A quick heads up from ExperienceLA. If you blink, this one week exhibit of wearable C-STUNNERS eyewear sculptures by 2013 TED Fellow Cyrus Kabiru from Africa will be gone, as it was timed to immediately follow the recent 2013 TED convocation. I frankly stumbled on this exhibit on Saturday, while eating lunch at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. I had a chance to discuss the exhibit with Ed Cross who curated the exhibit at the Frank Pictures Gallery, as to how Cyrus developed his unique artistic skill and how he was discovered by TED. The exhibit will close on Saturday, March 9, 2013 with an art talk and closing reception from 4 pm to 6:30 pm. As I understand it, Cyrus Kabiru will still be around. The Frank Pictures Gallery is open daily from 11:30 am - 6:30 pm for this exhibition. The rest of my C-STUNNER flickr pictures can be found here.
Here is a short YouTube video showcasing the C-STUNNERS eyewear:
For those of you who have yet to see OVO, or if you simply want to go see it again, here's some good news from our friends at Cirque du Soleil. Now through the remainder of the show's run (March 25), price level 1 seats are available at 30% off (reg. $110.50 for adults and $82.50 for kids 2-12)!
Thursday, June 16, 2011, is Cirque du Soleil Day in LA, and you can celebrate at Susan Feniger's STREET and the Border Grill restaurants in Santa Monica and Downtown Los Angeles that are co-owned with Mary Sue Milliken. Each of them are creating a special Cirque-themed menu that help to celebrate the upcoming opening of IRIS, A Journey Through The World of Cinema at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The picture above was taken at an LA Central Library ALOUD book panel almost five years ago, and it is our copy of a heavily used cookbook that these two Top Chef Master competitors published back in 1989 celebrating the cooking of City Cafe that opened in 1981 and City Restaurant that opened in 1985. Thus, its been 30 years of the Two Hot Tamales in Los Angeles.
This Thursday, June 16 will be known as Cirque du Soleil Day in Los Angeles in celebration of the 27th anniversary of Cirque du Soleil® and the upcoming debut of IRIS, A Journey Through The World Of Cinema™ opening at the Kodak Theatre.
Festivities will take place across Los Angeles in Hollywood, Pasadena, Century City, and Santa Monica, and there will be something for just about everyone. In addition to the FREE (!!!) live events, residents and visitors can participate on Twitter and Foursquare using the #CirqueDayLA hashtag and be entered into a sweepstake for a chance to win IRIS related prizes.
In addition to weekend relaxing, festivities, or whatever plans you've got, the city of Santa Monica has given us another reason to look forward to Fridays: Bike Valet night. We give thumbs up to the city on this effort to promote a less car-dependent culture.
The Getty Villa in Malibu off the Pacific Coast Highway is exactly what it sounds like. It has the history of the Getty with the richness and luxurious feel of a Villa. From the moment you enter the museum you are greeted by a long water feature, a beautiful high ceiling, intricate floor work, and pillars all true to its ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria pieces. The entire museum carries on this ancient motif allowing the patron to feel as if they have stepped into the past. The Getty’s newest rotating exhibits include The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani which is available until October 5, 2009 and The Chimera of Arezzo which will be featured until February 8, 2010. Both of these exhibits open the door to history.
The Golden Graves exhibit features jewelry, ritual figurines and other materials found in the graves of various people. By seeing what these individuals are buried with it gives a sense for what was considered important and what one could not live without. What is further intriguing about this exhibit is that the museum was able to collect features from all different types individuals. There are relics of a woman's grave, that of a young woman, a child and even a warrior giving insight to each specific individual. The woman was buried with three other women, presumably servants, and only she was buried in elaborate clothing with varies imported pieces from Athens. Then there is the young woman who was buried alone and had was found with local materials. Each person was different and had a different history.
