Respectable Men do not Wear Moustache Tattoos

We're a day late on this, but the LA Times piece on Norteño-turned-faux accountant Richard Rodriguez has us mulling and pondering: a.) How long till the cop gets sent up the river? And, more importantly; b.) Is an upper lip tat necessarily detrimental to the credibility of a court testimony? Mightn't it bring in sympathy points in some cases? An example: Say you're on trial for a petty crime in Australian ranch country -- shearing sheep out of season or disparaging Chopper Read, I dunno. The jury is composed entirely of poor ranching folk whose cattle compete with kangaroos for a shrinking stock of grassland. Your upper lip reads "kangaroos are great...for dinner" in Olde English. Helpful or harmful? I say helpful. Chopper would probably agree.

The moral of the story is that sometimes growing a moustache to cover up a tattoo is not always a smart legal maneuver, though in the case of Rodriguez it would seem to be a good move because without it he basically looks like your standard-issue Dodgers bleacher fan slash Latino gangbanger. And no jury in the world likes both of those things.

For our sadistic brethren, graphic video of some fat (and hopefully soon-to-be-indicted) policeman steel-booting Rodriguez here.

The Moss impact on Culver City

Culver City is experiencing a major re-development at present, spearheaded and contributed to by architect and SCI-Arc Director Eric Owen Moss. Mr. Moss and his team of 25 at Eric Owen Moss Architects have dubbed the revitalization Conjunctive Points, and have and continue to work on more than 20 projects in Culver City, many of which are located on Hayden Street alone. Known for unique interpretations and a diversity of form, Moss' varied projects fortify Culver City's hefty reputation as a community teeming with arts. Pictured above are the Ince Office Complex and a city-sponsored Architecture as Art public artwork entitled What Wall. Pictured here is a rendering of the Gateway Art Tower, an "information tower" and office building, constructed at the corner of Hayden and National, marking the primary entry point into the revitalized zone of the city. The building includes 5 screens that advertise messages to passersby pertaining to local tenants' events and news. Another of the Architecture as Art public art works, the Beehive, occupies the front section of a two story office building housing medschool.com.

Finally, this image depicts 3535 Hayden Ave, a unified working environment for a high profile graphics company.

Kentridge proves poignant

South African artist William Kentridge's solo exhibition at SFMOMA explores the myriad themes and mediums of his body of work. Known primarily for his stop-motion films and commentary on apartheid, this presentation provides a more well rounded sampling of his oeuvre from the 1980s to present.
From the charcoal drawings to the film, collage, and sculpture, Five Themes reveals Kentridge's criticisms of political inequalities. Many of the drawings, particularly those done in charcoal, contrast a soft lyrical stroke with somber subject matter, even incorporating comedic self deprecation at times. The artist manages to delicately balance sobriety and humor. With a background in theater, Kentridge maintains an interest in combining performance and static art. In conjunction with the SFMOMA show, he teamed with Seattle's Pacific Operaworks to design and direct a run of Monteverdi's The Return of Ulysses.

Tudo bom!

Kehinde Wiley has dropped in LA.... again. His third show at Roberts & Tilton, The World Stage: Brazil, opened April 4th and runs through the end of May. It incorporates approximately 10 of Wiley's notoriously oversized oils on canvas, all of which depict male Brazilian models emulating poses of historic and nationalistic Brazilian artworks. The bright backgrounds are modeled after found Brazilian fabrics, and each canvas is finished with an ornate black frame. The World Stage series, begun in 2007 with The World Stage: China, has enabled Mr. Wiley to place young contemporary black males into the contexts of nationalistic and identifying artworks of China, Africa, India, and now Brazil. Each portrait provokes the viewer to reinvision the traditionally white European male iconic images that are so familiar. The authority and importance associated with the traditional subjects is therefore transferred to the contemporary models selected by Wiley. All of the men depicted in these new works were hand chosen by Wiley and his team from the favela streets in Brazil, and were asked to come to the studio, usually the day of their meeting, in clothing of their choosing to pose and be photographed for the paintings.

The exhibition travels to the Modern Art Museum in Rio de Janeiro from June 27th to August 22nd, 2009.

Art's evolutionary purpose

As seems to be a recent trend, another human characteristic is theoretically explained via evolutionary psychology. Can it be that appreciation and creation of fine arts are part of natural and sexual selection? Denis Dutton's new book, The Art Instinct, says yes. Mr. Dutton argues that as arts appear in every human society, this universal behavior must have roots in our origins.

Creativity would have helped our ancestors endure hostile conditions, while storytelling taught them to comprehend consequences of actions, thus increasing chances of survival. Additionally, creativity in speech and actions helped both males and females attract and retain a mate, leading to survival "not just of the physically strongest but of the cleverest, wittiest and wisest."

Finally, a resolution that combines arts and sciences, and makes logical sense. I'm sure that our man Jackson would've produced subsequent artistic offspring, if not for his affinity for driving under the influence.

I am the Walrus (goo goo goo joob)

Walking into Dave Muller's current show, Iamthewalrus, at Blum & Poe is comparable to entering a friend's apartment for the first time and forming an impression of them based upon their possessions. Mr. Muller has revealed much about his personal history and interests in this, his most autobiographical (according to Tim Blum), and sixth solo exhibition at the gallery. Upon entering the space, the viewer is compelled to closely examine simple line drawings depicting the four Beatles as nesting dolls. Beside these is a black and white portrait of John Lennon, neatly framed, with two googly eyes affixed to the glass above Mr. Lennon's signature round glasses. Next, in the larger of two rooms, we see the core of this show, a series of large framed paintings, each split evenly down the center and depicting two subjects. On several, there is a natural depiction, like a puffer fish, an oak leaf, or river rocks, contrasted against a masterwork reference, like a replica Pollock splatter abstraction. But consistently the two subjects share the divided canvas evenly, denoting their equal comparative values. They resemble domino pieces, seemingly hung to randomly match the subjects end to end. One painting even enters the viewers' space, and lies flat on the floor in a corner, an extension of the matching dominoes on the walls above it.
In the next room, the viewer encounters two black and white portraits of homes. These are apparently the childhood abodes of Mr. Muller, in San Francisco. Their proximity to each other on the wall combined with their focused viewpoint almost make them resemble strange faces more than buildings. Mr. Muller makes several other references to his youth, toys, and music throughout the show, providing a subtly childlike perspective on the simple but beautifully executed subject matter.

DumboWall - A Year in Retrospect

Winter 2007-08:

Winter 2008-09: