Spring has arrived! Thanks to the first-ever Heroes + Heroines 7” record, I am blissfully basking in sunshine on a dappled-gray February afternoon. Recorded at the Distillery in Costa Mesa with the “insane in a good way” Mike McHugh, Heroes + Heroines’ freshman vinyl features “Two Weeks,” which bursts forth from silence as a gush of love letter lyrics delivered with California ease. Typical Heroes + Heroines kick hop rhythms propel me around my living room till a round of fuck-me male harmonies finds me melting into the floor. This A-side has me dancing carefree as can be to Tony Infante’s bewitching Farfisa organ as it chugs along with Gabe Diaz’ timeless rhythms. Nick Gil’s Rickenbacker 360 comes in near the end to take me to the beach for just a moment before making me get up and flip over the record. “Busy Bee,” a newer song, is a dynamic foil for the A-side. A mellower, moodier jam, “Busy Bee” demonstrates colorful yet sincerely emotive vocal expression and minimalist rhythmic play. And then the guitar comes in with that melody that tickles your memory bone juuuuust right … The breakdown is where it’s at—Infante’s organ comes in for party-time with a lil’ tambo in the background for good measure. Native Californians playing since high school, Heroes + Heroines navigate nostalgia while remaining creatively current. Channeling recent heroes Thee Makeout Party but reaching back as far as those pre-British Invasion American party poppers the Rivieras, Heroes + Heroines is here to stay—so they can make all your Spring Break dreams come true!

—Drew Denny

Unapologetically emotional despite her minimalist aesthetic and conceptual methodology, Michelle Jane Lee constructed an alphabet by assigning a color to each letter, authoring over 100 works – one of which is 30 feet long – that she calls Love Notes. Opening tonight at Gallery 3209 in Culver City, Love Notes is Lee’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. She will be waiting by the gallery door all evening hoping to see the person for whom she penned so many works of love.

How did you choose to assign colors to letters? Did you choose at random or did you follow a system?

It’s a little bit of a mix of both – I came up with an arbitrary system in my head. There was a system that I used for vowels and a different system for vowels but overall it is a rather arbitrary method.

Could you give me an example for the use of that system – for example, how did you choose a color for the letter “A”?

I actually don’t give away the code or too much about it. It’s something I made up; then I had to go by it.

Is it difficult to commit to a system that you know that you invented?

Surprisingly not. I never even questioned it. It just worked, and it became fact – I see it as an alphabet. I know intellectually that I made it up but it seems like something that’s existed forever.

Has it changed the way you think about language or text – when you look at written word do you see colors?

I do actually – a couple years into it I started seeing colors when people would speak. The colors would run through my head. I’ve even written grocery lists in colors just for fun. I can’t look at a color and not think “That’s that letter”.

Has it affected the way you use color in other work?

I’ve never used color in my work before so now when I do use color I see it as an extension of text… All of my colors say something.

This entire series is inspired by a person you met-

We met three years ago. I’ve only had five encounters with in those three years.

Are you in touch?

I wrote a 30-foot letter that took me a year and a half. After that was done, I contacted this person I hadn’t seen in over a year and told them I wrote them a 30-foot letter in an alphabet that I made for them… it’s a really odd thing to tell someone, but I did.

Are they coming to the show?

They said so. I tell my friends it’s gonna be a performance cause I’ll just be standing at the door. Whether they come or not, I’m gonna be a mess so it should be really fun for everybody. It’ll be great.

How did they react when you told them you’d written this long letter?

They were shocked- thought it was beautiful and reacted well, didn’t seem to think I was a creep. They said it was “nice.” Somehow when I made all this work, I thought that it would lead to us being together. It’s crazy. It’s a bummer but I don’t think anyone really falls in love with someone over a 30-foot letter. They probably get a restraining order usually…

In the history of restraining orders, I doubt there are any 30-foot letters…

Not yet!

Could you describe that work?

It’s 30-feet long by 42 inches wide and it took me a year and a half. I really didn’t start out thinking I was gonna write a letter that long. I bought a scroll that long, and I thought I would just get everything out but then I realized that even 30-feet is not enough…

How much time in total have you spent on this series?

