Kelly Kleinschrodt with Morgan Paros, theme and variations (for solo violinist and breast pump), Carter and Citizen, Culver City, September 10–October 22, 2011

I finally stopped by the new Carter & Citizen gallery, tucked in a pleasant corner of Culver City away from the main drags, to catch one of the daily performances that have been held there since the current show, Kelly Kleinschrodt’s distant already, opened over a month ago. Essentially, a recording of Kleinschrodt “playing” a breast pump—yes, a breast pump—is heard while Morgan Paros, a trained violinist, improvises a solo accompaniment.

The work’s loaded abstraction definitely speaks of John Cage and Fluxus, the latter of which has been an especially big influence on Kleinschrodt. Motherhood has been on the artist’s mind lately as she finds herself surrounded by the offspring of relatives and friends, and reaches an age where she has to make some motherhood decisions herself. The piece also touches on themes of embodiment and substitution, which have characterized Kleinschrodt’s still young body of work (she got her MFA from UCLA this year).