Sunday, September 22, 2013

Haunted


Mary Anna Pomonis1001 Ave 37, #1Acrylic Airbrush on Paper, 2013

Haunted
October 5-25
Opening reception:
Saturday October 5, 6-9pm

Cultural Alliance of Long Beach
Bungalow Art Center
727 Pine Avenue. Long Beach, 90813
Bungalow Art Center hours of operation:
Tuesday - Friday :: 4 - 9 pm
Saturday and Sunday :: noon - 5pm

For the month of October, Craftswoman House Temporary Residence partners with Long Beach Riot Grrrl to present an exhibition and series of events at the Cultural Alliance of Long Beach. The exhibition Haunted will open on Saturday, October 5, from 6-9pm. The opening event will include a series of performance works and a video screening. The show closes on Friday, October 25 with a LB Riot Grrrl Show from 6pm-Midnight.

Throughout history, creative works by women have often been devalued, dismissed, and even buried. While women’s contributions to art and culture have been more visible in recent years, blind spots still exist. Feminist art of the 1970s serves as a profound antecedent to contemporary art, but rich bodies of feminist work are barely acknowledged in discussions on current art practices including relational aesthetics and the prevalent use of informal and domestic materials. The artists in Haunted explore the hollows of history, to wake ghosts and channel hidden voices. These artists express a fluid exchange between the body and memory through a focus on tactile experience, manifestations of the repressed female body, and an emphasis on process as a means to capture the immaterial.

Annelie McKenzie, Design Lady (after Angelica Kauffman)oil and stickers 2013


Annelie McKenzie’s paintings reflect relationships between the female artist as subject against the art historical reference of woman as merely model or object in a work of art. She depicts pairs of women to explore the relationships between women and to insert herself into a dialogue with female artists and subjects of the past. Her highly textured surfaces spill onto decorative frames revealing a sentimental tie to the marginalized history women’s crafts and handiwork.

The Aura of Things, Mary Anna Pomonis’ new series of paintings, captures the residue of cast-off objects collected from neighborhood garage sales. Inspired by Man Ray’s ray-o-graphs, Pomonis uses the low-grade photographic technique of airbrush to render ethereal impressions left by the displaced objects. The found objects are destroyed through the painting process and are transformed into illusive, glowing images of what has been lost.

Evah Hart’s works are experiments rooted in an approach that oscillates between staged spontaneity and material obstruction. She uses various visual techniques to explore her fascination with the nature of time. Her process-based work generates random marks that reflect the cycles, history and complications of time.



Cindy Rehm, Diary of a Young Medium, (detail) collage, 2013

Mundane materials are transformed into mysterious objects, through Tina Linville’s use of basic human compulsions like collecting, arranging, and wrapping. Her dense and precarious  “Frankenstein” objects are built through a process of intimate and obsessive manipulation of salvaged objects that contain private histories. Her hybrid works blur distinctions between painting and sculpture through thoroughly layered, tactile surfaces.

Cindy Rehm’s work is inspired by Symbolist art, the sentiments of surrealism, and the legacy of women’s art and writing. She explores hysteria as a means for sexual and spiritual liberation through the unmediated expression and performative potential of the trance state. Through reflections on female madness, Rehm aims to unearth narratives that have been suppressed throughout history.




Evah Hart, Infinity Color, etching


Ali Kheradyar


The opening event will also feature a series of performance works and a video screening. Semi-Tropic Spiritualists will present, Test Site No. 4, part of an ongoing series of performance works and objects that explore the history of spiritual and occult belief in Los Angeles. Through the use of spirit bells, Semi-Tropic Spiritualists will pose questions and seek answers through an activation of unconscious voices. The performance will develop a space dedicated to investigation and a search for knowledge, and will explore ideas of faith and skepticism. Chelsea Rector will make sound blankets of love and haunted mansions and black widows and owls, through her eerie blend of vocals and synth tones. Ali Kheradyar will perform Untitled, a work about pleasure, play, and memory.
 Chelsea Rector


