The Gallery: Ephemera

The word ephemora is derived from the Greek word ephemeros - meaning lasting for only a day. Therefore, the archiving of ephemora is by definition a contradiction. 1301PE's current exhibition of over forty years of posters designed by John Baldessari is an exemplary showcase of archived ephemora. It also poses an interesting question - how does something expendable turn into something expensive? - how does something valueless turn into something valuable?

Ephemera collage from The Ephemera Society of America

On Michele Behan's list of "The Top Ten Reasons to Profit from Ephemora (In a Tough Economy)", she states that paper collectables are perceived to hold their value better than paper dollars due to incendiary inflation which started in the 1970s. The worth of ephemera is related to many factors - its condition, its completeness if part of a set, etc.... However, the most important of these factors is the legacy of the event to which the material is tied. If the reputation of the event and associated persons increases over time, the worth of the ephemera will increase as well. Unfortunately, this is the one factor that is also far beyond individual control. Nevertheless, a keen eye and sense of history can give a person predictive powers. Either way, a return - even if it is minimal or only sentimental - is almost always guaranteed, as ephemera costs nothing to own and little to store.

Food/Wine: The Savory Pie

Almost all Americans are familiar with the sweet pies whether it is filled with cherries, pecans, or pumpkin purée. Plastica on 3rd St, a few blocks away from the gallery, recently hosted a pop-up pie shop. The pies were supplied by I Heart Pies, a husband and wife team who are currently taking online orders only. In addition to selling standard size pumpkin pies and apple crisps, I Heart Pies makes mini pies which are about as filling as a cupcake. One of their most celebrated mini pies is the Peanut Butter S'more Pie which was featured in LA Weekly's Best of Artisanal LA.

Pop-up pie shop at Plastica

Peanut Butter S'more mini pie from I Heart Pies

The S'more pie is decadent and toothsome, as one would expect. Significantly less Americans have experienced the equally diverse and delicious array of savory pies. However, I Heart Pies also has a variety of savory pies - filled with ratatouille, shredded pork, curried chicken, etc... - that also come in mini sizes.

Meat pies are a bit of a novelty in California, but in countries such as Britain, New Zealand or Australia meat pies near ubiquity. In New Zealand meat pies range from the dirt cheap to the gourmet. They are available at nearly all gas stations and convenience stores, making for a guilty yet dependable late night food stuff. There are many notable bakeries in New Zealand that sell meat pies, such as The Fridge in Kingsland. The Fridge has won many awards and their beef and Guinness pie is lauded all over the internet.

The Fridge in Kingsland with neon meat pie sign.

Archive: Venice, CA Part Two

Venice Part Two 1951-Present

Venice's forlorn condition in the 50s made it an attractive home for many of the early beat poets. Poets like Tony Scibella hung around the Gas House and Venice West Cafe.

Feel of rain in the face
moonjuice/
partial to poets
the lady’s tears

-Tony Scibella

Gas House on Ocean Front Walk

Venice West Cafe

In the 60s, the Venice art scene replaced the 50s Beat scene. Artists involved include Ed Moses, Ed Ruscha, and Billy Al Bengston, dubbed 'The Venice Boys.' According to the website 'Virtual Venice,' Andy Warhol was lured to Venice by Dennis Hopper, and had his first US show in 1962 at the Ferus Gallery which though on La Cienega, had its origins in Venice. In early 60s, hung out with Gavin Lambert who wrote 2 books that concerned Venice. In 1978 Warhol had a show "Torsos" at the Ace Gallery. Owner Doug Chrismas said "When we got to the gallery, the entire street was a solid block of people." To help protect Warhol, he had bodyguards from Gold’s Gym. After the opening, they partied at Hal’s on the beach.

Archive: Venice, California Part 1

1301PE has been spending some time at John Baldessari's new studio in Venice in preparation for the upcoming exhibition "Not Prints: Posters 1966-2010". For the exhibition the gallery will be covered wall-to-wall with over forty years of posters designed by the artist. These posters mirror the evolution of Baldessari's work which has become more colorful and dimensional over the years. Spending time in Venice, CA, a sub-city in Los Angeles, it is interesting to think about its history over the past 105 years.

