L.A. Expanded: Notes from the West Coast A weekly column by Catherine Wagley The first time I visited downtown Los Angeles, I was surprised by its bareness. A friend and I, both of us art students, had driven in from Claremont for an opening, tackling the congested Santa Monica freeway for the first time, too. A fellow student and L.A. veteran had warned us that,[…..]
L.A. Expanded: Notes from the West Coast A weekly column by Catherine Wagley Back when L.A. art was in its adolescence, critic Peter Plagens asked painter John Altoon why being an artist couldn’t just be about making work: I used to say, “John, what about the artist who just goes into his studio, paints paintings and tries to make them the best that he can?[…..]
L.A. Expanded: Notes from the West Coast A weekly column by Catherine Wagley Stop motion lends itself to stilted narratives about creativity. Some of the earliest films for which the frame-by-frame technique was used tell stories about eccentric characters making something almost as eccentric as themselves. In Thomas Edison’s 1902 project, Fun in a Bakery, a baker smothers a rat he sees with a glob[…..]
L.A. Expanded: Notes from the West Coast A weekly column by Catherine Wagley On November 2nd, 72 year-old Jerry Brown, a walking archive of California radicalism, gave his gubernatorial acceptance speech from the stage of Oakland’s Fox Theater. “Now look,” he said, with let-me-level-with-you straightness, “I like the symbolism of this theater because it was dark and . . . there were people camped in[…..]
L.A. Expanded: Notes from the West Coast A weekly column by Catherine Wagley “What I advocate is threatening,” said Peter Berlin in 2004, talking to Butt magazine about his fondness for wearing nylons under tight, tight white shorts. The artist/porn star, who emerged in the 70s sporting a blond-ish pageboy haircut, explained he’s always running from police who claim he’s wearing only underwear. What does[…..]
L.A. Expanded: Notes from the West Coast A weekly column by Catherine Wagley There are many ways to mask yourself, some more effective than others, and artists—the good ones—venture further into the business of masking than most. They’re also deep into unmasking, balancing the urge to reveal with the need to conceal. This is a more pragmatic than emotional project; even if artists tend to[…..]
L.A. Expanded: Notes from the West Coast A weekly column by Catherine Wagley When Marsha Norman began her play ‘Night Mother, she gave her protagonist Jesse one ominous line of dialogue: “We got any old towels?” It sounds utilitarian, but it actually dives right into the core of play’s tragedy. As playwriting instructor Richard Toscan has pointed out, if Norman let all the implications of[…..]