Semi-Tropic Spiritualists



 Nina Lassila, Piiskaa! video still, 2005


Haunted closes on Friday, October 25 with a LBRG Show from 6-Midnight with live music by GAZE, Spare parts for broken hearts, Potential Lunatics, Ingenue, Iris and Strange Radio. During the month of October, an extensive calendar of events will be presented in conjunction with the Haunted exhibit including:

Monday, October 7
6-8:30pm
LB Riot Grrrl & Food Not Bombs political prisoners letter writing (room 3)

Wednesday, October 9
4-7:30pm & 7:30-9pm
DIY Wednesday, Riotous Herbs workshop (early session room 2, later room 3)

Friday, October 11
8-10pm
Screening of !Women Art Revolution 
Followed by a discussion lead by Annelie McKenzie (room 2)

Wednesday, October 16
4-9pm
DIY Wednesday Clothing/costume swap and costume making (room 3)

Sunday, October 20
Doors at 5pm
$10
Debut screening of Riot Grrrl: self told narrative (room 2)
and a special screening of the forthcoming documentary GRRRL
with: Lucid Nation, Bonfire Madigan, Gina Young, Potential Lunatics
This event will be videoed for GRRRL, a documentary film directed by Vega Darling and Angie Young (riotgrrrlfilm,com). If you have a riot grrrl story to tell email riotgrrrlfilm@gmail.com to schedule a short interview.

Wednesday, October 23
4-9pm, Discussion starts at 6:30pm
DIY Wednesday, Circle Discussion, All Ages: An Intergenerational Dialogue on Feminism (room 3)

Friday, October 25
6pm-midnight
Haunted closes with LB Riot Grrrl show featuring: GAZE, Spare parts for broken hearts, Potential Lunatics, Ingenue, Iris and Strange Radio


Craftswoman House Temporary Residence is a project dedicated to fostering a dialogue on feminist issues through projects and exhibitions. Inspired by collective efforts such as Womanhouse, the project pays homage to the rich legacy of feminist art in Southern California. Temporary Residence partners with artists and organizations to present innovative site-specific works in found domestic and public spaces in and around Los Angeles. 

In a world where womyn are still being underrepresented, misrepresented, and where the impact of systemic patriarchy is still being ignored, LB Riot Grrrl provides a safe space and open forum for Long Beach feminists to come together to work towards growth and change.

We recognize womyn through the way we rock and the work that we do …we are womyn and we co-create the revolution!

For more information about LB Riot Grrrl: https://www.facebook.com/LbRiotGrrrl


Tina Linville, What Brought Me Here, detail, 2011


Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The Next Step Podcast



Join us on Saturday, September 21 on a drive to Llano Del Rio.The Craftswoman House caravan will depart from the Glendale Metrolink Station 400 W. Cerritos Ave. Glendale, CA 91204 at 2pm on Saturday,and travel 70 miles to Llano Del Rio site east of Palmdale in the Antelope Valley for The Next Step expedition. While in route, travelers can listen to a podcast about and inspired by the Llano colony, connect to the podcast here. Those who do not wish to join the caravan may travel on their own to the Llano site. 

The Next Step: an expedition to Llano Del Rio is a collaboration between Craftswoman House Temporary Residence and Hinterculture.


The podcast features contributions from: Rachel Finkelstein, Sara Fowler, Jennifer from JCPenney, Norman Klein, Elizabeth Leister, Karyl Newman, Larissa Nickel, Carl Peecher, Linda Ravenswood, Chelsea Rector, Cindy Rehm, Milt Stark, and Christine Suarez

Special thanks to Mady Schutzman for contributing out takes from her film Dear Comradeand to Chelsea Rector for editing the recording.

Friday, September 6, 2013

The Next Step: an expedition to Llano Del Rio





On Saturday September 21, Craftswoman House partners with Hinterculture to embark on a journey and exploration of the site of the former Llano Del Rio colony, a socialist co-operative located in the California desert from 1914-1918. We seek artists, dancers, engineers, musicians, scientists, writers, scholars, architects, performers, designers, urban planners, archaeologists, socialists, and activists to join us on our journey. We desire all forms of collaboration to produce works for the 100th anniversary celebration in May 2014.

