Countdown of Biennial Highlights...Nina Waisman

Nina Waisman, Between Bodies / Tijuana, 2008-2010;
First showing 2008; new site-specific iteration for OCMA (with new sound), 2010;
Site-specific mixed media, computer, software, electronics, audio equipment;
With Pure Data programming by Maruis Schebella, runs continuously, interaction times vary;
Dimensions variable; Photograph of guests within the installation courtesy of ColinYoung-Wolff.com

"I spent 10 minutes walking back and forth, waving my hands and orchestrating, addicted."
—Dave Barton, OC Weekly

Biennial Artist: Nina Waisman

Nina Waisman is a new-media artist based in San Diego. Often situated in transitional public spaces, her site-specific, interactive installations explore the relationship between the body and physical space and place. Her installation Between Bodies/Tijuana, as Waisman explains, “uses technology to connect visitors’ gestures to everyday work and play sound-gestures, recorded throughout Tijuana, focusing on aspects of richly layered lives that are not being portrayed by mass media.” The piece has a similar sonic structure as a theremin—the position of the visitor’s body within the museum interacts and shifts the pitch, speed, and volume of the emanating city sounds of Tijuana, establishing a gestural and sonic dialog between the two locations.

Sounds from the streets of Tijuana include:

Border gates (pedestrian entrance into Tijuana)

Taxi drivers calling for fares on Revolución

Wind chimes for sale near Revolución

Filing devalued coins into pricier tourist mementos on Revolución

Bike-horn used to advertise sweet ices to passers-by on Revolución

Street musicians playing Fara-Fara for market-goers near Revolución

Making tortillas in a corner restaurant on the way to 5 Y 10

Die-cutting cardboard for packaging in Colonia Chilpancingo

Typing online reports of toxic manufacturing practices in Chilpancingo-based factories (these factories produce consumer items for the US market)

Pushcart salesman calling for ice cream sales in residential streets of Colonia Chilpancingo

Raking up street rubble to prevent it being thrown by cars at pedestrians in Los Laureles

Hammering repairs on improvisational housing in Los Laureles

Jump-roping girls on the street of Los Laureles

Boys and men digging a ditch along the street in Los Laureles

Children riding tricycles and bikes in circles outside their homes in Los Laureles

Norteño music played in a street market in ejido Maclovio Rojas

Car-mounted advertising playing through the streets of Maclovio Rojas

Telecommunicating via dial-up (volunteers in community-run government offices in Maclovio Rojas seeking basic services and constitutionally-granted title to community land, in the face of global corporations’ attempts to privately acquire this land)

Ice cream truck heard throughout the streets of Maclovio Rojas

Children working in the market in Maclovio Rojas

Bike bells advertising push-cart sales

Roosters raised for cockfights

Military helicopters

Police sirens

Footsteps

Wind

Birds

Countdown of Biennial Highlights...Wu Tsang

Wu Tsang, Damelo Todo (Give Me Everything), 2010;
HD video, color, sound; 20:07 min.; Courtesy of the artist

"[Damelo Todo (Give Me Everything)] interweaves unexpected subjects in unforeseen ways." –Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times

Biennial Artist: Wu Tsang

Wu Tsang is a Los Angeles-based artist working in film, performance, social practice, and identity and gender politics. Tsang co-organized the party/performance night WILDNESS at MacArthur Park’s Silver Platter, a family-owned bar and refuge to the Latina transgender immigrant community. Damelo Todo (Give Me Everything) examines the intersection of the Silver Platter and WILDNESS, envisioning partying as community building, cultural exchange, and cultural production. By adopting the style of a documentary, Tsang hopes “to impact as many people as possible to see an important ‘ambiguity of being’ that is shared by transgender and immigrant communities.”

California Biennial Closing Celebration: Sun, March 13, 2011!



OCMAscots dancing with guests



Enjoy hands-on craft projects inspired
 by the works in the Biennial!



