Thursday, 4/10/97
View today in uncommon way
MOCA exhibition portrays darker images, visions of community
By Vanessa VanderZanden
Daily Bruin Contributor
Winnie the Pooh sports sado-masochistic apparel. Plastic doll
heads smile from atop wooden stakes. Bleeding paper snowflakes
refuse to melt in a glass jar. Welcome to MOCA.
The Geffen Contemporary Museum at the Museum of Contemporary Art
(MOCA), reveals these darker images of modern American society in
their current exhibition, "Uncommon Sense," which runs through July
6. The series focuses on producing a greater sense of community
within the L.A. basin. The museum houses six major works throughout
the larger program, and also sponsors a series of performances,
drawing classes and peace talks.
One of the most community-centered creations on display is Rick
Lowe’s piece, "Watts House Project." This work takes the form of a
three-room wooden housing structure in order to reflect the
changing face of the Watts neighborhood. The first room includes
framed documents of the proposed Watts Towers Cultural Crescent
master plan, a scrapped project that would have provided the
community with not only art and film centers but also a myriad of
other community buildings. However, the last room plays host to
photos of Rick Lowe’s miraculous housing renovation project in
Houston, Texas and outlines his plans for a similar undertaking in
Watts.
The second room, on the other hand, speaks of Watts’ existing
community livelihood. Two cases hold hand tools of Simon Rodia, the
man who single-handedly built Watts Towers, the steel, artistic
structures on the district’s hillside, over a 33- year period.
While these implements reflect the ability within the people of
Watts to make a difference through art, other displays show how
many residents already have succeeded in this goal.
One such case holds a few samples of Margarita Pichardo’s
collection of old doll heads, which she finds on walks and then
uses to decorate her front lawn. Such creative expression also
shines through in an adjacent display which includes dioramas of
row houses designed by neighborhood teens. Though one house is
bathed entirely in black and another involves a space invader and
green, plastic army men, all pieces represent the youth, their
culture and their community.
The call to achieve a sense of social togetherness also rings
true in "Unburning Freedom Hall," a piece submitted by Mierle
Laderman Ukeles. The Freedom Hall, a "Temple of Free Speech"
developed by African Americans, women and abolitionists, burned to
the ground 130 years ago by an angry mob, four days after its
construction. The work, like Lowe’s, also involves three
segments.
The first aspect centers around huge dunes of broken glass,
representing how even the most broken pieces of our society can
come together to create a holistic sense of beauty.
Along the walls of these mounds sit the work’s second part,
comprised of tall cabinets boasting glass bottles and jars which
hold "unburnings." These artistic renderings by children and adults
in the Los Angeles area reflect their concept of community and
their attempt to communicate with different spheres of society.
Some jars merely hold paper and poetry while others involve
photographs or toys. In the project’s third area, a table sits
where museum visitors can fill their own jar to add to the museum’s
wall.
Next on the exhibit’s main floor sits a huge rodeo arena,
complete with sand, white fencing and spectator stands. Simply
titled "West," Ann Carlson and Mary Ellen Strom’s piece involves 25
binoculars connected to individual video monitors, set up around
the arena’s fence. In this way, patrons view short film segments
reflecting domestic quarrels and inner city crime problems as
though amusedly watching the violence of a rodeo.
Other works also put signs of society’s foibles and more serious
problems in unexpected places in order to bring attention to them.
Initiated by Mel Chin, the Gay and Lesbian Association (GALA) art
group has been adding telling art to the set of "Melrose Place."
Sketches for the set pieces line the walls of one room, while other
rooms play videos of the show, pointing out where the props have
been placed.
For instance, one pharmaceutical sign reading, "Be Normal – your
physician can medicate your mood swings to help you adjust to the
new economy," sits on a museum stand next to a candy necklace made
of Dexatrim pills. Meanwhile, a monitor in the corner plays the
episode where both items appear, barely noticeable, in an actual
"Melrose Place" scene.
They make you think about what is currently "acceptable"
behavior, from diet pills to mood medications. Karen Finley’s work
"Go Figure" questions what currently constitutes "offensive." In
one part, video cameras flash photo images of such things as hot
dogs and doughnuts onto the genitalia of Greek garden statues. In
the background a computer screen asks patrons to submit what most
offends them, projecting their answers onto a bubbling
fountain.
One wall just outside of the enclosed, darkened room abounds
with humorous sketches of the characters of Winnie the Pooh in
slightly less than typical poses. For instance, one picture has
Pooh walking alongside a set of animal tracks sporting a huge
erection, saying to Piglet, "Whenever I think of the woozle who
made these tracks, it pops up."
The final piece in the "Uncommon Sense" exhibition comes from
the Cornerstone Theater Company in the form of an MTA bus. The
troupe performs a series of plays within the bus, which rests on
the museum floor. When not used as a theater, museum goers can
explore the vehicle’s photos of what one might see outside a bus
window, and photos and biographical information about veteran bus
drivers. As an opportunity for all members of society to interact
in a common forum, the bus reflects the exhibit’s attempt to bring
the L.A. community together and discuss common issues.
ART: "Uncommon Sense" is at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary Museum
through July 6. The museum is located at 152 N. Central Ave. Open
Tuesday – Sunday, 11-5 p.m. and Thursday 11-8 p.m. Closed Mondays.
$6 adults, $4 students and seniors. For more info, call (213)
626-6222 or visit the website at http://www.MOCA-LA.org.
Lyle Ashton Harris
The bus in "Bus Play," part of MOCA’s exhibition, "Uncommon
Sense," is a theatre as well as a photo gallery of bus drivers and
city scenes.
Lyle Ashton Harris
"Watts House Project," by Rick Lowe, portrays the triumphs
and
setbacks of community housing.
Lyle Ashton Harris
"Go Figure," by Karen Finley,
evaluates the concept "offensive."MOCA