The Gallery: Art Los Angeles Contemporary 2011

This year Art Los Angeles Contemporary (ALAC) was in the Barker Hanger at the Santa Monica Airport, a favored venue for the fair. ALAC is a relatively small-scale and digestible fair which has a very diverse group of galleries from ACE, Los Angeles to Mother's Tank Farm, Dublin. The fair had an independent spirit which we view as one of ALAC's positive attributes.

1301PE's booth at ALAC 2011

Tracy William's booth exhibited three artists, Matt Mullican, Peter Stickbury, and Anna Craycroft, all of whom use portraiture for different means. Many LA artists' space also held booths at the fair. WOR focused on Marnie Weber and Jennifer Bolande. Night Gallery made a day appearance at the Eight Veil booth. The late night Night Gallery experience could not be replicated but the attempt was notable.

Abroad: Peonies considered

There are many obvious advantages to digital substitutes: speed, accessibility, etc... And if digital media can meet or exceed the parameters of human perception what is lost in substituting digital for analog media can be unclear.

LED or RGB digital color is fast and convenient but it is inherently a programmed approximation. The spectrum of color that is visible when light passes through a film membrane reflects the spectrum of light captured during filming. Input reflects output. There is no approximation. Even though our eyes cannot recognize all of the colors in a film, the source of information is true. Digital color is programmed to mimic analog's infinite spectrum of color. Even if digital color is a very good approximation it can never be a true substitute. The digital experience is doubly mediated (first by human perception and second by digital approximation). The correlate analog experience is mediated by only human's physiological limits. It is hard to know what is lost by this secondary mediation but it can often be sensed, if not articulated. The colors in-between the colors we can register are imperceptible but they are there. Perhaps such imperceptible increments, whether they occur in social, aural, or color space, are more vital than we realize.

Abroad: Diana Thater's Peonies

Diana Thater's exhibition "Chernobyl" opened this past week at Hauser & Wirth in London. "Chernobyl" is an impressive video installation about the nuclear disaster that occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine in 1986. Rather than using editing cuts to convey Chernobyl's landscape Thater opts for film layers, superimposing images on top of one another. In doing this, Thater avoids linear time created by a sequence of images, in favor of time that is sculptural and has depth.


In an adjacent room is Thater's video installation "Peonies." As with "Chernobyl," "Peonies" also utilizes film layers, depicting 3 ghosted peonies on 9 video monitors. To make the video, Thater used her Standard 8mm film camera, which allows back-winding of film, to shoot a true double exposure of the flowers. The layers in "Peonies" were made with analog materials, as opposed to"Chernobyl," whose layers were made digitally. Regarding "Peonies," Thater states that she wanted to make the viewer aware of the difference between analog and digital techniques. Digital techniques may be analogous but they are never identical to the analog techniques they emulate. For example, digital media is pixelated and has only a finite number of colors. Analog media, on the other hand, provides an infinite spectrum of colors - many of which the eye cannot register.


To hear Diana Thater talk about "Chernobyl" and "Peonies" click here.

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."