Meet Illustrator Robin Glasser from 12-2 pm


















Sunday, March 13, 2011, 11 am–4 pm
Biennial Closing Day Celebration
Don't miss your last chance to see the 2010 California Biennial before it ends!
Enjoy free admission and Free Second Sundays programming including performances by the students of the Orange County Educational Arts Academy, story time with Fancy Nancy series illustrator, Robin Glasser, and projects inspired by our vibrant Biennial artists before they March on!

Schedule:
11 am
Program Begins

11 am–4 pm
Hands-on Projects
Museum Education Center
Orange Court Patio

11:30 am–12 pm
Interactive family tour through the 2010 California Biennial
Museum Galleries

12–12:30 pm
Story time with Fancy Nancy series illustrator, Robin Glasser
Museum Pavilion

12–2 pm
Book signing and activity with Fancy Nancy illustrator Robin Glasser
Museum Pavilion
Orange Court Patio

12:30–1 pm
Student performances presented by OCEAA
Museum Pavilion

1–1:30 pm Public Tour through the 2010 California Biennial
Museum Galleries

1:30–2 pm
Artist Talk with Biennial artist John Zurier
Museum Galleries

2:15–3 pm
Student performances presented by OCEAA
Museum Pavilion

2–3:30 pm
Open Engagement
Museum Galleries

3–3:30 pm
Interactive family tour through the 2010 California Biennial
Museum Galleries

4 pm
Program Concludes

Countdown of Biennial Highlights...Luke Butler

Luke Butler, Landing Party II, 2009; Acrylic on canvas;
26 x32 in.; Courtesy of the artist and Silverman Gallery, San Francisco

Biennial Artist: Luke Butler
Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times describes Luke Butler's approach to his Enterprise series "like a Pre-Raphaelite consecrating mythic national literature or Benjamin West painting The Death of of General Wolfe in 1770." Butler’s paintings from this series contemplate issues of masculinity and mortality. Using stills taken directly from episodes of Star Trek, Butler carefully and faithfully isolates and captures the sorrow, loss, confusion, and vulnerability of the characteristically heroic male figures in the popular television series.  Yet, while he is drawn to such heroic narratives, he is also skeptical of the notion of the hero’s invulnerability. For him, “the hero must always win, but he must fall first.  Isolating him there, in his cycle of agony, makes for a story that starts in his world and hopefully illuminates ours.”  At every instance of Captain Kirk’s struggle and pain, Butler observes a pantheon of pathos, of noble and virtuous suffering that is simultaneously shallow, absurd, and poignant.  Butler lives and works in San Francisco.

Countdown of Biennial Highlights...Zoe Crosher

 

Zoe Crosher, Like Miko Smiling for Christopher Williams, 2008;
From the Reconsidered Archive of Michelle duBois;
Black and white fiber print, edition 10 +2 AP;
19 3/4 x 23 3/4; Collection of Siri Kaur



Biennial Artist: Zoe Crosher

Using images and ephemera from the archive of mythical figure Michelle duBois, Zoe Crosher explores ongoing themes such as identity, travel, transience, and obsolescence through analog photography and its outmoded states of production, collection, compulsion, and collapse. She has extensively rephotographed, scanned, and reordered duBois’s slippery self–portraits into a recontextualized archive. Michelle duBois, to whom Crosher bears a slight physical resemblance, is one of five aliases kept by an aspiring flight attendant who turned tricks to sustain her travels across the Pacific Rim in the 1970s and 1980s. She took on many different costumed guises and kept fanatical documentation of her many dramatic transformations. Crosher has fixed in on duBois’s transient obsessions, culling from crates, boxes, and photo albums consisting of endless flirtatious smiles, tourist shots, cheesecake mementos, and suggestive poses in every film type and size. Activating the archive by making pictures of these pictures, Crosher’s work finds form in installation techniques as varied as the archive itself. Always suspecting the authenticity of the original, the work ideally thrives in the soft spaces between fantasy and fiction, documentation and theatricality, and individuation and anonymity.

