Land has been a constant throughout history. We bring to land our personal experiences, and land in turn acts as a witness to the people and events that come and go. For artist Allison Janae Hamilton, land is her most enduring subject. She describes land as a...
The Activism of Allison Janae Hamilton
Leila Weefur’s Hymns for Other Voices Uncomfortable Questions
Explorations of gender identity are central to the work of Oakland-based artist and curator Leila Weefur, how they felt that their identity was suppressed by belonging to the Christian Church is at the crux of their latest project, “Prey†Play.” Presented in two...
Ron Athey at the ICA Los Angeles “Queer Communion”
I’m on the freeway traveling through the San Fernando Valley to see the Ron Athey exhibition of art, documentation and ephemera called “Queer Communion” at the ICA in downtown Los Angeles. All of the LA tropes are in place: It’s a sunny and clear June day, the hills...
Art Is Everything By Yxta Maya Murray DEATH OF A DREAM
Art Is Everything By Yxta Maya Murray 229 pages TriQuarterly Yxta Maya Murray—art writer, law professor, fiction author—draws upon the disparate threads of her writing practice to construct her new novel, Art Is Everything, a kind of Bildungsroman of the Los Angeles...
GALLERY ROUNDS: Paige Emery Coaxial
Human connection and relationships are at the heart of Paige Emery’s “Ritual Veriditas” at Coaxial. Though small in size, the works create an immersive experience with video, sound and mixed-media visuals created entirely by the artist. The praxis of “Ritual...
Provenance: Senga Nengudi’s Public Rituals Ceremony for Freeway Fets (1978)
What makes some spaces private and others public, if not rituals? In Los Angeles, a complex series of rituals reify our belief in private property. Property deeds, for instance, give physical form to a political notion; signing a deed a symbolic ritual that shapes...
FLUXUS ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
In many ways, opera is the high point of the Western classical music tradition. Originating as royal entertainment in Italy at the close of the 16th century, opera evolved to become fashionable throughout Europe. This remained the status quo until the early 20th...
Damage Control: Art and Destruction since 1950
The overt theme of “Damage Control: Art and Destruction since 1950,” curated by Terry Brougher and Russell Ferguson, is the presence of destructive force(s) in art since World War II—a trajectory of investigation whose origins in the war (especially its nuclear finale...
Puke Performance Artist Paints The Standard
Puke performance artist Millie Brown just returned from the South by Southwest Festival where she “performed” with Lady Gaga. The UK artist has recently relocated to Los Angeles and painted her colored vomit canvas to a very small crowd in a rare performance at club...
Legendary Provocateur
“Chris Burden: Extreme Measures,” at New York’s New Museum is the artist’s first major exhibition in the U.S. in over 25 years. A legendary provocateur, Burden has challenged traditional concepts of art through his galvanizing performance pieces and later...
Doug Aitken’s Mystery Train
The traveling art bash “Station to Station” concluded its nationwide tour in Oakland last week and it just goes to show: There’s nothing like a road trip fueled by a cool million in corporate donations for having a good time.
McCARTHY ROCOCO
It is tempting—though not entirely accurate—to report that this past spring and summer, Paul McCarthy’s new work made a big splash in new york. First we had “Paul McCarthy: Sculpture” at Hauser & Wirth in Chelsea: an exhibition noted for several large, complex,...
SF Report: PERFORMANCE LAB
“And there it is...” Sage Charles smiled as he deftly inserted the business end of a baseball bat into the supine body of Ron Athey as part of the initial preparations for “Messianic Remains,” the latest installment in Athey’s “Incorruptible Flesh” performance series....
Sister Act: Perform Chinatown After-Party at HRLA
Nao Bustamante kicked off Human Resources LA’s July 27th benefit and Perform Chinatown After-party with characteristic mischievous flair. In the preamble to her performance, as she was thanking HRLA for inviting her and thanking us for being there to support the...
SOAP DISH
The mid-afternoon New York City traffic is uncharacteristically brisk on my way to interview performance artist Kalup Linzy. I arrive in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, half an hour early, with my photographer. Linzy greets us at his unmarked live-in work-space basement...