tangible, reproducible outcomes.
Stockholm, an attempt to make a sports car pink in latex, and
10. “Generative rather than critical.”
became a site of celebration of the community of Civic Matters,
social networking — the Scandinaviangelenos Sundown Salon
Will we be “forcing ourselves” on anyone or “saving” anyone?
the ongoing cultural exchange between Scandinavian and US
Will the Swedes be seen as coming in to “fix” L.A.? Is that
practitioners. Being part of the Sundown Salon community,
what we want? Irene reminded the group that the goal is a
chilling out, having fun, chatting, we — the Civic Matters
bilateral exchange of ideas, that ideally every participant
Participants had reached an intimate peak, we were all part of
come out of this project with ways to advance their work
the same big family. Now the family and project had moved in
wherever they live.
to Fritz Haeg’s home, or did we just attend another party?
[154]
The city of Los Angeles has the highest rate of Homeless
another Garden of Eden, many desires and wishes are to be
people in United States (and the highest death rates among
fulfilled being a producer or participant at Fritz’s and the lovely
the Homeless). The saying “my home is my castle” is
rosemary and orange garden. The choices of trees and plants,
supposedly as appropriate to an inhabitant with a sleeping bag
garden chairs, architectural planning represents the inhabitant
and a shopping cart — just a slightly different meaning. The
as much as a piece of Myran chair, or Billy bookshelf — my
standardized pseudo-socialist reality for many in the lonesome,
home = me.
single, suicidal climate of Scandinavia is that everyone has a
The exchange and residency project called Civic Matters
right to a roof. From the age of leaving the adolescent home to
brought Scandinavian makers together with artists, thinkers,
the age of entering heaven, many Scandinavians live in one- to
and curators from Los Angeles. The project was about
two-room apartment buildings equipped with a bathtub, central
exchange of ideas, knowledge and understanding different
heating, standard-sized fridge, one storage space in the attic
starting points for production. Or was it about making a family
and one in the basement where often the
public laundry room is. We have not yet seen
One Laundromat in Sweden…
The Swedish perception of the home is
one of the strongest images in the object
based
craft
and
design
culture.
The
neverending battlefield of the domestic sphere
is an ongoing theme for discussions about
gender, taste and politics, and both private
and public ones within design and art. The
ROR is an artist collective based in
Helsinki. Its members are Klaus
Nyqvist, Karoliina Taipale, Panu
Puolakka and Jiri Geller. Since
1998 ROR has hosted guest artists
for their shows. The works of its
members and guests include knitting, electronic music, motorcycle
design, texts and technological inventions. ROR also acts as a curatorial collective in the spirit of
traditional avant-garde groups, the
circus and rock’n’roll spectacles.
home is an important site. In Scandinavia an
of friends and peers? The feeling of togetherness,
nostalgia and love was sparkling at the Sunday
Salon of Scandinaviangelenos. It was a very
different social vibe compared to the first night of
the Civic Matters program, also at the Sundown
residence. It made us think of our Swedishness,
since others saw us as an ethnic group and heard
the description of us being socially disabled —
which we think is true to some degree. “It takes
time to get to know a Swede, but once you do,
you have her forever.” Which brings us to clichéd
invitation to the private home is proof of one’s acceptance; the
ideas about Americanos, that their social skills verge on
home is staged to mark your dreams and hopes. At the same
superficiality. We observed which group spoke more than the
time, the home is the stage for family fights, loneliness and
other and how we communicate to each other during
private secrets. No place is more frightening than a home,
conversations. Of course the language played its role and was
which is a favorite setting for Swedish theatre directors such
a disadvantage for the non-native English speakers, but perhaps
as Lars Norén or Ingmar Bergman.
also another kind of rhetoric culture? Expressing one’s self
The residency of a person’s life, all the personal things that
make you, your memories and future plans, in a mix of
freely comes with comfort, it took us two intense weeks when
it was finally time to part.
desirable designer objects or just the regular IKEA stuff mixed
Civic Matters is an attempt to interact and network parallel
with flea market bargains. The home is the stage for the family,
to the traditional institution, the commercial business or
the social interaction that is nonprofessional.
academic system. Civic Matters is like the Sundown house, a
The home of Fritz is a different home. On top of a hill, with
mix of functions with an inviting and charming personality, which
its cave-like entrance, the small sleeping grotto, the dome used
also demands the participants devotion. One could perhaps
for an office, itis more like an art space than a home. As if the
compare the curatorial force with the setting of school
inhabitant is not living there for his own sake, but for ours. As
detention as in the 1980s movie The Breakfast Club. Now
[155]
liberated and back home in our private and public corners of
Salon Memory
the globe, we asked Fritz how he would describe his home and
My most lasting impression of the fabulous Sundown
what it means for him to open it up for artistic practice in his
Salon is sitting on benches in the stone cave of the first
floor with the Scandinavian and Los Angeleno artists of
private sphere?
Because it is in a house, it is inherently intimate. There is
Civic Matters. It was our first night together. A formal
moment for introductions, it felt more as if we were in
an immediate familiarity among people.
This is welcoming and progressive, but yet not less
the bowels of a medieval ship and I looked around for
complicated. In one way the structure is open for the ones that
the oars. The sensation fluctuated between that and an
participate, but requires an invitation. In one way it is an “artist
episode of Star Trek because of the modern design and
gated community” that doesn’t need a locked gate and visible
stone and color contrast, but that, again is also a ship.
guard on the outside. If you are not the chosen one you would
Fritz, a longer leaner and more jolly Captain. More Joan
feel inappropriate and simply couldn’t access. As Civic Matters,
Didion than William Shatner. Instead of a cocktail, a
Sundown Salon is open generously to everyone but perhaps
camera—a camera instead of a communicator. His jour-
only to those who share the same approach? Despite a
ney smooth, his discoveries more earthly. This journey,
concept of Civic engagement, why pretend artistic practice is
an engagement, a civic engagement between artists
from three lands for two weeks in sunshine prison.
for everyone?
OTTO KARVONEN is based in
Helsinki. Otto’s temporary performative actions and sculptural installations are situated in public
space. His ideas often start from
small, everyday observations.
Through discoveries and discussions held along the way, each project follows its own unexpected path.
He focuses on the project’s context
to explore how well each work responds to the physical, social and
political space and time it occupies.
MUUNGANO is a Stockholm-based
collective of 15 people with backgrounds ranging from engineering,
philosophy, and economy to design
and architecture. They use design
as a social and aesthetical activity in
relation to commercial and material conditions.
THE BICYCLE KITCHEN (La Bicicocina) is a non-profit, volunteerrun bicycle repair and educational
space in Los Angeles. They offer a
space for all bicyclists to repair or
build their bicycles from donated
and recycled parts, to meet other
cyclists, enrich their lives through
bicycle awareness and find new
outlets for bicycle culture.
“What are we to find,” I thought as I looked around at
these Vikings thrust into the hijinks of the Herbst twins
who scurried off and came back with their outfits
switched. Robby, soliloquizing while in a handstand
against one of the pillars, about what I’ve no memory.
Just my digital camera snaps. How appropriate then
that a couple of weeks later would find us at the closing
Salon for Civic Matters, Scandinaviangelenos, listening
to the Extraordinaires who had journeyed all the way
from Philly to perform songs from their beautiful epic,
Ribbons of War, an operatic tale of tragic romance that
chronicles the love and loss between a clipper ship captain and a young aviatrix named Annelies. They packaged
it into a hand bound cd book with a silkscreen of a ship
on the cover! The audience back on the benches. Everything full circle. Like the dome on top. Or how no part of
the house goes unturned in expressive, open house to
the max exploration. And what did WE find two weeks
later? Open-ended projects, extended hands, warm
smiles, new collaborations and new friends.
KELLY MARIE MARTIN
[156]
25
SUPERM SALON FOR BOYS
02.05.06
2:00pm–midnight
ORGANIZED BY: Slava
Mogutin & Brian Kenny
Josh Lee, Benn Mendoza, Slava Mogutin,
Dean Sameshima, Alex Segade & Malik Gaines
VIDEOS BY: AVAF (Assume Vivid Astro Focus), Franko B, Dino Dinco, Andy Fair, Anthony Goicolea,
Kris Canavan & Dominic Johnson, Sebastian Meunier, Billy Miller, Superm,
Scott Treleaven, Nicholas Wagner
PERFORMANCES AND PROJECTS BY:
[157]
A special superhole
weekend of salon
boy events!
Videos
AVAF (Assume Vivid Astro Focus) (Brazil)
Music videos
FRANKO B (London)
Video Lecture
Performances
DINO DINCO (Los Angeles)
Short Video
JOSH LEE
cake and pastry sculpture in the dome with interactive
culinary performance
ANDY FAIR (New York)
“Plushie Schwartz Does Fire Island”
BENN MENDOZA
with his acrobats & contortionists
from the Hot Boy Circus!
ANTHONY GOICOLEA (New York)
Short videos
KRIS CANAVAN & DOMINIC JOHNSON (London)
“Cold Song”
SLAVA MOGUTIN
poetry reading
SEBASTIAN MEUNIER (Paris)
“Body Pack”
DEAN SAMESHIMA
zines on display
BILLY MILLER (New York)
“Tom Cruise Loves Women”
ALEX SEGADE & MALIK GAINES
unplugged performance of their greatest
gay hits, including “Gay Marry Me”
SUPERM (New York)
Short videos
SCOTT TRELEAVEN (Toronto)
“Salivation Army”
NICHOLAS WAGNER (New York)
Wrestling video
[158]
FRANKO B is a London-based Italian artist, known for his radical
body modification performances
and multimedia installations.
BILLY MILLER is the editor and
publisher of Straight To Hell, a.k.a.
The Manhattan Review of Unnatural Acts which has published true
reader-written sexual histories and
male erotic photography for three
decades. His artwork has been exhibited all over the world and he
writes for a variety of publications.
ANDY FAIR’s video and film projects have been showcased in the International Gay Film Festivals in
New York, London and San Francisco, as well as in Australia,
Toronto, Seattle, and Rochester.