The entire thing started three years ago. Passive Aggressive Love Notes – a series of several small pieces – came first then Exit Strategy – a series of larger pieces I thought would be the last. Then the big letter came…

That’s quite a time commitment. That takes some real motivation and dedication – Can you speak to that? What state of mind are you in when you execute these works?

I’ve always been really ADD- I can never finish a piece, and I jump around different series. I’m really shocked every day that I have done this for the past three years. I can’t believe that I have done all this. One thing about me – obviously, love is a huge motivation for me. I always make work about love. It has a lot of stigma to it, and I’ve made clichéd work before. But it’s always guided me. Honestly the only thing that’s kept me making these – in my delusional mind I have believed every day when I work on these that every single piece could possibly get this person to fall in love with me. After that, I can just continue my practice and think about it intellectually. At the core of it, it’s me being this really romantic person that I’ve always been. I believe in my heart still that one day this person will marry me. It’s so horrible but that’s exactly what it is! I like the pieces aesthetically and conceptually, which is great because I’ve never felt that way about my work. But it’s as honest as it is because the core of it is this heart. That’s what I am. It’s ruining my life but everyone seems to be really excited about it. They’re like “Oh that’s so beautiful! Everyone should make work about love!” And I’m like “Great, you go write a 30-foot-long letter to someone who tells you ‘it’s nice’.” I guess that’s what I’m here to do…

How have the works evolved throughout this series?

I’m just going to be showing the first, smallest pieces. Then the 30-foot-long letter and the newest pieces. On those I write the text, paint over it as usual, then scratch into the paint. That happened after I told her. That progression came out of trying to figure out a way to cover it up – to pretend it never happened or that I’m getting over it – but the scratches prove that I’m not over it. I’m not completely happy or comfortable with these love letters. I don’t wanna be this open but I want to keep part of it alive.

I think it’s pretty inspiring – People can retreat into their ideas, get so conceptual that they’re risking nothing. Vulnerability is a gift.

I’ve always had a minimalist aesthetic, but one of my favorite artists is Agnes Martin. She is so human. Her drawings are bare clean lines that represent so much. I’ve always liked expressing in lines but I want it to be emotional. My visual language is emotive- It’s jam-packed with emotion.

-Drew Denny

LOVE NOTES: A SOLO EXHIBITION BY MICHELLE JANE LEE AT GALLERY 3209, 3209 S. LA CIENEGA AVE 90034, SAT APRIL 7^TH 6-9 PM

L.A. Record staffer Drew Denny, known for her musical performances in Big Whup and Lola Loshkey, has been out in the desert working hard creating a feature film in honor of her father. The film will feature a soundtrack composed by Drew’s bandmate Morgan Gee, and featuring L.A. indie artists including Big Whup, Emily Lacy, Laura Steenberge, and Julia Holter. In order to complete this traveling adventure film, she’s put together a Kickstarter project, with plenty of rad prizes which you can obtain by donating. Read more about the film below.

Determined to honor my father’s memory through art and storytelling, I gathered my best friends from USC film school and hit the road, this time with a little crew and a couple of cameras. I asked my good friend, Sundance-featured director Clay Jeter of JESS + MOSS to co-direct with me. His girlfriend, the lovely Sarah Hagan (featured on this season of 90210 as well as Freaks and Geeks and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), came along and the rest of the family fell into place.

Shot on Super 16mm and the Red, “The Most Fun I’ve Ever Had With My Pants On” tells the story of two childhood girlfriends who drive from Los Angeles to Austin, TX. My character, Andy, must fulfill her father’s will after his sudden death by scattering his ashes across the Southwest. Sarah plays Liv, a blossoming young actress riding along to Austin to audition for the role of a vixen spy in a noir film to be cast and shot in Texas.

Between LA and Austin, we scramble across the Mojave desert, skinny dip in Sedona AZ, make sand angels in White Sands NM, climb oil rigs in West Texas, and raise hell in Austin. We perform mini funerals within these epic landscapes, pretending to be spies as we attempt to escape the heat of the hottest August in recorded history…

To donate to this project go to the Kickstarter page here.

