When I tell people I am going to an art show, they usually
imagine a sterile room full of geriatric intellectuals in fancy
dress, staring at paintings of Queen Elizabeth. While this may be
the case in some circumstances, for the most part, it’s a
gross misconception. Oftentimes, art openings have DJs and free
booze, and if you find a hip, interesting artist, there will
usually be hip, interesting people there to chat with.
Los Angeles, with its ubiquitous museums and art shows, has an
array of interesting, fun and downright weird things to see, but
many UCLA students miss the chance to ever see them.
During our tenure here at UCLA, we should take advantage of all
the great things this city has to offer. It’s easy to get
stuck in the loop of frat party hooliganarchy and college bar binge
drinking, that oftentimes we miss out on the world beyond the
confines of our Westwood bubble. I know it’s hard to unplug
from that intravenous reality TV feed, but let’s put down the
bong and try something new.
Last month I took a date to an art opening for Shepard
Fairey’s solo exhibition, titled “Manufacturing
Dissent”. We got there a bit late and the place was packed.
Urban hipsters and grungy, punk rock twenty-somethings spilled out
into the street, clutching plastic cups of rum and coke from the
open bar.
We maneuvered our way through the crowd and mingled while
sipping our free drinks and checking out the artwork. The walls
were checkered with amazing screen prints and intricate collages
featuring the likes of pop-culture icons such as Joey Ramone, Black
Sabbath and the infamous Andre the Giant. A camera man weaved
through the crowd as my date and I headed to a bar down the street
to continue the evening.
There are art openings like this every weekend, and the shows
usually run for a month; you should check the listings to see what
interests you. Its good to break out of your normal routine, and
taking a date to an art show is far more original than taking her
to the local college bar for a typical evening of drunken
debauchery.
The “Upside Down Mushroom Room” is an installment in
the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, designed by Carsten
Holler, a Belgium-born artist, working from Germany. It is exactly
what it sounds like: a large room with giant spotted mushroom
sculptures of varying sizes hanging from the ceiling. To make
things even more surreal, they spin at 4 revolutions per minute,
turning the scene into some kind of twisted Super Mario style acid
trip.
From the opium-fueled poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, to the
absinthe-addled paintings of Van Gogh, many college students should
be able to relate to artist’s experimentation with altered
states of reality. MOCA is running an exhibition called
“Ecstasy” that deals with just this subject, and this
is just the type of bizarre art that UCLA students might enjoy.
Do you like seeing pictures of accidents, fires, murderers and
riots? Maybe that’s too macabre for some, but I am certainly
intrigued by the idea. I plan on going to the Getty to check out
Arthur Fellig’s collection of photographs of New York City in
the 1930s and 1940s. Amongst the collection, Fellig has a photo of
a burning Manhattan factory with a billboard attached to the side,
reading “simply add boiling water”.
UCLA students are fleeting members of the Los Angeles community,
and often don’t know much about the history of the city. The
Getty can help solve this problem with its collection of
photographs by Julius Shulman who chronicled the development of the
Los Angeles region for nearly 70 years. As Los Angeles residents,
it might prove interesting to see how our city has grown to what it
is now. And while you’re at it, you can explore the rest of
the museum and bulk up on your cultured cocktail party
conversational topics.
Closer to home are the Hammer Museum and the Fowler Museum on
campus. These two museums have a lot to offer, and you don’t
even have to leave your Westwood bubble to check them out.
I sometimes wonder what keeps UCLA students from getting out and
experiencing all the city. But then I realize that I am guilty of
this same sinful laziness. Lately I’ve been trying to get out
and find some charm in this concrete jungle. Somewhere between the
sinister alleyways and Hollywood smiles, there is a whole world of
culture just waiting to be discovered.
Been to any cool art shows lately? Want to introduce
Deitchman to some new artist? Tell him about it at
jdeitchman@media.ucla.edu. General comments can be sent to
viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.