Books

There are some people who can’t see a film without unleashing their inner critic.  So long as they’re not doing it in your ear during the film, there’s nothing wrong with a little constructive criticism. Studying up on film and all that goes into it can help those critics sound less like Randy Jackson on “American Idol” and more like Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers.  Neil Landau’s book, 101 Things I Learned in Film School is just the kind of thing you need to get up to speed so that your judging the mise-en-scene and the juxtaposition as opposed to the Cameron Diaz’ comedic timing.

Landau will be signing and reading from his book at Book Soup in West Hollywood on Thursday night, giving you a crash course in everything from camera angles to getting financing.  Landau is a screenwriter whose credits include Doogie Howser MD and Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead. We know what you’re thinking, but this book is chock full of actual advice and lessons learned.  In Los Angeles, its smart to know these things even if you work in an entirely different business – it’ll help your client base as a dentist, for example, if you can ask a producer how his or her premiere went or what the latest box office numbers were.  It’s all about the universal language of film.

Neil Landau will be signing and reading from 101 Things I Learned in Film School on Thursday, May 27 at 7pm for FREE.  For more information, please click here.

On a recent Saturday night, nearly a hundred participants slept under Westwood’s stars inside the courtyard of the Hammer Museum. A massive sleepover, just like when you were a kid, only it was one of LA’s most beloved art institutions. People weren’t shouting in the ever-quiet galleries, running amok in the hallways, and getting nose to nose with fine art. But they did get to do acrobatics in the lobby, and burst into song during lectures, as part of the topic of the evening—dreams.

The “Dream-In” event, run in tandem by the Machine Project and artSpa in honor of The Red Book of C.G. Jung exhibit. Dreamers—or guests—were encouraged to log their night visions in journals after a host of experimental dream workshops and a night of camping out in the courtyard.

The mix of mostly 20-to-30-something, bespectacled museum-goers were a quiet group, some even passing out on their makeshift beds for the night before the two workshops of the evening. The seminars, however, operated much like dreams themselves: loosely organized, edging on whimsical and abstract, rather than analytical or didactic. The leaders of the workshops weren’t prophets, professors or psychoanalysts, but rather the kind of artist you’d find decorating the walls of a Silver Lake gallery or making an appearance at The Smell.

Take the spry Marc Herbst, who channeled the Jungian archetype of  “the self” in his workshop “Dream Acrobatics.” Here, he played master of his universe, at once directing participants in an arrangement of four lines to shout “Dream!” with a fist-pump in the air when they crossed one another, while later, ordering museum-all-nighter’s to climb onto one another, two-by-two, with one member taking flight in a superman pose atop their partner’s feet. The superman/superwoman then recited their dream and the person below repeated the tale of the vision. The experience invited smiles and laughter. There was a general spirit of hope that the “Dream-In” was part of something important, expanding knowledge of what we all share in our collective minds.

But then came the prospect of actually sleeping—some hands slick with sweat at the nerves of getting close next to other campers, a cue that there was maybe more disconnect than true shared experience. Camp site neighbors barely exchanged words to one another.

“I almost went home. I had to convince my friend to stay,” a middle-aged UCLA student brushing her teeth in the bathroom said. The student was surprised that there wasn’t more of a connection to Jung, and was disappointed in her workshops of what she called “basic guided meditation.” She would have preferred Jung’s music of choice—Mozart—but admitted to liking the second band of evening, the aptly named Moon, whose ethereal sounds lulled the museum’s residents into slumber.

A recent college graduate getting ready for bed in his al fresco compound, a yoga mat layered with a sleeping bag, smiled widely, reflecting on the “cool” experience of a “Dream-In” staff storyteller nuzzling up next to him to spin some bedtime yarn. “She tucked me in and got so close I thought she was going to kiss me,” he grinned, appearing to have discovered the Hammer as his personal Shangri La for the night.

“This event is really special. The people are really quiet and respectful,” a hiply attired Hammer employee said on her post-midnight work shift. This seemed to be the general consensus of the Hammer staff, elated that the night was going off without a hitch.

“It would have been cool if there were different stations,” a bleary-eyed participant shrugged, blankets in hand the next day. She found it odd that there was only a wake-up concert in the morning led by the melodic, clear voice of Claire Cronin. There were no more dream-related activities, raising the question of what the purpose was of the dream journals and spending the night? Sure, no one wants to sit through hours upon hours of other peoples’ dreams—yawn—but they do want to dive into their own subconscious and come up to air with answers.

