Actions, Conversations, and Intersections

April 15 -18
Elana Mann
Performing Economies II

Friday, April 16, 3-5pm
Carolina Caycedo performs The Colombian Connection and Elana Mann performs How did that get done: A Cross Section and Time Series Analysis of the No-Income Hypothesis

Sunday, April 18, 2-5pm
(non-edible) Bake Sale for the Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles with Lara Banks, Dan Greaney, Stephanie Hutin, Jason Kunke, Adam Overton, Nate Page, Vincent Ramos
(Mann is still looking for participants- so contact her if you are interested! elanamann@gmail.com)

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Thursday, April 15, 1pm
Mary Sutton and Critical Resistance
Can We Build Our Way Out of Prison Overcrowding?

In conjunction with Actions, Conversations, and Intersections, Mary Sutton, CSPG’s Program Director and members of Critical Resistance Los Angeles will give a presentation created for Californians United for a Responsible Budget, CURB.

The powerpoint features posters from CSPG’s exhibition, Prison Nation: Posters on the Prison Industrial Complex .

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Saturday, April 17, 7pm
Poli Marichal’s Shadow Puppet Theater with Jamie Kim, Beth Peterson, and Marianne Sadowski
Once Upon a Grid (Greed) and other contemporary fables for the 21st Century

Once Upon a Grid (Greed) and other contemporary fables for the 21st Century mixes satire and fact in order to create fantastic narratives that address our troubled times. Rod shadow puppets made out of recycled materials are used to reenact some of the critical events that are shaping our world.

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Sunday, April 18, 2-5 pm
Closing Reception and Catalog Proofing Party

Celebrate the final actions of the exhibition and help proof the soon to be released catalog – a party to celebrate all the artists, organizations, and viewers who made the Actions, Conversations, and Intersections exhibition possible.

Light refreshments courtesy of the Echo Park Private Brewery serving a micro-brewed Nut Brown Ale and Light Ale, Bavarian style pretzels and mustard donated by the We Miss Munich Bakery, with additional snack support provided by Lauren M. Kasmer and Joyce Dallal via Whole Foods.

2-3 pm
Classical Music Trio

Comprised of Vincent Reyes on guitar, Jerico Flores on violin and Mini Zabala on flute will perform selections from their classical repertoire as well as jazz standards and original arrangements of modern pop songs.

Vincent Reyes began playing guitar professionally at 15 and studied composition at NYU under Ruth Schonthal. He is a member of the American Guitar Society and had studied briefly under Scott Tennent. He has written music for various film and theater productions, arranged music for the Filipino American Symphony Orchestra, and is the composer for ThreeTwoOne Productions.

Jerico Flores has been a member of the Hamilton Orchestra, West LA Youth Orchestra, and the Glendale Youth Orchestra under the direction of Brad Keimach. He had been chosen to play the Brach Violin Concerto at CSUN and is currently studying violin at the Thornton School of Music at USC.

Mini Zabala was a flutist with the Los Angeles Symphonic Winds (Pierce College) for several years and went on tours with them to Europe. She has also played with several other groups including the Kelley Love Orchestra, has performed as pit orchestra flutist for some local community productions, and is presently a member of the Filipino American Symphony Orchestra.

2-5pm
Heather Ellison and Lyn M. Watanabe
Pillow Thoughts

Pillow Thoughts was conceived in part from the installation, Cup Thoughts by Nicola Atkinson Does Fly (NADFLY). These pillows once displayed at the Los Angeles Municipal Gallery at Barnsdall Park, have been donated by NADFLY to inspire others.

Seeking eighty participants to re-fashion the pillows and return them for an exhibition in the fall of 2010.

Spend your rainy Saturday afternoon inside the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery hanging out and working on the following projects:

12-5pm: Amy Caterina knits more grass and more fur for her forest floor and forest animals. Bringing your needles and join her.

12-5pm: Upcycling with Howard Hill and Patricia Zambrano – transform salvaged and scavenged furniture into desirable and usable objects. This weekend they share their techniques. Bring an object to work on or choose from theirs.

12-5pm: Theordore Payne docents are on hand every weekend to talk to you about native flora and fauna. Whether you have a yard or a balcony they can give tips on the plants that are best for your location.

1-5 pm: The Longest Potholder will be growing today. Laurel Paley invites you to bring clean socks to modify into a new section of the potholder.

1-5pm: Some of the largest knitting needles in town will be in use by Shelley Ruggthorp and her knitting coherts. You’re invited to join her and knit.

2-4pm: Minh Phan hosts the Nadfly Fika Shop. Enjoy fresh brewed coffee and homemade cardamon cake for $3.

Can Design Stop a War?
Slide lecture by Carol A. Wells

Art inspires and empowers the disenfranchised. There has never been a viable movement for social change throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, without the arts—theater, poetry, music, posters—being central to that movement. Political posters in particular are powerful living reminders of struggles worldwide for peace and justice. Communication, exhortation, persuasion, instruction, celebration, warning: graphic art broadcasts its messages through bold images and striking designs.