BENN MENDOZA completed circus studies at San Francisco school
of circus arts specializing in aerial
fabric (tissu) and aeriel hoop. He
received his masters in Montréal
after getting kicked out of the San
Francisco school for beating up a
clown. Benn is currently the director of the Vertigo Aerial Acrobatics
Posse and the Hot Boy Circus.
AVAF is both the pseudonym of a
New York-based Brazilian artist
and the title given to the artist’s
wide-ranging aesthetic project. In
avaf’s work the sources are
blended, fused, overlapped, contaminated and contaminating.
DOMINIC JOHNSON, based in
London, writes for art magazines,
teaches performance, and has recently presented work in Glasgow,
Cork, Zagreb and Ljubljana. He is
working on a monologue with
bloodletting and actions, entitled
“The Human Wreckage Review.”
DINO DINCO was raised by a family of fighting chickens in rural
Pennsylvania before moving to L.A.
In addition to fine art, commercial
and fashion photography, he works
in television, commercial and
music video production. His photos
have appeared in Dazed and Confused, Butt, Brasil Vogue, and Surface, as well as in the anthologies:
Sample (Phaidon), Archeology of
Elegance (Schirmer/Mosel), and
Cross (Calloway).
The Hot Boy Circus.
[SLAVA MOGUTIN]
SCOTT TRELEAVEN is a Torontoborn artist, filmmaker and writer.
The Village Voice called “Salivation
Army” one of the most notable underground films of 2002. His art
practice is represented by galleries
in L.A., Chicago and New York, and
incorporates collage, film, installation and photography.
JOSH LEE was born in 1979 in
Denver. After five reckless years in
New York, he abandoned his careers as a fashion model and window and set designer and moved
back to Denver. Recently he has
collaborated with Slava Mogutin on
performances and photo shoots for
magazines like Flaunt and Playgirl.
BRIAN KENNY was born in Heidelburg, Germany, on an American
military base. As a teenager, he was
a competitive gymnast. He pursued
a degree in voice at Oberlin Conservatory, but left to produce his own
music, which combines hip hop and
ambient. Brian is now based in New
York where he collaborates with
Slava Mogutin under team name
SUPERM. Kenny works in drawing,
graffiti, video and installation.
SEBASTIEN MEUNIER is a french
fashion designer. He is the creative
director for Martin Margiela.
[159]
SLAVA MOGUTIN is a New York
based Russian artist and writer. By
the age of 21, he had gained both
critical acclaim and official condemnation for his outspoken gay
writing. Forced to leave Russia, he
was granted political asylum in the
US. He is the author of 7 books of
poetry, fiction, essays and journalism. He starred in Bruce LaBruce’s
Skin Flick (1999) and Laura Collela’s Stay Until Tomorrow (2004).
He has shown his photography internationally and contributed to a
wide range of art and fashion publications. A collection of his photography, Lost Boys was published
by PowerHouse.
ANTHONY GOICOLEA is a CubanAmerican photographer, painter
and video artist based in Brooklyn.
He has studied at the University of
Georgia and Pratt. He was accepted
into the “AIM” program at the
Bronx Museum and was awarded
the Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship and the 2005 BMW Photo
Paris Award. His work is in the collections of The Whitney, MOMA,
and The Chicago Museum of Contemporary Photography.
Salon Memory
From: Robert Summers
Date: Sun Feb 12 00:52:02 2006
To: fritz haeg
Subject: Re: Sundown Salon ...
I recently heard a young (former Angeleno) artist say, after
finding out that Kalamazoo was in fact a real town in Michigan,
“When you’re from L.A. you don’t realize that there are places
dear fritz:
in the world.”
good day! my name is rob(er)t (summers), the chain-smoking PhD student, and i ever-so-briefly met you and chatted with you at the two-day
event curated by (handsome) slava and (sexy, boyish) brian and hosted
by (rich) lawrence and then (cute and intelligent) you at your monthly
*sundown salon*. now, why am I repeating everything you already
know? I don’t know. so on we go ...
the context of the moment it made sense. Although when you
I’m not sure what that means now, but at the time and in
live in NYC, Sundown Salon is just, well, weird.
Mr. Haeg is somewhat of a Renaissance man, and his
Buckminster-Fuller-meets-Bruce-Goff-meets-the-Brady-Bunch
bungalow in suburban L.A., where he hosts various events,
classes, and exhibitions, is not your usual art space.
anyway, i was looking at your website, i am including the salon (of boys)
in a paper i am giving in the UK in april, and i was thinking...you should
have— or at least consider - a *sundown salon* that focuses on fat gay
men and/or ugly gay men. have Twinkies by hostess not WeHo. have a
titi fucking contest! I think that would be a super *sundown salon* - and it
would counter-balance, REFUSE-RESIST, all the too-precious boys/bois
and pretty or handsome gay, male artists popping out of the wood-work.
it’s like there is an unspoken body-fascism in the art world, the gay world,
and beyond. one has to be too thin or too muscular and too cute to make
it ... indeed, where have all the fat men gone? camp? sad.
Humpy half-naked acrobats roaming around wearing alien
contact lenses doing aerial contortionisms on multiple levels
of a geodesic domed house, poetry readings about sucking
Russian soldier ass, a huge tapestry made out of jock straps
and football jerseys, a giant edible modernist sculpture, a live
acoustic folkie version of TLC’s hip hop classic “No Scrubs”?
It’s all just a bit odd, and that’s not even counting the video program, which you can imagine was not the kind of stuff you
might see at your local Blockbuster rental outlet.
If you don’t know them, Mogutin & Kenny are sort of a
fritz, i am sorry if this seems pushy, but i thought I would share this twinkling of an idea — my PhD dissertation hinges on failed bodies, waste,
ephemera, futility, the ex-orbita-nt (ex-out of, orbita-bounds, limits), etc;
for example is a main star and so is ron athey, FYI.
younger Gilbert & George (if Gilbert & George went to a gym,
made porno movies, and were into hip hop).
It’s really too bad my sister’s baby mama Vaginal Davis
couldn’t come on account of a supposed bout of “explosive di-
well, be well, thanks for having these great events, and i hope to go to
one again soon.
as ever,
robt
arrhea” because I know she would have appreciated the nuttiness of it all and, now is probably a good time to admit that I
and several other people spied on the guy who gave me a ride
having carnal relations in the bushes of the Sundown gardens.
People from other places may think NYC is weird too, but
PS: even though i am an art historian and critical theorist, i have been
making silk-screen Ts with fat-pride slogans: all Ts are pink and all the
fonts are in Hubba-Bubba fashion. the limited edition ones (3 in each
series) have diamond dust in the silk-screened letters - cost: $130
(sizes: S-XL) cost $30 for the new *FAT RETARDED WHORE* T-shirt
(American Apparel; sizes only L, XL; special request for S & M - add $5)
Proceeds go to G-PAC http://www.gpac.org
[160]
this caliber of happenings just doesn’t happen anywhere else
to date, except when Slava and Brian are in town and in effect
in a house with a geodesic dome and a garden at the end of a
suburban driveway in Mount Washington, California. Odd
Bless America.
BILLY MILLER
26
SUNDOWN BOOK SALON
05.20.06--06.02.06
EVENTS AND EXHIBITION AT: Southern Exposure, San Francisco
WITH BOOK DISCUSSION LEADERS: Kelsey Nicholson, Ted Purves, Andrew Wagner,
Eric Heiman, Sasha Petrenko, Dan Spencer, Marina Macdougall, Fiona Ryan
[161]
For the exhibition at Southern Exposure,
Sundown Salon pitches a geodesic dome tent,
echoing our Los Angeles geodesic dome
home-base. A slideshow of one hundreds of
images from Sundown Salon events in Los
the day. Tea is served.
For eight evenings
05.26.06 {Eric Heiman}
Everyman
by Philip Roth
during the run of the
exhibit the Sundown
05.27.06 {Sasha Petrenko}
Play It as It Lays
by Joan Didion
Book Salon meets
from 6:00–7:30pm.
circle on the cushioned
05.24.06 {Ted Purves}
Always Coming Home
by Ursula Le Guin
05.25.06 {Andrew Wagner}
Rats
by Robert Sullivan
Angeles is projected in the tent throughout
Participants sit in
05.23.06 {Kelsey Nicholson}
The Areas of My Expertise
by John Hodgman
Guests gather in the mobile Sundown Salon geodesic tent
for a discussion of Everyman lead by Eric Heiman.
[COURTNEY FINK]
floor of the tent. A different discussion leader
is invited for each evening. This person selects
the book to be read and moderates the discussion.
There is an open sign-up for each evening’s
book salon. The eight books are available for
reading in the tent between events.
[162]
05.30.06 {Dan Spencer}
Loft Living
by Sharon Zukin
06.01.06 {Marina Macdougall}
Inventing Kindergarten
by Norman Brosterman
06.03.06 {Fiona Ryan}
The Baader-Meinhoff Affair
by Erin Cosgrove
27
WHERE:
05.21.06
2:00–8:00 pm
ORGANIZED WITH: Amy Adler and the UCSD Fine Art MFA Program
PROJECTS BY: Seth Augustine, Author and Punisher, Derek Lomas, Julia Dzwonkoski & Kye Potter,
Sharon Levy, Deanna Erdmann, Nina Waisman, Alan Calpe, Dante Harper, Drawing Club,
Kate Hoffman, Steven Rubin, Iana Quesnell, Kate Wall, Zerek Kempf, Jocelyn Jacobs,
Tibora Bea Girczyc-Blum & Ed Porter, Mèlanie Badalato & Camilo Ontiveros, Joe Winter,
Mobile Toy Theater, Stephen Remington, Robert Twomey, Kelly Pendergrast, Evelyn Donnelly,
Caleb Waldorf, Eamon Ore-Giron & friends, Tristan Shone
[163]
where (‘hwer, ‘hwar, ‘wer) : an adverb used to ask
a question about the place somebody or something
is in, at, coming from, or going to
From: Kate Wall
Date: Tue May 09 13:22:29 2006
To: Fritz Haeg
Subject: Dome Painting
1. adv used to indicate the place in which something
is located or happens
2. adv used to ask questions about the purpose or
goal of something
3. adv in any situation in which
4. n used to refer to an unspecified place or event
(usually in the plural)
Hi Fritz,
I hope that scaffolding hasn’t been too obstructive in your
dome. Thanks again for letting us get into your space this
past weekend.
