Douglas Tausik Ryder Reveals Rich Body Language

Posted on by Diversions LA

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Running through October 19th at the DTLA art district’s Jason Vass Gallery, Douglas Tausik Ryder’s Body Language expands upon a sculptural topic he’s worked with in the past, creating an abstract, sensual, and richly geometric view of the female body.

Ryder’s language is a kind of code that bridges technology and nature. The artist creates his smooth, highly textured works using industrial geometric code in a CNC machine, encompassing 3D modeling to create these large-form wood sculptures.

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The works are towering, even monumental. Using computer models, he creates his sculptures into assembleable parts, forms wooden maquettes, carves, sands, shapes, and then adjusts his digital model as the work progresses. Once he moves into the machine room, Ryder is using an industrial machine he’s rebuilt, utilizing a digital cutting tool to carve individual portions of his works. He does it all himself with no assistance from an outside source.

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The result is a sleek, voluptuous series of works that is abstract in nature but obliquely figurative. Viewed as part of a group show held at Vass several years ago, his “Venus,” which was inspired by his wife’s pregnancy,  is a strong introduction to his work, seemingly entirely smooth, as if it sprung whole cloth after gestating in the artist’s vision.

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“Reclining Nude” is just that, both alien and familiar, a ribbon of wood that reaches out to the viewer in compelling curves.

His work is filled with texture, texture enhanced by the technnology he has long been devoted to, making mysterious, even poetic works with precise tools and machine techniques that he taught himself.

 

The work is seductive and dream-like. It is neither body nor soul entirely, but embodies both. Similarly, his high-tech process belies an instinctual state of grace in his forms. There are no harsh lines or jagged constructs, and yet each work is essentially an elaborate seies of puzzle pieces fit neatly together. They are smooth, yet filled with a raw power that seems to undulate just beneath the surface of his wood, and slips within the curves of his figures.

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The Body Language sculptures in this five-work series are enormous in scale, large in their passionate use of form, and sinuous. They have a liquidity to their creation, a washed-smooth take on a geometric form which in and of itself seems born of the body but elevated by the mind and heart. 

The works are cool, clean,  and connected – both within each individual work’s components and between the sculptures that make up the exhibition. Playing off the white walls of the gallery, Ryder’s pieces stand like fluid creatures, captured and frozen within their lustrous wood.

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Seeing these works in one sweeping show is a pleasure, and considering how they were shaped is fascinating and yet entirely irrelevant. However they were crafted, they stand as reflective meditations on both the physical and the spiritual.

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by Jason Vass Gallery

 

Formulae & Fairy Tales: Sublime Dance from Invertigo Dance Theatre

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When one looks at the word sublime in the dictionary – assuming we still look at dictionaries, of course – an illustration of the work of Invertigo Dance Theatre should accompany it.

Now at The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica for one more night, September 14th only at 7:30 pm., Formulae & Fairy Tales tells the heartbreaking story of the life of Alan Turing, the mathematical genius and World War II codebreaker.

Using the ideas and images from his favorite film, Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the brilliant choreography of Laura Karlin, Invertigo Dance Theatre’s Founding Artistic Director, creates a dream-like, fascinating world of mathematics, artificial intelligence, and cryptography that is also a love story, and a tale that expresses great loneliness and injury.

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Making strong use of the troupe’s floor-based dance movement and sinuous contemporary style, Formulae & Fairy Tales was one of 20 nationwide works selected for a prestigious New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project production grant. 

Invertigo will continue to tour Formulae & Fairy Tales during the 2020-21 season, starting with a performance at the University of Florida Performing Arts’ Phillips Center on February 5, 2020. Seriously, if you miss it in LA, it’s worth a plane ticket. 

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For those unfamiliar with the story of Alan Turing, considered the father of artificial intelligence and the computer, this genius of  a computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist basically broke German code and turned the tide of World War II. Despite this heroic victory, following the war, he was cruelly persecuted for being homosexual, convicted of “gross indecency” by the country he helped save, and in 1954, he died by eating an apple laced with cyanide, a desperate act that was likely inspired by Snow White. 

Karlin describes the dance performance as “a rejection of tragedy in favor of hope, redemption, and an implacable desire that our world be better for the people living in it,” which not only sums up Turing’s life and Karlin’s telling of his story, but also the troup’s truly give-back philosophy, with its Dancing through Parkinson’s program and various school programs.  And it just might sum up the palpable joy that vibrates through this Invertigo performance and those we’ve had the pleasure of seeing in the past.

