Please join us this Friday November 23rd at 9 PM sharp for a round concert with four soloists; Oorutaichi (Japan), San Gabriel (aka Butchy Fuego), M Geddes Gendras and Chiara Giovando. Audience and performers will be seated in a circle together as way to explore the space of the current exhibition; Gap, Mark, Sever and Return.
Midnight
The Vista Theater (hosted by Human Resources)
4473 Sunset Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Admission is free
Human Resources presents an off-site project, Paul Pescador's film 3,4,5, and 8 at the Vista Theater in Silverlake.
Examining both the genres of the musical and the essay film, 3,4,5, and 8 is a stop-motion animation which is made up of constructed imagery, found footage, and musical sequences. It is a sequel to Pescador's previous body of work 1, 1 1/2, 2, which premiered at Human Resources in May 2011. 3,4,5, and 8 focuses on the re-staging of personal and physical trauma through materials such as contact paper, stickers and paint. This colorful imagery contrasts the serious subject matter, producing a world that appears playful but also dark in tone. The film begins with Pescador injuring his right arm two summers in a row. The story examines the post-traumatic stress that follows. Shifting between personal experiences and constructed images, 3,4,5, and 8 attempts use preexisting modes of cinema, such as character, genre, and narrative to understand social relationships.
Accompanying the screening is a publication which will include an essay by Cole Akers and an interview between Paul Pescador and Elizabeth Cline.
Paul Pescador is a Los Angeles based artist and filmmaker. His interest in small-scale actions and gestures manifests in the form of photographic objects, performance events, and curated exhibitions. He has had solo projects at ForYourArt (June 2012), Human Resources (May 2011), and Outpost for Contemporary Art (March 2010). He recently obtained his MFA in Studio Art from the University of California, Irvine in June 2012.
Human Resources is pleased to present: Gap, Mark, Sever, and Return, a group exhibition that brings together four artists, MPA (New York), Fiona Connor (NZ / Los Angeles), Mandla Reuter (Berlin / Basle) and Erika Vogt (Los Angeles). Curated by Chiara Giovando, the exhibition focuses on the notion of series – marking time, delineated instance and difference. A long-standing element of artistic practice, series is used in the studio to develop and elaborate upon an idea, it is essential to art historical modes of organization and ultimately it is the site of fracture and dismemberment by new approaches to narrative and time. Seriality is assumed, it is habitual and fundamental to epistemological taxonomies. This exhibition will consider formations of series other than sequential to expose an interest within contemporary art for miscomprehension, in-between spaces, erasures and collapsed aesthetic.
or by appointment
Human Resources
Human Resources is pleased to present the performance of Brainchild, Part II by Los Angeles based artist Kathleen Johnson in collaboration with composer Gregory Lenczycki on the evening of Saturday, November 3. Doors open at 8:00 and the performance will begin at 8:30.
Brainchild is Kathleen Johnson’s nine-part, nine-year fiction based project. For each part, Johnson collaborates with a different guest composer who creates a choral piece, setting her text to music. Part I (David Patton Gallery, 2009) was a song poem arranged by artist Stephanie Taylor, and Part 1a (redux) (ACME Gallery, 2011) was a partial re-telling to test the narrative’s evocative power through drawing. For Brainchild, Part II at Human Resources, L.A. based composer Gregory Lenczycki created a hypnotic, electro-acoustic score for three singers that beautifully illuminates the Brainchild story.
Johnson’s sci-fi inspired narrative follows a girl, Brainchild, who stumbles upon the abandoned structures of an ancient, presumably space-faring, race. While exploring the ruin, Brainchild becomes aware of her connection to these beings. As she struggles with whether to reveal what she’s discovered, mysterious overseers monitor her awakening with unease.
Each of Part II’s nine stanzas contain “extra-textual” elements, subtle disruptions in the narrative— Johnson’s attempt to force an active listener. Brainchild is influenced by the artist’s decade-long participation in a sci-fi reading group, where issues of narrative structure and the reliability of narrative voice are always under scrutiny.
About the Artists
Kathleen Johnson’s work explores landscapes and built environments, both real and imagined, as well as structures of narrative. From the “drawing-in-space” quixotic designs for a desert house made of fishing net, to a photographic survey of landscapes used to practice for missions to Mars, her projects explore realms that easily straddle the plausible and the incredible. She has had solo exhibitions at Lucas Schoormans Gallery, New York and David Patton Los Angeles. Collaborative projects include The Minded Swarm at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and The Grotto, and a three-year, site-specific installation with Taalman Koch Architecture for High Desert Test Sites. Johnson attended Otis College of Art and Design and received her MFA from the University of Southern California.