- Walt! Gorecki

This wild little guy has been out for a second but we were so busy with shows, shows and shows that we didn’t get a chance to make a huge deal about it! So behold—L.A. RECORD 104! First issue of our sixth year of printing with busting-through-the-mold L.A. transplant KING TUFF on the cover and a very provocative MIA DOI TODD on the poster! Must it be seen to be believed? Or must one first believe to see? Order a copy and all will be revealed … including characteristically reality-rending interviews with Hall & Oates, the Middle Class, Animals & Men, Don Juan Y Los Blancos, Paul Collins, James Pants, Shabazz Palaces and more!

And of course there’s side B with interviews with Tim Burton (!?), Guy Maddin and Sparks on their new collaborative musical, Interpreters by Bleached, Computer Jay and Ria Ama and more, as well as 50 hand-made hand-illustrated album reviews, mind-debriding comics — now expanded! — and a new L.A. WISDOM, in which DJ Nobody and Laena Geronimo discover the exact moment when living with your parents becomes sad.

Order your own copy here! Or subscribe here! Or just grab one for free across the greater Los Angeles metro zone!

L.A. RECORD 104:

CHELSEA WOLFE — KRISTINA BENSON
MIA DOI TODD — DAIANA FEUER
PAUL COLLINS — DAN COLLINS AND KRISTINA BENSON
HALL AND OATES — DAN COLLINS
PAPERCRANES — DAIANA FEUER
ANIMALS & MEN — CHRIS ZIEGLER
THE MIDDLE CLASS — JONNY BELL
KING TUFF — CHRIS ZIEGLER
SPINDRIFT — DAIANA FEUER
MICHAEL CHAPMAN — KEVIN FERGUSON
FEEDING PEOPLE — DAN COLLINS AND LAINNA FADER
DON JUAN Y LOS BLANCOS — LAINNA FADER
JAMES PANTS — CHRIS ZIEGLER
SHABAZZ PALACES — LAINNA FADER

ALBUM REVIEWS EDITED BY DAN COLLINS
THE INTERPRETER: COMPUTER JAY — KRISTINA BENSON
THE INTERPRETER: BLEACHED — KRISTINA BENSON

COMICS EDITED BY TOM CHILD

L.A. WISDOM EDITED BY DAIANA FEUER

ART EDITED BY DREW DENNY
TIM BURTON — DREW DENNY

FILM EDITED BY LAINNA FADER
THE INTERPRETER: RIA AMA — LAINNA FADER
SPARKS/GUY MADDIN — LAINNA FADER

BOOKS EDITED BY NIKKI BAZAR
EXCERPT FROM KASMIR BY JON LEON
FROM DALI TO LAMA … KARMA OR COINCIDENCE BY PATRICK LYONS
BOOK AND ZINE REVIEWS

Dear Drew,

After your father succumbed to cancer last fall, you and I were sitting in your living room and you told me that you were writing a play based on your father’s death. It would begin in Iceland where you were observing volcanoes and glaciers with Jack after your residency in Europe. By the time you arrived in the United States, you discovered that your father was diagnosed with cancer during your transatlantic flight and was given a few weeks to live. At this point, your play would change scenes to a series of hospital rooms and become about hospitals, cancer, and communities that emerge in hospital wards when dying patients and their families are put in close quarters.

You premiered your work, “Killing Someone Is The Most Fun I Ever Had With My Pants On,” at Sancho Gallery on the day before Father’s Day, only a few months after your father’s death. Much of your other creative output is marked by deliberation and conceptualization. Reclamation project is a materials-oriented, ritual-driven project with site-specific work steadfastly planned and constructed of specific materials over a series of months. And like many rituals of conceptual art, environmental activism, and religion, yours was a service preached towards the faithful. In contrast, “Killing Someone…” is one of your most hastily constructed, but most heartfelt and visceral works. You have combined music, theater, video projection, audience participation, and a home-made “Mammory Foam Pillow” made to look like an enormous pair of breasts, into a multimedia autobiographical smorgasbord.

