Opening + Performance + Out of traction and back in action + Others

“Time Writers from the Mirror Horizon”
Opening and Performance – this Saturday, July 7th, 7-10pm

“Friends,

Join us this Saturday, July 7th (07/07/07!) as we host a reception for “Time Writers from the Mirror Horizon” a show curated by LA-based artist Gabie Strong. The exhibition will feature the work of Andy Alexander, Kent Familton, Wendy Heldmann, Kathleen Johnson, Alice Konitz, Tracy Nakayama, Gina Osterloh, Sean Sullivan, Kristine Thompson and Jeremy Yoder who will be using the gallery located at 5006 ½ York Blvd. as a starship for explorations of time and space. Some might consider the word “landscape” as a proper painterly term to describe some of the work presented in this show, as an analogy for the curious rub between past, present, and future; others will just say, “far out!” We’ll also have an opening sound performance by Sharon Cheslow and Steven Kim.

The show will run from July 7th until August 4th. We have another set of performances planned for the closing featuring LA based New Zealander Helga Fassonaki as well as the musician Tom Watson.

After a short break where we attended to the delivery of a future gallery intern (future like in say, 16 years) David Patton Los Angeles will resume regular business hours (after the opening ‘natch) on Thursday the 12th of July. Those hours are Th-Sat. 12-6pm.”

Simon Münster, First Map of The New World, 1540
depicting Tokyo, Mexico City & LA in extraordinary proximity

Beyond Sunshine Quoi?: Connecting Parallel Universes

A presentation by Mizuki Endo & Mauricio Marcin.

July 5, 2007, 7pm

Monte Vista Projects
5442 Monte Vista St. (at Ave. 55)
LA, CA 90042

How can we share resources, create networks and develop opportunities for the exchange of ideas and projects internationally?

Instigated by Japanese curator Mizuki Endo, who is researching ways that alternative projects and spaces in LA can connect with similar ventures in Asia, this event is intended to open up a discussion that will form the basis of a publication on people and organizations wanting to create independent international networks.

Endo will present two alternative spaces he established in Fukuoka, Japan and Manila in the Philippines that highlight the different situations of the art system in Asia. He will be joined by Mauricio Marcin, an independent curator based in Mexico City, who will additionally talk about a range of projects that are currently operating in the metropolis.

A discussion will follow, coordinated by Danny Orendorff, curator-in-residence at ART2102.

Beyond Sunshine Quoi?: Connecting Parallel Universes is the first event in the new season of ART2102 exhibitions and projects. Throughout the summer, fall and spring, artists, writers and curators from Israel, Lithuania, Japan, Mexico and the U.S will be presenting projects that place research and inquiry at the heart of art practice.

Previous Sunshine Quoi? Events
Part 1: Sunshine Quoi?: Temporary Contemporaries
Part 2: Sunshine Quoi?: Common Sense
Part 3: Mapping Sunshine Quoi?

Mizuki Endo is a curator, art critic and organizer based in Fukuoka, Japan. Through long-term research on cultural systems in the city, he has organized various projects such as exhibitions, concerts, film screenings, symposiums, and magazines, which raise awareness of the Do-It-Youself culture that underpins the cultural life of the city. He established two alternative art spaces in Asia; Art Space Tetra (Fukuoka, 2004) and Future Prospects Art Space (Manila, 2005.) He was awarded the 3rd Lorenzo Bonaldi Art Prize (2005), has been the networking curator of ‘Singapore Biennale 2006,’ and is currently the recipient of the Japan-US Arts Program fellowship, with the Asian Cultural Council (2007.) He recently became the director of ARCUS, an international artist-in-residence program in Ibaraki, Japan.