Countdown of Biennial Highlights...Drew Heitzler

Drew Heitzler, There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand, 2010
Inkjet prints on watercolor paper Prints: 11 5/8 x 10 ¼ in. each;
overall dimensions variable; Courtesy of the artist;
Blum & Poe, Los Angeles; and Renwick Gallery, New York

Biennial Artist: Drew Heitzler
Dubbed "simultaneously nostalgic and finger-flipping" by Dave Barton of OC Weekly, Drew Heitzler’s installation, There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand (2010), includes approximately 60 images of and related to Orange County. The images become intertwined through their relationship to the history of the region; taking inspiration from KB Homes, the television show Arrested Development, Disney's three little pigs, Mischa Barton, the California Wing Chun Association, Fashion Island, John Glenn, President Richard Nixon, the Wild Animal Park, the Huntington Beach surfer riot, and the Norton P-61 aircraft, to name just a few—exploring the notions of value, perception, and histories in Orange County.

Final Week of CA Biennial! Countdown of Biennial Highlights...Taravat Telepasand

Taravat Talepasand, The Censored Garden, 2008;

Egg tempera and gold leaf on linen; 44 x 30 in.;

Collection of Michael Frank Black, Scottsdale, Arizona

Image courtesy of the artist and Marx and Zavatterro, San Francisco

Biennial Artist: Taravat Talepasand

San Francisco-based artist Taravat Talepasand, of Iranian descent, explores the intersections between dual cultural traditions—American/Persian, insider/outsider, male/female. In Censored Garden (2008), she addresses the marriage between beauty and ugliness, desire and censorship, tradition and innovation. The painting, made of egg tempura paint and gold leaf, depicts a traditional Persian flower motif with pixilated imagery that reveals and conceals.

California Biennial closes Sunday, March 13, 2011!

Biennial Blog readers: Mention this blog and receive 2-for-1 admission + 10% off the catalog through 3/13/11!


UPCOMING BIENNIAL EVENTS:
Saturday, March 5, 2011:
1–2 pm, Dance performance by Flora Wiegmann



Biennial Artist Flora Wiegmann performance;
photography by ColinYoung-Wolff.com



























Sunday, March 6, 2011:
11 am–5 pm, Incidental performances by Carlee Fernandez throughout the day
12–2 pm, Filming by Biennial artists Finishing School
1 pm, Public Tour of CA Biennial exhibition
2 pm, Sunday Salons: Artists in Residence featuring Sherin Guirguis and Andy Kolar

Biennial Artist in Residence Sherin Guirguis;
photography by ColinYoung-Wolff.com



Biennial Artist in Residence Andy Kolar
with Curator Sarah Bancroft;
photography by ColinYoung-Wolff.com



Biennial artist Carlee Fernandez performance;
photography by ColinYoung-Wolff.com

Biennial artists Finishing School film installation;
photography by ColinYoung-Wolff.com

Sunday, March 13, 2011:
Final day to view CA Biennial & Free Second Sundays
11–4 pm, Free Second Sundays: Closing Day Celebration
Don't miss your last chance to see the 2010 California Biennial before it ends! Enjoy unique performances by the students of the Orange County Educational Arts Academy, story time with Fancy Nancy series illustrator, Robin Glasser, artist talk with Biennial artist John Zurier, and projects inspired by our vibrant Biennial artists before they March on!

Schedule:
11 am
Program Begins

11 am–4 pm
Hands-on Projects
Museum Education Center
Orange Court Patio

11:30 am–12 pm
Interactive family tour through the 2010 California Biennial
Museum Galleries

12–12:30 pm
Story time with Fancy Nancy series illustrator, Robin Glasser
Museum Pavilion

12–2 pm
Book signing and activity with Fancy Nancy illustrator Robin Glasser
Museum Pavilion
Orange Court Patio

12:30–1 pm
Student performances presented by OCEAA
Museum Pavilion

1–1:30 pm Public Tour through the 2010 California Biennial
Museum Galleries

1:30–2 pm
Artist Talk with Biennial artist John Zurier
Museum Galleries

2:15–3 pm
Student performances presented by OCEAA
Museum Pavilion

2–3:30 pm
Open Engagement
Museum Galleries

3–3:30 pm
Interactive family tour through the 2010 California Biennial
Museum Galleries

4 pm
Program Concludes

 

OCMAscot dance workshop during
February's Free Second Sundays





1:30 pm, Artist Talk with
Biennial Artist John Zurier

February's Free Second Sundays
Project of the Month!

