About a dozen small galleries on Chung King Road mix with local mahjong clubs and gift shops. Rain failed to dampen this Saturday’s turnout as hundreds came out to stroll the gallery openings.

Stuttgart, Acrylic on canvas, 2004

www.hunterreynolds.com

ericmcdade.com
http://www.oulous.com/

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Urban Cultural Playground: Art, Hollywood, and the Gentrification of Los Angeles Chinatown by Funie Hsu comments on this scene.

"The recent insurgence of vitality brought in by the blossoming art scene has created laudatory commendations for the mostly White gallery owners. Chinatown is now playing host to a community of twenty-something, trend-seeking European American consumers. “Chinatown is becoming increasingly hip as artists and designers flee the yuppification of downtown proper, and take over streets such as Chun King Road, a fascinating alley off Hill Street, that is colored with sleek new design boutiques next to classic post-war Chinese neon kitsch.1 Although generating some positive change in the neighborhood, this newly rekindled interest in the area, known since 1939 as New Chinatown, by hip, young artist types poses an imminent danger to the future of minority working families residing in the area and the cultural representation of the already hyper-exotified ethnic community. The threat of displacement due to gentrification lurks in the Chinatown alleyways like a boogie man waiting to attack the working class residences. These concerns are not unfamiliar to urban communities in Los Angeles."

Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I share your concerns.

Right now the scene has a good mix of old locals and new urban pioneers. They seem to be coexisting well. It would be a shame for the scene to be co-opted by developers and lose its authenticity. We have all seen this happen before in other areas of the city. This might be prevented by city hall intervention and the historic designation of Chung King Road and the surrounding area to prohibit the developers from coming in. Also the local community does have strong roots and will fight to protect their hood.
These are the fights they those of us who love LA will be there for.

Still the new residential urbanism of downtown LA and the on going urbanization of the first generation suburbs in the LA basin is welcome and long overdue. If the urban planning for LA can be done with sensitivity to the multicultural landscape of our built environment then we have much to look forward to. If all communities receive the same funding and attention to their specific needs then we are on the right track. This will require civic planning and development, not market driven REIT capital. The city is currently debating a ban on Wall Mart stores. This is an example of the kind of public policy we need from city hall to insure proper urban planning for the future of LA.

Again, thanks for your comment

Respectfully

A

So many gallerists on Chung King confuse big crowds for good art.
The vast majority of the work is middling painting, "young artists" and group shows.
There is very little commitment to dialogue, challenging work and supporting emerging artists who know what their doing. As black dragon society's newest exhibition
"new wave" shows, they are only interested in riding the latest blips of a trend.

Not all the galleries and exhibition spaces suck, but for the most part, Chinatown is known more for its party then for its art. If only the art were as good as the social opportunity.

And if only the artists took advantage of the social opportunity and did constructive things with their social time... converse around meaty issues collectively and point towards a plethora of actions and representations in solidarity with all the disempowered and radical communities of LA.

dreadfully boring.

This link goes to another IMC article that was referenced in the Hsu article.

Is art a weapon helping to arm humanity in its struggle forward in its struggle to advance to that next higher social stage. Or, as still is mainly the case, is it disarming humanity, when artists epitomized by abstractionism turn their backs on any responsibility toward the progress and survival of the human species and all life?

It is the bourgeois culture which has swallowed us up that we must escape from. The "art scene" provides no sanctuary... just more stupid escapism manufactured by people without skill, vision, or appreciation for what people actually need or desire. As the world burns the "artists" of the so-called art scene are so above it all... playing at being lofty intellectuals, lording their "knowledge" of art over the stupid masses.

Art must serve to break out to freedom, not shore up the elite play pen clubs of elites. Art must spring from the people... address the people's concerns, hopes, and desires. What we have now is incomprehensible babble.

Look... great art is tremendous skill combined with powerful emotional content. Artist's have been at work for thousands of years creating magnificent paintings, drawings, sculpture, and architecture that inspires people. But today anything can be art and anyone can be an artist... NONSENSE!