Described as “always poetic” and “twittering with excitable circuitry,” composer Gregory Lenczycki’s work explores the rhythms of space and the architecture of sound. His music is often self-referential, drawing from a personal archive of borrowed code, irregular sequences and obscure melodies that are weaved together in lyrical cycles. Lenczycki received his MFA from Mills College where he studied composition with Alvin Curran and Maryanne Amacher. He has worked with Curran, Amacher, Naut Humon, Joe Potts, Doug Henry, Anna Homler, and Ted Byrnes, among others. Lenzcycki has presented at such venues as CalArts, LACMA, ResBox at the Steve Allen Theatre, Mount Wilson Observatory, Highways Performance Space, Las Cienegas Projects, and as part of SASSAS's 10th Anniversary Mapping Sound festival. Lenczycki’s collaborations include Light Show with Fluxus artist Jeff Perkins, Still Life with Bomb with drummer Ted Byrnes and accordionist Ari DeSano, and Small Liberties (2006, Whitney Museum) with artists Andrea Zittel and Giovanni Jance. Lenczycki’s work has received Meet the composer and the NEA support, and his music is available at http://gregorylenczycki.bandcamp.com/.
About the Performers
The part of Brainchild will again be played by Dominique Cox, and the chorus by Bianca G. Marrero and Juliette Dwyer. Dominique Cox studies theater arts and dance at Cal State Los Angeles, and her recent roles include Mimi in Rent and Elizabeth in Spider Baby the Musical. Bianca G. Marrero is a singer, actor and songwriter who received her BFA from the CalArts. Recent roles include Christine in Vox Lumiere’s rock opera version of Phantom of the Opera and Adult Eva in Meditations: Eva Hesse. A graduate of USC’s Thornton School of Music’s, Juliette Dwyer has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and French electro-pop group M83, the Pacific Opera Project, and was recently in Vox Lumiere’s Phantom of the Opera and Metropolis. Accompanist William Roper is a distinguished tubaist who has played with such artists and ensembles as the Los Angeles philharmonic, Elton John, Anthony Braxton, Vinny Golia, and Wadada Leo Smith. Roper’s compositions have been performed in the U.S. and Europe, and he has also worked extensively in theater, dance and performance art. His work has been supported by the NEA, California Arts Council, City of L.A. Department of Cultural Affairs and the American Composers Forum, among others.
Brainchild, Part II will be broadcast live locally on KCHUNG radio
and on the web at http://kchungradio.org/stream.html
Saturday Oct 13th
8pm doors
w/Emily Lacy
$5
humanresourcesla.com
Human Resources is pleased to present Jean Smith and David Lester, better known as indie band Mecca Normal. Mecca Normal, the underground literary rock duo (K, Matador, Kill Rock Stars) will be playing new songs before heading into the studio to record with KRAMER in November. Jean Smith and David Lester will also be reading from their books and presenting "How Art & Music Can Change the World" classroom and library events.
Vocalist Jean Smith is the author of two published novels and a two-time recipient of Canada Council for the Arts awards. She has recently completed two novels (literary fiction) The Black Dot Museum of Political Art and Obliterating History – a guitar making mystery, domination and submission in a small town garage. Mecca Normal's new songs are directly from these texts.
Guitar-player David Lester is the author-illustrator of The Listener graphic novel – the story of Hitler’s rise to power and a cultural activist questioning the power of her art. The Listener (Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 2011) was a Foreword Reviews Book of The Year finalist. Royalties amounting to $2,200 from his first book, The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism, were donated to The Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture.
Jean Smith and David Lester have been presenting "How Art & Music Can Change the World" in classrooms, libraries and art galleries since 2002 http://howartandmusiccanchangetheworld.wordpress.com
Human Resources
Tuesday, August 14th, 8pm-12am, Damion Romero, John Krausbauer & Kathleen Kim, yek koo, LA Fog ($5 door)
we will live stream the olympics and play improvised soundtracks, foley effects, and commentary--responding, interpreting, adding color and context to events as they happen.
due to the time difference between la and london, this event will take place saturday night / sunday morning from around 12:30am until 3am or so.