Mauricio Marcin is an independent curator and writer based in Mexico City. From 2006-07 he was the Director of Celda Contemporanea, where he initiated a program of exhibitions that placed emphasis on the reinterpretation and reevaluation of artists’ practices during the 1960s and 1970s, focusing on artists who were pioneering in performance art, video art, and non-objective art in Mexico. Marcin’s last exhibition for this series was a retrospective of Juan José Gurrola, one of the most influential Mexican artists in the past four decades. From 2004-6 Marcin was visual arts journalist for the newspaper La Crónica de Hoy. He has also published articles and essays in magazines such as Curare, Fahrenheit, Generación and others. Currently he is developing Virus, a project which involves commissioning 40 artists, musicians, composers and writers to make a sound work, which will be broadcast as interventions into the regular programming of Ibero 90.9FM, a major radio station in Mexico City.

Danny Orendorff is an independent curator, researcher and writer currently living in San Francisco, California, pursuing a M.A. in Curatorial Practice at the California College of the Arts. He has assisted on projects and exhibitions occurring at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Phoenix, Arizona; SFCamerawork in San Francisco, California; and at the Berkeley Art Museum in Berkeley, California, where he will be co-teaching a course on ‘Digital Culture’ this Fall. Orendorff is also Project Manager for a traveling exhibition of artist source materials, the backroom. His research interests revolve around crowds, behavior and the introduction of live-elements into exhibition, including Performance, dance, experimental music and architecture, as well as digital, net-based or New Media artistic practices.

Monte Vista Projects is a new artist-run space in Highland Park that will stage regular exhibitions, conversations, events and performances. Their inaugural show First Kiss will open on Saturday, July 14 from 7pm-10pm. Visit www.montevistaprojects.com for more information.

This event is made possible in part by the generous support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

“Well I get an email submitted to Ubu anonymously– it says, “Here is a site you might like to look at. It’s called Understanding Duchamp dot-com.” Anything that is sent I look at, although most things don’t get on the site. I’m hit very hard with submissions, but I look at everything–everything is viewed or listened to. And this is a nice little site about Marcel Duchamp done well in flash. I wrote him a little note back and say, “Hey man thanks that’s cool. Good luck thanks for doing that.”

“He sends me another note that says, “Well if you like that you might like this.” And he gives me the URL to Aspen Magazine that is online and password protected. And I look at it and go, “Oh my god!” I write him back and say, “What is up with this? This is absolutely incredible!” He said, “Well, I spent years digitizing the entire contents of the Aspen Magazine boxes and put them online. But what happened when I put Understanding Duchamp online I got a legal threat from the estate of Duchamp. Who evidently have a copyright on his name, and used Duchamp in the URL, and they really wanted to shut me down. I figured if that was the problem I had with Duchamp imagine the problem I’m going to have with six hundred other artists when I put them up on the Web.” And I said to him, “Look you know what, why don’t you give it to me. I’ll take the risk, no problem, I know how to deal with cease and desists. You know I deal with them all the time.” I explained the mission, “It’s usually okay.” Whatever, whatever, whatever…

“So he gives me the whole thing and it’s absolutely incredible. And on Aspen Magazine there are fucking files by John Lennon and Yoko Ono! We have never heard from Lennon and Ono’s people. And those real–you know who has more–but again this is the avant-garde, it’s John Lennon’s radio play, it’s him twittering a dial and Yoko singing. Then the New York Times wrote up Aspen Magazine and they said to Merce Cunningham, who has an mp3 interview on there from one of the old records; “So Merce Cunningham, how do you feel about the fact that you were not asked permission but your work is up on UbuWeb?” And Merce said, “The educational value of having my words up on UbuWeb far outweighs any financial remuneration. I am thrilled that it’s there.” So that is the attitude, that’s the attitude. That is basically what Robert Wilson was saying as well. Now of course we have people like that coming to us that want their works up there. The Robert Wilson guy said, “Hey you know we’d like to talk to you about putting more stuff up.” And after this letter. [laughs] They understand the value of this site.”

Kenneth Goldsmith of the awesome UBUWEB interviewed at Archinet.

“Mitragyna speciosa – Premium Kratom Leaf

“There is much controversy with this plant due to a crop of fake Kratom from France that was distributed worldwide in the recent past. It was part of the Rubiaceae family of plants, but it had to Mitragynine in it. Our Kratom has been verified as authentic by 2 independent sources, including Daniel Siebert.

