So I went to this event on Sunday night, billed as a “multisensory art show” put together by a group called AMRA. First we were directed upstairs to look at some art (mostly paintings) and some fruit arrangements. Then we were shepherded downstairs to watch/participate in a groovalicious, hippie-rave-like ritual/performance. The costumed performers began by leading the room in making sounds to awaken and cleanse each of the chakras. Then, they sang and danced a few numbers.
The large room at Human Resources was festooned with elaborate background video projections and fruits that swung from the ceiling. There definitely seemed to be a theme of organic growth; a lot of the projected images were of plants growing in nature.
I took some photos of the performance that turned out pretty cool, so I’m sharing them here. When it was over, the performers passed out fruits for people to eat and encouraged everyone to dance. Happy holidays!
Michael Parker, Juicework, Human Resources, February 6–10, 2015
Posted in photo essays, reviews and commentary on February 9, 2015 by Carol ChehMoney, influence, and hangers-on are descending on the LA art scene these days like vultures, turning it into a place that I barely recognize any more. Openings that were already crazy before are now completely unbearable, and at any given event, I’m more likely to run into wide-eyed escapees from New York crowing about how “things are much more possible in LA” than into the friends of ten years who used to populate the same events. It’s discomfiting, making it easy to think that the good times are over—yet another great grassroots scene ruined by its own popularity and inevitable gentrification.
But then something like Juicework happens and it gives me hope that maybe the truly great, unique, and beautiful stuff—the stuff that to me defines LA much more than any giant-warehouse-turned-blue-chip-gallery—can continue to co-exist alongside the annoying dreck. Michael Parker, an artist’s artist who is well known for beloved projects like Steam Egg and The Unfinished, has made another technically ingenious sculptural installation that also functions as a socially engaging participatory performance. It’s amazing, his knack for doing this, without ever falling into the ineffectual preciousness that mars certain other projects labeled as “social practice.”
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