The Craftswoman House caravan will depart from the Glendale Metrolink Station 400 W. Cerritos Ave. Glendale, CA 91204 at 2pm on Saturday, September 21 and travel 70 miles to Llano Del Rio site east of Palmdale in the Antelope Valley for The Next Step expedition. While in route, travelers can listen to a podcast about and inspired by the Llano colony. The podcast will feature historical information, sound art, and interviews about the former socialist community. The podcast will be available for download at tempresidence.blogspot.com by September 18th. Those who do not wish to join the caravan may travel on their own to the Llano site. There will be scheduled tours and performances at the site from 4-6pm, details TBA.

Llano Del Rio was incorporated in 1914 by Job Harriman, the socialist nominee for mayor of Los Angeles in 1911. The site is located at approximately 165th Street East along Highway 138 otherwise known as Pearblossom Highway. Despite numerous internal hurdles and external criticisms, the colony made its mark as an innovative social experiment. Llano’s progressive social services-including low-cost housing, Social Security, minimum-wage pay, and universal health care, were decades ahead of their time. The colony, one of the most successful socialist colonies in America, relocated to New Llano Louisiana in 1917, after internal political dissent and troubled logistics in their water rights agreement.

The title of the expedition The Next Step, references Alice Constance Austin’s 1935 book The Next Step: How to Plan for Beauty, Comfort, and Peace with Great Savings Effected by the Reduction of Waste which promoted visionary plans for feminist life within a socialist city. Inspired by Ebenezer Howard’s garden city and the ideas of feminist thinker, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Austin’s innovative design for Llano featured kitchenless houses, areas for communal daycare, and built-in furniture to reduce the demands of domestic labor. Although the plans for Llano were never fully actualized, Austin’s vision and ideals entered the vernacular of history and have influenced architecture, city planning, urban development, and discourses on feminism and socialism. As W. L. George stated in 1913, “The Feminist flat is revolutionary, strikes at the root of the economic system, may involve vast readjustments of land-tenure, communal building and taxation. But we are not afraid of revolution, for we are the pioneers of a sex-revolution.”







Safety tips for travel in the desert:


Bring food and water-just in case.

Wear walking (hiking/closed toe) shoes and pants that cover your legs.

Have a small jacket with you. It's been hot, but the wind picks up in the evening and it can get very chilly.

Keep an eye out for snakes and wildlife.

Ants in your pants if you stand on their colony. 

There are no restrooms. The nearest facilities are at Longview to the west in Littlerock (It's on the map below)

Sunscreen is your friend.

Please dispose of any litter properly, and respect the land. 


Cigarettes can cause major wildfires because of the dry brush.

We aren’t expecting rain, but if it does rain, there is a high chance it will flood and we'll have to divert around the wash. Water acts differently in the desert, and even 1 inch of rain can flood the wash.

If you plan to visit the Hotel ruins on the North side of Pearblossom Highway, please don't walk across the road. Highway 138 is called Deathtrap Highway for a reason.


Llano Expedition Google Map


Craftswoman House Temporary Residence is a project dedicated to fostering a dialogue on feminist issues through projects and exhibitions. Inspired by collective efforts such as Womanhouse, the project pays homage to the rich legacy of feminist art in Southern California. Temporary Residence partners with artists and organizations to present innovative site-specific works in found domestic and public spaces in and around Los Angeles. http://tempresidence.blogspot.com/


Hinterculture is an arts collaboration that explores the intersections of cultural inquiry and creative potentiality by means of experimental exhibitions. Projects reveal the outlying history, art, technology and business of the desert hinterlands by mining sites for their social, cultural and aesthetic meaning. Documenting hidden and overlooked stories, both natural and manufactured, Hinterculture expands the perception and understanding of art and space—sharing these discoveries and revealing a new public image of the Mojave.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Interview with Sara Schnadt




Craftswoman House Temporary Residence in conversation with Sara Schnadt, August 2013. Link to the podcast here.





Additional images from the performance can be found here.