“Kratom is legal everywhere except Thailand, and is known to ease the mind and energize the body in smaller amounts, while creating a vivid meditative repose that lasts 4-6 hours in larger amounts. Typically, 14 grams of Mitragyna speciosa was extracted into water, and drank in one gulp as a tea, or made into a resinous ball, then swallowed.

“This very rare herb is found only in very remote areas of South East Asia, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, and elsewhere. Its botanical name is Mitragyna speciosa and is in the same family as the coffee tree Rubiaceae. Kratom leaves have long been used for medicinal purposes to treat diarrhea, worms and in Bangkok tuk-tuk drivers consume Kratom as an amphetamine substitute. In Malaysia an other parts of the world its used to help heal opium addiction.

“Over 25 alkaloids have been isolated from Kratom. The most abundant alkaloids consist of three indoles and two oxindoles. The three indoles are mitragynine, paynanthine, and speciogynine – the first two of which appear to be unique to this species. The two oxindoles are mitraphylline and speciofoline. Other alkaloids present include other indoles, and oxindoles such as ajmalicine, corynanthedine, mitraversine, rhychophylline, and stipulatine.

“Alkaloid content varies from place to place and at different times. Within each location, there is a quantitative variation in alkaloid content from month to month. While indole content seems to be fairly stable, oxindole content shows tremendous variation.

“Mitragynine is the dominant alkaloid in the plant. It was first isolated in 1907 by D. Hooper, a process repeated in 1921 by E. Field who gave the alkaloid its name. Its structure was first fully determined in 1964 by D. Zacharias, R. Rosenstein and E. Jeffrey. It is structurally related to both the yohimbe alkaloids and voacangine. The alkaloid content of the leaves of Mitragyna speciosa is about 0.5%, about half of which is mitragynine. An average leaf weighs about 1.7 grams fresh or 0.43 grams dried. Twenty leaves contain approximately 17mg of mitragynine. All leaves appear to contain mitragynine, speciogynine, paynanthine, and small quantities of speciociliatine. Oxindole alkaloids usually occur only in small or trace ammounts.

“Kratom has quickly become our top selling item here at the shop, and we hope that responsible use of this beautiful plant will help keep it legal indefinitely.

“But, we offer this extracted plant material strictly for external use only as an exotic incense. Not for human consumption.”

“This Friday, July 6th The Tatamimats will be doing an encore performance of Dark Side of the Uke, their ukulele-only version of Pink Floyd’s classic album Dark Side of the Moon. The show takes place at The Knockout in San Francisco and is in celebration of The Knockout’s 2nd anniversary. The Knockout is in the venue that was previously Chicken John’s infamous Odeon Bar.” Via Boingboing.

“Orenda”
Archives of Anaphoria AOA 2.5

Orenda-For Three Meta-Slendro Vibraphones
Composed by Kraig Grady- 2005
Performed by Erin Barnes, Kraig Grady, and Ellysa Shalla

Recorded and Mastered by Miriam Kolar
Cover Art by Dori Atlantis

“Orenda is both a Huron and Anaphorian word meaning that kind of power that mortals can summon to combat the blind forces of fate.

“While not a composition from Anaphoria, it is one that is informed by the ambient philosophy that blossoms out of the words and sounds of those people.

“The piece starts at an extremely low volume and listeners might be warned not to increase the level on their sound-producing device.”

Limited Edition of 200 in Two Covers of 100 each

This 3” mini-Cd is the second of a series of pieces conceived directly for this medium.
This is the first to appear on the Archives of Anaphoria label, which plans to continue with a series of like works.

HOLY SHIT! GREAT NEW INTERVIEW IN VANITY FAIR! CLICK HERE…

AND CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO AN HOUR’S WORTH OF CLIPS FROM A MARCH 29, 1967 RADIO BROADCAST WITH YOUR DEEJAY… SLY STONE

(links courtesy Molly Frances and Barry Feldman!)