In the end, though, it was only questions. Do the cryptic dream images, as Jung so insistently examined, reveal something about our selves? Our relationships with others?  The everyday of our waking lives? Insight to these answers, like the doors of the Hammer Museum, remained locked for the night.

- By Sophia Kercher

The Red Book of C.G. Jung exhibit is up at the Hammer Museum in Westwood until June 6, 2010. For more information about the exhibit, as well as other special events, please call (310) 443-7000, or visit www.hammer.ucla.edu.

Ever wonder what happened to Ed Templeton?  That professional skateboarder turned internationally renowned artist, photographer, D.I.Y. innovator, entrepreneur, ‘Beautiful Loser,’ and book publisher?  Well if you haven’t, then Ed Templeton has.

His eclectic career as both a skater and an artist has always seemed to be about his own relationship to time and motion.  In his famous photography book, Teenage Smokers, for instance, each medium to close-up image of a young person with a cigarette has the feeling of personal impermanence, like a flash-memory of a kid you might have seen at the mall once when you were nine.

Templeton, especially in his most recent work, seems to be obsessed with these fragile, ephemeral moments, and what they might mean.  His 2008 book, Deformer, which took him 11 years to complete, examines his youth growing up in the ultra-conservative suburban “incubator” of Orange County, using childhood letters, notes, photographs, sketches, and paintings to tell his story with as much physical accuracy as possible—even if it’s all long gone.

His latest photography show, The Seconds Pass, at the Roberts and Tilton Gallery in Culver City once again has Templeton on the move.  These thirty-some separate collages of pictures, mostly all taken from the vantage point of a moving vehicle, attempt to capture exactly where he’s been these last few years, so as not to miss a passing second.

Ed Templeton’s The Seconds Pass can be viewed at the Roberts and Tilton Gallery in Culver City until April 3.  Roberts and Tilton is located at 5801 Washinton Blvd.  For more information, please call (323) 549-0223, or visit www.robertsandtilton.com.

There’s that old rule of thumb that you shouldn’t worry too much about little things – will you even remember what you were worried about 6 months from now? What about a year from now?  Well… what about ten years ago – do you remember?  This video does.  It’s a great time capsule of magazine covers published over the last ten years that chronicle all we’ve been through.  We think Kanye West’s “Stronger” would have been more appropriate for background music, but… anyway, enjoy!

Pablo Uribe, Atardecer, 2008 (Dusk) - video still

This year, the Los Angeles Art Show made its home at Los Angeles Convention Center.  This change of venue provided more space for gallery booths that ranged from contemporary works such as the Wall Project’s Shepard Fairey and Thierry Noir painted walls to landscapes galore — and even more room for project-based installations.

The Vox Humana on-site art performance presented street artists Mear One, Kofie, Retna, and El Mac who all showed off their talents over the length of the fair on large-scale canvases.  And speaking of more room, I wondered how Sidestreet Projects got one of their woodworking workshop buses into the fair.  These school buses are outfitted with project stations so that elementary school children can make a nuts and bolts washer sandwich and one FUNdred dollar bills, which I am sure we all could use more of these days.

One of my favorite pieces of the art fair was Pablo Uribe’s video, Atardecer (2008), which screened in a makeshift dark room in the Guest Country program booth’s rear.  While looking at the other works from the 34° 53’ 0” S – 56° 10’ 0” W show, I heard animals sounds curiously mix with the ambient art fair noise.  When stepping into the screening area, I saw a video of an older man standing before a black background looking as if he were about to perform a gorgeous aria.  Instead of sweet notes pouring out of his mouth, the sound of a dog’s bark came out.  And then the cooing of a bird!  The actor was imitating the sounds of native rain forest animals.

Willy Rojas, Egg

Willy Rojas’ photographs at Barcelona’s Villa del Arte booth depicted miniature figurines interacting with their environment made up of food.  Tiny people ski down slopes of salt or a wedge of hard cheese.  A man broke the shell of an egg with his sledgehammer while a couple ice skates on an orange hued soup.

Speaking of food, the Timothy Yarger Gallery presented Jean Wells’ The Giant Kiss quite literally.  The huge chocolate-scented foil wrapped sculpture demanded a tongue-in-cheek presence while paying homage to Claes Oldenburg’s shop.