I was hoping to come up on Thursday to start painting but
there is a very good chance that I might have to stay in
S.D. for a couple of artist talk commitments. So, Saturday
might be the new day to start painting. Will you be
around in the morning? I am also
hoping to paint all day Sunday as
well. The other dates going forward
for working in the dome are the following Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday before the show.
This three-venue event, entitled “Where:” begins
in Tijuana at Luis Velasquez where artists complete
residencies in the months of March, April and May
2006. The residencies conclude
with a closing reception on May
13. The show then travels to Sundown Salon in Los Angeles for a
one-day event on Sunday, May
21st. The Salon includes performances, on-site installations and
other projects. Where: concludes
in San Francisco at Queen Nails
Annex in July 2006.
Thanks! I’m excited to start putting
paint up there.
Kate Wall paints each triangle of the dome a different
Proposals were accepted based
shade of blue. [FH]
on their inventive response to an
initial text, which included the following:
Best,
Kate
From: Nina Waisman
Date: Mon May 15 10:12:55 2006
To: Fritz Haeg
Subject: Re: coming to test-install on monday or tuesday
this coming week?
The goal is to design a homogenous space in which a
beginning, middle and end converge to form a show
that addresses temporality and the construction of experience through anticipation and memory.
Hi Fritz So tomorrow (Tuesday) would be great - guessing we’d
[164]
get there around 3pm. Would it be
cool if we work till 6:30 or 7, or do
you need us out earlier?
Will be testing some large speakers for the stairs - if sound is good
can I leave them there, wired?
Each one is 14” square (footprint)
by 31” high — will put one on/
near top and bottom landings of
staircase, and one or two in the
kitchen near that landing... as well
as an amplifier in the laundry room.
Salon Memory
The light is palpable, like being at a 50’s drive-in while a sci-fi movie is playing. There
are aliens among us and they feel right at home. A fluxing glow emanates from some
kind of hovering creature, a subterranean mountain range dusted with colored snow.
My “chandelier” resembles a flamboyant deep-sea crustacean at a party. Bulbs
of all types dangle from its octopus form: frosted bunny tails, green traffic toy lights,
crystalline prismatic nightlights, and lots of flickering electric candles. It embodies
a vitality greater than its components. Hovering about 9 feet up, it is a messy bundle
of cloth, plaster, wire, paint, and electrical cords that stick-out everywhere. Delicate
gold chains drip down from the ceiling through its body, lace about its arms, and
mix with translucent green fabric diamonds (that look like a child’s dragon costume)
before spilling on the floor below. On one side opens a glittery orifice: a bundle of
Or if those locations will bother
paperclips bent into a pile of rainbow tinsel armor. It flickers up on the stage, a funny
you during the week, can I just
special effect. Ready for performers to turn on spot bulbs to light their performance
stash the speakers/amplifier elsewith this lo-tech organism.
where in the house and re-inThe first performer is vocal athlete Chris Tonelli. He hangs his jaw below the
stall/wire them Saturday...
light and moans and siphons off incarnations of primordial splashing, windy plains,
old man sneeze, and a baby laugh amidst a wave of humpback
whale sighs. Surprisingly, all sounds come from his mouth. He is an
Thanks!
ineffable storyteller.
nina
Next, the GO-Duo (Guy Obrecht, Chris Tonelli, with Charlie
Wilmoth on viola) performs familiar pop songs (Hey-ya by OutKast, Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash, Californication by Red Hot Chili
Peppers, Nothing Compares to You by Sinead O’Connor) as folk
songs. They expose the lyrics by giving them more weight and
time. Songs like “nothing compares to you” end up sounding like
a sweet lunatics obsession. Guy pays homage, each syllable resting heavy and disparate, as Chris accompanies, fluctuating between throat-singing and falsetto. Amidst this rhythmic and vocal
Vocal performances under Evelyn Donnelly’s
disorientation, one feels a familiar empathy. At this Sundown Salon,
“chandelier” in the cave. [FH]
the country classic, Ring of Fire, bears witness to Chris T. burning
alive as children in the audience scream along.
Overall the experience is touching, funny, and eye-opening. The emotional anthems of our culture are laid bare. Familiar objects have a peculiar vitality, our place
in the universe, illuminated by extraterrestrials.
EVELYN DONNELLY
[165]
WE WERE THERE
by Amy Adler
The truck from UCSD arrived and a whole group tried carry- into a “beefcake” model. Nearby in the downstairs bathroom
ing Joe Winter’s iceberg up the stairs to be placed, eventually an eerie green light could be seen coming from inside. The
in the pond. It must have melted because I never saw it again. source was the freshly faux finished fluorescent and lime colJulia Dzwonkoski was sitting peacefully downstairs drawing, ored interior courtesy of Deanna Erdman who had spent at
as if there was no commotion going on around her at all. Her least a week in there painting the tiny room in a faux wood findrawings were of photos taken at the Sundown house one ish. Next-door was Sharon Levy’s alley slash forest, a hidden
New Year’s eve when Fritz was out of town. Ap- AMY ADLER studied at Cooper away scene where something bad may once
parently a wild party ensued that was revealed Union and received an MFA from have happened or was yet to happen. Alan
to Fritz only by Julia’s drawings. Evelyn Don- UCLA. Her work combines drawing, Calpe took full advantage of the hidden bedphotography and performance. She
nelly was hanging her rainbow monster tenta- has had solo shows at the MCA Los room, projecting a video from within onto the
cle chandelier, which would later provide Angeles, MCA San Diego and Aspen hole and into the cave. At the base of the stairs
Art Museum as well as galleries
lighting for an evening of music and perform- worldwide. Her project, “Amy Adler Derek Lomas had installed a surveillance sysance including Author and Punisher (Tristan Photographs Leonardo DiCaprio,” tem whereby the entire activities of the dome
Shone), Caleb Waldorf and Los Cremators to was shown at the Photographers could be witnessed from below. Heading up
Gallery in London and the Hammer
name a few. Kate Hoffman’s lollipops appeared Museum in L.A. Twin Palms released the stairs one could hear the ghost like pattern
at a certain moment and turned the kitchen Amy Adler Young Photographer in of feet—Nina Waisman had rigged the stairs so
2005. Amy is Associate Professor of
every time anyone stepped on it Fritz’s prewindows into sugary stained glass. All day peo- Visual Art at UC San Diego.
recorded steps would cascade up and down
ple, including Steve Fagin himself, could be
seen sucking on these shards of colored candy that were the giant spiral staircase. Nina, the mad electrician, had been
molded from the inside of Kate’s mouth. Meanwhile, Seth Au- winding a labyrinth of wires up the stairs in the preceding
gustine was in the garage pumping iron and giving one on days. Scott Horsely could be seen wandering around tending
one personal training sessions. Gym music played and the the drawing stations, courtesy of the Drawing Club. Scott had
garage was transformed into a private fitness facility. He had made handkerchiefs that could be worn once a drawing was
spent a year transforming his pudgy twenty something self completed in the allocated locations. I saw Ian Patrick drawing
[166]
and Sara Hunsucker, among others. In the bathroom up- enough to accomodate two people inside. He proceeded to
stairs Steven Rubin installed a crowd-pleasing video of dogs invite people in where he would then ask the person to take
being treated by a canine massage therapist. The door off their shirt so he could photograph them. From the outwould close for long periods of time and chuckling could be side half naked bodies could be seen through a fuzzy white
heard inside. Outside was a giant cross and behind it a ban- haze. Looking up at the dome one saw that it was wrapped
ner that read “Becoming Christ,” Jocelyn Jacobs, who had in gauze, like a giant head wound that had been roughly
placed them there, was seen in little photographs of her half tended to. Zerek Kempf (one of the Salon’s chief organizers
naked body on the cross. The photos could be pocketed along with Shannon Spanhake) had wrapped the dome
and taken along down the path. On the left, in the little tightly for the occasion. On the balcony Kelly Pendergrast
had tied a swarm of people toslanted grassy patch, Ed Porter
gether by a thick red band, they
and Tibora Girczyc-Blum’s founwere trying to walk the length of
tain of plastic tchockes from Tideck but were bound to each
juana tried in vain to gurgle,
other
and so the mass just
soothe and please though it
shifted awkwardly around. On
appeared to be a battle for its
the other end of the deck Emiko
makers. Crowds congregated
Lewis stood inside a small box.
on the terraced oval under the
Her face was painted white and
walnut tree where Camilo Onshe wore a kimono, this was not
tiveros and Melanie Baudalato
Emiko anymore but rather Barhad set up shop. They were takbie’s Princess of Japan, a pering articles of people’s clothing
A drawing of Sundown Drive by Iana Quesnell.
formance put on by The Mobile
and then returning them someToy Theater. Emiko took her
what altered. I now have a purple flower hastily but perfectly sewn on my blue jacket. stance in the box throughout the day, a stoic doll in a toy
Later everyone vacated the area for Robert Twomey’s per- store display. Circling inside Iana Quesnell was found drawformance. Sitting in front of a small fatigue green tent Robert, ing at the long work table in the dome. Iana had spent
looking very GI Joe, proceeded to lick and “blow” a sizable weeks in advance surveying the area and her kaleidoscopic
revolver. This was the only time all day everyone was silent rendering of the dome and its surroundings could be seen
and singularly attentive. Up the path Joe Winter had rigged evolving as the day progressed. A blue hue was cast from
the pond so that every few minutes the sound of a sinking the newly painted ceiling above. Kate Wall had spent weeks
ocean liner would fill the area. Tranquil lily pads were the on a scaffolding painting the individual triangles of the
setting for this imagined shipwreck. Across from him dome’s interior side. Each triangle was painted and numStephen Remington had sewn a giant balloon out of translu- bered a different shade of blue that corresponded to phocent white parachute cloth. He covered the entire “grassy tographs of the New York sky taken the summer before. The
knoll” and inflated the balloon which was just large enough installation, entitled, “My Last Summer in New York” reto encase the small plum tree on the knoll and just large mains permanently on view in the dome.