In The Chimera of Arezzo exhibit the largest feature is the statue of the lion, goat, serpent monster whose fire breathing stories still live on. What I loved most about this exhibit, and maybe the entire museum, was the delicately painted books that told the story of this creature. The pictures were colorful and flecked with gold and the writing elegant. I wanted to break through the glass and flip the delicate pages, study the drawings and search for someone to translate. I felt so sad leaving the museum without being able to hold them in my hands.
While these two exhibits are main reason I went to the Getty, I was taken by surprise on what a wonderful place it was. There are great interactive opportunities for children of all ages (that includes the adults) and a play room where you can draw on vases, or color your own. There is also a shadow theater part where kids can put on a play for their parents. Kids will love it, the only problem is they may never want to leave.
Another clever addition to the museum is a trading street they created in the sculpture garden where people can go table to table trading and creating items. The first step is to get wood to trade for olive oil which you get to crush yourself, next you head over to the herb section and make your perfume and after that it’s time to play dress up and create necklaces.
The Getty Villa is located right near the beach so it's a great opportunity to get in some culture and summer fun. It really is not that far from the Third Street Santa Monica Promenade, so you can go shop and grab some food after your time travel adventure. But if you are hungry and don't want to deal with driving back to Santa Monica and parking, there is great cafe in the Villa.
Peering into the peephole of the polygonal structure, I see a two-story, Japanese-inspired house slowly turning. A woman walks by and goes behind the house. I quickly get over the awkward excitement of being a voyeur when a man walks by, stops to look around (Did he see me?), and continues behind the house.Here comes the woman again, and as the house turns to the front, she enters the bottom floor as the man passes by just missing her. While I am eager to find out if the two shall ever meet, I sense sadness in their blank expressions and their slow, heavy, rhythmical movements. One after the other, they pass by the peep hole only giving me a glimpse of their whole journey.
I become fascinated with the house: dried brush, rice paper and yes, rulers. A video of another man walking is projected onto the second floor of the house. The disjointed, but steady rhythm of all four, the house included, is calming, but I'm stilling waiting for them to- Oh! He saw me! I jump back from the peephole, my nerves slightly shaken, and I laugh at myself for actually thinking a puppet could actually see.
This unique structure was just one part of "The Reptile Under the Flowers", a multimedia puppet show, which, along with the unique "Le Petit Macabre" and the humorous "Matchbox Shows", was a part of "The Puppet Shows: Part II" accompanying "The Puppet Show" exhibit at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. The exhibit is as eclectic as the shows, with rooms full of traditional puppets from around the world, mechanical dancing puppets à la Team America, and videos of various puppet shows, stop-motion animations and hand puppets. I enjoyed the children's furniture all dressed up, but the puppets watching the videos of puppets? Let's just say I didn't wait to see if one of them was going turn his head around. After satisfying my appetite for puppetry, I headed over to the other many galleries of Bergamot Station, but that's another story.
-Tiina Vuorenmaa, ExperienceLA Staff
For other great events at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, visit ExperienceLA.com!
So I have officially spent the past two nights or so googling all about the Slow Loris and the Pacific Trash Vortex. Thanks Google for fueling the fire in my neurotic ways. My newfound obsession with the Slow Loris is due to my own curiosity (they're SO fascinating... but endangered, sadly), but the interest in the Trash Vortex, a collection of trash about the size of Texas swirling about in the Pacific, was sparked by Saturday's Glow 2008 at the Santa Monica Beach and Pier.
It was the most crowded I've ever seen that area (it felt like half of LA was there at the same time), and that was an exhilarating, though borderline claustrophobic, sight to see... Initially, we just walked around enjoying the lively vibe and glowing colors. It wasn't until we came across a random floating object pulsating in the darkness of the waters, followed by unanimously asking "what the heck is that??", that we finally took the time to really read about the installations in the context that they were meant to be experienced.
I can't speak for the rest of the Glow crowd, but I'm happy to say that I now have additional memories to tuck away in my whimsical brain... from listening intently into an isolated telephone on the beach, as a poet sitting in a boat off in the distant sea guided me through a world of stars and dreams, to collectively screaming with the crowd around me as we gazed up at the large-scale outdoor waterscreen projection emitting colorful patterns in reaction to our collaborative voices, to thoughtfully discussing the floating object's commentary on the Pacific Trash Vortex days later.