When an "artist" creates an "installation" of a pile of rocks... it is STILL just a pile of rocks. The person who creates the pile of rocks is just a person who has stacked rocks upon each other. The pile of rocks is NOT art!

Why not extend that same logic to Physicians? Look.... I have no background in being a Doctor. I didn't study medicine... I have no degree, I've never even performed surgery on anyone. But because I SAY I'm a Doctor you must accept my proclamation. No one in their right mind would accept such folly... yet, we have come to accept those untalented miscreants and hacks who call themselves artists as such merely because they say so! If you mean to prove you're an artist because you can stack a pile of rocks in a corner, shit on a canvas, install a blinking light bulb in a white room, or pickle a shark in a vat of formaldehyde... then you've proven nothing except your own idiocy and the public's gullibility.

When the L.A. art scene can produce a group of artists who are truly talented and whose works are rooted in the life experience of the people... then that information should be posted here. Otherwise, don't waste everyone's time with the shallow, ugly, meaningless, trendy, garbage that passes for "art" in the ivory tower galleries of this burg.

your rant would be great if chinatown was an ivory tower.
Its not. Its commercial crap which people sell to hang over couches.
trust me, its not as you say "shoring up the elite play pen clubs of elites"

art in la is half-baked scenesters not wanting to make hollywood shlock but lacking any true understanding of an alternative. The art scene doesn't understand how to put the and cathartic and lived culture that are better captured at music venues like the Smell, the traditionaly referential cultures represented in avenida 50 gallery, or the state sponsored cultures of Watts Towers. Contemporary art should be made for a culture that is about to exist or is just becoming.

What you mistakenly call china town's ivory tower is just yesterdays money buying something for their new couch (mostly, but not all).

The "ivory tower" was actually formulated to do exactly what you say you want art to do, capture the dreams and spirits of the people in some abstract way by german marxist intelectuals like adorno, horkimer.

chinatown is the same as the brewery is the same as the highland park galleries is the same as santa monica, is the same as claremont arts colony... all just tastes of distinct peoples sold to their buyers with the bullshit the buyer likes best-- either words or attitude.

Personally, I think the best art in town is done presented by community/art/film spaces like echo park film center, machine gallery, flor y canto, c-level, and so many more places that don't spit on tradition but don't rely on it, that don't talk down to people and don't talk at them like a (punk, communist, capitalist) politician... places where folks are talking about work and meaning and formulating communities with content. Figuring out this world through language and images and figuring out what can possibly be made to live through the dreck that there is.

"The pile of rocks is NOT art! " it is in my book if that pile of rocks is in the street.

LA, unlike other cities, has so little of a grass-roots diy art in public spaces scene.

I like your energy in the rant, but your response to what art should be strikes me too much as retro marxist... like you might be happy with some sort of socialist realism... but that was a huge assumption on my part, so if Im wrong, sorry.

"erp" wrote about my original post:

>> I like your energy in the rant, but your response to what art should be strikes me too much as retro marxist... like you might be happy with some sort of socialist realism... but that was a huge assumption on my part, so if Im wrong, sorry. <<

Look... a pile of rocks is a pile of rocks. A pile of rocks is NEVER a work of art.

Because I recognize the FRAUD of the so-called "post modern" crap that passes for art... you accuse me of supporting the "socialist realism" of the failed Soviet Union! Yes... I appreciate realism in art, and the great majority is with me. Not a realism sanctioned and controlled by the state... but the realism experienced by everyday people in their working lives.

Look to our past for GREAT art... the WPA mural movement of the 30's that spoke directly to the people and won their hearts is a terrific example. I'm not saying we need to bring back the past... no, we need to go forward. What we need is a new renaissance! Enough of cow dung as art... enough of bodily fluids, rotting fruit, and excrement placed in pretty jars. GIVE ME PAINTING... GIVE ME REALISM... GIVE ME BEAUTY, ANGER, AND TRUTH!

