First up is I Have Always Loved Motorcycles which premiered on The Vintagent this week. My thanks to Corinna Mantlo and Paul d'Orléans for the nice sendoff. It’s me reading a story from Stories I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You, but also an experiment in how to bring book readings to life. I hope you will take a few minutes to watch it and let me know if it’s working for you.
Then, for something completely different, here’s a review+video about a show currently running in LA but closing in a few weeks. This one will run in L’oeil de la Photographie in the next few days, but you get a sneak preview here.
Superradiance - See It Before It's Gone
It’s your chance to experience a museum-quality exhibition in a little gallery masquerading as a storefront
Time-based art, what we used to call experimental film, doesn’t get much notice. Especially now, when any mook with an iPhone can hit record, wave it around, and call what comes out watchable and worth preserving. But living in a world with five million years!!! of crap waiting to dull your senses on the internet, it takes special people to undertake ambitious non-commercial films and equally special people to custom build spaces to show them.
Paul Young is one of those people. Since his days at Young Projects, Paul has been creating spaces, mounting technologically difficult shows, then enticing you into darkened rooms to see the beauty he presents. Paul works his ass off, building walls, mounting projectors, finding support, all so that too few people can experience this art he admires. And once again, he is at it.
Working with Neil Mendoza, they have opened CTRL, where they are currently showing Superradiance, a fine new work by Memo Akten and Katie Peyton Hofstadter.
We could talk about the extraordinarily complex pathway the artists have traversed to bring this show to life, the mountains of code, the dancing, poetry, and music they have woven together, but you will be better served by watching the video to get a glimpse of what you can experience if you drive to Chinatown. Just don’t delay because it won’t be there long. Superradiance closes May 3rd, and CTRL gallery moves on, looking for the next stop on its nomadic path.
Before it goes away though, you owe it to yourself to experience this fifteen-minute out-of-body experience. Sit on the bench or the cushions or lie on the thick black carpet (my favorite) in the darkened room and be surrounded by constantly morphing images and sounds. Then, when you’re done, climb up the stairs to see an extraordinary kaleidoscope (trust me). When you’re through at CTRL, you can walk around the galleries of Chung King Rd, or if looking at art makes you hungry try one of the many restaurants in the neighborhood. Maybe for a few minutes we can all put aside the current shit show. Anybody?
CTRL Gallery - 945 Chung King Road, LA 90012 https://www.instagram.com/ctrl.gallery.la/
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