[167]
28
THE YOUNG ONES
06.18.06
(Father’s Day)
2:00–6:00 pm
Joyce Campbell & Iris Regn
PROJECTS BY PARENTS: Joyce Campbell, Jo Anna Granovetter, Katrin Jurati,
Soo Kim and Michael Worthington, Rebecca Niederlander, Laura Purdy, Durfee| Regn,
Adrian Rivas, Diana Sieradski, Nick Taggart & Laura Cooper, Jane Tsong
SPECIAL BOOK PROJECT: Mark A. Rodriguez
ORGANIZED WITH:
[168]
Fro m: Fritz Haeg
Fro m: Mark Rodriguez
On Apr 4, 2006, at 10:20 PM, fritz haeg wrote:
To: Sundown Salon
To: Childrens Salon Group
Date: Tue Jun 13 21:36:12 2006
You are invited to participate in Sundown Salon #29: “The Young Ones”
Subject: idea art for kids
Sunday, June 18th (Father’s day) from 2-6pm
Hi Fritz, or to whomever it may concern,
We are inviting local families involved in the arts with children from about
I have just recently located myself in Los
1 - 6 years old to be involved in this upcoming event. The salon will provide an
opportunity to reconsider what art, entertainment, performance and recreation
for children could be.
Angeles, and was planning on contacting
you sooner or later to possibly look at
the wonderful place you have created.
Having just looked at your web site,
We would like to consider some personal and site-specific alternatives to the
after about two years of neglect, i real-
As a social event this will also put
time to come up, down, east, west, etc. to
television, dvd’s and mass-produced toys that most children grow up with today.
ize this weekend would be the perfect
families in touch with new friends,
visit.
You have been invited to contribute
my lesson planner teaching children con-
peers and other parents.
I am looking for places to show and sell
by proposing a project (be it simple
ceptual art (an ongoing project that was
or ambitious, small or large, a song,
started a year and a half ago who’s first
performance, food, toy, music,
lesson planner).
environment, activity, screening,
installment takes the manifestation of a
dance...) to offer for the afternoon
at the Sundown house and gardens.
I was thinking that this would be a per-
Some young ones get ready for a visit to the
mud pit. [IRIS REGN]
fect fit for your young ones Sundown
and cakes at the Sundown house THIS Saturday, April 8th from 3-5 to meet
somewhere, or maybe just come up to
if you could come on that day with a rough idea of the project or contribution
if this is possible, and if it is a bit too
Hope to see you this Saturday....
time in the future.
We will be gathering over coffee
each other, check out the spaces and start thinking of plans. It would be great
you are considering.
salon, and that perhaps I could be fit in
see what I can see. Please let me know
late to enquire, perhaps there is a better
Best
Sincerely,
Fritz Haeg
Mark A. Rodriguez
Joyce Campbell
Iris Regn
[169]
Projects
Idea Art for Kids
by Mark A. Rodriguez
Me as You
This is a lesson planner providing a set of interesting and en-
by Soo Kim and Michael Worthington
Kids’ faces are photographed, printed onto card, and cut out to
gaging projects to help kids interact with some current working
methods of contemporary artists. The plans are based on works
make masks to wear and exchange with others. The image is
made by performance, project-based, interventionist, and con-
their mask, leave them alone, or swap identities disguising
for the past 40 years. Some of the lessons are adapted proj-
sized to match the child’s head, and he or she can decorate
themselves as someone else.
Labor of Love Archive
by Joyce Campbell
Objects or collections of objects that
ceptual artists who have been working in the field of fine art
ects from previous artists projects, while others were gener-
ated from an interest in developing art education that runs
parallel to contemporary art movements and practices. Idea Art
For Kids is the first installment of many lesson planners to come.
have been made or gathered by partic-
Mud People
them) for their child are collected and
Pools of mud for kids to play in...
by Adrian Rivas
ipating parents (or someone close to
displayed in the dome. Excess, labor,
repetition, elaborate attention to detail,
Tiny Architecture 2006
ativity are of special interest.
This four-screen video installation
by Laura Purdy
“projects,” objects that (re)direct cre-
explores the space between breast-
Playhouse
feeding, mid-century architecture,
by Nick Taggart & Laura Cooper
Colorful fabric, sheets and blankets are
deployed to create a vast fort under
the Black Walnut tree in the Sundown Garden.
Tree Harps
by Jane Tsong
Trees in the Sundown Gardens are strung with
wire and played like harps.
Fighter-plane Breastfeeding Nook
by Katrin Jurati
A special space is provided for moms.
and the two female forces on either
A tired salon attendee at the end of the day. [FH]
side of the glass house: Mother and
Mother Nature.
Homefield
by Durfee|Regn
Small houses made of wood and rubberized plastic are placed
around the garden to be discovered and examined by roving
children visitors. Each house can be engaged at two scales,
either at the projected dimensions of imaginary play (take
away play people and animals are provided) or as full scale
objects that provide some sort of function (like a stool) or
effect (like a kaleidoscope).
[170]
Salon Memory
Growing Toy
by Diana Sieradski
As organizers of this event, and as creative parents,
This project began when my friends started having babies.
the most striking, persistent, and universal conversation
transforming itself differently with each stage of interaction
stretched and compressed time. It took two years to
I wanted to create a child’s toy that grew with the child,
we encountered was about Time; precious, fractured,
from infant to youngster.
organize a single afternoon gathering of families and
art under the trees in the Sundown gardens; two years
Tree Mobiles
in which a group of artists architects and musicians
Two hanging copper wire tree mobiles are hung from the
into a degree of autonomy that allowed for the luxury
by Rebecca Niederlander
had ushered their offspring through toddlerhood and
ceiling of the cave. They elevate trees, rocks and leaves to
of self reflection on the process of parenthood.
protagonist.
That parents who are also artists and often teachers,
students or professionals have eeked out just about
JOYCE CAMPBELL, a lecturer at
The University of Auckland Elam
School of Fine Arts, works in photography, sculpture, film and video
installation. In 2006 Joyce traveled to the Ross Sea region of
Antarctica where she shot large
format negatives and Daguerreotypes, an archaic and exquisite
form of photography that predates
Antarctic exploration. Joyce and
her family divide their time between Los Angeles and Auckland.
JANE TSONG AND ROBERT
POWERS’ Comfy City Chairs,
carved out of abandoned stumps,
are sprinkled throughout Northeast
L.A. Jane is working on a permanent piece for the Brightwater
Wastewater Treatment Plant in
Seattle. Her map of the Los Angeles
water cycle appears in “An Atlas of
Radical Cartography.”
LAURA PURDY is a film and video
artist and mother of two living in
Los Angeles.
SOO KIM AND MICHAEL WORTHINGTON are parents of 2 1/2 year
old Chaerim. Soo is an artist and
teaches at Otis. Michael is a graphic
designer and teaches at Calarts.
enough time for their babies and their fragile careers,
but have almost nothing left for anything else should
have come as no surprise. We all love the idea of bring-
ing our creativity into conversation with our parent-
hood but we often struggle to actualize and celebrate
the coincidence of the two worlds. That we did even-
tually manage to do so and that the day we put to-
gether for each other and our kids was in the end so
relaxing and uncomplicated spoke of how well we un-
derstand each other’s messy and joyous lives. Welcome
to the club.
JOYCE CAMPBELL AND IRIS REGN
IRIS ANNA REGN AND TIM DURFEE are the parents of the 3 3/4
year old Milla Durfee. Iris and Tim
are also partners in Durfee | Regn,
an interdisciplinary architecture
studio in downtown Los Angeles.
DIANA SIERADSKI is a mother, a
teacher, a designer and an artist.
[171]
MARK A. RODRIGUEZ is a freelance teacher, artist, and archivist.
He moved to Los Angeles in 2006
and participated in the first season
of Sundown Schoolhouse.
29
DANCING CONVENTION
07.09.06
4:00–9:00 pm
ORGANIZED WITH: Flora Wiegmann
PERFORMANCES BY: Collective Static including: Katie Bachler, Madeline Baugh, Lake Sharp,
Aubrey White & Megan Yellott, Mirror Phase including: Bobbi Woods, Samantha Magowen & Natascha
Snellman, Modern Garage Movement (including: Felicia Ballos, Reba Brooks, Jbird Leary & Erin
Sylvester, Nancy Popp, Lake Sharp & Sissy Boyd), Rae shao-lan Blum, Kimberly Varella
VIDEOS BY: Emilie Halpern, Marianne Kim, Alix Lambert, My Barbarian,
robbinschilds, Margo Victor, Sarah White
[172]
Dear {Dancing Convention participant},
We would like to invite you to contribute or participate in the next Sundown Salon. It will be on Sunday April, 30th and all about dance. The
event will be divided up into three sections. As people arrive they will
be engaged in movement exercises, workshops and colFLORA WIEGMANN earned an
lective dance activities led by invited participants. This
MFA in performance from U.C.L.A.,
researching the relationship bewill be followed by a series of dance performances staged
tween visual art and performance.
Collaborative partners have inthroughout the house and gardens. As the sun sets, a secluded Felicia Ballos, Drew Heitries of dance videos will be projected in the dome.
zler, Walead Beshty, Andrea Zittel,
Margo Victor, and Alix Lambert.
Recent performances include sitespecific work at High Desert Test
Sites, The Happy Lion in Los Angeles and Space 102 in Grenoble,
France. Exhibitions include Black
Noise at ArtBasel and Connect the
Dots at Columbia University. She
co-founded Champion Fine Art,
which operated from 2003 to 2005.
She has taught at Sundown Schoolhouse and the MFA program at
University of Southern California.
Let us know if there is a performance you would want to
stage, a group movement activity you want to lead or a
video you would like to screen (especially for those we are
inviting from outside of Los Angeles). The house and gardens consist of a cave-like lower level with a natural stage
that is well suited for performance, a geodesic dome on
top and various outdoor garden spaces. We will be having
a gathering on Sunday, April 9th from 3-5pm for participants to check out the spaces, to meet each other and RAE SHAO-LAN BLUM gave her
first solo performance in 1997 in
discuss the event.
If possible, let us know by this Friday if 1) you would like
to participate 2) if you will be able to join us on April 9th
and 3) if there are others that you think we should be inviting to be involved in this upcoming salon.