Art has become MEANINGLESS garbage to most people because it IS meaningless garbage. Our collective world history of art, so rich, beautiful, moving and inspiring... has been abandoned in favor of the insipid and the ugly. The so-called "artists" of today could not draw their way out of paper bag if their lives depended on it... and YOU have been hoodwinked into thinking that drawing is old hat, outdated... an unnecessary discipline for artists to possess. Art schools don't even teach the fundamentals of painting any longer! Painting? What does THAT have to do with art?

It's time for a REVOLUTION in the artworld that will sweep away all the bullcrap, all the pretenders, all the no talented hucksters like Robbie Banal who disgrace art by dressing it up in anemic pop politics. All the cretins who splatter and slash their canvases... BACK TO SCHOOL! All those "oh so cool" hipsters who torture the public with their vapid creations that have absolutely nothing to say to anyone... you are not artists, you are clowns for the bourgeoisie. Blank, vacant, without vision or soul.

"no, we need to go forward. What we need is a new renaissance! Enough of cow dung as art... enough of bodily fluids, rotting fruit, and excrement placed in pretty jars. "

Dude, christofer ofili's elephant dung paintings are some of the best post-colonial artwork I have ever seen. Speaks of a dream world without a european oppressor and the possiblity of an african renasance.

Look, I never said that school is the way to go.

You just seem to think that the only way that art needs to go is inside a bag with a drawing pencil. You seem to think that the only way to express things is with a pencil and maybe a paintbrush and you are telling folks that if a pile of rocks actually speaks for their hopes and dreams, they are misguided.

Well let me tell you, as an old yankee, stone walls remind me of a lost rural past where yoeman farmers were the roots of a (admittedly flawed but at least more particapatory and local) democracy- so I really can imagine a pile of rocks if configured right as really menaningful.

That, and a pile of rocks can be an effective intervention into oppressive property rights and more then represent peoples dreams, it can be an active inspiration into redefining property lines and expanding public space.

Get out of your bag . There are other ways to represent "ANGER" and "TRUTH" besides in a pencil drawing. And saying that has nothing what-so-ever with being in school or not.

(PS, it seems like Andres Serano's piss-christ- you know, the crussifix in a piss-jar piece- did a lot to give people anger. And in the light of today's catholic church scandals... appears to be a decent metaphor for the truth. And that has nothing to do with postmodernism. It has more to do with either surrealism or early church paintings.)

basically, your tastes are pretty boring and conservative.

Concept: A pyramid of rocks, placed in front of McDonalds or Starbucks, along the route of the Oct. 22 march against police brutality, on Oct. 22.

The cops understand what that means. The activists understand what that means. The activists are even likely to have an argument about whether to use the rocks, and about media representation.

Concept: graffiti. An abstracted series of glyphs, painted illegally, in public. It's a palimpsest that has multiple meanings, and operates on all these levels: figure, advertisement, color.

Concept: open mic night. A conscious effort to take a popular art (poetry and freestyling) and make it participate in the commercial entertainment world, sparks a discussion about legitimacy.

Concept: tribal tattoos. Simultanously, the uncomfortable imperialist claiming of an "other" culture, an embrace of ornament, and popular abstract art.

People understand "postmodern" art. They understand conceptual art. They understand pop art. They just incorporate it into accessible forms.

"more rational" wrote:

>> Concept: A pyramid of rocks, placed in front of McDonalds or Starbucks, along the route of the Oct. 22 march against police brutality, on Oct. 22. The cops understand what that means. The activists understand what that means. The activists are even likely to have an argument about whether to use the rocks, and about media representation.<<

O.K., you have a pile of rocks in front of McDonalds. So. What does that have to do with art? What's to understand? Anyone can build a pile of rocks... so that makes anyone an artist, correct. Then anyone can also be an engineer or a brain surgeon. You don't need training, you certainly don't need to graduate from an institution that would issue a degree for those professions... you simply proclaim yourself a brain surgeon!

>> Concept: graffiti. Concept: open mic night. Concept: tribal tattoos.<<

Concept: hard work and training in traditional art that will result in one actually being able to draw and paint something other than a stick figure.

So thousands of years of marvelous artistic creation has been abandoned and now we have people defending graffiti, blabbing on a mic, and making tattoos as the highest pinnacle we can achieve in the realm of art? You're kidding me right? You prefer a graffiti scrawl to a mural by Diego Rivera? You prefer tattoos to the wonders of Caravaggio, Siqueiros, or Velazquez?

And to those who think Andres Serano's so-called artwork titled "Piss Christ" is profound (a plastic crucifix submerged in a jar of human urine), I'd much rather gaze for hours upon woodblock prints by Hiroshige or Hokusai, true marvels of skill, composition, color, and sensitive emotions. I'd hang them on my walls and enjoy them forever. You can place your jar of urine on a window ledge somewhere in your house and enjoy it with friends and family. Christofer Ofili's "paintings" made of elephant shit? Oh yes... how wonderfully anti-Western, how African! Give me a break. Ever hear of Jacob Lawrence? Aaron Douglas? Charles White? African American GIANTS in art... but being ahistorical you've all but forgotten these magnificent painters from our recent past, mostly because they did not create their works in shit, urine, or graffiti.

Look around at the so-called postmodern artworld and what do you see... a vacuous mess dominated by people who can neither paint nor draw and are proud of that fact. What's even more troubling is that when you mention the fact that all the "artists" can neither paint nor draw... some become indignant and say to you, "your tastes are pretty boring and conservative." Postmodernism believes in nothing, defends nothing, insists that struggle is useless because life is crap and people are stupid. It is the postmodernist who is the conservative.

Postmodern "artist" Martin Creed puts a single bare blinking light bulb in an empty white room and for this "artwork" wins the vaunted Turner Prize in the U.K. for $40,000. Postmodernism has been turned into an institution of critics and curators who all reek of money. What's worse is that they dictate what art is these days... and it's NOT realistic painting and drawing. In fact, in the Turner competition there has not been a SINGLE painter represented as a possible recipient of the prize in years!

But then... painting is dead, art is dead, activism and social justice is dead. Postmodernism says to us, "why bother? it's all falling apart, nothing means nothing anymore." So we end up with idiot Damian Hirst and his "artwork" of a dead sheep pickled in a vat of formaldehyde... and we also get a frat boy as a world leader.

Not blind: this isn't to you specifically, but to everyone. It's a one-man rant against/about [aA]rt.

I don't know what I want, but I know how to get it.

The "trained" art world seems to be focused on infantile cartoons, Hollywood work, and commercial production. There's a seemingly no end to the need for art to sell things.

The Fine Art world seems to be about getting tenure somewhere, or selling something pretty in a gallery. Nice work if you can get it.

Art criticism is a world unto itself, and seems to be mostly about relatively smart rich people writing to each other, and the fine art world, to raise the value of paintings so they become investments.

BTW - I liked Chris Ofili's paintings when I saw them at MOCA (free on thursday evenings, for the people, man). The notes said he rolled joints from dung and sold them. That's funny, and smart. Give the man a work visa. Speaking of commerce, there are a lot of art schools in Los Angeles. Cal Arts, Art Center College of Design, Sci Arc, Otis Arts Insitute, UCLA, and Cal State Long Beach come to mind. People can go and learn some business skills there.

Graffiti is art by the people for "the people." You insult it by calling it scrawls. It's the largest art movement alive today, and it happened almost entirely outside of academia. Today, art schools attempt to co-opt it, business commericalizes it, and activists turn it into propaganda. I'm surprised you don't like it, because it's figurative, abstract, colorful, and comprehensible to "the people."

We're living in postmodern times. You can't turn the clock back, nor can you easily undo what imperialism and affluence hath wrought. Deal with it. Don't hate me for liking conceptual art (and seeing all art as conceptual). I think you're the elitist here -- what is that award you're talking about? Never heard of it. I've never bought any art from a gallery. I've been inside an art school classroom one time in my entire life, and thought the school was lame.

