This week you can: glimpse into the mind of an iconic rock ‘n’ roll photographer; learn about postmodern decorative ‘whimsy’; catch a dance performance AND a big fish at a marine aquarium; explore the utopian history of Southern California; see images of innovative apartment design; and find community spirit while collecting trash along the LA River.
1 ) SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock
SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock is a documentary that turns the camera on one of rock’s most influential photographers: Mick Rock. Rock helped define the glam rock and punk years – David Bowie, Queen, Blondie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop – and, after a coke-fueled crash, got back to work with contemporary musicians including Snoop Dogg and Father John Misty. On seeing the movie, KCRW’s Matt Holzman told DnA, “most movies about rock ‘n’ roll aren’t very rock ‘n’ roll and this is a very artistic and very rock ‘n’ roll movie.” It is directed by Barnaby Clay, and presented in rock’s own words, along with some of his taped conversations with Bowie and Reed, and takes the viewer on a spectacular journey through the world of glam, psychedelia, punk, drugs and the art of catching charisma on camera.
When: Until Thursday, April 13
Where: Laemmle’s Music Hall 3, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Tickets: $5 – $11. Get tickets here.
2 ) The Duck and the Document: True Stories of Postmodern Procedures
Sylvia Lavin tackles postmodernism in her latest exhibition, The Duck and the Document: True Stories of Postmodern Procedures. She writes that the architectural movement “is generally understood to have been largely a matter of style and surface ornament, a whimsy of architectural autonomy, but on deeper inspection, political and technical labyrinths may have been all too common.” The Duck and the Document features a series of fragments, from handrails to façade panels, salvaged from the buildings and archives of Peter Eisenman, Charles Moore, Mike Reynolds, and SITE with the goal of demonstrating the “dense tangle of regulations, production specifications and technologies that constrained architectural design rather than liberated it.”
When: Opening reception, Friday, April 14, 7 pm. (Exhibit runs through May 28, 2017)
Where: SCI-Arc Gallery, 960 E 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Tickets: Free and open to the public.
3 ) Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre: FishEyes
Heidi Duckler brings her imaginative site-specific dance to the theme of water and drought — in FishEyes, a performance that takes place in, on, and around a giant 15-foot stainless steel fish designed by architect Alex Ward. Learn more about Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre here.
When: Friday, April 14, 7 pm
Where: Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, 3720 Stephen M White Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90731
Tickets: Free. RSVP required; important day-of details will be sent in an email prior to the performance. Register here. (This performance will be outdoors, so dress warmly.)
4 ) Subject: Los Angeles as Eden
Ahhh, Southern California, the land of white sandy beaches, Hollywood, the Rose Bowl and sunshine. And most importantly, image Subject: Los Angeles as Eden is an evening that considers the persistent image of Southern California as an earthly paradise through archival film, commentary, slides… and marionette performances. From advertisements that marketed young Pasadena as the city where roses grew year round, to actual Utopian experiments, highlights include early color nitrate footage of Hollywood’s storybook restaurants, an advertorial film urging Easterners to move to Santa Monica, home movies from Muscle Beach, and an exploration of Grandma Prisbrey’s beatific Bottle Village. This evening kicks off the first of four programs that “surface and interrogate mythologies of Los Angeles, starting with the idea of Los Angeles as Eden.”
When: Friday, April 14, 8 – 11 pm (followed by performances on April 28th, May 12th, and May 26th).
Where: Bob Baker Marionette Theater, 1345 W 1st St, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Tickets: $20. Get tickets here.
5) Building Community: New Apartment Architecture
The experience of living several decades in one of Richard Neutra’s Strathmore Apartments in Westwood Village inspired Michael Webb to go seek out other examples of fine apartment building design. The result is a book called Building Community: New Apartment Architecture, featuring innovative multifamily design — from tree-filled flats in Turin, Italy to micro-housing in Seoul, South Korea and the towering Sky Habitat in Singapore, as well as works by LA architects including Morphosis, Lorcan O’Herlihy and Kevin Daly.
This Saturday he will discuss discuss his findings — and why it’s imperative that apartment design be good — at a panel discussion and booksigning hosted by the Los Angeles Forum and the Architecture + Design Museum. Guests are DnA host Frances Anderton, Julie Eizenberg, co-principal of Koning Eizenberg Architecture and Richard Loring, an architect turned builder-developer.
When: Saturday, April 15, 3-5 pm
Where: A+D Museum, 900 East 4th Street, Los Angeles.
Tickets: $3. Click here to purchase.
And while in DTLA. . . this Sunday kicks off three weekends of River Clean-Up (Sundays, April 15, 22, 29.) Pick your date(s) and locations here.