“Killing Someone…” is also a work of conceptual art, though I think the concept is one that you haven’t articulated to anyone, at least not to me. In one way it is a form of memoir unfolded into many disparate media and then put back together with musical transitions and rubber bands. It is also your attempt to re-purpose religious ritual but with the religion parts taken out, much like Reclamation attempts to reevaluate our relationship to the environment in terms of religious belief. Ultimately, what I think you were using all the talents and resources at your disposal to put on a show that you would have a lot of fun performing, and that your father would have had a lot of fun going to; replete with psychedelic video, pop music, and play acting- full of drinking, laughter, singalongs, and big tits.

You told me a few days after your show that this was the first performance you had ever done where you felt truly satisfied with the results. I think this point of view is much too critical of yourself, but I do agree that it represents a turning point in your art. As a singer you misdirect your audience from the anger and sadness behind your music with a wink and a smile, singing pop songs and ballads conjured from confessions and nightmares. In “Killing Someone…” you have reconciled these contrary forces, showing that in death and remembrance there is enough breadth to carry sorrow and joy, cries and laughter. You have given a eulogy without the funeral, staged a funeral without prayers, spoken a prayer without kneeling. Which is the only way you know how.

Sincerely,
Charles Mallison

But don’t take my word for it–read her interview with Geoff Geis on Sean Carnage’s website.  And cry a little more at the sadness of death-bed boob pillows.

-Dan Collins

"Wave After Wave" by Owleyes James Wiegel

Just in time for June Gloom, curator Colin Manning brings Tears and Ecstasy to Echo Park salon SANCHO. Featuring visual artwork and performance by LA veterans including Owleyes, Don Bolles, and Nora Keyes, TEARS & ECSTASY awaits you with open arms.

What’s the idea behind Tears and Ecstasy? Why curate a show of ‘emotional artwork’ at this time?
Colin Manning: In a time when the ominous clouds of climate change and social unrest (due to severe inequities) are broiling over our heads, I think human beings will find that the fury of their emotive selves will give them the power they need to create the revolutions they must. Tears are not only the product of profound sadness but are also sometimes the symptom of ecstasy and successful revolution.
Who’s in the show? What criteria did you use to choose artists for this emotionally themed exhibition?
I believe I asked the artists I did for this show because I had at least sensed in them an honest connection between their artwork and their “emotive selves”. Unbeknown to me when I asked, it turned out that many of the artists in the show were dealing with some recent upheavals.
I met you way back when you were involved with Show Cave– What have you been up to since then? Any particular experiences with tears and ecstasy in your personal life that led to this show?
I think its been at least three years since I was helping with Showcave, and as the jack of all trades that I am, it would be hard to sum up what’s happened with me since then…. but I’ve continued to develop as a projection artist. And as a collage artist. And as a Christmas lighting designer (Ha!). And as a handyman. I organized some live performance events at Cinespace. Lately I’ve been hosting figure drawing workshops at Sancho. And yes I have certainly had some experiences in recent years that have brought both tears and ecstasy, the biggie being the passing of my father almost two years ago now. I was right there with him, and although sad, it was a very transcendent experience.

Will Ambrose

How do you know Dani of Sancho gallery? Why do you believe community oriented salon style spaces are important to LA right now?
Well Danielle became involved when the space was still called DIY Gallery and I was involved with some of the shows then as well. We were like a big happy extended family for a few months but turmoil soon developed and the space and the community have since evolved for the better. But yes the community oriented salon/gallery is where it’s at because people need art and music and culture and the extended communities they support. Precious art in museums and shnazzy galleries is wonderful, but Sancho is the kind of gallery where ordinary people can actually collect or at least appreciate art, most often made by artists who live down the street and with whom they can talk in the gallery. If you ask me, there should be such galleries everywhere, not just in Echo Park

Brian Schirk

TEARS AND ECSTASY UNTIL SATURDAY JUNE 18 AT SANCHO, 1549 WEST SUNSET BLVD, LOS ANGELES.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRoijiOMhAU

What is SSB? Who is SSB? How did y’all get together?
Signify, Sanctify, Believe is an artist-led spiritual organization focused on experimenting with gentle, temporary, semi-fictional religious practices. Our organization has two main branches: The Library of Sacred Technologies, headed by Angelic AnArchivist Tanya Rubbak, which features contemporary articles of faith, religious pamphletry, and video sanctification from a couple dozen artists, mostly from Los Angeles – plus dozens of found and historic religious publications. Our other branch is the Saints and Servants of the Order of [Con]Temporary Religious Observance, which is hosting over 17 artist-led services, sermons, and workshops spread out over two weeks (4/21-5/5). Little Dipper Adam Overton and Spirit Conductor Claire Cronin have been heading up this sacred initiative.
What are your religious backgrounds? Artistic backgrounds?
We are experimentalists and seekers with backgrounds in conceptual art, visual art, performance art, graphic design, experimental and popular music, and writing. Religiously, Tanya and Adam are half-breeds – raised between religions, and allowed to mosey, attracted to some and repulsed by others. Claire was raised in a devout Catholic family, with a mother who believes in exorcisms and the end of the world, an early religious fever that has left an indelible mark on her.  We are all devout Dabblers, having learned that patchworking the gentle, poetic parts of our favorite religious forms has seemed to both interest and benefit us the most.
Do you believe in god(s)?
Of course. But only temporarily.
What is the mission of SSB? Are you trying to start a cult?
We are already a part of a cult of artists and performers who each week invite both friends and strangers to join in our temporary, sacred revivals in the form of concerts, exhibitions, and happenings. Those in our community engage regularly with playful religiosity, whether intended or not. We like to regard the “suspension of disbelief” as rather a state of “temporary belief,” and so see ourselves going to artistic church(es) several nights a week – we all beckon each other to join us, to bear witness, to believe, and then to continue with one’s day or night as each wishes, hoping only that there might be a nice new conversation or brainstorm or sex magic ritual that follows with yet another friendly brother or sister.
What are y’all up to over in Highland Park?
We are in residence at The Free Church of Public Fiction, run by the divine seer, Lauren Mackler. She has been hosting religiously creative artists and artwork since February, featuring a new residency every two weeks. We are the final inhabitants of this spiritual vortex. The space is raw and empty, yet so full of potential. During our time, artists are filling it with ritual, and using it for sacred purposes… and then just as quickly emptying it again, leaving it a clean slate for our next day of devotion.
What sorts of events and performances have you curated? What’s still coming up?
To be clear, we haven’t hosted any events or performances. Rather, we are only hosting artist-led religious services and sermons. (They may appear similar, but we feel the difference is palpable). So far we’ve hosted the Church of Despair, the Church of the Red Marble, the Eternal Telethon, an Experimental Meditation Marathon, The AutoSanctification Bureau, and more, which have all involved rituals, sermons, experimental musical arrangements, and other forms of creative religious discourse. Coming up is a shamano-artistic mapping of the 1st infinite realm of consciousness with Amanda Yates and The Mystery Project (4/28); assisted embodiment of source energy via The Art of YES! with Hannah Henderson and the Angel Gabriel (4/29); devout, hay-filled worship and sacred rest with Alexis Disselkoen and the Church of Slumber (4/29); astral temple development for sigil awareness with Johnnie JungleGuts and the Coven of Elk and Swan (4/30); microtonal vocal convocation with Geneva Skeen, Mathew Timmons, and members of the Killsonic Choir (4/30); the charting of post-silicon-based networks of revolutionary potential with the aid of Ecstatic Energy Consultants Inc. (5/1); a viewing of sacred films with guest L.o.S.T. researchers Alyse Emdur and Michael Parker (5/4); a parallaxial gait around our blind spot, in an attempt to become this unfathomable center, with Brian Getnick and Elijah Crampton (5/5); and the sipping of margaritas as we celebrate the infinite unfolding of the being of apocalypse with Radio L’galot AM1700 (5/5)! Plus, the Coracle will continue to meet with seekers to engage in profitable discourse on Thursday evenings from 7-8pm (4/28 & 5/5). (A full schedule can be found here.) In addition to all of this, our Library of Sacred Technologies is open for visitors to peruse our incredible collection of texts and image! The L.o.S.T. Reading Room is open 1 hour before and after all evening services, and at various points over the weekend. About half of the library is also viewable online!
