This week: explore downtown LA as an actor in a live-art experience, hear from cutting-edge LA architects Tom Wiscombe and Lorcan O’Herlihy, and Mexico’s Tatiana Bilbao, hear artists reach across the political/cultural divide at the Art-Past-Present discussion series, and experience dance as cultural dialogue in Santa Monica.
1 ) Remote L.A.
In recent years we’ve seen performance artists use Los Angeles as their backdrop, notably the experimental opera company the Industry which set “Hopscotch” in moving cars.
In celebration of their 50th anniversary season, Center Theatre Group has partnered with award-winning international documentary theatre team Rimini Protokoll to create an audio soundtrack that sets you up as both actor and audience on this journey. Along with 50 other people in your group, you’ll go to secret and hidden places, like hallways and alleys where you’ve probably never ventured, and experience more common sights in a whole new light. You have a role to play as you become part of your city in this interactive and perspective-bending event. Wear comfortable walking shoes – you’ll log about four miles total.
When: Now through April 2, 2017. 4 pm weekdays, 11 am and 4 pm weekends. Tour takes about 2 hours total.
Where: Patrons check in one-half hour before performance time at the Center Theatre Group walk-up box office at the Ahmanson Theatre. Parking at The Music Center is $9. From there, the group will walk about 15 minutes to begin the Remote L.A. tour at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes. The tour ends in downtown’s Financial District, about 15 minutes walk back to the Music Center.
Tickets: $39. Get tickets here – tickets are going fast! No children 6 or under; all minors must be accompanied by an adult. You will be required to sign a waiver and leave i.d. as a deposit on the headphones. Download waiver here.
2 ) Reception, lecture, and discussion with architect Tom Wiscombe
Architect and SCI-Arc faculty member Tom Wiscombe says his firm specifically avoids “scientism and its promotion of information and knowledge as viable sources or justifications for architecture,” preferring instead “mystery and the ability of architecture to allure, vex, and resist consumption.” Luckily, his work is about to become more consumable to Angelenos, now that he is building the Main Museum (above) and won the competition to design a city-owned billboard in West Hollywood. Hear from Tom in person this Tuesday in a dialogue with Stephen Phillips, director of the Cal Poly LA Metro Program in Architecture and Urban Design, which is co-hosting this event with Helms Bakery.
When: Tuesday, March 14, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Where: Helms Bakery District, 8745 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Tickets: Free and open to the public. Free Parking is available at Valet on the corner of Helms Ave. and Venice Blvd.
3) Art-Past-Present discussion series at the Wende Museum
On this DnA, Joes Segal, Chief Curator at the Wende Museum of the Cold War, suggested that artists protesting the Trump administration might have more impact if they could reach across the cultural aisle. With the Art-Past-Present discussion series Segal is trying to do exactly that. The idea is to create a space for artists and designers to “be in contact with people with other realities and other convictions.” In this first installment, artists Farrah Karapetian and Christopher Wyrick consider what it means to make art in times of irreconcilable alternative truths. It’s intended to be a platform, says Segal, “where artists but also other people from different convictions and different backgrounds meet each other and start a dialogue with each other.”
When: Thursday, March 16, 3 – 5 pm
Where: The Wende Museum, 5741 Buckingham Parkway, Suite E, Culver City, CA 90230
Tickets: Free. Please RSVP to rsvp@wendemuseum.org.
4) Lorcan O’Herlihy talks about “Amplified Urbanism”
Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA) has designed some of the most innovative multi-family buildings in Los Angeles, with eye-catching bright colors and new materials. They also differ from generic apartment buildings in a more important way: they emphasize communal spaces and connection to the public. It’s an approach Lorcan calls “Amplified Urbanism” that he has explored his ideas in a newly published book called Amplified Urbanism (featuring essays by David L. Ulin, Christopher James Alexander, Judith Lewit Mernit and Linda C. Samuels.) Learn more about his work on this DnA.
This Saturday he will talk about the ideas in the book and sign copies at DTLA’s Hennessey + Ingalls.
When: Saturday, March 18th at 3:00 pm
Where: Hennessey + Ingalls, 300 S. Santa Fe Ave., Suite M, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Tickets: Free. RSVP here.
NOTE: Tatiana Bilbao in town. In addition to talks by LA-based Tom Wiscombe and Lorcan O’Herlihy, above, emerging Mexican talent Tatiana Bilbao is also sharing her work at a talk Wednesday night at MOCA on Grand Avenue. Get all the details here. See picture of her Bioinnova building at the Monterrey Institute of Technology’s Culiacán campus, top of page.
5 ) “I’m Down” dance series
Brendan Fernandes employs dance, architecture and language in “I’m Down” an artwork inspired by, and taking place in, Pico neighborhood that surrounds 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica. Fernandes taps into his unique cultural background as a Kenyan-Indian-Canadian based in the United States for over a decade, and illustrates narratives of absence and loss around displacement through migration, gentrification and social violence. He and his dancers will develop a “gestural vocabulary” based on research into the movements of residents and commuters of the Pico neighborhood with local participants in various locations around Santa Monica, accessible via the bike and pedestrian path adjacent to the Expo Line Metro corridor.
When: Saturday, March 18, 11 am – 1 pm (also 3/21 and 3/24)
Where: (At and around) 18th Street Arts Center, 1639 18th St, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Tickets: Free and open to the public. Text “IMDOWN” to 555888 to RSVP, be informed of meeting locations and receive text-based artworks to your phone.
. . . and don’t forget. . . Tiny Houses. . .
On Saturday, the Craft and Folk Museum will raffle its Tiny House, made by a group of participants in a recent workshop. Check out the story and get tickets here.