That flashing lightbulb sounds lame. What's it supposed to be? "Peek-a-boo - here's your art"? Sounds like a one-idea concept, that's easy to get, and so, is worth a lot of money. Kind of like fancy ass food like balsamic vinegar or brie... that's just expensive lea+perrins and velveeta. It's easy to consume, and makes you feel sophisticated and smart.

Not blind, you're not seeing what I'm seeing. I grew up postmodern, and only learned to navigate it with age. Postmodern is just the name of the condition. I accept it, but it's not a straightjacket or a way to live.

People in the 1930s thought of themselves as modern, and the people who were screwed over by modernity also thought of themselves as modern. That's how I'm postmodern. I understand the situation, think it's fucked, and want to un-fuck myself. Postmodernism is amoral, so the response is to survive is to accept amorality as the norm, but to seek a moral foundation that is not reactionary. Postmodernism is eclectic, so the response is to assert cultural commonalities, and resist the objectification of culture. Postmodernism is polymorphous or encourages multiple personae, so the response is to integrate multiple identities into a singular humanity.

I don't think figurative murals about factory workers and pretty advertising-like pictures for the church or state cut it anymore. There's nothing surprising about figurative art anymore, because it's everywhere, in advertisement. It's produced by people who can do it, and most of the people who can do it seem to be sucked up into the system. (For figurative art to work anymore as radical propaganda, it has to be familiar, but also surprising.)

Art itself gets sucked up by the "system" over and over. The Che tee shirt is almost meaningless, because it's become the official "threat" to the official "norm."

What's the response? None. The symbol is almost bereft of meaning. Ariel Dorfman summed it up for TIME magazine.

The power here isn't in the image, but is in the discussion. The image of Che is so bereft of potential for action that even the discussion about it is bland and unthreatening enough for Time magazine. Che frikken killed people, and fought a war in the jungle. Today, people think he's just a sexy dude who fought The Man. He's commercialized.

If you still think Che's image means revolution, right on brother, la lucha continua. Almost nobody agrees with you.

cheap shots

You said "thousands of years of marvelous artistic creation has been abandoned..." Thousands? I thought you were fixated on stuff from around 1500 onward, or a whopping 500 years.

You said "I'd much rather gaze for hours upon woodblock prints by Hiroshige or Hokusai, true marvels of skill, composition, color, and sensitive emotions." So go right ahead. There's enough great art out there, all catalogued in books, that you could spend many hours gazing at images.

You misued the word "ahistorical." It doesn't mean forgetting history; it means acting as if history doesn't matter. Thanks to the internet and google, some kinds of history matter more than other kinds, because you get that weird feeling of omniscience whenever you type a name into that google. I just looked up Jacob Lawrence, and he has a website at The Whitney. Aaron Douglas was an art professor. Charles White ended up at Otis Arts Institute, once part of the Otis Parsons, and Otis Chandler business empire (that founded the LA Times!). I found his picture on the Getty site, part of the Getty Oil empire. These guys were employed, and won't be forgotten for a while.

What's really ahistorical is believing we can go back. What's really ahistorical is the artwork created by the untrained, or the trained who decided to forgoe professionalism and became community artists.

Speaking of Getty, they are helping to restore America Tropical, Siqueiros' indictment of American imperialism that was so controversial that it got painted over and boarded up.

Through the course of the 20th century Modernism has progressively lost its way, until finally disintegrating into crass Post-Modern commercialism. At this appropriate time, The Stuckists, the first Remodernist Art Group, announce the birth of Remodernism.

1. Remodernism is the rebirth of spiritual art.

2. Remodernism takes the original principles of Modernism and reapplies them, highlighting vision as opposed to formalism.

3. Remodernism upholds the spiritual vision of the founding fathers of Modernism and respects their bravery and integrity in facing and depicting the travails of the human soul through a new art that was no longer subservient to a religious or political dogma and which sought to give voice to the gamut of the human psyche.

4. Remodernism discards and replaces Post-Modernism because of its failure to answer or address any important issues of being a human being.

5. Modernism has never fulfilled its potential. It is futile to be 'post' something which has not even 'been' properly something in the first place.