The Rebecca Hossack Gallery held quite a few treats, including a gorgeous papel picado-esque paper cutting in the shape of a peacock (Ian Penney), a piece of toast with an image of Shakespeare burnt onto it à la the Virgen de Guadalupe (Maria Morrow), and also Phil Shaw’s photographs of brightly colored bookshelves, which was a voyeur’s delight to snoop the book titles.

And on my way out, I spotted three Jeff Koon’s puppy vases filled with fresh flowers guarding Jean Dubuffet’s Tapis at the Jane Kahan Gallery.  In my mind, they were the guardians of the LA Art Show — a much friendlier and kitsch version of Cerberus.

It’s hard trying to keep up on what’s what.  Here is round-up of art news that came our way:

• More than just a hobby — There are some people making serious cash with arts and crafts.  No macaroni sculptures or macramé to be found.  And it will make you want to consider taking up knitting.  [New York Times]

• Don’t just dress like an artist –  Read like one, too.  Inspired by Jerry Saltz’s book, An Ideal Syllabus, Tyler Green asks artists their favorite or most-valued books.  Your Amazon wishlist will be growing.  [Modern Art Notes]

• The Power List – There aren’t too many power suits to be found in the art world.  Well, maybe a few.  Here is Art + Auction’s list of power players for the year.  [Art + Auction]

• ‘Tis the season for top tens — Here we go: fascinating museum exhibitions, architecture moments, classical music moments, and theatre productions.  [LA Times]

• Lost, then found — A Leonardo da Vinci painting stolen in 2003 has been recovered and is now exhibited at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh.  Whew!  Close one…  [BBC]

• Not just regular ol’ archaeology — It’s artist archaeology?  Teams of scientists are looking into where’s the final remains of Caravaggio. [Telegraph]

• Yes or no? — What is contemporary art and what isn’t contemporary art.  You decide.  [e-flux]

• The course load — It isn’t Drawing 101 anymore.  Here’s a few art classes across the country that weren’t offered when you were in school.  Times are a-changin’.  [Art Net]

• New year, new leadership – The Downtown Art Walk announces a new executive director: Jay Lopez, the force behind Beyond Eden, East Hollywood Day of the Dead, and the Silver Lake Gallery Alliance. [LA Magazine]

• In the knick of time – The Centre Pompidou reopens after a 24 day strike just in time for your Christmas in Paris.  That is, if you are getting sick of your 80 degree weather in LA.  [Art Info]

I admit to more than a little skepticism over the idea that three actors could pull off anything resembling a credible reading of Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.” The press release swore they could do it all in 80 minutes. Yeah, right.

Still, it was offered by A Noise Within – one of the nation’s leading repertory companies and the only classical repertory company in Southern California.  How bad could it be? My fascination with the audacity of the concept lured me to Glendale.

Because of the theatre’s thrust stage configuration, the audience enters the realm of the play when they step into the house. From the first scene onward, characters magically emerge from and disappear into the mist of dreams, imagination and non-linear time, under director Craig Belknap’s admirable realization of this adaptation by Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus.

Among the three actors executing this monumental assignment is Michael A. Newcomer as the tormented Raskolnikov. Making his ANW debut, Newcomer moves subtly from the cerebral to the visceral over the course of the play. A great admirer of Napoleon, Raskolnikov aspires to the perpetration of world-changing mayhem, theorizing that men of great intelligence and vision are not bound by the laws which bind the masses. One surmises he would have idolized Hitler. But great sociopaths are born, not made. On his quest for greatness, Raskolnikov’s fatal flaw is conscience.

Also new to ANW, Holly Hawkins does quadruple duty as the self-sacrificing young prostitute, Sonia, as Raskolnikov’s mother, the abusive old pawnbroker, and the pawnbroker’s passive sister. Hawkins is an actress of considerable skills and fleshes out the characters with an admirable economy of gesture and expression. Here, however, is where the addition of one more actor – in the role of the young prostitute Sonia, through whose love Raskolnikov is redeemed – would have improved the production.

ANW resident artist Robertson Dean plays the Inspector and various other characters.  He is mesmerizing in his cat-and-mouse scenes with Newcomer, and both touching and repellent as Sonia’s alcoholic father.

- By Penny Orloff

“Crime and Punishment” runs in repertory with Shakespeare’s “Richard III” at A Noise Within.  For more information, please visit their website or call 818-240-0910.

