Blooming in the Whirlwind Whirls Away

Posted on by Diversions LA
Photo credit of installation artists, Dani Dodge

Durden and Ray together in collaboration with Level Ground have brought a brilliant mix of art, video, and poetry into being as a collision of light, color, sculpture, immersive experience and astonishing fun. The Blooming in the Whirlwind exhibition closes with an artist’s talk on December 5th.

It’s a riveting show at the Bendix building gallery, one that seems fraught with rich meaning and emotion. This whirlwind is a cavalcade of dreams, desire, and collaboration.

The conversation between collectives began with poems that inspired films, that led to visual art installations. Poets were paired with filmmakers, filmmakers with installation artists.

The title is fitting, referring to a classic poem by Gwendolyn Brooks written in 1968, another chaotic time here in the land of out of control hopes and dreams. But the exhibition itself took that chaos and made of it a thing of beauty and poignance, of fallen leaves and satin kitchens, of gilt edged tears and strangely alien sculptural “life forms.”

Curated by Level Ground’s Andy Motz, Rebekah Neel, Samantha Curley, and Simone Tetrault, poetry and filmmaker pairings included poets Christina Brown, Daniel Binkoski, DeiSelah, Jireh Deng, Karly Kuntz, Madeleine St. John, Noor Jamal, Simone Tetrault, and Tamisha A Tyler and filmmakers Andrés Vazquez, Anthony D. Frederick, Andrew Neel & Alex C. Smith, Ilgın G. Korugan, Labkhand Olfatmanesh, Leila Jarman, Meredith Adelaide, Rich Johnson, and Taree Vargas.

Curated by Durden and Ray‘s team of Arezoo Bharthania, Ismael de Anda III, and Sean Noyce were installation artists Bharthania, de Anda III, and Noyce, Dani Dodge, Kiyomi Fukui, Sean Noyce, Tina Linville, Reed Van Brunschot, Flora Kao, and Ricardo Harris-Fuentes. Artworks and many of the artists in the gallery with their work, shown below.

From Kao’s glorious autumnal forest to Fukui’s leaf-imprinted chair, de Anda III’s rocking, glowing drum kit, and Dodge’s tear-stained shower of TikTok images and gold leaf tear drops, to Bharthania’s photographic nightscape, Noyce’s towering layered sculpture, and lush tactile work by Van Brunschot, the harmony and kinetic connection between writers/filmmakers/and installation visual creators was vibrantly alive.

As with many exhibitions held at the D & R space, this collab effort was as fresh and compelling as it was entirely enjoyable. Collectives that make cutting edge cool and accessible? A resounding affirmative.

This exhibition was both response to the pandemic isolation and a glorious assault on the senses – power to the people arising from the pandemic and ponderous times.

Durden and Ray is located on the 8th floor of the Bendix Building in DTLA at 1206 Maple in the fashion district.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis

Stories from Père Lachaise – Carolyn Campbell’s Photographic Art Springs to Life

Posted on by Diversions LA
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Ooh la la – photographic artist and author Carolyn Campbell’s bestselling book, City of Immortals: Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris came to life at the Raymond Kabbatz Theatre in Los Angeles November 6th.

An immersive multi-disciplinary festival, the 6-hour event paid tribute to the many artists resting in the cemetery from Bizet to Jim Morrison.

The event included a photographic exhibition, film screening, artist talks, and book signing, as well as tasty baguettes and champagne.  

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While Campbell’s large-scale prints of her beautiful photographs were the centerpiece of the exhibition, the ultimate interpretation of these works and the book itself came in the form of living performance artists interpreting the works of the composers, poets, dancers, and visual artist who now reside in the monumentally sculptural cemetery.

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The day unfolded with a screening of the documentary Forever from Heddy Honigmann, a tour of the cemetery that was powerfully poignant and meditative, a beautiful overview of the cemetery’s environment and emotional impact.

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Following the film, Campbell conducted her first presentation and q and a with audience members, showing slides of her images and describing her visits to Père Lachaise. After Campbell’s own book signing, it was time for a second talk, and the dramatic live performance.

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A tour de force narrated by the character of Isadora Duncan, viewers were led into the world of the cemetery’s great residents, from Frédéric Chopin, Edith Piaf, Georges Bizet, and Jim Morrison, to a witty and riveting Can-Can dancer finale that drew people out of their seats.

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Kacie Devaney wrote the original play, Stores from Pere Lachaise. Devaney also played Duncan, and choreographed the dancers in the production, which was directed by Pierre Leloup, the director of the Raymond Kabbaz Theatre.

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Performances were top notch, with incredible voicing and sinuous, well-choreographed dances.  The cast members, many of whom took on multiple roles, included: Cedric Berry, Victoria Kirsch, Shana Blake Hill, Nora Germain, Chloé Perrier, Cabaret Versatile, Félixe de Becker, and Kacie Devaney. Kirsch, a fine pianist, also served as music director. Berry’s brilliant baritone was a special standout.

