Dear DnA Readers,

I hope you’re doing well.

I’ve emerged from a busy week of previews for the vast and compelling PST ART: Art & Science Collide, culminating in the opening spectacle Sunday night at the LA Coliseum: WE ARE: Explosion Event for PST.  In case you stayed home to watch the Emmys and regret missing this, don’t worry, I suffered for High Art so you don’t have to!

Ear-splitting Opening

My ears are still ringing from the “daytime fireworks" display created by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. In “collaboration” with his proprietary AI and a battalion of drones, he triggered a succession of choreographed explosions of thousands of fireworks, each taking a form (for example, zodiac signs), and introduced with reflections such as, “the fierce heat emitting glistening holographic colors…represented transformation...that we must experience to evolve.” The fireworks would race around the stadium, ejecting ribbons of color that then dissolved into clouds of pretty pastel-colored gunpowder while raining cardboard remnants onto the field where audience members stood.

This high-tech variation on the ancient art + science of fireworks (believed to have been invented in China over 2000 years ago) was visually stunning, aurally and nasally challenging, and perplexing in its message. The artist seemed to suggest that since 911, daytime explosions had become part of life, so he wanted to turn them into a positive artistic expression. We Are's buzzing army of drones flying overhead, however, evoked future warfare. The explosions went off like bomblets. PTSD came to mind, not PST, said hubby, with fingers in his ears. Or perhaps, he ruminated, it was the high-art version of a Metallica concert.

WE ARE: Explosion Event in action. Photo here and top of page by Frances Anderton

Pure Delight

It also made one appreciate even more the sensorially soothing, contemplative PST shows launched by this spectacle with such a Big Bang. And there are many.

Take for example A Veiled Gazelle – Intimations of the Infinite and Eternal – Islamic Geometries of Medieval al-Andalus. This is a long name for a jewel of a show at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, the marvelous cabinet of curiosities in a small storefront on Venice Boulevard, founded in the late 1980s by David and Diane Wilson.

For A Veiled Gazelle, Wilson and his team his have spent four years transforming a wing of the building into an homage to the architecture of Al-Andalus, the Muslim kingdom that occupied much of the Iberian Peninsula from 711 until the early 11th century.

They have roofed and clad a near-square room with muqarnas — plaster or ceramic honeycombed squinches, arches, vaults, and domes — and lacería, ceilings made of intricate latticed wood (below). To achieve the intricate patterns derived from complex geometries, they reverse-engineered designs found in Morocco and Southern Spain, created them digitally, then CNC milled them. The result is a stunning labor of love and also comes with an understated political message: some historians believe Al-Andalus produced a period of “La Convivencia” between Christians, Jews and Muslims. The show opens on September 26th, and I urge you to book timed entry tickets. Read more about it in Matt Stromberg's article in Hyperallergic.

MJT Mudéjar Ceiling. Courtesy of The Museum of Jurassic Technology. ©The Museum of Jurassic Technology.

Synthesis or Collision?

A Veiled Gazelle is one of the few PST shows that are directly about architecture and the decorative arts, which, at their best, represent the lovely synthesis of art and science, not the “collision.”  

The theme, Art & Science Collide, is a nod to the region’s deep roots in the sciences and the arts, which have at times danced a two-step. Light and Space pioneer Helen Pashgian was artist-in-residence at Caltech in 1969. SciFi writers and production designers, architects, aerospace engineers and computer theorists have traded influences. But relentless scientific “progress” has also prompted pessimism and mourning, especially for environmental degradation and the expulsion of indigenous people and their custodianship of the Southland. 

So the panoply of shows, involving hundreds of artists and institutions, that have emanated from PST ART, seeded by Getty, encompass astronomy and climate change, depictions of scientific experiments as well as artistic movements informed by science, visions of the future and reflections on sustainable practices of the past, meditations on the natural world and visions of imaginary replacement worlds.

You will find plenty of coverage of PST ART by art experts, including Carolina Miranda on Press Play. Over the coming weeks I’ll single out shows emphasizing design and architecture, along with other Design Things To Do. Read on for those!

But before you do, a reminder: KCRW is in the middle of its pledge drive and would so appreciate your support. Pitch in, at join.kcrw.com. Thank you!

Design Things To Do

Shaping Accident
September 18th - October 26th, 2024
Opening, Wednesday, September 18th, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
L.A. Louver Gallery, 45 North Venice Blvd, Venice, CA 90291 

PST ART: Art & Science Collide encompasses nonprofit museums and participating art galleries. One of the latter is L.A. Louver in Venice, which has partnered up with architect Thom Mayne to show Shaping Accident, some of the artworks he has produced since taking a step back from his architecture firm Morphosis in 2020.

The exhibition opens to the public with a launch party this Wednesday.

On the walls of the gallery you will find large abstract works set in rectilinear frames. Indeterminate, mostly curving, shapes swirl and collide, in layers of rich colors –– rusty reds, saturated yellows and greens –– and swatches of sheen. While they are non-figurative, some evoke flowers and organic forms.

The title Shaping Accident sums up an iterative process in which Mayne and a computing expert colleague manipulated a series of inputs — or “primitives”— using an architectural modeling program that can generate a wide variety of images. Mayne selected a few for further development, then 3-D printed them on panels of aluminum, wood, or paper onto some of which he and his team also applied textures like rust pigment, copper and silver leaf.

Mayne began testing this process through intricate lithographic prints and digitally derived sculptural works, which he describes in his book Strange Networks. The timing of the L.A. Louver show was perfect, he says in an accompanying video, “because it is cyborg. It is science and art put together.”