Inside John Baldessari's Studio

Poster for John Baldessari "Not Prints: Posters 1966-2010."

Los Angeles: Blinky Palermo & William Eggleston at LACMA

This past Thursday exhibitions featuring work by Blinky Palermo & William Eggleston opened at LACMA. Although they are two independent exhibitions, the works in them operate similarly. This makes their sharing of BCAM's second floor a fruitful coupling. In a conversation a couple days before the opening Lynne Cooke, curator of the Blinky Palermo exhibition, and artist Mathias Poledna spent much time discussing the lightness of Palermo's work. Mathias noted that Gerhard Richter, a friend of Palermo's, was jealous of Palermo's light touch and skill with color. Lynne expanded on this, stating that although Palermo's work seems effortless he struggled and destroyed many paintings he felt to be beneath his standards. His work embodies the effort of looking effortless. This quality also exists in Eggleston's work. His photographs may appear as though they could be taken by anyone but very few people could take the same modest photograph and have it look as successful and effortless as Eggleston. Eggleston, like Palermo, is also a master of color. He was one of the first photographers to use color photography, earning him the title the 'Father of Color Photography.'

Palermo, To the People of New York City, 1976, 40 individual panels, acrylic on aluminum installed at Dia on 22nd St. NYC, 1987-88.

Abroad: Pae White at The Power Plant

This past weekend Pae White's exhibition Material Mutters opened at The Power Plant in Toronto. The exhibition focused primarily on White's tapestries, although it also included an impressive grid of White's Smoke Carvings and two video works. At the 2010 Whitney Biennial, White exhibited a large smoke tapestry but as this exhibition demonstrates, White's tapestries range greatly in terms of content and style. The smoke and foil tapestries are fairly straight forward in terms of imagery, but the viewer gets lost in all the intricacies. Others are highly collaged and manipulated, full of personal references as well as meta-references to other tapestries made by White.

The Power Plant's signature smoke stack.

30 Smoke Carvings

Some of White's more collaged tapestries

Abroad: Ryongyon Farm Rehabilitation Program

Ryongyon Farm is one of Dr. Pilju Kim Joo's agricultural rehabilitation programs in North Korea. Dr. Pilju is working with the North Korean government to build a farm that is sustainable. Ryongyon Farm aims to support not only sustainable crops but sustainable lives for its tenants. In addition to having a school for children, Ryongyon Farm supplies food and housing for its workers. The farm embodies the local food movement in many ways that are superior to many American businesses promoting a local food ethos.

cotton fields

Dr. Pilju Kim Joo

Abroad: Beijing and Pyongyang

This is the first part of an eight part post covering Brian's travels to Beijing, China and Pyongyang, North Korea. Brian was part of a six person group that accompanied Eungie Joo, New Museum's Head of Education and Public Programming, through Beijing to Pyongyang. The group spent five days in Pyongyang, one day in Kosong, and one day in Mount Paektu (the birth place of Kim Jong-Il) with Eungie and her mother, Dr. Pilju Kim Joo, founder and president of Agglobe Services International Inc. These experiences foster curiosity as well as criticism, not only of China and North Korea but also of America, all of which carry serious flaw and merits. Rather than being chronological, the posts documenting this trip will be focused on eight specific topics. Topics include: Dr. Joo's Farm, Food, Murals, Monuments, DPRK Architecture, and the Mass Games. For this first post we introduce the group:


From left to right: New Museum curator Eungie Joo, artist Byron Kim, Dr. Pilju Kim Joo, Hu Fang and Zhang Wei Wei of Vitamin Creative Space, sound artist Tarek Atoui, Brian Butler of 1301PE, & actress Kate Butler.

Archive: Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits

A few blocks down from 1301PE are the famous La Brea Tar Pits and George C. Page Museum. Hancock park was formed around the La Brea Tar Pits and in many ways the Tar Pits are the heart of urban Los Angeles. The first written records of the tar pits were made by Father Juan Crespi during an expedition led by Spanish explorer Gasper de Portoláin 1769. "La Brea" is spanish for 'tar' or 'asphalt.'

Image of the tar pits from 1910 with oil derricks in background.