How are you transposing religious and/or spiritual behaviors to the gallery?
We aren’t transposing anything so much as uncovering, dusting off, teasing out, and/or amplifying the religious and spiritual tendencies underlying the work, practices and interests of those closest to us in our artist-community. While we are indeed inviting friends to invent various spiritual behaviors during our stay, we don’t in any way claim to be inventing what we view as a prevalent sensitivity among our ranks. In Los Angeles and elsewhere we regularly encounter only genuinely interested seekers, with whom we use art and performance to experiment with and challenge our belief systems, and our ability to perceive visible and invisible forces and forms. For example, whether intended or not, most of the experimental music, noise and rock we’ve witnessed here has proven far more “therapeutic” than the many official new age sound baths offered nearby. In addition, as far as our weekly calendars can see, we witness artists welcoming each other into their magic circles to meditate on their artworks and performative rituals, in galleries, project spaces, living rooms, and the street. These thresholds, these portals, these congregations have both intended and unintended effects on the fabric of our semi-secular, artist-community.
How much of this project is proselytism and how much is performance?
We’re not sure if there’s a difference, at least when considering the tradition of experimentalism and avant-gardism in religion and performance. Both propose to offer either a new system of belief, and/or the desire to chip away at one’s previous set of beliefs, and present to us a queer landscape full of unknown potential. Proselytism itself is an aesthetic form of address, often delivered via oration or literature, shaped in order to maximize its ability to transmit and connect. As both performers and proselytizers we all ultimately hope that people will listen, understand, and engage. We want to connect.
What kind of community do you want to create?
The community already exists, though this predilection isn’t always placed at the forefront of artists’ work, and it needn’t be; it’s usually more subtle. We at Signify, Sanctify, Believe instead intend to wear our religiosity on our sleeves, and to openly harness it as our guiding, creative force – or, alternatively, to look to our creative spirit as our guiding, spiritual force. In addition, we believe it’s important to give artists the opportunity to facilitate meaningful experiences for others within our community, under the banner of Temporary Belief, so that all comers may enter full-fledged, without any need to commit or believe beyond the end of the night. It is here, within art and religion, where we might then rehearse, perform and celebrate together, and then be ready to engage a new magic and celebration the day after.
Do you enjoy being nomadic or would you like to settle down someday? Start your own space to host regular services, etc?
We needn’t plan for such a future – we believe in reincarnation, rebirth, and so forth, just as much as we believe in immortality. We are a center full of centers, with homes in the hearts and minds and spirits and studios and living rooms and galleries of experimental artists. We are part of a tradition in Los Angeles that has embraced temporary forms that come, and then go. We are only one of many realizations of this compostable movement, and yet it is inevitable that the energy of all of this will live on in various forms. We believe in ripples. In our afterlife, whether manifest as an organization or not, our existence will likely live on in the viewer as a practice of reception; it is she and he who hold the ability to see and feel the sacred within an art scene that is occasionally derided as secular, goddess-less or profane. In the meantime we look forward to continuing to join the various magic circles around us, several nights a week. For this we look to L.A. Record for guidance. Oh, and of course the Library of Sacred Technologies will live online.