We look forward to hearing from you,
Flora Weigmann & Fritz Haeg
[173]
New York City. It was staged in a
black box amidst the bustle of
pedestrians in Times Square. She
has danced with independent choreographers and companies such as
Susan Marshall and Company,
Janis Brenner and Dancers and
Tanz Theater Darmstadt. She has
lead community workshops in integrated-ability dance with Dance
First. Her movement background
has influences from Chinese opera
to sports. She trained at the Alvin
Ailey School of American Dance
and the Limon Institute.
From: felicia ballos
to tell you a little more about what we will be doing in addition to what jbird
Date: Thu Jun 08 11:58:22 2006
has on the website, we are in the process of reconstructing a dance that she
To: fritz haeg
had made a few years ago. we are actually just using it as a framework that
Subject: RE: sundown salon #28 / dance.......... / july 9th
is being flushed out and made new again and then fitting it into all of the
strange places we will be. we are focusing on developing the imagination and
hey there fritz,
using that in a non linear narrative form. haruki murakami is a big favorite
here though a bit more literal. specifically how our piece will fit into the salon,
looks like we will be coming to do the salon! i will be in the middle of a tour
that we will figure out. that’s basically what we are doing throughout our tour
with Modern Garage Movement. this is a project led by Jbird Leary and also
since we won’t be performing in any traditional spaces. we were thinking we
includes Rebecca Brooks and Erin Sylvester. at the time of the salon we will
will most likely be talking our plan through on some long drive we have a few
be in Seattle and we have decided to fly over
days before....and maybe catch that conver-
your way to be a part of your project.
sation on video that we may show at the salon
somewhere else during our performance. (?)
for ourselves we will have some sort of codified warm-up and ways to explore on our tour.
i had written flora throwing out the idea of
would you still be interested in someone
inviting anyone into our warm up who would
teaching a class? maybe people would be in-
like to join. it lasts somewhere around an hour
terested in doing our thing with us? let me
and you don’t have to be a dancer to do it at
know what you think.
all. we are still in the process of developing,
but it is all based in alexander/release work
best,
with the milder t’ai chi like exercises used in
Felicia
kung fu. it makes me incredibly open and
The dancers of Modern Garage Movement start to
warm up in the Sundown Garage. [SAM GORDON]
sensitive physically and as well as grounded,
strong, and energized. we like it so far.
From: felicia ballos
if you have a moment, could you explain to me the physical possibilities of your
Date: Mon Jun 12 08:41:01 2006
space? are we able to use the gardens? (the warm up may be nice to do on real
To: fritz haeg
earth) what is the relationship between the cave (this is where you ideally show
Subject: RE: oops....RE: sundown salon #28 / dance.......... / july 9th
video, yes?) and what is more the performative space? if you think this is better
to be figured out by us being there, then that is fine, too. just thinking it would
hi fritz,
be good to have something to go on when we are having our meeting in the car...
super super about getting to you from the airport and the place to stay and
how easy you are making this by helping. i will get you our flight info as soon
i think this will be the only giant email you will get from me like this.
as we actually purchase the tickets. we are incredibly excited to be included
don’t worry. looking forward to all of this....
in the salon, thank you for having us! as for the facts that you have requested....i think the easiest way for you to get most of that information is to
thanks again,
go to: www.myspace.com/moderngaragemovement.
Felicia
[174]
PERFORMANCES
Oracle Bone: an Improvisational Dance
Maynard
Rae Shao-Lan Blum
Modern Garage Movement
The movement tells the story of how a primitive version of the Chinese lan-
Performed by Jbird Leary, Reba Brooks, Erin Sylvester and Felicia Ballos.
guage was discovered completely by chance when a scholar fell ill, a
Maynard is flowers in the attic relegated to the garage. Created out of bore-
metaphor for the possibility of discovery when slowing down.
dom and in their free time of three weeks together during the icy beautiful
San Francisco summer ‘05, bicoastal dancers (Brook-
Bowls
lyn - San Francisco) Jbird Leary, Erin Sylvester and
Lake Sharp & Sissy Boyd
Biba Bell simply made a dance, in the garage of Jbird’s
A movement-based theater piece performed in the
stepfather. It was the first MGM dance. The one-car
dome. Written by Wes Walker.
garage set in the fancy house in the fancy neighborhood was the perfect original theater, the perfect re-
A Dance in the Garden
hearsal room. Modern Garage Movement is a set of
Collective Static
dances by Jbird Leary, made and performed in garages.
Beginning as stationary individuals positioned through-
People walked by and wondered what was going on.
out the garden, they collect themselves to create the
movements and sounds of garden and perhaps a few
that are terribly out of place.
Beyond Geodesic Dome
Mirror Phase
Music and movement at the end of the day is lead by the
Mirror phase ladies.
Drip_Dance_Disappear
“What are those girls doing?” Maynard is all about the
Samantha Magowen and Natascha Snellman
of Mirror Phase DJ in the dome. [FH]
MIRROR PHASE. They’re ravenous. They’re ruthless. They live in a
strictly hierarchical, alpha-dog, eator-be-eaten world. No, it’s not a
rerun of Wild America; it’s the world
of Mirror Phase! A playful trio consisting of Bobbi Woods, Samantha
Magowen and Natascha Snellman.
permanent rainbow and the possibility of imagination.
The costumes, lights, music and movement appear out
of nowhere to shift from color into next-door color. The
music, designed by Lani Rowe, is entirely based on the
structure, meaning, and significance of “Somewhere Over
The Rainbow,” the song that almost didn’t make it into that
famous movie. Someone saved it. Thank Fucking God!
“Way high up, there’s a land I heard of...” Fantasy doesn’t
need to make sense.
Nancy Popp
adjacent trees where their drip lines overlap. Visitors move inside the dense
Germain Waters &
The Peoples Mix in the Garage
foliage and dance with the leaves.
Modern Garage Movement
Leaves gathered from the garden are strung and hung from the branches of
The Peoples Mix… It’s sexy to be old. What happens when you have gray
Bellydancing
hair and sagging titties? Don’t know yet? What happens when you’ve lived
Kimberly Varella
a whole lifetime and are still living? It’s a reggeaton sound score mixed by
Making a dramatic entrance into the dome dressed in shimmering layers
Jbird. These girls just love to dance!
of iridescent blues that echo the blues of the dome, Kimberly thrills the
crowd with her expressive and seductive movements.
[175]
VIDEOS
C.L.U.E. {Color Location Ultimate Experience}
Solar Kiss, Luna Kiss,
Disappearing Act,
and Magicienne
A.L. Steiner and Robbinschilds with AJ Blandford Music by Kinski
Emilie Halpern
C.L.U.E. embodies a poignant freedom in the unification of humanity and
C.L.U.E. is a movement-based video collaboration which uses original choreographed language to explore the natural and human-made landscape.
the vast natural world, juxtaposed against the contemporary tendency toward
Interference
consumerism, waste and disposable architecture. Traveling through cities,
Sarah White
deserts, hills and forests, robbinschilds and Steiner interpret various land-
choreographed with Lindsey Karr
scapes expressed through the iteration of geology: salt flats, high desert, red-
performed with Jonathan Bastiani
wood forests, rocky beaches, dry river basins, vast parking lots, suburban
edited by Dan Dobransky
swimming pools, green lawns and malls. Exploring the distinctive partnership created within a framework of the choreographed and filmic collabora-
Driveby
Marianne Kim
Icarus
Alix Lambert
Peasants of Mind
My Barbarian
Video
Margo Victor
ROBBINSCHILDS was formed by
Sonya Robbins and Layla Childs in
2003 to present time-based works
exploring architecture and human
movement. Recent performances
include: “Are you there G—D? It’s
me, Heavy Meta.” at the Kitchen
and Laugh Dance, a collaboration
with Japanther, presented by The
Ballroom in Marfa, Texas. robbinschilds’ videos have been exhibited
at LACE: Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and the BAM Next
Wave series. They choreographed
Chicks on Speed’s 30-minute video
Visitors, and a rock opera that premiered at Performa 07 in New York.
COLLECTIVE STATIC is a random
grouping of voluntary particles: in
this case, a dance. Collective static
creates movement in response to
the space in which it finds itself.
The members include Meagan Yellott, Lake Sharp, Madeline Baugh,
Aubrey White, and Katie Bachler.
tion, a bond is created through which shared experience is symbiotic with
surrounding environments. robbinschilds is repeatedly reincarnated, making
their path across landscape and implementing secret passages between the
geographical and historical distance. Emerging from the ocean into the mall,
falling through office parks into the deserts, this first installation of the video
project references the grand trope of the road trip while subverting familiar
experience. C.L.U.E. is the gateway to experiencing the ultimate in any surrounding. A living collective organ, molten, expanding and contracting as it
responds to it’s immediate environment. Curious and open. Red, orange, yellow, forest, aqua, royal, majestic and purple.
NANCY POPP works with performance, video and photography to investigate the body and its identities
in relation to place and landscape.
She has shown at the Art Institute
of Chicago, the Armory Center for
the Arts, the University of Redlands,
Highways Performance Space, the
18th Street Arts Center, New Town
and at public places throughout California. She also performs with Corpus Delecti’s Butoh Performance
Lab and the L.A. Art Girls.
[176]
EMILIE HALPERN works with
photography, video, sculpture and
slide installations. She renders
frankly sentimental themes like
distance and longing with evolving
complexity. Born in Paris, Emilie
received a BA from UCLA and an
MFA from Art Center College of
Design. She has exhibited at Anna
Helwing Gallery in Los Angeles;
Tina Kim Fine Art in New York; and
Galeria ArteVeintiuno in Madrid.
Salon Memory
On July 9, 2006, we took to the garden to laugh and create space for in-
movement
known, at the time, as Collective Static and took the shapes of five ladies
teraction, for questioning, for participating with other artists. We were
in a city
who got together simply to make dances. We called on the trees and re-
in a plant sprung between sidewalk and street
called the absurdity of language. Not demanding, but co-existing, we
in a garden dug
created new. We specified our bodies. We invited laughter. We wore
behind a dome.
spring dresses in various shades of green. We explored like small girls but
in a dance
carried a keen and seasoned awareness of our context in a city—body
set upon a hill.
city. We organized many parts into one. Like a seedpod, we clumped.