Flora Wiegmann Dance Performance Tonight

Flora Wiegmann performance for 2010 CA Biennial; photography by ColinYoung-Wolff.com

Catch her if you can! Biennial artist Flora Wiegmann dance performance in the galleries tonight 6-7 pm. http://ow.ly/42VFC

Thursday, Feb. 17th: Biennial Artist Talk by Alexandra Grant

 Image: Alexandra Grant within her installation for 2010 CA Biennial; Photography by ColinYoung-Wolff.com  OCMA Third Thursdays February 17, 2011 7 pm Curatorial Tour 8 pm Artist talk by Alexandra Grant Free with museum admission Every third Thursday of the month, join members of OCMA's curatorial and education departments for an insider's look at our galleries and stay late for special talks and video screenings hosted by 2010 California Biennial artists.oin members of OCMA's curatorial and education departments for an insider's look at our galleries and stay late for special talks and video screenings hosted by 2010 California Biennial artists. *Special members' event to be held at 6 pm before Grant artist talk: Members' Meet Up, RSVP required

Hot Off the Press!

Softcover, 10.5 x 7.875 in., 208 pages, 225 color images
Original price $39.95
Discounted price $35.96 (amount saved $3.99)

Biennial Blog fans take 10% off the newly-released California Biennial exhibition catalog through February 28, 2011!
Enter member#: BLOG at checkout.

PURCHASE CATALOG NOW!

$15 Student Biennial Bus Tickets!

California Biennial Artists Nina Waisman and Flora Wiegmann collaborate on a new CUBO project, as part of the Collective Show, Los Angeles.

Open this Thursday-Sunday, in conjunction with  Art Los Angeles Contemporary Art Fair

Location 995, 997 North Hill Street Los Angeles CA 90012

Exhibition Thursday through Sunday, January 27-30, 2011, 12-6 pm

show info:

http://www.collectiveshow.org/LA/

talks, performance info:

http://www.collectiveshow.org/LA/la-events.php

Impediment is the most recent iteration of the CUBO project, made by CUBO members Jenny Donovan, Gaby Torres Olivares, Nina Waisman & Flora Wiegmann 

Impediment explores relationships between bodily logics and cultural/political logics provoked by the US/Mexican border. How do these logics play on the experiences of those who cross the border, as well as on those who do not or can not cross?

One of our members, an active writer and artist with US exhibits, collaborators and audiences, is not allowed yet to cross into the US. One member lives in Tijuana and crosses legally and frequently for work in San Diego, one member lives in San Diego and crosses regularly for work and social reasons, and one lives in LA and has only been to the border twice. Yet all of us carry records of the border in our bodies, whether we are conscious of them or not. Impediment is a collaborative, experimental sketch, exploring postures and attitudes mapped onto our bodies by the built and virtual borders.

The CUBO project first began as an assemblage of pallets, a folding, unfolding, re-assembling, occasional cube, disturbed by sound and focused on issues in public culture. In various iterations, it gained urban mobility, interactivity, hosted radio waves and community-created sound content, lost all its materials, found new ones, lost them again. CUBO is in constant transformation.

More images and video here:

http://www.ninawaisman.net/impediment/

More on the CUBO collective here:

http://proyectocuboproyect.blogspot.com/

It's heeeere! 2010 CA Biennial catalog has arrived!



2010 CA Biennial artists with curator Sarah Bancroft;
photography by ColinYoungWolff.com



Biennial Catalog Launch Event
Sunday, January 30, 2011

1 pm Meet & greet
12:30–4 pm Rasta Taco
1–4 pm Special performances
2 pm Sunday Salon with LA Urban Rangers and Finishing School


Come celebrate the release of the 2010 California Biennial exhibition catalogue with curator Sarah Bancroft and participating artists!