6. Remodernism is inclusive rather than exclusive and welcomes artists who endeavour to know themselves and find themselves through art processes that strive to connect and include, rather than alienate through elitism.

7. Remodernism embodies spiritual depth and meaning and brings to an end an age of scientific materialism, nihilism and spiritual bankruptcy.

8. We don't need more dull, boring, brainless destruction of convention, what we need is not new, but perennial.

****
Against conceptualism, hedonism and the cult of the ego-artist!

Stuckism is the quest for authenticity. By removing the mask of cleverness and admitting where we are, the Stuckist allows him/herself uncensored expression.

Painting is the medium of self-discovery. It engages the person fully with a process of action, emotion, thought and vision, revealing all of these with intimate and unforgiving breadth and detail.

Stuckism proposes a model of art which is holistic. It is a meeting of the conscious and unconscious, thought and emotion, spiritual and material, private and public. Modernism is a school of fragmentation — one aspect of art is isolated and exaggerated to detriment of the whole. This is a fundamental distortion of the human experience and perpetrates an egocentric lie.

Artists who don’t paint aren’t artists.

Art that has to be in a gallery to be art isn’t art.

The Stuckist paints pictures because painting pictures is what matters!

****
.... read the rest of these STUCKIST - REMODERNIST Manifestos, as well as other revolutionary and anti-postmodern tracts, at:

http://www.stuckism.com/manifest.html#remod

Today the questions, "What is Art?" and "What is an Artist?" are not easily answered, since the artworld is in total disarray. This shattered and disoriented state is reflected in the following statements from the managers of the elite artworld.

According to William Rubin, director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, "there is no single definition of art." The art historian Robert Rosenblum believes that "the idea of defining art is so remote" that he doesn't think "anyone would dare to do it." Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, states that there is "no consensus about anything today," and the art historian Thomas McEvilley agrees that today "more or less anything can be designated as art." Arthur Danto, professor of philosophy at Columbia University and art critic of The Nation, believes that "you can't say something's art or not art anymore. That's all finished." In his book, "After the End of Art", Danto argues that after Andy Warhol exhibited shipping cartons for Brillo boxes in 1964, anything could be art. Warhol made it no longer possible to distinguish something that is art from something that is not.

Imagine the world's literary figures agreeing that "you can't say something's writing or not writing anymore. That's all finished." Or the world's scientific community reaching the consensus that "you can't say something's science or not science anymore. That's all finished." Those statements would describe a world where barbarism has become the "norm."

What has finished, however, is not artistic production, but a certain way of talking about art. Artists, whoever they are, continue to produce, but we, non-artists, are no longer able to say whether it is art or not. But at the same time, we are no longer comfortable with dismissing it as art because it fails to fit what we think art should be... or what we've been TOLD it is.

We struggle with this because we have been taught that art is important and we're unwilling to face up to the recently revealed insight that art in fact has no "essence." When all is said and done, "art" remains significant to human beings and the idea that now anything can be art, and that no form of art is truer than any other, strikes us as unacceptable.

To quote broadly;


"According to William Rubin, director of the Museum of
Modern Art in New York, "there is no single definition of art." The art historian Robert Rosenblum believes that "the idea of defining art is so remote" that he doesn't think "anyone would dare to do it." Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, states that there is "no consensus about anything today," and the art historian Thomas McEvilley agrees that today "more or less anything can be designated as art." Arthur Danto, professor of philosophy at Columbia University and art critic of The Nation, believes that "you can't say something's art or not art anymore. That's all finished." In his book, "After the End of Art", Danto argues that after Andy Warhol exhibited shipping cartons for Brillo boxes in 1964, anything could be art. Warhol made it no longer possible to distinguish something that is art from something that is not. "

To look at the Danto of the Nation, the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other heavily institutionalized folks to understand art is like calling up the Democratic Party in Washington DC and expecting them to have fresh ideas on how to solve political issues in your neighborhood.