Click here for more information.

Engineering the House of Kappe
Saturday, September 21st, 1:00 PM
Neutra Office Building, 2379 Glendale Boulevard, Silver Lake; also available via Zoom.

Indisputably one of the greatest Modern houses in Los Angeles is the 1967 home of Ray and Shelley Kappe. But behind the great architect, the late Ray Kappe, was a little known engineer, Bud Brown.

On the next VISUAL WORLD with Victoria Lautman, the entertaining interlocutor Lautman will sit down with Brown, Shelley Kappe, and son Finn Kappe, to hear stories about the structurally and spatially stunning house, and other buildings designed by Kappe.

Click here for tickets.

Kappe Residence, Brooktree Road. Image courtesy Getty/Julius Shulman.

New Wave: Rebellion and Reinvention in the Vietnamese Diaspora
Book party, Soap Plant / Wacko
Saturday, September 21 · 5:00 - 7:00 PM
4633 Hollywood Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90027

As Vietnamese refugees forged a new life in the United States following the fall of Saigon, a generation of Vietnamese teenagers and young adults struggled to adjust.

But many found a new life and identity in New Wave music, a type of Euro Disco, blending European synth pop and American disco beats. This was so popular that a “vigorous Vietnamese entertainment industry” emerged, writes Elizabeth Ai, “creating its own stars and its own version of MTV.” 

How this music and its related style –– "Mile-high hair. Synthesized music." –– became “a symbol of resistance against both mainstream American culture and traditional Vietnamese expectations for the “1.5 Generation” (those who emigrated to the US as children) is the subject of a documentary and a book, both by Ai. New Wave: Rebellion and Reinvention in the Vietnamese Diaspora, just published by Angel City Press at Los Angeles Public Library, will be launched this Saturday at a party at Soap Plant/Wacko in Los Feliz.

New Wave features essays from Vietnamese scholars, critics, and entertainment stars, and is packed with photos of this “first generation of Vietnamese punks and rebels.” It was designed by Mỹ Linh Triệu Nguyễn, founding director of STUDIO LHOOQ, and also film title designer. The book and film are especially timely because next year marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

Click here for details about the book party. Click here for information about the documentary.

New Wave, poster for the documentary. Image courtesy Studio LHOOQ.

Dance in the Light of the Harvest Moon – at Frank Gehry's Loyola Law School!
Saturday, September 21st, 5:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Loyola Law School, 919 Albany St, Los Angeles, CA 90015

Heidi Duckler Dance, which has long been choreographing site-specific dance performances in architecturally interesting, and sometimes scarily vertiginous, spaces, celebrates its 39th anniversary with a performance set in the Frank Gehry-designed Loyola Law School!

In addition to a reception and awards, attendees will watch dance on the staircases throughout the campus, and, during dinner, on the rooftop overlooking LA!

Click here to purchase tickets.

Still from a trailer for the dance at Loyola Law School. Courtesy Heidi Duckler Dance.

Cover of Of The Moment

Bakersfield Built: Architecture of the 1950s
Symposium, Exhibit, Tour and Fundraiser
September 27th - September 29th; Exhibit, symposium and tour, Saturday, September 28th, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Bakersfield Museum of Art, 1930 R St, Bakersfield, CA 93301 

In 1952, the City of Bakersfield experienced a big earthquake, which was destructive to the desert community founded on oil and agriculture, but brought opportunity to midcentury architects. Richard Neutra, Frank Lloyd Wright, John Lautner, and Cliff May designed homes there, as did a talented group of local modern post-and-beam architects.

Later this month, the Bakersfield Built Foundation will host a symposium, tour, and a fundraising brunch at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Ablin Residence (1960). I’ll moderate a panel featuring the architectural history eminences Maristella Casciato, Alan Hess, and Sian Winship. Also on the symposium line-up: David Coffey, of Bakersfield Built Foundation, Noam Saragosti, Raymond Neutra and John Berley.

Click here to buy tickets for the symposium and tour.

Click here to buy tickets for the fundraiser brunch.

Note: Maristella Casciato will also speak on Wednesday, September 25 at the MAK Center, about Le Corbusier's “Album Punjab” that she has annotated. Click here for details.

Leddy Residence by Richard Neutra, 1956-7. Photo by Sian Winship

What I'm Digging 

Guns to Roses?

A 1953 gun store in Culver City was grandfathered in when the city in 2005 outlawed new gun shops within 1,000 feet of a school. So last year the city council voted to buy the property, which is not far from La Ballona Elementary school and had a history of gun safety violations. They painted it over with a floral mural and are now seeking ideas from local residents for what to do with the property. Ideas range from housing and commercial buildings to community benefits like a park! Click here to share your ideas.

The former Martin B. Retting gun store now features a temporary mural by Katy Kranz and could become a park! Photo courtesy Culver City.

Every School Has A House

The irrepressible Russell Brown, founder of Friends of Residential Treasures: Los Angeles, with whom I’ve been co-producing the yearlong series Awesome and Affordable, is rolling out a new treasure, this time for the edification of Los Angeles school children. Every School Has A House locates the nearest historic home to every school within the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), with prompts for teachers about the building’s historical significance and links to data provided by Survey LA. The goal is to get students out walking, observing their surroundings, and taking pride in the history and architecture of their own neighborhood. If you want to be part of efforts like this, FORT: LA holds its annual fundraiser next month.