Los Angeles: Bergman, Tarkovsky, and Film at LACMA

LACMA's film department is currently screening "Cries and Whispers: The Psychological Cinema of Ingmar Bergman." Films being exhibited include "The Silence" (1963) and "The Seventh Seal" (1956), the former about contemporary alienation and the latter about a medieval plague. Although renown as a director of dramas, Bergman's films transverse genres, moving from the austere to the comedic to the libidinous. Not surprisingly, Woody Allen described him as "probably the greatest film artist...since the invention of the motion camera."
Bergman and actress Ingrid Thulin during the production of "The Silence"

Early this year LACMA's Film Department held a retrospective of Andrei Tarkovsky, a Russian filmmaker whose film "My Name is Ivan" (1962) was central to Kirsten Everberg's 2008 exhibition at 1301PE. "My Name is Ivan" is about a 12-year old boy who works as a spy on the eastern front during WWII. Ivan's small stature allows him to cross the Soviet/German border unnoticed, traveling through marsh, barb wire, and the Dnepr River.

Title screen for "My Name is Ivan" (translates as Ivan's Childhood)

Archive: Two Notable 1301PE Group Exhibitions

In addition to the recent One Room, One Work exhibition, other notable group exhibitions at 1301PE include 'Together Again Like Never Before: The Poster Work of Michael Asher and Martin Kippenberger' from 1999 and Lincoln Tobier, Jorge Pardo, Sarah Seager, and Rirkrit Tiravanija from 1993.

In keeping with his penchant for peripheral spaces, Michael Asher presented only one poster for the exhibition which was the exhibition's invitation. All framed posters inside the gallery space were by Martin Kippenberger, ranging in date from 1978 to 1997.

Installation views

Sampling of some Kippenberger posters

Abroad: Angela Bulloch & Christian Dior in Japan

In 2005, Angela Bulloch was commissioned by Dior to create a permanent installation for the Dior flagship store in Osaka, Japan. The installation is titled 'Anroidika Descending The Staircase', referencing Marcel Duchamp's famous painting from 1912 'Nude Descending a Staircase'.

The illuminated cubes change color as the viewer walks down the stairs.

Map of Osaka

The Gallery & Los Angeles: Behind the Scenes - Diana Thater catalogue and National Wushu Training Center II

Now available at RAM Publications and 1301PE is Diana Thater's catalogue Between Science and Magic. The catalogue includes installation images of Diana Thater's "Between Science and Magic" (2010) as well as documentation of the work's production. In addition to an interview between Diana Thater and Pernilla Holmes, there is an essay by Helen Varola following the history of the illustrious trick 'pulling a rabbit out of a hat'. According to Varola's essay, this illusion began with a notorious incident surrounding "the bizarre pregnancy of Mary Toft," a woman who in the early 18th century faked giving birth to rabbits, a deception she even performed for the king of England.

Reversible book jacket for Diana Thater's Between Science and Magic

Installation of "Between Science and Magic" at the Santa Monica Museum of Art

Los Angeles: Blue Room and Love Seat

On Sunday, the last day of exhibition "Musée Los Angeles," Jason Rhoade's Blue Room and Love Seat was inflated. Inside the steel truck, which can be turned into a love seat with a blue tarp pad, is a blue tarp room attached to a leaf blower. The leaf blower turns the room into an asphyxiation chamber, complete with viewing window (a face-sized piece of clear plastic the artist sewed into the blue tarp).

Film: John Ford's Upstream at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater

This Wednesday "Upstream" (1927), a silent comedy thought long lost by American director John Ford, is screened at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Wilshire Blvd. The film was one of many important silent films put into cold storage by the New Zealand Film Archive. Because New Zealand marked the last stop in the global circuit for most films, many American films stayed there due to the expense of shipping and are only now being rediscovered thanks to ambitious conservation efforts.

Stills from "Upstream"

The Gallery: FREE BEER (version 4.1) Release BBQ

On Wednesday 1301PE had a BBQ to celebrate the release of FREE BEER (version 4.1). FREE BEER is an ongoing projection by Superflex in which free refers to freedom, not free beer. FREE BEER applies modern free software / open source methods to the traditional real-world product that is beer. The recipe and branding elements of FREE BEER are published under a Creative Commons license, which means that anyone can use the recipe to brew their own FREE BEER or create a derivative of the recipe. A version of FREE BEER is also currently being released in Taipei for the Taipei Biennial.