Bodies in a city, movement in a series. How we see the space around us.
This salon was important to our future as a healthy and functioning
We build cities with our bodies to prove the body-ness of cities, all of our
democracy. Creatively, the process of designing and building this dance
selves folded differently, reacting to pulses in vibrations and space and
both awakened and solidified our trajectory as a site-specific troupe. The
each other. The way we re-member places as spaces of contact, spaces
motion of dancemaking reminded us all that we are engaged in mecha-
of flows, all of our in-betweens in the movement of the moment of toes
nisms of movement through geographies and time. The outdoors offered
to pavement, or bodies pulled by gravity, forced to acknowledge the ma-
a space for us to approach the performance carelessly—to connect vo-
terials surrounding, the fabric of the
cally, to unite in youth’s freedom.
city rubbing against us stained now,
We embodied the joy of a girl-
through impressions.
woman’s silly poem. Our reckless
The dome and garden in Mount
and clapping games to our heads,
femininity brought nursery rhymes
Washington are a hilltop gem. A ruby
the
cut round on an heirloom ring. The
through which girls explore swear
garden floats, multileveled, above
words, the sounds of their voices,
the original paint-by-numbers L.A.
suburb, inside a web of freeways
Collective Static aka Body City performing in the garden as the sun goes down. [FH]
coursing up and out of view over the
same
games
and
rhymes
and sexuality. And with these
rhythms in our heads, our limbs
flailed and our flesh jiggled about to
hills. To move a toe within this space is to reference a lasagna of layered
our delight. Upset with humor, still, we bounced with the lightness of
meanderings about city, garden, urbanism, space and the people that in-
the country. Who is Miss Mary Mack? And why do we all remember?
habit it. To dance as light as a feather, up on the top. Inklings and sensations, but not plain words, are housed here. What else was there to say
Since this performance, we have explored other cities and other gardens
besides “silver buttons all down her back?” Where else was there for us
and, as we jaunt through those places, we continue to refer to our expe-
to perch beside trees and stonewalls, for our limbs to mold to the se-
rience on the hill at the dome as a cornerstone of our practice. we have
crecy of plants, beckoning us to imagine future sites? The garden makes
built dances all over this and other cities. the garden remains the most
bodies want to know where we are now, how to make you too be a part
domestic of our sites, the most true to the wildness of Los Angeles, the
of the interaction, to flail towards future mountains, reminiscent of pasts
truth under the city...
and places…
BODY CITY
[177]
30
HUMANS WERE HERE!
BUILDING IN L.A.
09.10.06
Institute for Contemporary Arts at
California College of Art, San Francisco Larry Rinder, director 09.12.06–11.11.06
FEATURING THE ARCHITECTS: Bestor Architecture, Escher Gunewardena, Fritz Haeg Studio,
Francois Perrin, Alexis Rochas, Taalman Koch Architecture
PERFORMANCES BY: Bedrooom Walls, Kelly and David, New Energy Dark Consort of Musicke
NEWSPAPER WITH: Megan Carey, editor, Carlo Flores, graphic designer
DOCUMENTARY BY: Nils Timm
IN CONJUNCTION WITH: The Wattis
[178]
THE LAST SUNDOWN SALON
September 10th, 2006, 3:30–7:30pm
KELLY AND DAVID’s collaboration has evolved over a decade in
the forms of live bands, sound installations, film scores, and in a full
length album of original songs, the
Twilight Auguries. Both honed
their chops playing in country and
early American music idioms; Kelly
presently plays guitar in Triple
Chicken Foot, an old-time string
band and David was a member of
country-rock group CB Brand.
4:00 PM
BEDROOOM WALLS played the very first salon in the cave in 2001,
for the last salon they play from the comfort of a queen size bed up in
the dome.
6:00 PM
KELLY AND DAVID roam around throughout the afternoon, pleasuring
us with their music. They have tea with a mouse, witness a standoff
between a wolf and a coyote, learn spells from a
shapeshifter, and a sometime lover reveals himself
to them as the Devil.
7:00 PM
NEW ENERGY DARK CONSORT OF MUSICKE
performs a timed duration of organ, flute, and slow
movement. (featuring members of the West Coast
Encounter Group, Red Krayola, Whale Folk, and
Far West New Energy Family Band)
Kelly and David perform “Sundown”
by Gordon Lightfoot. [FH]
KELLY MARIE MARTIN is an
artist, musician and avid cyclist
based in L.A. She received an MFA
from the University of California,
Irvine. You can find her wrenching
at the Bicycle Kitchen’s ladies night,
Bicycle Bitchen, composing songs
and sounds with David Jones. They
premiered their folk-rock opera,
Contraption Spell at the Redcats’s
NOW Festival, in Los Angeles.
SCREENED CONTINUOUSLY
HUMANS WERE HERE! (Building in L.A.) the video Documentary by
filmmaker Nils Timm is presented for the first time. Along with the companion newspaper, they tell the story of the current work and life of six
diverse eastside L.A. architecture and design practices. Each present one
project currently under construction or recently completed, exploring
their relationship to the geography and community of the city they call
home, and how that has affected the projects they build. They provide a
behind-the-scenes glimpse of how they meet with clients, contractors,
and consultants to get a project built. The presentation attempts to reveal
the human stories behind the work. In contrast to the slick, homogenized
portrayal of architecture made to elicit desire and envy, this reveals the
messy truths of construction for today’s designers and architects.
[179]
I can see her lying back in her satin dress
In a room where you do what you don’t confess
Sundown you better take care
If I find you’ve been creeping round my back stairs
—by Gordon Lightfoot
From: fritz haeg
From: fritz haeg
Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 3:18 AM
Date: Wed Jun 28 10:00:52 2006
To: ‘barbara bestor’; ‘Linda Taalman’; ‘Alan Koch’; ‘François Perrin’;
To: “‘Ravi Gunewardena’; ‘Linda Taalman’; ‘barbara bestor’; ‘Alan
‘Ravi Gunewardena’; ‘Frank Escher’; ‘alexis rochas’
Koch’; ‘François Perrin’; ‘Frank Escher’; ‘alexis rochas’”
Subject: east side architects who are building / last sundown salon event
Subject: RE: east side architects who are building / last sundown salon
/ meeting?
event / meeting?
hi alan, alexis, barbara, francois. frank, linda & ravi,
hi all,
after 5 years the last sundown salon event will be in august. (after that
ravi, frank & i happened to have dinner w/ larry rinder (former whitney
the house & sundown salon will become a one day a week schoolhouse
curator, now director of grad programs at cca in san fran) last nite. in
in the fall....but more on that later...) i was thinking that it would be re-
talking about our idea for the 6 eastside l.a. architects show/event he
ally great to have you all be the focus of the event, as my respected
mentioned that lebbeus woods had just pulled out of a scheduled show
peers, as eastside l.a. architects who are really building.
for the fall at the wattis institute. http://www.wattis.org & he would be
interested in having our show go up there after the day at the dome. i
i was thinking that the centerpiece for the day’s event would be a casual
think it would be good to meet sooner to start discussing this possibility
display of photos, plans, models & material samples of a selection of
in addition to our other plans. could people meet next wed. evening july
your projects under construction and recently completed. it could be less
5th? (or else monday, july 3rd?) x f
a formal exhibit & more like the contents of your desk/studio were temporarily displaced. (also, i like the idea of keeping it ‘unplugged’, no
From: fritz haeg
computer stuff) i have recently moved my studio downstairs, so the
Date: Fri Jul 07 17:17:29 2006
dome is totally empty & would be a great place to stage this i think.
To: “‘Ravi Gunewardena’; ‘François Perrin’; ‘Frank Escher’; ‘Linda
Taalman’; ‘Alan Koch’; ‘alexis rochas’; ‘barbara bestor’”
Subject: Humans Were Here! (L.A. Architects Build)
i would also invite each of you to select/curate/invite/stage a performative event for that afternoon. could be a reading, musical performance,
dance, play by a friend, acquaintance, or someone you’ve always wanted
an excuse to contact.....what ever currently inspires you in some way.
hi all,
just talked to larry, they are into the idea & ready to go ahead.
the way the show is now organized, it should require very minimal work
the events are on sunday afternoons, and august 27th seems to be one of the
from you all: a) any contribution you want to make to the ‘Humans Were
few dates that would work, as i will be gone most of the rest of the month.
Here’ newspaper b) a disk of support material, photos, images of draw-
sooooooooooo, let me know what you all think of this! if you are all in-
s.f. at some point during the show for a lecture d) a day or two with a
ings, etc that could be edited into the documentary video c) a visit up to
terested, perhaps we could set up a meeting in the dome sometime soon?
videograher following you around for meetings, site visits, etc. i’m
thinking of the title ‘Humans Were Here! (Building in L.A.)’. thoughts? i
best regards,
am meeting with a few young film makers, videographers about the
fritz
video project this weekend & hope to have someone lined up by the beginning of the week.
thanks! f
[180]
{from the exhibition newspaper}
HUMANS WERE HERE
By Fritz Haeg
Around the time that we were starting to organize this architecture show,
redraw, revise and reconfigure our designs ad infinitum with complete ac-
I heard an interview on the radio with the members of a southern folksy-
curacy. This software may also assist us in creating buildings that use re-
techno band. One of the musicians was describing how they work in the
sources in a more effective and less wasteful manner. Perhaps the most
studio—recording, sampling, editing—using the machines to organize and
visible evidence of this new technology is the breathtaking formal and fab-
manage the sounds of their instruments and voices. She said that occa-
rication capabilities that were previously impossible with pencil and T-
sionally, some messed-up, but truthful sound
square, hammer and saw. We have begun to
would break through all of those machines.
see the gorgeous evidence of this in the se-
They would look at each other and happily ex-
ductive forms of many new buildings.
As we delight in these new powers, we
claim, “HUMANS WERE HERE!”
also ask ourselves as architects: What are the
As architects and designers, we also have
our voices mediated by machines. If a build-
vital aspects of design that the narrow param-
ing becomes architecture when it is a mani-
eters of any software program will never be
festation of human thought and intention, then
able to accomplish? At what point does this
perhaps it is exactly at those “HUMANS
tool become a surrogate for complex, respon-
WERE HERE!” moments when we really
sive, architectural thought? The landscape of
start to say something with our buildings.