L.A-based artist/curator Niko Solorio represents Los Angeles abroad. Berlin Gallery Cercle Blanc, founded by Luci Lux, opens tonight with an exhibition featuring work by artists from Los Angeles and Napoli. The gallery itself wants to be a work of art—a social sculpture in the Beuysian sense, concentrating disparate disciplines in search of limitless possibilities. This interview with Max Dax, the gallery cook, by Drew Denny.

What’s the story of Cercles?
Luci Lux was offered a huge exhibition space on Berlin Alexanderplatz, in the exact center of the city, for no rent. The space is called HBC and used to be the cultural embassy for Hungaria during the GDR. The people who run the HBC only had one Bedingung: Luci should organize and curate the best art shows in Berlin. Jean-Pierre Melville shot his landmark film “Le Cercle Rouge” (the red circle) in 1970. We called the gallery space “Le Cercle Blanc” (the white circle—like white cube) in homage to Melville’s film. Luci Lux has a sharp team of people around her: gallery manager Nadine Stich of Bavarian heritage, Niko Solorio is a Los Angeles-based curator who takes care of the overseas contacts, and myself, Max Dax. I am the cook.
What happens inside the White Circle?
The Cercle Blanc will present one group exhibition every month. The whole project is like a social sculpture in the Beuys sense. We have a bar in the Cercle gallery called Quadratur where our private friends gather. We have a small kitchen where I cook for the crew.
What’s your curatorial agenda? What are you trying to promote? Critique?
There is no curatorial agenda as such. We focus on group exhibitions that bring together works by many artists. We take care that there is interdisciplinarity: Performances, pictures, sculptures, music, films, food—everything is possible, as long as Luci Lux thinks the artworks are appropriate and fitting. We have a special focus on music. Bands will be playing, two DJs will spin records from Naples and L.A. Did you know that the music business as such was invented in Naples a century ago? The canzoni Napoletani from singers like Enrico Caruso (“O sole mio”) are widely regarded as the first (recorded) pop songs in the world. It is fascinating to play tunes that are linked by a city and not by a matching beat… Andre Vida will play some psychedelic hardcore instrumental jazz with his trio.
Regarding this inaugural exhibition: Why the focus on Los Angeles and Napoli? What are the parallels between those two cities? How do they relate to the scene in Berlin?
Luci and I were staying in Los Angeles to meet Holly Woodlawn and a couple of friends. Up on Mulholland Drive I told Luci that L.A. reminds me so much of the Italian port town of Naples. You have the ocean and the mountains and the valleys and the vast, widespread moloch—like grid in both cities. You have the fear of death in Naples due to the volcano, and in L.A. you have the danger of an earthquake that might occur any moment. The inhabitants of both cities share a sixth sense for superstition, and they certainly love cars and freeways. And then, of course, both cities look back at a drag history. You only have to read Curzio Malaparte’s masterpiece “The Skin” and you know what I mean. Luci and I found these parallels utterly fascinating. Knowing artists in both cities, we then traveled to Naples and asked some of them to participate. Together with a couple of Berlin artists who also contribute to the exhibition, it becomes more and more obvious, that this first show in the Cercle Blanc gallery will be not only a topical exhibition, but also a place and a moment where major parts of the Berlin art scene will gather to meet and talk.

The artists who will contribute are:
Holly Woodlawn
Niko Solorio
Zackary Drucker
Armin Linke
Margret Köll
Adam Overton
Erich Bollmann
Margaret Haines
Nadine Stich
Tyler Calkin
Miggie Wong
Andre Vida
Abel Ferrara
Max Dax
Dorit Cypis
Isabell Spengler
John Burtle
Mario Spada
Gudrun Wernet
Abel Baker Gutierrez
Fabian Knecht
Lorenzo Scotto
Darri Ingolfsson
John Martin
Elana Mann
Ayana Hampton
The Smirk
Mary Zygouri
Andrew Cox
Akina Cox
Jennifer Bruce
Luci Lux
Chris Peters
Marnie Weber
Matthew Sims
Judith Brunner

L.A. NAPOLI FEATURING PERFORMANCES BY MARGRET KOLL, ARMIN LINKE/MATTEO FRATERNO, AND TWO FILM SCREENINGS TONIGHT APRIL 28 8 PM AT LE CERCLE BLANC GALLERY KARL-LIEBKNECHT-STRAßE 9 / BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ / EINGANG .HBC.

Photography by AMMO

Producer Nicole Disson takes theater out of the ‘theater’ and drops it out of the sky into places like the rooftop of the Standard Downtown, where confused and bemused businesspeople wonder at the dancers in the pool and the actors in the fire pits. Her March performance of her one-night-only THE SERIES put L.A. RECORD alumni like Julia Holter in strange new performing environments—even for them! This interview by Drew Denny.