FREE and ALL AGES
also we will be broadcasting live on KCHUNG (http://www.kchungradio.org/) if you want to watch / listen remotely
HUMAN RESOURCES PRESENTS “WW” BY SPENCER DOUGLASS AND GUSTAVO HERRERA
July 21st – August 11, 2012
Opening reception: Saturday, July 21st from 6pm-10pm
Performance of “The Golden Circle” at 8 pm
Human Resources is pleased to present WW, a new exhibition and performance by artists Gustavo Herrera and Spencer Douglass.
Including video, sculptural installation, and performance, the work in this exhibition loosely draws on the life of William Walker (1824-1860), a US lawyer who organized private military expeditions into Latin America with the intention of establishing English-speaking colonies under his personal control. Regarded by some as a pirate and by others as a general, Walker invaded Nicaragua in 1855 and installed himself President, marking the first portion of his never realized geopolitical territory “The Golden Circle.” The videoWW is a fictional account of Walker’s last days in exile in Honduras, before he was executed by the British and Honduran governments.
WW is a direct and inward look into the darker depravity of human nature when entrenched in power. It is about the American idealization of remembered history and the self-imposed amnesia that ensues in the wake of that which falls out of the historical cannon. WW deals with how colonialism has been used in western thought to pardon the exploitation of human and natural resources. WW is not a historical or biographical reflection of William Walker, but more a meditation on what it means to be consumed with the lure of absolute power. WW reveals a world of repressed desires, which take the form of psycho sexual schisms of sleazy Babylonian kitsch, at once depraved and gaudy, yet all too human.
Gallery is open from 12-6, Thursday through Saturday and by appointment
For more information please visit:
www.douglassherrera.com
www.humanresourcesla.com
410 Cottage Home St. Los Angeles, CA 90012
June 30, 2012
Artist Reception 7-9pm
AFTA Party with DJ Later Knight 9-11pm
At Human Resources, 410 Cottage Home Street, 90012
Human Resources presents Divorcio USA, a night of recent work by Jacinto Astiazarán hosted by the curatorial collaborative AFTA (“Art For The Americas”) on Saturday June 30, 2012. The 7-9pm artist reception and screening will be followed by an AFTA party with libations, dancing and a north/south border mix by DJ Later Knight (We Break Cameras).
Mexico City-based artist Jacinto Astiazarán will screen two new video projects, which introduce his investigation into mutual responsibilities in cultural relations between Mexico and the U.S. While assimilation continues its progressive adaptation in both directions, these works highlight some of the mutations that can inevitably develop as part of this evolution. Though formally very different, the two videos fill in gaps for each other and create a platform to contemplate underlying problematics of exchange.
Lago Onega N.8 documents the final stages in construction of an apartment building by Mexico City developer Ana Bertha Damián. Based on her leisure travels in the U.S. and the formative impression they left on her, Ana condenses her image of Americanness into the phenomenological experience of an A-frame roof. Reflecting her dissatisfaction with the state of Mexico City's architectural sequences, she implements this design feature as a crowning statement, to unique results.
DIVORCIO USA 2005/2012 presents an episode from the now canceled television program Divorcio USA, which aired in 2005 in the L.A. area on Canal 62, a local-access Spanish language broadcaster. The artist plays the defendant on this staged divorce court show, whose wife is requesting an annulment after she discovers he only married her for a green card. His background coincided with the character he portrayed in that they were both born in Tijuana and needed to resolve their immigration situation while living and working in Los Angeles. Their fate was not the same, but the artist presents this video documentation of a time in his life as an example of personal, participatory evidence into the issues that feed his work, turning the gaze on himself in a notoriously exploitative setting.
About the Artist
Jacinto Astiazarán, born in Tijuana in 1982, lived and worked in Los Angeles before moving to Mexico City in 2010. He has taken this experience as a starting point for considering questions of appropriation and transference in the relationship between the two countries. As with some of his previous collaborative projects, interests in performance for video and documentary formats continue to shape his work. He holds a B.A. from the School of Cinema-Television of the University of Southern California (2004) and has exhibited in galleries, museums and film festivals in Mexico, the U.S. and abroad.
About AFTA
AFTA (“Art for the Americas”) is the event-based curatorial collaboration of Kelly Coats and Kathleen Kim. The aim of AFTA is to facilitate cross-border relations between artists throughout the Americas by reducing barriers to migration and providing a welcoming environment for artists to engage in cross-cultural exchange. AFTA advances this objective by hosting non US-based artists to present or perform their work at the Los Angeles art gallery and performance space Human Resources. The artist presentation is followed by an AFTA Party intended to welcome and celebrate the artist’s visit and cultivate cross-cultural exchange with other artists and art appreciators throughout the evening. The AFTA Party showcases performers and DJs whose work embodies cultural hybrids influenced by cross border dynamics.
http://pitchfork.com/news/46915-no-age-to-headline-anti-walmart-benefit-in-la/
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Human Resources is pleased to present Poetry in Spanish and English. Please join Anthony McCann, Jen Hofer, and Dolores Dorantes as they read from their new books.
