Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst (via Luisdejesus.com)
This week is pretty performance heavy, with dance from the legendary Yvonne Rainer, an experimental performance at Pieterspace, and Doug Aitken’s sign-spinning happening. Talks by collaborative duo Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst, and death expert Paul Koudounaris, as well as the opening of a cinematic costume exhibition and a group show conceptually based on folding round out the picks. Enjoy!
TWOFOLD
Alika Cooper, Sleeper, 2014 (detail) (via southofsunset.la)
When: Opens Wednesday, October 1, 8–10pm
Where: South of Sunset (1281 West Temple Street, Echo Park, Los Angeles)
Referencing sources as varied as sci-fi author Robert Heinlein, Mad Magazine’s back cover fold-in, and William Burroughs’ “cut-up technique,” TWOFOLD brings together a group of “artists who have compelling relationships with fragmentation and re-arrangement.” Curated by Lia Trinker-Browner, the show features Alika Cooper, Jason Meadows, Eduardo Consuegra, and Keith Boadwee.
Zackary Drucker & Rhys Ernst in Conversation with Jennifer Doyle
When: Wednesday, October 1, 7pm
Where: Luis De Jesus Los Angeles (2685 S. La Cienega Boulevard, Culver City, Los Angeles)
You could say that Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst are having a moment right now. The collaborative duo were included in this year’s Whitney Biennial as well as the Hammer’s 2012 Made in LA, and were involved in the highly-praised new show Transparent, a touching and hilarious family drama that also happens to be a transgender coming-out tale. The pair’s work chronicles their own transgender journey (Drucker from male to female, Ernst from female to male) through photography and film. In conjunction with their current show at Luis De Jesus, they’ll be having a public conversation with Jennifer Doyle this Wednesday. As their star rises, this may be the last chance to see them before they blow up.
Hollywood Costume
Django Unchained (via oscars.org/hollywoodcostume)
When: Opens Thursday, October 2, 11am-5pm
Where: Wilshire May Company Building (6067 Wilshire Boulevard, Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles)
LA may have to wait until 2017 for the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures to open, but for impatient cinephiles, a Hollywood costume exhibition opens this week on the site of the museum’s future home.
Traveling from the Victoria & Albert Museum, the show features more than 150 costumes from such film as The Hunger Games, Django Unchained, and American Hustle, as well as Jared Leto’s frock from Dallas Buyers Club. Also on view … (drumroll please) … the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz!
Memento Mori Lecture by Paul Koudounaris
Momento Mori (via the event’s facebook page)
When: Thursday, October 2, 7-8:30pm
Where: Brand Library & Art Center (1601 West Mountain Street, Glendale)
Get a sneak peek of Paul Koudounaris’ new book, Momento Mori, when he presents a lecture and slideshow featuring some of the world’s most macabre sites, “from burial caves in Indonesia to gilded corpses in Taiwan to skull festivals in Bolivia to decorated skeletons in Germany.” This is the author’s third book, after Empire of Death and Heavenly Bodies, (we’re sensing a theme), and is “his most ambitious, expanding his subject matter to a global level and presenting little known macabre sanctuaries in Asia, Africa, and South America.”
Yvonne Rainer: Two Works
Yvonne Rainer, Assisted Living: Do you have any money? (2013) (via Getty.edu)
When: Friday, October 3, 7:30pm; Saturday, October 4, 7:30pm
Where: The Getty Center (1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood, Los Angeles)
Yvonne Rainer is considered the grande dame of avant-garde dance, with an oeuvre that spans “multiple disciplines and movements: dance, cinema, feminism, minimalism, conceptual art, and postmodernism.”
In conjunction with her current show at the Getty, she will be presenting two new pieces. The Concept of Dust, or How do you look when there’s nothing left to move? is a work-in-progress commissioned by the Getty that deals with aging and mortality, while Assisted Living: Do You Have Any Money? “juxtaposes Laurel and Hardy, Keynesian economics, and vaudeville.” Don’t miss a chance to see live performances by this modern master.
Doug Aitken: Sign Spinning Performance
When: Saturday, October 4, 4-8pm
Where: Regen Projects (6750 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles)
Sign spinners — those pool souls you see artfully tossing small billboards on the side of the road for what we can only imagine is far too little money — are a uniquely LA phenomenon. Artist Doug Aitken gives these unsung heroes of the SoCal landscape their due, with a site-specific performance put on in conjunction with his current show at Regen Projects. The “durational happening” will take place along a two block stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard and will feature actual “LA-based street sign spinning performers and text written uniquely for this work.” A signing for the artist’s new book 100 YRS will accompany the event on the gallery’s roof from 6–8pm.
g a p s, Mara Poliak & Maryanna Lachman (via pieterpasd.com)
g a p s
When: Monday, October 6, 8:30pm
Where: Pieterspace (420 West Avenue 33, Unit 10, Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles)
g a p s is an ongoing collaboration between Oakland-based performers Maryanna Lachman and Mara Poliak. According to the artists’ website, “integral to the development of the work are three archetypes, and we have worked extensively into and out of these states: one eyed cat, mermaid, and dead bug.” It is unclear exactly what form this performance will take, but it will no doubt be engaging, being held at this intimate and experimental performance space.