As stated by more rational previously, these are (I would argue the tale end of) post modern days and we can not turn back the clock, art is everywhere and no-where (http://www.journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/1/yomango/index.html). Art is both a tool (in brechts famous saying) and a lulaby and a fantasy, and to deny any of these three or more roles in art is to deny the complexity and beauty and horror of life.

Yes, bad art is shown, but there is also so much good art being shown in museums, galleries, community spaces, on the street, in a tree... that looking at the MOMA is barking up the wrong tree.

And if you think that this is a new situation, your wrong. The history of western art was never as clear and unified as art history classes would have you believe. In 1930, socialist realism, dadaism, surriealism, constructivism, traditional landscape and portrature, photomontage, de stijl, collage, documentary photography and so many other movements were clashing and collaborating with one another... non thinking that they would become assendent in the cannons. In 1960's, its the same thing, with situationsists, lettrists, fluxus, ab ex, minimalists, lightshows and so much more collaborating, competing or virtually ignoring one-and-other. And this is just in Europe and North America.

Today, I think that my scene is doing great work. Interventions, poetics, multimedia, loving, drawing, collage, angry, fowardlooking, bio-organic...

but that's self-promotion.

"erp " said... >>To look at the Danto of the Nation, the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other heavily institutionalized folks to understand art is like calling up the Democratic Party in Washington DC and expecting them to have fresh ideas on how to solve political issues in your neighborhood. <<

the post modern view has not just infected the fat cats listed above... it has spread to all areas in the art world. this conversation began by presenting what is going on in the galleries of L.A.'s China town. i don't see how the views of the big fat cats are any different than the small gallery owners in China town... or the artists shown in those galleries. a photo appears at the top of this page that shows the art on display in one of the galleries of China town. the photo shows a canvas painted green . "erp" would have us believe that this is new and vital work... groundbreaking? "fresh"? looks like tha same ol stuff we've seen since the 50s.. abstract painting that sez nothing and means nothing. no... its not just the big iwell financed elite nstitutions that are pushing this junk... its small gallerys to. and also self important people with little talent who like to think they are artists. the art mags and journals that are the "taste makers' are also infected witht the idea that everything is art, everything except a realist painting with something to say (how boring!) No... im not gonna call the Democratic Party and expect them to have fresh ideas on how to solve the political issues in my neighborhood. And if I want art I'm not gonna call up some guy who smears green paint on a canvas with his butt and tells me its great.

(snooze)

surface tension said "the photo shows a canvas painted green . "erp" would have us believe that this is new and vital work... groundbreaking? "

Dude, can you read? My first post on this chat was titled "crowds are no excuse for bad art" which is, in general, my take on chinatown and much of LA. I thought this weeks crop of shit was exactly that.

Personally, I think there are stellar exceptions within chinatown though. The New Chinatown Barbershop, with chinatown community links, shows good performance work (which in general is rare in LA) and often has a unique curatorial edge. C-level shows great video work (from activist/artist hybrid stuff to technerd to goofy) and sometimes functions more like a community space then a new-media art gallery.

I agree with you to not look at accept anyones voice without seeing the work and speaking to the artists yourself.

That place is fun. Some of the stuff is overpriced, but, if I had some money, I'd pay the $20 or whatever for some piece of whatever, just to support it. Well... ok, if they were friendlier. I wish they had t-shirts for sale.

as to whether or not the writen fecal matter of The previous poster gets censored while other non racist, non sexist post get deleted.

Barney's comment did get flushed.
I can't understand the sickness some individuals have
going on in their head.
As if the world isn't screwed up enough we have these sorry excuses for humans.
fresca and Barney come to mind
in this respect.

ART OF RESISTANCE - A POLITICAL ARTISTS' CONFERENCE
MAY 2004 - SEATTLE, WA
May 15-16, Saturday and Sunday
(with related evening public events, open to all, on the 13th and 14th.)

