Book Club: Speedboat, art opening at Durden and Ray
Book Club: Speedboat, art opening at Durden and Ray
February 4, 2018
4:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Durden and Ray
1923 S. Santa Fe Ave., , Los Angeles CA 90021


In “Book Club: Speedboat,” a diverse group of Los Angeles creatives make work inspired by Renata Adler’s groundbreaking novel Speedboat. With a composer, an architect, a choreographer, hair stylists and more than a half-dozen visual artists, the show endeavors to break down the walls that too often separate L.A.’s different creative worlds, using the medium of a book club as the foundation for building a broader creative community.

The Chicago Tribune wrote that Speedboat “is that kind of book. The kind you buy multiple copies of to push on friends, the kind you dog-ear and mark up until it could line a hamster cage. A talisman, a weapon, a touchstone. … that’s the kind of book that kind of book is, burning in your thoughts, a grass fire, consuming the air. … Right down to its final, just-right sentence, it’s — well, it will literally knock your socks off. Read it.”

Throughout the opening, dancers will perform “I’ll wait,” a piece that considers and contrasts the effects that carrying, weight and dependence have on one’s ability to move. Other works re-create moments within the book that resonated with the artists, or replicate the frenetic pace and seemingly disjointed stories in this experimental novel.

There will be a live reading of passages, and the book is meant to be a starting point for a larger conversation about the interplay of different forms of creativity.

This is the second time Steven Wolkoff has curated a “Book Club” show at Durden and Ray. The first, “Book Club: Going Native” in May 2017, was named one of the top five shows of 2017.

Opening reception: 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, 2017
Curator: Steven Wolkoff
Visual artists and other creatives: Dave Bondi (toy designer), Gavin Bunner, Ania Catherine (choreographer), Jennifer Celio, Dani Dodge, Tom Dunn, Kio Griffith, Jenny Hager, Ben Jackel, Robin Jackson (mixologist), Laura Krifka, David Leapman, Liza Ryan, Traci Sakosits and Matthew Kazarian (hair stylists), Michael Webster (composer), Steven Wolkoff, Jayna Zweiman (architect and creator of the Pussyhat Project and Welcome Blanket).

“Book Club: Speedboat”
Opening reception: 4-7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018
Run of show: Feb. 3-Feb. 24
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Image: Ania Catherine in a 2017 performance


1923 S. Santa Fe Ave., , Los Angeles CA 90021

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