Friday, June 8 at 8:00pm
Anthony McCann is the author of I ♥ Your Fate (Wave Books, 2011), Moongarden (Wave Books, 2006) and Father of Noise (Fence Books, 2003). In addition to these three collections, he is one of the authors of Gentle Reader! (2007), a book of erasures of the English Romantics, along with Joshua Beckman and Matthew Rohrer. He has taught English as a Second Language in the former Czechoslovakia, South Korea and Nicaragua, as well as in New York City. Currently he lives in Los Angeles, where he works with Machine Project and teaches in the School of Critical Studies at the California Institute of the Arts.
Jen Hofer is a Los Angeles-based poet, translator, interpreter, teacher, knitter, book-maker, public letter-writer, and urban cyclist. In 2012 her quilted poem The Missing Link will be published by Insert Press, and her translations of books 1-4 of Dolores Dorantes by Dolores Dorantes will be published by Kenning Editions. Her most recent books are the homemade chapbooks En lasmaravillas/In Wonder (LibrosAntena/Antena Books, 2012) and Lead & Tether (DusieKollektiv, 2011); Ivory Black, a translation of Negro marfil by Myriam Moscona (Les Figues Press, 2011); and a series of anti-war-manifesto poems titled one (Palm Press, 2009). She teaches at CalArts, Goddard College, and Otis College, and works nationally and locally as a social justice interpreter through Antena, a language justice collaborative (http://www.antenaantena.org). Her installation titled “Uncovering: A Quilted Poem Made from Donated and Foraged Materials from Wendover, Utah” will be on view at the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Utah through 2013.
Dolores Dorantes’ books include Querida fábrica (Práctica Mortal, CONACULTA, forthcoming 2012), Estilo (Mano Santa Editores, 2011) sexoPUROsexoVELOZ (Lapzus and Oráculo, 2004), Lola (cartas cortas) (Fondo Editorial Tierra Adentro, CONACULTA, 2002), Para Bernardo: un eco (MUB editoraz, 2000) and Poemas para niños (Ediciones El Tucán de Virginia, 1999). Her op-ed pieces, criticism and investigative texts have been published in numerous Mexican newspapers, includingDiario de Juárez, El Norte and DíaSiete. Jen Hofer’s translations of her poems into English have been published in numerous literary journals, and in the anthology Sin puertasvisibles (ed. and trans. Jen Hofer, University of Pittsburgh Press and Ediciones Sin Nombre, 2003).sexoPUROsexoVELOZ and Septiembre, a bilingual edition of books two and three of Dolores Dorantes by Dolores Dorantes was co-published in early 2008 by Counterpath Press and Kenning Editions; a new edition with books 1-4 from the series will be published in 2012 by Kenning Editions. She lived in Ciudad Juárez for 25 years, and currently lives in Los Angeles where she teaches workshops in autobiographical writing and documents the lives of exiles through Proyecto Sur Los Ángeles (http://www.proyectosurlosangeles.blogspot.com/).
Your Own Best Secret Place
Opening reception June 2nd, 3:00-6:00PM
Closing June 9th
Human Resources is pleased to present Your Own Best Secret Place, an exhibition of new and recent work by art students from Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Middle School. Organized by artist and teacher Mark Roeder, the exhibition will feature a collaborative installation process culminating in an opening reception on Saturday, June 2, from 3:00 to 6:00 PM.
Using Byrd Baylor’s 1979 children’s book of the same title, the exhibition was initially conceived around the universal experience of a bedroom or other private place for teenaged plotting, dreaming, and solitude. Featuring paintings and cast-aluminum sculptures by twenty-nine artists, the exhibition asks, What is the landscape of an adolescent’s personal development? What do we take with us or pick up along that developmental journey? What will this developmental landscape and these objects that become so important say about us that we haven’t yet realized?
Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Middle School, through a collaborative team effort, is committed to developing the whole child as a successful life-long learner by creating a positive school culture through the effective delivery of a rigorous standards-driven curriculum based on assessed student needs.