Los Angeles: Installing Musée Los Angeles

Musée Los Angeles, organized by 1301PE's Mieke Marple, is open until August 29th in downtown Los Angeles. The exhibition is loosely modeled after an exhibition organized by the Société Anonyme at the Brooklyn Museum in 1926. As with the 1926 exhibition, Musée Los Angeles includes four false domestic spaces. However, rather than creating rooms in their entirety, the rooms in Musée Los Angeles are represented through various partial structures influenced by IKEA ratios and aesthetics. More information can be found on the exhibition's online catalogue www.musee-losangeles.com which also features a short passage by Brian Butler on Jason Rhoades's Blue Room and Love Seat. Below are images from the installation of Musée Los Angeles.

Sign for Musée Los Angeles by entrance

Abroad: Fiona Banner Turns a Jet Into a Bell

Fiona Banner used metal from a decommissioned Torando jet to cast a large bell for her new public artwork at Gateshead Quay commissioned by Great North Run Culture and Locus+.

Tornado ZE728

Aluminum ingots

Abroad: Kerry Tribe at the Arnolfini

Rolling hills from train ride between Bristol and London Paddington. Here is a great day trip that only takes an hour and a half. In addition to the historical significance of Bristol and Bath, there is a fantastic Kerry Tribe exhibition at the Arnolfini.

Here & Elsewhere, 2002

Abroad: Jessica Stockholder in Spain

In Madrid for Jessica Stockholder's exhibition "Peer out to sea" at the Palacio de Cristal at the Reina Sofia.

The future of long haul travel. The Airbus a280 at Heathrow, London

Madrid on Monday, July 13 just before the parade to welcome home the Spanish FIFA World Champions

The Gallery: Searching for Bricks for The Art of Loving

Trip to Home Depot to find the perfect bricks for Jorge Méndez Blake's "The Art of Loving," which includes Erich Fromm's The Art of Loving and 10 red bricks.

Edition one by Jorge Méndez Blake ("The Art of Loving" is an edition of 10).

The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm. The Art of Loving was Fromm's most popular book, an international bestseller in 1956. It recapitulated the theoretical principles of human nature found in his other book Escape from Freedom & Man for Himself. "Fromm considered love to be an interpersonal creative capacity rather than an emotion, and he distinguished this creative capacity from what he considered to be various forms of narcissistic neuroses and sado-masochistic tendencies that are commonly held out as proof of "true love." Indeed, Fromm viewed the experience of "falling in love" as evidence of one's failure to understand the true nature of love, which he believed always had the common elements of care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge. "

The Gallery: One Room, One Work Part One

Getting ready for 'One Room, One Work,' a rotating group exhibition in three parts. Each part will feature three individual works in three separate rooms. The works included in the first part are Diana Thater's Dark Matter (2004), Fiona Banners' Spell (2002), and Laurence Aberhart's Morepark (Bird Skins Room #3) (1995).

Exhibition poster

Fiona Banner, Spell

Gels on the window for Diana Thater's Dark Matter

Archive: Clifton's Cafeterias

The first Clifton's Cafeteria opened in 1935 and continues to operate on S. Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.  This cafeteria was dubbed Clifton's Brookdale because of its California Redwood themed interior.

Ray Bradbury getting food at Clifton's Brookdale

The Gallery: Making SUPERFLEX Free Beer at Brew Bakers

This past Wednesday we took a trip to Huntington Beach to make SUPERFLEX's Free Beer at Beer Bakers. At Beer Bakers you can make your own bread and beer while eating bread and beer. FREE BEER is a beer which is free in the sense of freedom, not in the sense of free beer. The project, originally conceived by Superflex and students at the Copenhagen IT University, applies modern free software / open source methods to a traditional real-world product - namely the alcoholic beverage loved and enjoyed globally, and commonly known as beer. The recipe and branding elements of FREE BEER is published under a Creative Commons license, which means that anyone can use the recipe to brew their own FREE BEER or create a derivative of the recipe. Anyone is free to earn money from FREE BEER, but they must publish the recipe under the same license and credit our work.

Example of Free Beer