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During the show, much witty, trenchant, and loving use is made of Turing’s love for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first animated feature to be produced in English and in Technicolor©. The muse of fractured film images as well as numbers, letters, and binary code is projected behind the dancers as they leap, writhe, soar, and collapse onto the stage. 

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Karlin has managed to embody Turing’s creativity, his mathematical world, his hidden meanings, his secret love life. Throughout the 80 minute performance, the dancers’ movements often play on computational systems, on the known and unknown.

The end result is both magical and precise, story telling crafted from motion. And that motion often  mirrors the decoding of classified information in that dancers and viewers alike are bound to the mystery and resolution.

Karlin created the choreography in collaboration with the dancers: Cody Brunelle-Potter, Hyosun Choi, Jessica Dunn, Spencer Jensen, Corina Kinnear, Dominique McDougal, and Luke Dakota Zender. Composers Toby Karlin, Julia Kent, and Eric Mason’s music are also featured in the piece.

Karlin was compelled to create the work after hearing an NPR broadcast about Janna Levin’s book on Turing,  A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines;  the end result is both a beautiful tribute to Turing and a fresh representation of Levin’s fascinating material. Unlike the rather staid film about Turing’s life released in 2016, The Immitation Game, Karlin’s work gets into the heart, soul, and sensuous bones of her subject.

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The joy, defiance, and anguish in a final dance featuring Turing and his lover, meeting not lip to lip but with an apple clenched in their teeth between them, is absolutely brilliant. Like the production itself, this is an incredible, richly memorable moment in dance.

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When Karlin joined the dancers tonight for a final bow, the company received a well-deserved standing ovation.

 

Tickets are now on sale at www.thebroadstage.org or by calling 310.434.3200.

The Eli & Edythe Broad Stage is located at 1310 11th St. Santa Monica CA 90401. Parking is free.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Joe Lambie, George Simian – provided courtesy of Invertigo Dance Theatre

 

Experiencing Eric Thaller

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Eric Thaller describes himself as “inspired by the human experience. The brilliant, the profound, the sad, the unimaginable. There is so much to learn.  And to share. I like to share and re-share through my work. I think this is the essence of art.”

And the essence of Thaller’s complex, asethetically thrilling work is experiential. According to the artist “I don’t want people to view my work.  I want them to experience my work. I endeavor to create imagery that is compelling on its own, but this is not enough.  I will have failed if the viewer simply glances at the visual composition and walks on. I want the viewer to engage in the piece.”

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He describes messages in his work as sometimes explicit, other times hidden to reveal the context behind them and the human experience they contain. He asks viewers not to judge the work merely from a distance, but to get close to it. When one does, Thaller’s work grabs the viewer, and surprisingly won’t let go visually or emotionally, as is surely intended.

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He notes “There is always some other dimension to the work that I hope will draw in the viewer. This secondary element could be the process itself, an embedded message, or a visual surprise when up close.  My last series, Rebirth of the Pixel, incorporates all three.”

His process of creation is entirely unique, beginning with the message or information he wants to convey.

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“Once I’ve figured this out, then I plan the execution of the works. In Rebirth of the Pixel, each of the images required a translation into the 4 colors of the palette.  This allowed me to visualize where the individual pixels – Legos in this case – needed to be placed one at time.”

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The monochromatic palette in no way diminishes the deep visceral imact of the work, the detail and precision of which is mind-blowing.

Thaller asserts “For the full series I individually placed hundreds of thousands of Lego pieces.  It took me 2 years.” 

He chose his current palette so that the work would “permeate with a sense of history and time. From far away, I’m aiming for a very detailed image. Up close I want people to see the pixels and appreciate the process.”

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In his Rebirth of the Pixel series, he relates that the 4 pixels range from black at the weakest intensity of the spectrum to white at the strongest – with just two pixels in between.  He describes the chosen palette as selected in order to “emulate the effects of black and white photography.”  Using Legos as a construct injects a sense of fun and accessability to images that are filled with gravitas.

The overall sensation when viewing is that of entering into a black and white photo, a realm more dimensional than could be conveyed in conventional photographic art. The palette, though limited, vibrates, as if the image could plunge from the work and into real life. The viewer experiences a kind of futuristic noir from this series: there’s a poignant history to each image, and the sense of seeing it from an almost sci-fi perspective.