Poster art challenges the powerful. The posters in this presentation are selections from “The Ant-War Show,” an exhibition documenting over fifty years of continuous opposition to U.S. interventions into the domestic affairs of sovereign nations. Political, economic and military interventions, many of them covert, have repeatedly resulted in unpardonable deaths and misery for millions. These posters show hopes and dreams, and the pain of dreams destroyed. Their graphic intensity results from expressing the rage engendered by U.S. actions through art. For some, these posters may also provide insights into the sources of the seemingly senseless rage that resulted in the atrocity of September 11, 2001.

The Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) is an educational and research archive that collects, preserves and exhibits graphics of social change. With more than 70,000 political posters, CSPG has the largest collection of post World War II human rights and protest posters in the U.S. Through traveling exhibitions, workshops and publications, CSPG is reclaiming the power of art to educate and inspire people to action.

Carol Wells is an activist, art historian, poster collector, and founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG). She writes and lectures on art and politics and has curated over sixty traveling political poster exhibitions since 1981.

All events free and open to the public unless noted.

February 11 – 14
February 13 at 6:00 pm Performance

Ballerina Kelly Valignota

Jocelyn Foye’s project, Ballet Abstracted resides in the Actions space this week. Incorporating photographs and casts from her prior performance based pieces with a new performance by ballerina, Kelly Valignota on a bed of sand, Foye continues her investigation of mark making and movement. Partial support provided by Angels Gate Cultural Center.

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February 11 at 1pm

Can Design Stop a War?
Slide lecture by Carol A. Wells

Art inspires and empowers the disenfranchised. There has never been a viable movement for social change throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, without the arts—theater, poetry, music, posters—being central to that movement. Political posters in particular are powerful living reminders of struggles worldwide for peace and justice. Communication, exhortation, persuasion, instruction, celebration, warning: graphic art broadcasts its messages through bold images and striking designs.

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February 13, 1:00 – 5:00 pm

The Municipal Art Gallery staff brings you a Valentine Paper Cutting Festival. Spend the afternoon making super sweet valentine’s by using various paper cutting techniques from around the world. Materials and equipment on site but if you have a favorite pair of scissors or extra paper you would like to share please bring it.

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February 13, 1:00 – 5:00 pm

Nadfly Shoes One Day Print Event

NADFLY FIKA SHOP & HOMESITE CLOTHING EXCHANGE goes into Barnsdall Park to do silk screening while you wait. Nicola Atkinson Does Fly, Lauren M. Kasmer and Joyce Dallal alter your wardrobe . Bring your t-shirts, dresses, tea towels, tablecloth, pillows etc…to be printed on and or exchanged.
Fee: $15 per print

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February 13 & 14 , 2:00 – 4:00 pm

Nadfly Fika Shop, the first coffee shop since Barnsdall’s founding in 1927 will be open for coffee and Nadfly Cardamom Cake. Drink from paper cups with a drawing of Nicola’s temporary residence in Los Angeles.
Fee: $3

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February 14 at 2:00 pm

Kill Kitty Kill perform their special Valentine’s Day set.

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February 14 at 3:00 pm

The Public School host the second class on Ambivalence.
Here are the reading assignments:
Mourning and Melancholia
Taboo and the Ambivalence of Emotions (from Totem and Taboo)

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February 14, 4:00 – 6:00 pm

M&A Presents: Lunar Valentine’s Sunset with the Museum of Complaints

In a special Valentines Day celebration of the central role that communication plays in all healthy relationships, please join us for a reading and book signing with Matthew Bakkom of the New York City Museum of Complaint.

Champagne Reception for the author and all the lovers in attendance.

2:00 pm
Smart Gals celebrates their 10 year anniversary with a Winter Picnic Performance featuring freshly baked bread from the Bicycle Bread Company, hot coffee from Cafécito Organico, savory music, and sweet bits of surprising theater unwittingly triggered by our guests.

3:00 pm
The Public School begins their class on the topic of Ambivalence.

This course will (maybe) explore different concepts and theories of ambivalence, typically defined as “simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings (as attraction and repulsion) toward an object, person, or action;” “continual fluctuation (as between one thing and its opposite);” and “uncertainty as to which approach to follow.”

In addition to researching and reading what various contemporary thinkers have to say about ambivalence, we will also attempt to debate the relative pros and cons of ambivalence as a state/position/strategy. What is dangerous, or, alternately, enchanting, about ambivalence? How might we theorize an ethics of uncertainty?
Readings will include excerpts from USC professor Karen Pinkus’ new book on alchemy and ambivalence, as well as selections from psychoanalytic, queer, trans and other works relevant to the topic. Suggestions encouraged!