Since we do not physically build our work,
the literal human touch of the architect is ab-
Flying into LAX, surveying the urban
expanse and mountains beyond. [FH]
the software itself can indeed become a new
construction site, free of all of those unpredictable trees, unstable rocks, humid air, gusty
sent. We depend on our machine acumen to communicate through our
winds, and glaring sun. This can be of great comfort—there are easy an-
work. Beginning with drafting and modeling software, and ending with the
swers, and they are all within the binary code of a computer program. The
photograph of the completed project, we increasingly need to be well-
most sophisticated software can’t process those thrilling and scary partic-
versed in the manipulation of many media.
ularities that make architecture eccentric, alive, vital, and human. But a
new generation of architects is growing up with these tools and is developing in parallel with them. In their hands, the architect’s computer is
THE GENERATED BUILDING
evolving beyond a shape-making novelty into a potent tool for both probThe computer software available to architects today helps us to draw and
lem solving and true human expression.
[181]
THE PHOTOGRAPHED
BUILDING
THE VIDEO SCREEN
& THE NEWSPAPER
A compelling photograph of a building can sometimes be as influential as
HUMANS WERE HERE! (Building in L.A.) employs familiar mass media
the firsthand experience of the building itself. In an age where design and
forms to tell the more human, less formal stories of architecture and how
architecture have gained some broader interest, we as architects must con-
buildings are made. Instead of the conventional architectural communica-
tend with the secondhand experience of our work through photographs. As
tion tools of the model—the rendering and the staged photograph—we have
a matter of fact, most people may only ever
produced stories for this newspaper and a
see it this way. When it comes time to tell
video documentary by filmmaker Nils Timm
the story of our buildings with pictures, we
that feature Bestor Architecture, Escher
like to neatly sweep the evidence of those
GuneWardena, Fritz Hæg Studio, Taalman
lives out of the frame. We build for people,
Koch Architecture, François Perrin, and Alexis
but people are messy. We replace the laundry
Rochas. We are part of a large, diverse, and
on the floor, the unwashed dishes, the chil-
Views forward and back from the steering wheel. [FH]
dren’s toys, and the pile of newspapers with
connected community of architects and designers on the eastside of Los Angeles. This
a fresh orchid and a bowl of perfectly arranged out-of-season ripe fruit.
presentation of our work does not imply any particular stylistic tendency or
Why can’t the depictions of our work tolerate the very things they are sup-
school of thought. Rather, it illustrates the healthy diversity of architectural
posedly designed to accommodate? After what might be years of long
thought bubbling under the surface of Los Angeles.
hours laboring over the minutia of a design, why would we want to surrender our idealized vision to the casual whim of an inhabitant? Like the
ubiquitous photoshopped image of the too-thin model, these staged images
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
of the untainted dwelling present an unrealistic story of how people live.
This can lead to a certain nervous inferiority complex in the reader of
Each of us presents one project currently under construction or recently
today’s design magazines. Is that the life I should be striving for? Do peo-
completed in the pages of this newspaper, in the video documentary, and
ple really live like that? Are those parts of myself not represented in these
in a public set of construction documents. All of these media together pres-
pictures something I am supposed to hide? Environmental exposure and
ent our relationship to the geography and community of the city we call
human occupation degrade architecture. They are forces on buildings that
home and how that has, in turn, affected the projects we are building. Look-
require moderating, guiding, channeling, or controlling, but in many ways
ing behind the scenes, the construction documents show how design is
we have come to view them as the enemy. At times, it has seemed that the
communicated to those humans that actually build it. The documentary
discipline of architecture was plagued by some autoimmune virus that at-
tells the story of how people come together to create a building, through
tacked a vital part of itself it saw as foreign. But as an industrial modern
long days and nights in the studio with employees and coworkers, and
movement fades behind us, and environmental crises looms on the horizon,
through meetings with clients, contractors, and consultants. In contrast to
architecture appears to be moving away from these tendencies toward a
the slick, homogenized, and hygienic portrayal of architecture made to
more thoughtful engagement with natural forces.
elicit desire and envy, this show hopes to reveal the messy truths of construction for today’s designers and architects. It is easy to take our built
environment for granted. There is a certain inevitability to it. With this
show we hope to reveal that behind every building, there are humans!
[182]
{from the exhibition newspaper}
THE WEATHER REPORT
By François Perrin
L.A. is hot! Not just in general, but at the very moment that I am writing
away. Perhaps you will only find a couple of college girls working on their
this article. We are experiencing a major heat wave. This is happening in
tan, turning the place into a James Bond poolside scene. The water is very
a lot of other places in the country or even the world right now, but this is
clean as the pool is used outside of the public hours by the swim and water
a pretty unusual situation for Los Angeles. From a cli-
polo team. It is better to show up early, around noon, to
matic point of view, the L.A. basin works as a giant air-
get the water fresh. The place is reserved for the OXY
conditioning system that will keep the temperatures in
people or nearby institutions like Art Center College of
the 70’s all year long. Usually in the summer there is a
Design, but they rarely ask for your ID. Just walk in as
marine layer that comes in off the ocean, along with some
if you have always been coming here…
clouds, that cools things down. This has been called May
Point Dume State Beach.
Grey, June Gloom or even Bummer Summer. Sometimes, like this year for example, the system breaks down
POINT DUME PUBLIC STATE
BEACH
and you are desperately in need of a cold fix. Here are a few personal faAnother one of L.A.’s secret pieces of paradise is Point Dume Public State
vorites to escape the heat.
Beach in Malibu. It is a half mile long sandy beach at the bottom of a 100
ft high vertical cliff where you can see the mansions of Barbara Streisand,
OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE POOL
Johnny Carson and others. The place is always empty, thanks to a poor
This is one of L.A.’s best kept secrets. Occidental College is in the Eagle
Rock area (North of Downtown). It is your picture perfect
postcard type of college where they shot the TV show,
Beverly Hills 90210, but you will find mostly kids from
all over the country that chose “OXY” as an entry to
Southern California. Besides having the best library and
bookstore in L.A. for art and critical theory, you can find
within their sport facilities the nicest swimming pool
ever. Sitting in the middle of a “Pompei Style” atrium is
a light blue rectangle of heaven when ones want to escape the summer heat of Los Angeles. The place is almost always empty in the summer, as college kids are
parking facility allowing only 10 spots. (In fact you can street park a block
FRANÇOIS PERRIN was born in
Paris where he studied Architecture
at the Beaux-Arts. He moved to Los
Angeles in 2000 to establish his
practice. He has taught at Art Center, Sci-Arc and Cal Poly Pomona
and has lectured at the MAK in Vienna, the Jan Van Eick Academie in
Maastrich and Columbia University
in New York. He is the editor/curator of the book and exhibition Yves
Klein: Air Architecture. His work
has been featured in the New York
Times, Artforum and Sunset.
[183]
away but people don’t really know about that, or maybe
they are afraid because it’s Malibu).
Once you are parked, you walk through the Point
Dume natural preserve. It culminates with a historic
place of ritual for the Chumash Indian tribes that used to
live on this coast. In the right season it is now the perfect
place for whale sightings. A steep metallic staircase will
bring you down to the beach. After walking on a reef
that is a favorite for locals surfers (it is called Big Dume
as opposed to Little Dume, the private reef at the other
end of the beach), you feel as if you were transported in
the final scene of Planet of the Apes (this is where they shot it) and sud-
it for their friends. Stay on the public side and you will have a much more
denly you are looking for the Statue of Liberty underneath the sand. The
intimate and private time. The best place to swim is in the middle of the
more you walk, the less likely you will be to encounter anyone. Around the
beach. This is where the reef and breakers subside. It is always a little
cliff, arriving at the private sections of the beach, however, you will find
cooler than the Santa Monica bay. There is no pollution at all. The water
dozens of people. They all have the key to the private gate and duplicated
is crystal clear. Enjoy!
{from the exhibition newspaper}
RADICAL CENTER
By Frank Escher & Ravi GuneWardena
Los Angeles is a very large place with too much to do. On any given night
lap at one time or another. We met Artist Joe Sola in the late 90’s, while
there are lectures, concerts, gallery openings, house parties and floating
subletting a studio from Julie Becker, with whom Joe was collaborating on
events at bars and clubs, spread out over a 15 mile radius from somewhere
a film project. We had met Julie the previous year, while some Swiss friends
near an imaginary center of somewhere around
(including the curator of Julie’s Zurich Kunsthalle
Fairfax and Wilshire (LACMA). When you first
show) were visiting L.A. Later Joe asked us to de-
arrive in L.A. it takes a while to find out where
sign his house (EG22). Sharon Lockhart (off-map
things are happening. Once you do find out and
museum installations) and her husband Alex
get over the initial enthusiasm about the abun-
Slade, we met through Mary Goldman and John
dance of activities, you start to set limits and hone
Tevis, shortly after Mary had sublet their apart-
in on a much smaller radius that you rarely ven-
ment, while setting up her Chinatown Gallery in
ture out of. Something that you do retain from the
1998. That year we began work on the restoration
occasional forays into the fringe territories is a
of John Lautner’s Chemosphere (EG10) for pub-
group of acquaintances that you end up seeing
lisher Benedikt Taschen, who collected Sharon’s
often in your own target circle, who later become
work, and had published art books by her Berlin
friends. If one tries to attend even a modest
gallerist Burkhard Riemschneider. Following our
amount of weekly happenings, the time you have
left to spend with these friends is most often at the
happenings themselves.
The friends of Frank & Ravi.
[COURTESY ESCHER GUNEWARDENA]
collaboration with Sharon on her MCA Chicago
installation, we were asked to design a new space
for her L.A. gallerists, Blum and Poe (EG4). Our
Like how the six Eastside architects came together, many friends, col-
project manager on that job was Brian Hart, who we met through Sharon
leagues, and clients end up mingling in the same small circles, which over-
and had previously worked with artist Jessica Bronson. Mark Grotjahn
[184]
(Blum & Poe artist) shortly thereafter recommended us to his friends, artists
Anthony Pearson and Ramona Trent (EG1). In 2003,
while Blum and Poe was being built, Pho Café (EG5)
opened. Its owner, the glamorous entrepreneur Hanh
Minh Dam was referred to us by an L.A. Curator. Hanh’s
husband artist Matthias Poledna collaborated on the Café,
which appeared later in an installation by Alex Slade for
the 2004 show Topographies. Also in 2003 we met film
art directors David and Sandy Wasco in New York (outside of circle) during the Cooper Hewitt Triennial in
which we were all included. We found they were living in
Silver Lake (inside circle). We were so taken up by one
another at the time that we pledged to do something together one day soon
ESCHER GUNEWARDENA’s work
addresses issues of sustainability,
affordability and the dialogue between form and construction. They
were included in the 2003 National
Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt Museum and designed the
Dwell Home II for Dwell magazine.
Frank Escher grew up in Switzerland and studied Architecture at
the ETH, Zurich. Ravi GuneWardena, originally from Sri Lanka,
was trained at California State
Polytechnic University, Pomona.
(EG18, now under construction).
A similar analysis of friends with other interests,
music for example, often brings us back to an overlap in
the circles above. Not all end up as clients, but most remain long-term friends who drift in and out from time
to time. Like in any other city, it takes a while to find
that circle or two, one’s own preferred geographical and
psychological zones. Though it’s harder to maintain,
even the broader radius usually sticks, with people you
see less often. L.A.’s not the center of the world, but it’s
not a bad place to be either.
{from the exhibition newspaper}
OLD MALIBU/
NEW JOSHUA TREE
By Alan Koch and Linda Taalman
Joshua Tree High Desert is the new Malibu. Not the Malibu of today (not
edges. Each is cut off from the rest of the nearby mega-city sprawl by moun-
yet at least) but the Malibu of legend. We will see in the next twenty years
tains, isolated and poised on the edge of human habitation. One can easily
if Joshua Tree is destined to become the sorry Malibu of today. There are
imagine a Kaspar David Friedrich painting of the isolated man staring out
three important alignments of these two Southern California Colonies: 1.
into the infinite sublime just out the back door of his beach house or desert
California Grandeur, 2. Frontier Mentality, 3. Outdoor Sporting Cults. Many
shack. Super-scale natural disasters visit both places and tend to keep them
places in California have one or more of the three principal alignments in
wild longer than their city counterparts. Two similar events that come to mind
common with these two areas, but none have so many categorical parallels.
are the ’93 Mailbu fire and the recent Sawtooth Complex fire in Pipes Canyon.
But ultimately, the California Grandeur is best typified by the Ocean crashing on the Malibu shore at the foot of the Santa Monica Mountains compared
1. CALIFORNIA GRANDEUR
with the Giant Boulder formations piled up at the foot of the San Gabriel
Both locales are located within the rugged almost supernatural terrain of spe-
Mountains. Unlike the huge distant mountains for instance, they are the two
cial areas of California – bracketing Los Angeles on the Eastern and Western
kinds of features you can actually incorporate into your own private world. In
[185]
terms of real estate at least, ocean-front and boulder-filled sites are the to-die-
apparent reason or, as is more often the case, simply blocked by false “pri-
for properties on the West and East coasts of the megalopolis known as L.A.
vate road” signs. And Building/Zoning in both jurisdictions is notoriously
difficult. The Costal Commission confuses and delays landowners in Malibu, while tortoise habitat and old-timer building inspectors plague those in
2. FRONTIER MENTALITY
the high desert. However, this is part of the attraction. Once you get beyond
A Frontier Mentality pervades the local occupation of these areas. As Joan
the initial legal hurdles, it feels as if no one is watching. It’s as if they know
Didion, a former Malibu denizen mentions, people “felling trees in their
it is impossible to actually govern the area, so they attempt to discourage
own interior wilderness” characterize this kind of human spirit. Like the
most people by simply scaring them off.
physical isolation, remoteness, and unspoiled
land of the frontier itself, people who likewise
3. OUTDOOR
SPORTING CULTS
have these kinds of inner-landscapes are also
drawn to the Frontier. Advanced forms of
these predilections are represented in the
Finally, the arcane inner-looking worlds of out-
stereotypes of “Beach Bum” and the “Desert
door sporting cults have strong ties to the two
Rat” who haunt Malibu and the High Desert
places. The sporting attitude could be best de-
respectively. A similar sensibility originally
scribed as Man vs. Nature with discipline, ded-
drew Celebrities to Malibu in the early days –
ication and loyalty being foremost traits of its
the desire to disappear into a rustic hyper-re-
adherents. In Malibu of course it’s the surfers.
ality and get away temporarily from the average Joes of the city. And now in the High
Sawtooth Complex fire, San Bernardino County, 2006.
Pioneertown, Joshua Tree High Desert. [TAALMAN KOCH]
They are the original domesticators of the California ocean. Prior to surfing, the ocean was
viewed more as a harsh yet mysteriously beau-
Desert a migration of the rich and famous is
underway because there is nowhere left that is so near to L.A.—and that
tiful natural element, much like a far flung mountain in the distance. Surfers
also feels far away as does Joshua Tree High Desert. Certainly there is
turned California’s beaches into playgrounds and thereby tamed much of the
nowhere with as much charm and amazing local geology as the Joshua
wild feeling of Malibu. This eventually lead to its decline as a frontier. In the
Trees. And, importantly, there is nowhere so near where large pieces of re-
high desert, rock climbers have long held court in terms of the prevailing im-
markable land still can be found. The rustic totems of the
respective areas, The Pier in the Malibu of old and Pappy
and Harriett’s in Pipe’s Canyon shine like beacons to
those looking for an “old-school” California fix while
also serving as a gravitational center for the otherwise private and fairly far flung communities of the post-aquisitional types. A certain lawlessness too, lingers in the
attempts to occupy these zones as well. Wars between locals and visitors are manifested in Malibu with illegal
signs and guards hired to prevent people from using one
of a number public right-of-ways to the beach. Similarly,
in the high desert, roads can sometimes be blocked for no
TAALMAN KOCH ARCHITECTURE is led by Linda Taalman and
Alan Koch. They address a broad
range of scales and approaches for
the built environment, involving
the research of pioneering and
speculative projects and conspiring
with creative individuals. Founded
on the principals of experimentation, speculation, innovation and
fabrication, TK Architecture’s mission is to mediate thorough investigations of the built environment
and stimulate community dialogue
in the production of well-built and
thoughtful environments.
[186]
ported aesthetic, but the climbers have yet to ruin the area
by attracting any sizeable influx of “weekend climbers”.
In the cases of both Malibu and the Joshua Tree, these subcultures have a great deal to do with the vibe of gentrification. It’s still an open question in the high desert however.
More and more, Joshua Tree High Desert will
grow along lines similar to Malibu’s growth. Now is
the time when the seeds are being planted for the eventual transformation that is sure to come. Following the
Sawtooth Complex fire, who will be the ones to come
in and build in the void left by the burning? Is it the
next “Malibu Colony” for the savvy city dweller?
{from the exhibition newspaper}
I LIKE CHINATOWN
By Fritz Haeg
It’s on my way to downtown or between meetings and home or a good
rarium with water and rocks that the Bernardi Salcedo residence is de-
place to stop after a stressful morning at the Building Department. Some-
signed around.
how I always manage to find street parking. This can be an integral part of
I head to Via for lunch. There are some periods when I eat there every
its pleasure. If I don’t happen to find street parking on the first pass, some-
day, and then go for weeks without going at all. For the first year it was veg-
times I just skip it.
etable curry with an ice blended green tea boba. Then I started to do yoga
Leaving the street and my parked car, the traffic noises fade away as
everyday, and switched to my new usual which is vegetable soup with tofu
I enter into the plaza. I pass the fountain. The
and ice blended green tea with soy milk. They start
artist v made a full scale replica of it years ago.
making it when they see me coming. I look for-
I saw it at Metro Pictures in New York before I
ward to this. Sometimes I sit outside, usually a few
moved to L.A. It summed up all of my fantasies
friends pass by and one or two will join for lunch.
about the city. There it was, a huge mass of un-
There’s Fiona and Sean, they have an alter-
stable rock surrounded by water, painted all
native science-y art space on Chung King and
combinations of bright and fluorescent colors,
we’ll talk about what show they have up at the
with each ledge or niche presenting a metal
moment, or what’s coming up next. There’s
bowl or cup. Each container had a title, ‘Luck,”
Wendy who runs Ooga Booga, my favorite store
“Love,” “Vacation,” “Lottery,” “Money,”
in all of L.A., which sits atop a bakery nearby...
“Health,” “Suerte.” Coins tossed were aimed for
The wishing fountain in Chinatown’s central plaza. [FH]
one of these. Once a friend got three “Suerte”’s
“Is the new issue of Butt Magazine in yet?”
There’s Javier, a client whose gallery I designed
in a row, and within a week the girl from Mexico that he had a mad crush
a few years ago, but since starting up the new gallery in Berlin, he’s not
on was his girlfriend. Just this week they finished fixing up the fountain.
around much any more. There’s Kimberly, Liz and Gretchen, who I call the
They planted new bamboo, painted everything grey, removed the bowls
D.G.S. girls, they are the awesome graphic designers for all of the Gar-
and added some subtle lighting. It’s new incarnation is much more taste-
denlab and Edible Estates projects. I can count on seeing them there most
ful and elegant, less garish and campy. I love the fountain on the other
days, and since we are always working on something together, lunch turns
side of Hill Street more I think. It is like a fake miniature mountain with
into shop talk. There’s Katie from Sister, there’s Lexi from Happy Lion,
little bonsai trees growing on it, floating in a pool of water with koy fish.
there’s Robby from the Journal and there are always some random people
Turtles somehow manage to survive the murky water and sun themselves
you never expect to see in town from New York or something and trying
on the rocks. I love this little mountain, and it directly inspired the ter-
to figure out what the hell is going on in L.A.
[187]
THE COVERS
Shana Lutker
The Sundown Salon Unfolding
Archive was produced with six
different cover illustrations
printed in varying combinations.
The covers were hand-screened by
longtime Evil Twin collaborator
Rachael Hawkwind in Hollywood.
Feral Childe
Melissa Thorne
Robby Herbst
Katie Grinnan
Janfamily (Chosil Kil)