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It was a fitting tribute to and full-on entertainment about an other-worldly place, as depicted in Campbell’s City of Immortals. The non-fiction work, as gracefully written as it is photographed, features 100 color photos along with a fold-out map of Père-Lachaise Cemetery, which is sure to encourage a visit.  

Copies of the book are sold through Village Well, an independent bookstore in Culver City – order there, or via Amazon.

Genie Davis; photos, Carolyn Campbell; Genie Davis

Skirball Cultural Center Goes Where No Man Has Gone Before

Posted on by Diversions LA

Star Trek Exploring New Worlds is a delightful exhibition that explores the quite relevant themes the series – in all its iterations – sought to explore. A history of the sci fi show’s production – we can thank Lucille Ball in part, for her belief in the project when others found it too costly or unappealing; costumes; culture; and various characters are all a part of a thoroughly engaging collection.

Costuming art
Commercial conquests
Props of all kinds

Props and artifacts, the storyline of each series and spin-off, and production models are all there. Delightfully well-curated, the exhibition treats the series and both its message and artistic design with both reverence and humor. Pose in the Captain’s chair or try out your prop phasers and get beamed up in a variety of video scenes you can watch enfold via Blue Screen magic.

As much fun as the exhibition is, it is the unfolding of its cultural impact, its messages of inclusiveness and kindness that both the Skirball, and the series itself, explores to purpose. To say that Star Trek the series went where no series had gone before is entirely true. It introduced many of the concepts we now discuss in daily life, as well as some classic catch phrases. It took an early look at the issues and understandings we now strive to reach, or at least attempt to do so, including equality between cultures and races as well as between men and women. One of the reasons for both the original series’ appeal and that of the iterations that came after it, is that the tenets it holds most dear, of learning to accept one another and our differences, never gets old.

Interactive Fun

Thematically, tolerance, reverent history, championship for those who need championing, and a willingness to explore are all inherent in the Skirball’s own mission, adding further resonance to the exhibition.

Both charming and informative, with savvy insider production knowledge and an intelligent look at the series’ impact on viewers and the entertainment industry, Exploring New Worlds offers a smart look at a pop-culture phenomena viewed through a lens of appreciation and the hope for a better tomorrow.

Heartily wishing the Skirball Cultural Center’s deeply enjoyable exploration of Star Trek will live long and prosper. The exhibition runs through February 20th, 2022, a space trip for all ages.

Happy Hauntings All Year Joy Ray Haunts in Ghost Visions

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Closing on Halloween and with a Zoom-friendly séance, Joy Ray’s Ghost Visions was perhaps the most seasonally accurate hosting of an art exhibition to appear in greater Los Angeles. The always provocative artist hosted a robust opening, a well-attended art talk, and the aforementioned magical séance, but it is Ray’s art itself which haunts with a lushly dark beauty.

Ghost Visions: A Joy Ray Solo Show, installation view

From black, dense, and fanciful sculptural work, such as the spooky “Diadem” and “The Futility of Consent,” to lushly textural wall art and mysterious plasma cut shapes on metal, Ray’s work here has an otherworldly quality that is entirely intentional.

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Fabric based wall art sometimes feels richly balanced, visceral both in terms of texture and visual layers. Like melted artifacts from a fire in a haunted house, her dimensional sculptures range from a blackened bat mobile with shiny black paint and a seeming growth of sand to a sand obscured blackened kneeling child figure in “Thoughts and Prayers.” These found objects made sculpture are perhaps the most spooky element of the exhibition, witty and dark, both literally and figuratively.

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Wall art includes materials with their own “past life,” materials and repurposed garments purchased at thrift stores, specifically the denim material used for jeans.  Much of this work has a metallic appearance, alight with a kind of inner, silvery glow, as with the striated “Spirit Duplicator.”

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Rusted metal pieces comprise other, smaller sculptures in which the artist has described her process of metal sculptural use as a process in which the conditions she creates in determine the final outcome – a collaboration, if you will, with the spirit world, or at least the environmental one. Standing rectangular works feature kinetic scrawls akin to a signature, wave like and not quite intelligible. These are the works the artist created during a six way stay at the Chicago School of the Arts Institute, using a CMT plasma cutter and a simple string as the basis from which to cut.  Each 4 x 11 piece has patterns cut directly into steel, and are reminiscent of a name plate, the kind a ghost or sea nymph would leave on an office desk.

Dark and experimental, Ghost Visions is also experiential – viewers could enjoy a haunted moment or two contemplating each work. The exhibition is also playful, an invitation into another realm. Some of the works are available for viewing through Shockboxx’s Artsy page, at

https://www.artsy.net/show/shockboxx-1-ghost-visions-a-joy-ray-solo-show?sort=partner_show_position. If you missed the show in person, or if you’d simply like to bring a little ghostly glamor into your life, be sure to make a visit