Catch special performances by Biennial artists Carlee Fernandez, Finishing School, Brian Dick, and Juan Capistran, join the conversation during the Sunday Salon with the LA Urban Rangers and Finishing School, and chow down with Orange County's favorite food truck, Rasta Taco, serving taco specials on the Orange Court patio.
Preorder the catalogue now!


LA ART LOVERS: GET ON THE BUS!
Art Bus from Mandrake Bar to OCMA
$20 Roundtrip ticket (includes transportation, museum admission, Museum Store discount)
12 noon sharp, bus departs Mandrake Bar
4 pm departs OCMA
All ages welcome on bus, bar entrance ages 21+
Purchase Tickets now!

Meet at Mandrake Bar in Culver City for pre-boarding drink specials starting at 11 am, then hop on the bus & arrive at OCMA in time for the day’s festivities. Tickets must be purchased in advance on www.ocma.net and are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Mandrake Bar: 2692 South La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90034
(between Venice Blvd and Washington Blvd)
Free street parking available along La Cienega Blvd.

Agitprop: Call for Participation
From January 29th though March 5th 2011, Agitprop will be conducting a workshop in conjunction with the 2010 California Biennial. This workshop will take place at the Agitprop space in North Park (San Diego).

The title of the project is The 2837 University. The 2837 University will examine spaces in the neighborhood nearby the Agitprop space that are sites of knowledge construction- that is, places where people learn something through the exchange of ideas. These spaces can range from a table at a coffee shop where two individuals engage in conversation to more formalized instructional centers.

The 2837 University will be broken down into two parts: The first several meetings will focus on examining what and why we are looking at these spaces (see ‘Conceptual Framework’ below). The second part will ask participants to enter the neighborhood and document the spaces in question through the use of video, photos, interviews, drawings, paintings, etc, etc.

The goal of this course is to act as a participatory feasibility study in order to determine if Agitprop should expand its interests into the field of education and to see if a “university” could be pieced together from preexisting spaces that lend themselves to the construction of some form of knowledge.

The workshop will convene every Saturday from 3-5pm during the dates stated above. A complete schedule will be distributed upon registration. Registration is free.

To register, or for further information, email contact@agitpropspace.org with 2837 University in the subject line.

Thank you and we hope you participate!

David White and Edward Sterrett


Conceptual Framework:

The 2837 University is a project that re-imagines the Agitprop space and the surrounding neighborhood as the site of a micro-university, with the goal of opening a conversation about re-purposing the concept of University Education in the context of the ongoing critique of the corporatization of the University. We will begin by investigating the relation of the construction of a mass consumer class in the US after WWII and the formulation of a new concept of individuality that borrowed its notion of self-expression from the legacy of Romanticism, all the while yoking the seeming freedom of expression to the profit system of hyper-inflated production and infinite obsolescence. As the university system is increasingly dominated by corporate interest, the very notion of the student is replaced by that of the consumer, and the value of a university education is understood strictly in terms of the acquisition of readily available skills and knowledge bases that are immediately transferable to exchange value. We might begin from the question of what has been lost; what was the notion of the university student before it became the university consumer? And we might begin provisionally with the idea that education, the work of the student, is to come to terms with a freedom that, far from being the trap of infinite choice that masks itself as the freedom of a consumer class, is in fact the work that one does on oneself in order to free oneself from one’s limitations. The question remains, how to construct one’s own individuality without succumbing to the myopia that characterizes the absolute atomization of a self-interested consumer class, how to reclaim and reconstruct a social fabric that is not at all points grounded in the logic of the market, and how the structure of the University itself, which encourages the excessive borrowing, atomized suburban living arrangements and passive resistance strategies characteristic of the trap of the consumer class, can be retooled to encourage and make possible the work of the student, a work that continues despite all these hindrances,perhaps we could rethink the University as a space which is made by the work of the student however and wherever that may take place? The 2837 University will run from January to March of 2011; during this time the space will also play host to a series of installations, screenings, and performances that address and contribute to the conversation initiated by the project.

For more information, visit http://agitpropspace.org/.