Roamings the Last Week of May 2015

I began the week roaming on the super crowded Santa Monica Pier on the holiday weekend.  I was able to find peace among the maddening crowds with the help of a pier beer and beautiful music from one of the performers....also an entertaining seal and beautiful sea.

On Thursday I met my friend Chris at the Geffen Contemporary museum of MOCA and viewed the new and recent works by William Pope.L. He is a Chicago-based artist who creates performance and body art.  The centerpiece of the show is "Trinket," a custom-made American flag (54 by 16 feet) hanging on a pole in the middle of the museum.  The flag is continuously blown by four large industrial fans and illuminated from below.  Over time the flag is fraying at its ends due to the constant whipping of the forced air.  The description states that this a metaphor for the rigors and complexities of democratic engagement and participation.

Here are photos of what we saw. 

"Polis or the Garden or Human Nature in Action," 1998/2015

Yes, these are painted onions, some still growing.  The description states that onions are symbols of emotional fluidity, catharsis, and complexity...to peel their layered skins makes the eyes water and burn.

"Circa," 2015, oil on linen.  The description states that Pope.L has produced a series of language-based drawings he called "Skin Set Drawings" that used highly poetic wordplay to satirize discourses and stereotypes of race.

In front of the museum is a memorial to the Japanese soldiers who served in the second world war even though many of their families were sent to internment camps.  It is a moving tribute and remembrance to their sacrifice and to the terrible injustice by the U.S. during this period.  A quote from President Reagan in 1988 is on the memorial:  "My fellow Americans, we gather here today to right a grave wrong..."  He signed a bill making a formal apology and reparations to the families. 

On Saturday I viewed a small photo exhibit at the Annenberg beach property in Santa Monica entitled "Unseen."  The exhibit show cases the photographic work of five emerging Los Angeles-based artist.  The description states that the liminal quality shared by these works invokes an enhanced appreciation and awareness of unnoticed glances, gestures, spaces and time.

Here is a photo of my favorite by  Bonnie Ebner: