GETTING GERTIE’S GREGARIOUS GARTER
Its been absolutely enchanting returning to Los Angeles for my dejecta/proteca installation piece at MoCa. Hector Martinez picked me up at the airport Saturday and I couldn’t believe how balmy it was almost 85 degrees fahrenheit without a cloud in the sky and a nice coolish breeze blowing. I checked in to my trendy hotel and in the parking lot they were filming a movie with that sizzling young Academy Award winning actor Adrian Brody. All of downtown LA seemed to be abuzz with filmic activity. Hector took me to this little boite on Main Street called Pete’s where I guzzled a huge cheeseburger with sensational chipotle fries. On the way back to my hotel we ran into Solomon Monsour of Dirt Box-- the famed 1980s LA underground club, and his lovesexy galpal. They live in a hoite toite loft called The Roosevelt.
Young humpy British male ingénue Alex Garfield was on my connector plane to Los Angeles. From Amsterdam. Mr. G. is in the hit film The Social Network.
The next day Skot Armstrong of the legendary LA art collective Science Holiday invited me, my production designer & collaborator Jonathan Berger, Dr. Jennifer Doyle of UC Riverside and Dr. Robert Summers of Otis School of Design to a high tea party at the Biltmore Hotel’s luscious Rendevous Court that overlooks Pershing Square. Joining us was Kateri Butler my Managing Editrix from the LA Weekly and Maggie Song of the brilliant LA post punk band The Fibonacci’s. A wonderful time was had by one and all. Leaving the Biltmore I bumped into Billy Hoye my old Koreatown neighbor and UCLA classmate. Billy works as a set decorator on Hollywood films so of course he would be part of the crew on this Adrian Brody film that was taking over the city.
Monday Jonathan and I had a meeting with Wu and ZacKary at the Village Bakery in Atwater Village. The food was a little pricy, but super delicious, and the staff of sweet young girls warm and accommodating. From our breakfast meeting we went to this old fashion hardware store on Glendale Blvd to powwow with Julie Tolentino and PigPen aka: Stosh Fila who were coordinating all the supplies we needed for this performance installation. Thank god for Julie and PigPen. They are so GoTo strong and mighty. We went to MoCa for load in and met with staff members David, the AV Tech Coordinator who I last worked with 20 years ago on the Helter Skelter exhibit at the Temporary Contemporary which is now now known as the David Geffen Contemporary off of Alameda and 1st Street. Reconnected also with Mike the operations mgr, Jang the Exhibitions Director, EJ the audio meister and sweetie pie Matt who would be our tech guy for the entire week of installing this piece. Everyone has been so warm, supportive and helpful. Special shout out to Suzanne Isken who is the Artist Museum curator and her adorable daughter Dana who bakes killer cup cakes. Suzanne has been the guardian angel of dejecta/protecta.
There is still so much more work to be done for the opening performances on Saturday. Of course I feel like a chicken with its head cut off. Also collaborating on the production end of the project are juicy Marcus and sensational Adam. The day we were filming the Jack Smith style screen tests with Video artist Jean Kim and Hector Martinez taking photos was fantastic. We managed to stay on schedule with logistics that could have been nightmarish. Out student volunteers are all warm and bubbly from a lot of the Southern California art schools and universities. Such a great group of beautiful young men and women.