Recently, an 11-hour flight whizzed by as I poured over the newly released and much-hyped The Beat and the Buzz: Inside the LA Art World — billed as “one-third a history of the Los Angeles art world since 1970, one-third about the psycho-dynamics of how people make it, or don’t, and one-third art world gossip and stories.” As I surveyed Richard Hertz’s 300+ page anthology of thirty-three interviews with the prevailing art world archetypes (artists, curators, dealers, and artists), I was perpetually reminded of a book I had read more than a decade ago: Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  Hertz’s revelatory interviews are essentially case studies of success in the art world, and thus offer their own guiding principles for how to be effective in this particular field:

Habit #1: Believe that art is the alpha and the omega
The terms passion, desire, necessity, and even religion were applied to art repeatedly in these pages. Emi Fontana and Edward Goldman go so far as to say that the art speaks to them. “Whatever else might be said of these stories, they are borne out of lives lived passionately” (Ezrha Jean Black) and lived with art as their starting and end point.

Habit #2: Network, network, network
One thing abundantly clear from these stories is that people’s connections and relationships were as pivotal to their success as education and experience. Networking with colleagues, friends, and friends of friends expands the possibilities infinitely; therefore, attendance at gallery openings, artist dinners, and museum fundraisers is an imperative. “When I met people, it wasn’t just out of thin air” (Arnold 305).

Habit #3: Carpe Diem
Often times, the difference between failure and success is simply answering the door when opportunity knocks. Seize the day. “We were walking down the street; it was one o’clock in the morning, and Ken said, ‘That’s where Robert Rauschenberg lives.’ The lights were on. We said, ‘Should we? Yeah, why not?’ We knocked on the door” (Grinstein 112-3).

Habit #4: Study, worship, and emulate John Baldessari (if you’re an artist) or Walter Hopps (if you’re anyone else)
While the thriving LA art scene couldn’t possibly have been hoisted on the shoulders of only two men, one can say with absolute certainty that they each, in their own way, left an indelible impact. With one or both mentioned (and highly praised) in nearly every chapter, if you’re looking for an Art World Idol, these two are more than worthy.

Habit # 5: Rise above the fear of not knowing “how”
Fear — of the unknown, of failure, of not knowing precisely how to achieve something — not only prevents success, according to artist Alexis Smith, it holds people back from even imagining. “If you are like Gagosian and are completely fearless, are not afraid of failure or of other people, and are driven by your own goals and have positive thoughts about what you want to happen, it will happen” (Berman 233).

Habit #6: Don’t try to reinvent the wheel; find your own niche
While we’d all like to be the next Larry Gagosian or Hans Ulrich Obrist, we must remember that they didn’t follow in anyone’s footsteps, but rather invented the roles of megadealer and supercurator. Movers and shakers find their own path. “I began to wonder why there wasn’t a Palm Beach gallery that had an aggressive international program and went to art fairs, a real gallery. I decided to investigate the possibilities” (Gavlak 108).

Habit #7: There isn’t a formula; carve your own path to success.
Aspiring curators shouldn’t presume that an M.A. from Harvard + Ph.D. from Bard Center for Curatorial Studies equals curating the Venice Biennale, nor should artists suppose that a B.A. from Yale + M.F.A. from UCLA guarantees Gagosian representation & a MoMA retrospective. Success in the art world is much more organic than formulaic, more like climbing a tree than a ladder. “I don’t see the art world as a rational system. It defies easy categorization. It’s a beast, a wild beast, and I’m enjoying the ride very much indeed” (Pally 300-1).

-By Rebecca Taylor

A mother prepares dinner in a sumptuously decorated upper-middle-class apartment, her movements slow and deliberate as she moves among the cold, stainless steel appliances of the kitchen, preparing dinner for her son waiting nearby. Their conversation is banal, barely audible. Despite the seemingly commonplace setting and actions, however, an eerie tension grows, almost palpable as we wait for some sort of a release. Much of the action in Purgatorio, Romeo Castellucci’s experimental approach to Dante Alighieri’s second part of the Divine Comedy, stretches on in this manner for the majority of the play, with a sense of sadness that grows so greatly under the pressure of the monotony, one hardly flinches when it finally bursts.