About the conference: The conference will be two days of amazing speakers and performers, informative, hands-on workshops and the opportunity to meet and talk with a whole building full of political artists from all over the country. We will explore the powerful history and practical application of political art. Political artists confront, transcend and illuminate the crises of our complex global reality, yet often are kept invisible to much of their audience. We will discuss how, in these days of war, environmental degradation, corporate hegemony, poverty, and injustice, to make our voice and our art an effective force for change. There will be several open public evening events, with art and performance, and an open political art show. If you would like to donate art for the show, please contact us for a mailing address. Also, please indicate if prints can be made of your work for fundraising efforts. This is an entirely grassroots funded conference. We appreciate any and all donations. Cash donations are tax deductible. Contact us for more info.

Workshops: The following is a list of some of the subjects/ideas of the workshops which will be available for your participation at the Art of Resistance conference. Participants will have the opportunity to join in up to five workshops over the course of the two days. Workshops will explore everything from practical skills such as silkscreening and
graffiti/stenciling to how to make giant puppets. Workshop hosts will discuss how to make protest more creative, how to influence corporate media, how to make your own media. From street theater, spoken word, and political performance to street tech workshops to understanding the rights of protest are to discussions about race, class and sex in the (political) art world to what political art is and how to create effective public art. If you are interested in hosting a workshop, contact us with a general proposal and we will send you an application.

The following is a list to give you an idea of who is supporting and/or interested in attending the Art of Resistance conference. The following are just a few of the individuals and collectives who have contacted us so far.

Mark Vallen, L.A. political artist (www.art-for-a-change.org), The Beehive Collective, political graphics collective (www.beehivecollective.org), Drawing Resistance, a travelling political art show (www.drawingresistance.org), Mike Alewitz, labor muralist, JustSeeds (www.justseeds.org), ACLU (workshop: freedom of expression for artists), Tactical Magic, SF artists' collective (www.tacticalmagic.org), Banksy, UK graffiti artist (www.banksy.co.uk), Richard Mock, NY political printmaker, Adbusters (www.adbusters.org), Mad River Puppet Collective, Somarts Cultural Center, PAX Arts Exchange, Gabriel Delgado of the Station Political Art Museum, TX, Praxis Artists, Infernal Noise Brigade, Think Again!, UpsideDown Culture Collective, Northland Poster Collective (www.northlandposter.com), Why? Artists Against the War, Poetry in Wartime, and many more!

Contact Art of Resistance: artofresistance@riseup.net
Our website is under construction but will be up soon... you can access it at:
www.artofresistance-seattle.net.

We are pleased to announce our Once-a-Month Performance Installation brought to by the friendly & friece butoh troupe, CORPUS DELICTI

it begins THIS FRIDAY NITE at 9pm
at:
futhermore
990 Hill Street (right around the corner of Chung King Road)
for more info:
corpusdance@intercativejungle.com
or visit our website:
corpusbutoh.org

We are pleased to announce our Once-a-Month Performance Installation brought to by the friendly & fierce butoh troupe, CORPUS DELICTI

it begins THIS FRIDAY NITE at 9pm
at:
futhermore
990 Hill Street (right around the corner of Chung King Road)
for more info:
corpusdance@interactivejungle.com
or visit our website:
corpusbutoh.org

Is the corpus delecti butoh a fake butoh?

Butoh developed after nuclear death. It comes from the postwar Japanese experience. Is this another appropriation of the forms without the context: jazz, rock and roll, blues, hillbilly music, folk music, "world" music, rap.

Moreover, has the hegemonic effect of the atomic bomb permanently altered the cultural relation between the bomber and the bombed so much, that no forms can be adopted without also being suspect of imperialism?

These are not rhetorical questions.

Gosh.

I kinda like some of the art on chung king rd. I like it best when its honest and the art I am looking at has some personal story.

I like to see something that tells me the person who made it went through something worth re telling and they are trying to work it out.

I see some of that on chung king rd.

at the same time i also see a lot of dishonesty. artists using materials and techniques via acedemic consumption. the recycling of peer materials. you get the feeling they are making it someone else's way because thats what every one else is doing.

so let thy boner be free and visit the street often. you shant regret it.

i hear one of the galleries has a laundromat in the basement..... which one is it?

Art is anything that is communicated without using words. Anything that brings about thought in any viewer.