Media Arts Preview: Remixes, Mash-Ups and More
LA's eclectic media art attitude is on full display this week with tabletop theater shrines, miniature underworld movie sets, remixes, mash-ups and apocalyptic Biblical tales.
Thursday, July 14
LACE joins with VOLUME tonight at 7:00 p.m. to present an evening of audiovisual experimentation featuring Ezekiel Honig, Kyle Parker (known also as Infinite Body) and Steve Roden. VOLUME, which was founded in 2007 by Ed Patuto and Robert Crouch, works to catalyze interdisciplinary new media performances, events and publications, offering artists opportunities to create new and hybrid works. (Photo by Zach Dilgard.)
Friday, July 15
Adrenaline, Eyesight and Uncertainty: New Works by Laura Heit and Susan Simpson at the Velaslavasay Panorama features a presentation of projects, including tabletop toy theater shrines with puppetry and projection, remote viewing, electric guitar, and a short film with live vocal incantations by the inimitable Emily Lacy. The live show will take place tonight and tomorrow evening at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, July 16
Beneath the Sea is an intriguing new short video by LA-based artist and filmmaker Troy Morgan. It will be on view, along with the project's sets and related artworks, at Blythe Projects through September 2, with an opening reception tonight, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Blum & Po presents a three channel video projection by Drew Heitzler, an LA-based artist with an interest in dissecting and reconfiguring existing films. Spiral Jetty/Chrystal Voyager/Region Centrale (Bootlegged, Re-ordered, Combined, Sometimes More, Sometimes Less) reconfigures footage by three artists from the 1970s. "The pairing of these three particular projects speaks to Heitzler's interest in identifying the zeitgeist of an era; that is, the moment when the sixties lapsed into the seventies and experimental filmmaking was at a precipice." The show opens tonight, and will be up through August 27, 2011.
The Torrance Art Museum presents Baker's Dozen III, the third iteration of the museum's annual survey of artists to watch, with a focus on creativity in Los Angeles. Artists include Chor Boogie, Joshua Callaghan, Erin Cosgrove, Martin Durazo, Amir H Fallah, Alexandra Grant, Annie Lapin, Thomas Lawson, Nathan Mabry, John Millei, Robert Olsen, Britton Tolliver and Peter Wu. Cosgrove will screen her 65-minute animated video titled What Manner of Person Art Thou? an anachronistic allegory about two fervent believers who traipse from one realm of belief into others, subduing anyone they think irreverent along the way. With a visual style that veers between lush and simple, psychedelic and hand-made, the apocalyptic mash-up of Biblical stories and South Park episodes deals with very real issues, albeit orthogonally, and highlights the peculiar genius of an LA-based artist. The show opens with a reception tonight at 6:00 p.m. and is up through August 27, 2011.
Barry Anderson's short looping video Vertical Blinds 2 will be on view at the Walter Maciel Gallery through August 19, 2011, with an opening reception tonight 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, July 17
Media artist, designer and educator Alex Braidwood brings his interest in sound to Machine Project today at 3:00 p.m. for World Listening Day, a workshop that "explores ways in which one's hearing can be physically modified in order to transform the relationship between the listener and their environment." After a short presentation, participants will create their own listening instruments. The event is free.
The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival starts tonight, and continues through July 25 with features films, documentaries and shorts, as well as panel discussions and opportunities to hear from individual filmmakers. This is the festival's 15th year, and highlights include the animated feature film Chico and Rita set in the Cuban jazz scene of the 1940s and '50s, and co-directed by Fernando Treuba, Javier Mariscal and Tono Errando. (See image at top.)
The Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills will be the venue tonight for Silents Under the Stars,an annual screening series presented by the Silent Society of Hollywood Heritage. Tonight's film is Safety Last, a Harold Lloyd comedy from 1923, with accompaniment by Michael Mortilla; the film will screen outdoors, and organizers invite audience members to bring a picnic dinner, as well as flashlights for maneuvering through the dark parking lot after the screening. Check the Hollywood Heritage site, under "Silent Society," for full details.
Wednesday, July 20
The Aero Theatre in Santa Monica will host a year-long tribute to films from Belgium in a show titled Grit and Whimsy II: The Best of Recent Belgian Cinema.The series kicks off tonight at 7:30 with Marieke, Marieke, a feature directed by Sophie Schoukens. A reception, with Belgian beer, follows the screening. The series continues with monthly screenings.