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Thaller says that his work has undergone a lot of changes over the years. “Mostly around the medium though. I’ve experimented with a lot of different techniques.  But I would say my focus around creating experience hasn’t changed at all. And I don’t think it will.” 

Upcoming for the Los Angeles-based Thaller is a series of pieces contemplating the impacts of social media on younger generations, family, and culture in general. 

“I truly believe in technology as a positive force, but also think it is important to be cognizant of the negative externalities that result from overuse and dependence,” he explains. “The irony in these pieces is that I force the viewer to use technology itself to access the explicit message I want to convey. ” 

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by the artist

 

What Rocks and Rolls and Sings the Blues? It’s the Johnny Rich Band

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The Johnny Rich band, pictured above, is ready to burn down the house – or bar, as the case may be – with a heady, professional mix of rock n’ roll, blues, and even a bit of a jazz riff.

Lamar Little, to the left in the photo, is the kamakazi drummer, who blows listeners away with the intensity of his beat.  Bass player Derrick Murdock, far right, was in the house band for the Tonight Show and the Jay Leno show, and is a powerful player. And rounding out the dynamic trio, middle position, is John Richardson, singer, guitarist, songwriter, and leader of the band.  

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We took in a stellar performance on the west side at Trip in Santa Monica; the band can often be found at the Silverlake Lounge on the east side and the Old Town Pub in Pasadena, as well as in DTLA at a variety of spots.

We heard a set that included a terrific instrumental, “50 Years,” which Richardson describes as “trying to be pretty.” It doesn’t just try though, it succeeds, and has the distinction of many gigs past being the first piece that he ever played in public. Just definitely not the last.

Playing on the irony and ugliness of our times with a driving beat was “Comrade Bonespur Boogie,” which features a lyric that Richardson quotes as “All that’s left is whiskey and regret” intoned by a viewer “watching DJT and the GOP on TV and being amazed as things keep going lower.”

Richardson’s “Demon Rum” tells the story of “A poor wretch in love with the Sports Illustrated swimsuit model from 2003 pasted on the wall at the bar he goes to every day after work. ‘I love how you come to life after a drink or two …'” The photo image might’ve started dancing had she heard the song written in her honor. 

Also on the play list were non-originals such as Johnny Smith’s “Walk Don’t Run,” popularized by The Ventures originally, and the perfect song to showcase Little’s drumming skills. 

Richardson describes “Sleepwalk/Sleepwalk on the Radio” as a mix of creative efforts. “I’ve never gotten sick of playing Santo & Johnny’s Sleepwalk. It’s the front end to one of mine about Sleepwalk and the good old days which weren’t all that swell after all.”

 And one of our favorites was the evocative original instrumental “Renfield,” described as telling the story of “Dracula meeting Little Red Riding Hood and getting his ass kicked.” He notes that song evokes “ever-increasing levels of evilness, like those Lon Chaney werewolf movies that start with the beautiful moon full of foreboding.” Indeed. 

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A poignant piece, “Betty’s Waltz” honors a dear friend and mother with fatal breast cancer. “Right near the end she was at home in a coma with the morphine drip running. I sat up all night and played her every song I knew,” Richardson relates.

And corporate ethics – if there is such a thing – got their due in another original, “Karl Marx Boogie,” which includes the biting lyric depicting Wall Street greed,  “Down and down you go and you sink into the mire. Soon you’re just like all the rest, you don’t give a damn.”

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While most of Richardson’s vast collection of originals focuses on true life stories or the fiction that grabs him, the band’s non-original numbers run the range from Thelonius Monk songs like “In Walked Bud,” selected in part because of what Richardson calls “fun chord changes,” to classics from Keith Richards, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Christian, and Miles Davis.

“I started out playing the drums as a kid, which led to wearing weird-ass wool suits marching around the football field at halftime. Picked up the guitar early in ’69, got hooked when I could recognize myself playing No Expectations by the Stones, and never turned back,” he says. 

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The band got its name thanks to “a hipster 20-year-old I played a gig with in Berkeley,” Richardson laughs.

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But there’s nothing funny about the music – it’s seriously great stuff. Don’t miss the band’s upcoming gigs. For more information, visit www.johnnyrichband.com

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis, and provided by the artist