LAXART PRESENTS LOS ANGELES SOLO DEBUT OF NEW YORK-BASED LISA TAN AND LOS ANGELES PREMIERE OF <i>NIAGARA</i>, A VIDEO BY MARK BRADFORD
Exhibition runs November 11-December 31, 2006
Opening reception November 11, 2006 6-8 PM
Lisa Tan: One Night Stand
For One Night Stand, New York-based artist Lisa Tan travels to a major international city, in this instance Paris, for a night, taking only a notebook and a change of clothes. Documenting the experience through the task of writing (as inspired by the nouveau roman style particular to names such as Alain Robbe-Grillet), One Night Stand is an opportunity to see the world through an intimate lens.
Text that mimics the strategies of image captions features prominently in the projected work, however, here these texts lack their visual support. The passing standardized subtitles are derived from Tans writing during her trip, and float in a projected field of monochromatic black that is devoid of moving image. This form of representation both literally descriptive and visually oblique competes with a myriad of easily conjured iconic images of Paris as experienced by a history of representation through film and photography. Willfully dislocating and disorienting herself, Tan observes the citys surfaces, evoking her voyeuristic connection to the environment. In this way, Tans intention is to see how words themselves become iconic, and how they can support a vision of the intangible feelings associated with place through personal memoirs.
A site-specific sculptural installation, Roman Lovers, that includes a lamppost, plant and wrought-iron fence will complement the silent, moving textual installation. This environment is restaged from a photograph and engages the significance of both photographic memory and psycho-social projection, while investing mnemonic and emotional importance into inanimate objects. This urban moment is captured photographically and then theatricalized in the space of the gallerythe installation representing a cross-section of urban space as well as a psychological moment of suspension and longing.
Mark Bradford: Niagara
Mark Bradford, a Los Angeles based multi-media artist, will mount his L.A. debut of a new video entitled Niagara. Based on the 1953 Marilyn Monroe film of the same name, Bradford aesthetically documents a local flâneur sauntering down the sidewalk of Los Angeles. Niagara continues Bradfords examination of the city, attempting to represent the dynamism and diversity of the local landscape.
LAXARTs programs are made possible with generous support from Avalon and Maison 140, Grimm|Rosenfeld Gallery Munich & New York, James Irvine Foundation, JET, La Colección Jumex, Helen Lewis, Larry Mathews and Brian Saliman, Max Mara, Peter Norton Family Foundation, Peter Remes, Debra and Dennis Scholl, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., Voce and Volume.
Ruben Ochoa: Extracted
LAXART Public Art Initiatives
A project of Creative Capital
Launch November 19th 11am-1pm
On corner of N. Soto Street and Marengo Street
Eastbound on 10 freeway
Los Angeles
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Support LAXARTs programs through purchase of limited editions by Edgar Arceneaux and Ruben Ochoa at editions@laxart.org.
About LAXART: Responding to Los Angeles cultural climate, LAXART, a non-profit contemporary arts organization, questions given contexts for the exhibition of contemporary art, architecture and design. With a renewed vision for the potential of independent art spaces, LAXART provides a center for interdisciplinary discussion and interaction and for the production and exhibition of new exploratory work. LAXART offers a space for provocation, dialogue and confrontation by practices on the ground in LA and abroad. LAXART is a hub for artists based on flexibility, transition, spontaneity and change. The space responds to an urgency and obligation to provide an accessible exhibition space for contemporary artists, architects and designers.
LAXART is located at 2640 S. La Cienega Los Angeles, CA 90034
T.310.559.0166 F.310.559.0167 office@laxart.org www.laxart.org
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