Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions closed their summer residency of CAVERNOUS: Young Joon Kwak & Mutant Salon on the last Sunday of August, having nothing fall short of the visually sensual inviting tone to come bask in the beauty of being vulnerable together. Having had the pleasure to bear witness to several of LACE’s programs headed by Director Sarah Russin, seeing the space transform into the many landscapes comes with the territory.

audience within exhibition

LACE did not shy away in celebrating its 40th anniversary, exemplifying the go big or go home mentality which was well received. Taking charge of the front gallery with “Emory Douglas: Bold Visual Language” prints from Douglas’ service to the Blank Panther Party, then stepping into CAVERNOUS, a floating salon with all the amenities is the kind of show one would anticipate for a momentous occasion such as this.

Emory Douglas posters

Neon Vulva

At the entrance of the main gallery hung a neon light vulva that was built into the curvature of the Art Deco ceiling—its unison was natural and assuming as if it had been there since day one. Young Joon Kwak sprinkled the gallery with their work, keeping the senses stimulated with a shattered astro disco ball, wigs of anthropomorphic silhouettes, a nail and make-up station and  “leisure” literature for lounge areas provided space for intimacy and for people to be themselves as they freely participated within the exhibit. DJs La Disco es Qultura filled in the spaces of conversation before the opening artist Ciriza gave their distorted sermon to the audience, triggering everyone to excitedly gather round as the performance was about to begin.

Project Rage Queen Performance with Mark Golmaco on viola and Alice Cunt

Project Rage Queen’s and Alice Cunt’s interpretive dance movement, Dalcon Chase Goulette on vocals, and Travis D on saxophone with the accompaniment of Mark Golamco on viola/vocals, delivered an operatic performance that was entrancing yet beautifully haunting. Alice Cunt slithered around the gallery throughout the first performance leaving onlookers’ faces with what’s going on here? As the performance transpired into more electronic sounds, Goulette reassured the audience that they didn’t know what was going on either.

San Cha Performance

With an intermittent break followed by vocal priestess, San Cha singing Mexican folk music and Cumbia and Punk with their song  “Gospel Ranchera Punk”—the acoustics of the room were effortlessly filled and the sound of their voice ran deep into the depths of everyone’s soul. Cha’s presence on the stage calmed and hypnotized, leaving people feeling lightweight at the end of their performance.

Music video premiere of Inténtame by Xina Xurner and San Cha

To close the evening was the music-video premiere of Inténtame (meaning try me in Spanish) directed by Jacinto Astiazarán. The video was shot inside LACE’s gallery by Xina Xurner —a music/performance art collaboration between Marvin Astorga and Kwak featuring Cha. A brilliantly catchy industrial electronica tune was then performed live with more solo pieces by Xurner creating even bigger expectations for everyone there. Some of the audience took it upon themselves to burst into dance-mashing. The closing reception for this “Mutant Salon” was creatively dynamic and aided in collective healing for all.