In embracing and reflecting on its surroundings and the interaction of the festival-goers, these installations subtly hit upon deeply fundamental ideas: we are just as much a contributor to and participant in the environment around us, and how the environment evolves is correlated with how we choose to interact with our surroundings. While we are the stewards of this Earth, we're also highly indebted. Somehow, I feel the need to listen to Coldplay's "Yellow" as I think back on these memories, remembering myself walking along the coast while being inspired by the radiating lights...
Paris Nuit Blanche (White Night) is an annual celebration of the city of light's art and culture, where multiple galleries, museums, and other venues stay open all night for free. Visitors roam around the city checking out special light installations, performances, and the like.
Santa Monica is bringing its own adaptation to the beach and pier for the first time this weekend... Glow 2008 will take place this Saturday from 7pm to 7am, coinciding with the Grunion Run at 10:30pm.
Glow will fill the hours between dusk to dawn with compelling, enchanting and effervescent sights and sounds situated in spaces and times that expand possibilities for where, how and when the public experiences contemporary art.
With the historic Santa Monica Pier and adjacent world-famous Santa Monica Beach as their space, artists were commissioned to create unique and inviting works of art that welcome the public to be both audience and actor for twelve celebratory hours. Inspired by the wildly successful Nuit Blanche in Paris, Glow takes its spirit from the fabled grunion that live in local waters and come ashore several times a year to spawn in the sand creating a momentary sensation of iridescence.
Yay for the coming summer months and spending time outdoors (not that we already don't do that in the awesome year-round weather of Southern California... but it's nice to still have something to be excited about)! With that in mind, there are a lot of festivals coming up during the weekend that are worth checking out. A little something for everyone...
May 31st: BioBlitz Festival Grab your backpack and join the National Geographic Society and the National Park Service for this 24-hour event. Teams of scientists, naturalists, community leaders, students and the public join forces to discover and inventory the biodiversity in the nation’s largest urban national park.
May 31st: 3rd Annual T.O.M. Film Festival Film goers will not only enjoy free admission for the festival, but they’ll have the opportunity to find out more about local and global initiatives to fight and end modern day slavery.
May 30th-June 1st: Los Angeles Accordion Festival The first annual festival kicks off TODAY, featuring 15 accordion players and their bands showcasing diverse styles from Cajun to Irish to Rockabilly, and even an accordion workshop for those of you who want to learn more about the instrument.
And don't forget that the LA Film Fest tickets go on sale on June 2nd!
Santa Monica is definitely a favorite neighborhood of mine. It's got a great casual hangout vibe, whether that means strolling down 3rd street to live music with crepes in hand, checking out the hip hop scene at Zanzibar on Saturday nights, or having meaningful midnight conversations with friends at the pier. And oh, the burgers and sweet potato fries at Father's Office. To die for.
It's almost incognito in a way... Enough variety to choose from, and admittedly a tourist attraction of its own, but far enough away from the glitz of fancier, iconic neighborhoods LA is too often stereotyped for. Los Feliz is my other favorite neighborhood that definitely carries the incognito vibe through and through.
A gem cozily situated in the heart of Santa Monica is definitely the Bergamot Station, a historic train station transformed into a dynamic and lively arts complex. The Santa Monica Museum of Art is part of this complex and tomorrow night (May 3rd), they're hosting their fourth annual INCOGNITO, a unique exhibition and art sale of works created by hundreds of acclaimed artists from LA and across the globe. Even Raymond Pettibon! Need I say more??
Check out SMMoA when you get a chance. I love the location, the vibe of the museum, and the art that they choose to exhibit. From my experience, it avoids the pitfalls of overly commercialized exhibits that favor trendy topics or artists. In other words, it's my kind of museum.
