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Final Projects: Group XXVIII


  • Schindler House 835 North Kings Road West Hollywood, CA, 90069 (map)

Artist Rainer Prohaska presented his ongoing project Restaurant Transformable [Director’s Cut]. In a format that combined performance, architecture and exhibition elements, Prohaska approached cooking as an authentic form of fine and performing art. At the Schindler House, Prohaska presented several works that documented four Los Angeles cooking performances, including photographs, paintings and sculptures made from ingredients. In the gardens, he exhibited a sculpture that also chronicled the performances. Additionally, he presented a live performance, using a cooking module designed for this purpose.

 

The Two Times Ten Feet of William Mulholland, exhibited by painter and sculptor Bara (Hans-Peter Thomas), commemorated the infamous St. Francis Dam collapse of 1928, a disaster that killed more than 400 people and ended the career of Los Angeles water czar, William Mulholland. The installation looked at the event from the perspective of two Santa Paula motorcycle policeman who rode ahead of the deadly wave caused by the dam collapse, warning townspeople to evacuate. Bara also exhibited an expressionistic, abstract painting produced in collaboration with its subject. This “portrait” documented a moment more than a personage. At the Final Projects opening, Bara performed Lovesongs, a piece for guitar and vocals, along with two other musicians.

Artists Wouter Osterholt and Elke Uitentuis investigated the concept of home, focusing their efforts in Victorville, a Los Angeles exurb that had significantly suffered the effects of the housing bubble. In order to consider the plight of the American dream, the artists created a small, two-story “McMansion” which they wheeled through the streets of Victorville, using it as a catalyst for engaging the citizenry. The mobile home served as a set for their video documentary during the exhibition.

Architect Bernhard Wolf was interested in doing research on public spaces and how people in L.A. use their city. He was struck by the extremes of luxury and poverty he witnessed, and decided to focus on one of the 70,000 homeless who live on the city streets. For four months, he followed 66 year-old Maggie, who lived at a bus shelter on Fairfax Avenue and had been homeless for seven years. By observing and documenting Maggie’s daily habits, Wolf developed ideas to improve her situation and advocated for her aid to official agencies and charities. The exhibition included a series of black and white photographs documenting Maggie’s story, and the concept for a mobile shelter Wolf designed.

 
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May 27

The Isle

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November 3

Otto Neurath. Gypsy Urbanism