The play’s Italian-born writer and director, Romeo Castellucci, debuted at the age of 20 as a theatrical producer, quickly establishing the Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio with Chiara Guidi and Claudia Castellucci in 1981. He went on to write and produce a litany of other productions, including, notably, the 37th Venice Biennale’s theater section, titled Pompeii: The Novel of the Ash, for which he received a UBU award in 2006. He is a prolific writer, having published numerous books and essays on his personal theories of stagecraft and dramaturgy.  His ideas for a new kind of theater have earned him international notoriety. Castellucci’s chief aim has been to liken theater to more integrally perceptible arts, such as music or painting, that can be appreciated on a level that exists somewhere above spoken language.

The play, co-produced by UCLA Live and showing at the Freud Playhouse until tomorrow night, certainly embodies Castellucci’s vision for this new kind of theater. It is intensely personal, taking the themes of sin and forgiveness so integral to Alighieri’s Purgatorio and twisting them into a play that is both surprisingly devoid of action yet intensely moving and disturbing.  While Dante’s journey through purgatory is a literal climb up a mountain in which he sheds the sins of his life in order to gain redemption, Castellucci’s modern rendering, centered around father, mother, and son  (perhaps the holy trinity?)  feels like a slide down into sin, with redemption coming when one least expects it, if at all.

Castellucci’s denial of a clear narrative allows him to delve into the dreamlike world of the story’s son and grapple with issues of morality abstractly rather than directly. We are moved not by the action but the lack thereof, the empty dialogue, the formal yet soft warmth of Castellucci’s lighting and set design supported by Scott Gibbon’s at once delicate and abrasive musical score. It is deliberate and rich and methodical. It is extraordinarily painful. It is profoundly beautiful. It is playing in America for the first time and not for long, so take advantage of a kind of theater you are unlikely to experience again any time soon.

- By Helen Kearns

Societas Raffaello Sanzio’s Purgatorio runs at UCLA Live’s Freud Playhouse through tomorrow evening, October 31 at 8pm.  For more information, please call (310) 825-2000 or click here.

R. Crumb, The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb, 2009. Chapter 8. Ink and correction fluid on paper. 14 3/4" x 11 1/2". Courtesy the artist; Paul Morris; and David Zwirner, New York.

Despite Christianity’s enormous influence, few people have read the Bible thoroughly.  As a work of literature, its structure is unwieldy; there are too many characters and crucial plot information seems to have been left out.  And then there is the arcane prose used in the most popular modern day translation of the Bible — the King James Version, which is about four centuries old…  As someone who was introduced to formal religion relatively late in life, I spent a good chunk of the eighth grade trying to make sense of Bible verses and catechism lessons so I could blend in with my fellow Lutheran schoolmates.  But the fact is my most visceral, memorable experience of the Bible is and always has been from the Cecil B. DeMille sword-and-sandals epic, The Ten Commandments.  Why?  Because Anne Baxter getting saucy with Yul Brynner makes a lasting impression, or more simply:  because a picture is worth a thousand words.

R. Crumb is truly a god among men — the kind of guy that can (and did) trade an armload of his own doodles and drawings for a home in France.  His contribution to comics is well known as are his various sexual proclivities and affection for ragtime music, American blues legends, and porkpie hats.  He is also the sort of person that sits religiously for hours on end drawing carefully observed and expressively rendered characters, objects, and tableaus. (Check out any one of the wonderful R. Crumb sketchbooks.)

Crumb describes his latest project as an “illustration job.”  Of course, it’s much more.  The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb is inspired and singularly unique.  Crumb is faithful to the King James biblical text and Robert Alter’s The Five Books Of Moses, incorporating passages verbatim into appropriate panels.  The result is focused and intense.  Crumb’s signature line work is both fluid and energetic, wriggling with atomic fervor.  More than mere illustration, The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb is a translation from textual to visual language.  And it’s chock full of the  good stuff… Adam and Eve, Noah’s ark, Sodom and Gommorah, Moses, etc.

Angelenos, skip the impending Armageddon of 2012 (the movie) and get yourself some R. Crumb right now: pick up his Illustrated Genesis; head over to UCLA’s Hammer Museum to see The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis, which features 207 individual, black and white drawings from all fifty chapters of the book; see Mr. Crumb in conversation at “An Evening with R. Crumb” at UCLA’s Royce Hall October 29th at 8:00; and/or view a free screening of Terry Zwigoff’s excellent 1995 documentary of Crumb on November 3rd at 7:00 at UCLA’s Hammer Museum.

- By Peter Lee

The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis opens tomorrow, October 24th, and closes February 7th, 2010 at UCLA’s Hammer Museum.  Please click here for more exhibition information as well as the programming schedule.