You’ve got a thing for rock operas, eh?
I was talking to Rachel Kolar. She and her partner in crime, Lauren Brown, were reviving a script that she wrote called NEW. Those past two years I was working at a brand-marketing firm as my second or third job. I thought I’d come on board as director of marketing so I could apply all this knowledge I’d gained in my day job to something I cared about. I succeeded in finding corporate sponsorship which was my first money deal—you know, not a trade. I brought the Standard on. Got Million Dollar Theater—a 2,500-seat house. We worked endlessly for months. There were only two shows but it was so special. It featured different musicians. I performed in it as well—a minor role but super fun. Around that time—April of 2010—I felt it was time for me to spearhead my own independent project. I was starting to see what my friends were doing and join their team and help build up the projects but not feel like I was taking on enough risk. … I had been doing cover shows, like I would do an entire show dedicated to Gershwin or Ella Fitzgerald. Becky Stark inspired me—she did a show at Largo and asked me to sing the opening and closing songs. I realized I had found my niche. Instead of show tunes, it was standards. That’s what I enjoy singing. All the while I was finding opportunities to perform. I wanted something bigger. I was shooting independent shorts for friends but it seemed like live events was where it was going on for me. The Standard approached me about really wanting to work on something else together—they liked my work and said they’d continue with me. From a marketing standpoint I realized I could really leverage this. I thought of this as an opportunity to help build their image by doing what I really wanted to do, which was more curating and producing than promoting. By making a show that was site-specific and avant-garde. It was an experiment to see how we could merge the nightlife-social element of L.A. that people flock to endlessly with the performing arts. Basically, I wanted to use the space and the budget to give the performing arts a new platform in L.A. to be produced and to be seen more aggressively than how they are at a theater or a dance hall or a museum. Not that those places aren’t frequented but … sometimes it’s hard to get people to come. So I launched THE SERIES, and that was just a really crazy wild experiment. August of 2010 was the first one and it was so exciting and so fun and so nerve-wracking. I didn’t know if anyone would come. We were taking people on this ride on the rooftop through all these performances.
No dancers drowned in the pool?
No! There were glitches, but we learned from everything. The second one featured a sixteen-piece orchestra. The talent has continued to grow, and I’m really excited about the people who have come on board. It’s a great concept, but at this point I want to further develop it. Refine it. The cast is huge for this next one! It’s gone from ten names to … I don’t even know! I don’t know if there’s anything like this going on in L.A.
Like a recurring group show for performance?
It’s more like a great party where everyone who’s involved invites their friends to enjoy pieces they’ve created with artists that they’ve never worked with before presenting it for the first and only time on a rooftop in the middle of Downtown L.A.!
Has the hotel ever gotten scared?
They totally think I’m crazy, but they’ve been great. They all love me and laugh at me but that’s part of my job. I really present to them what I want to do. I don’t try to brush anything under the rug. I respect their space. This is our theater. And we‘ve really been working together to use the space in a way that is seriously unorthodox.
What’s gonna happen at The Series in March?
D’arcy French-Myerson is directing this one. Our theme is ‘Sound Off’—the relationship that sound has with social interactions, exploring the different dynamics of sound in a social space through musical performance, sound installations, and some intriguing multimedia performances. We’ve got an amazing cast! Julia Holter, Aaron Drake, Jason Grier, Tearist … two clowns, there is a sign language performance, some movement …
Have any hotel guests accidentally stumbled into any of your performances?
The show caters to art enthusiasts, but the hotel welcomes and is open to guests, businessmen, people looking for a good time, the general public … The businessmen have been—not problematic but funny. They love the dancers in the pool. You hear women talking in the bathroom about ‘that weird thing with the people talking over there!’ I have people planted, listening to audience reaction. People were coming back again and showing their friends where to go. People are picking up on it. But each one is its own show that’s never gonna be done again.
What’s different about producing an ‘art’ event in a commercial space versus an art institution?
I have zero interest in promoting a party for a brand launch or something. They want people to come to the space. They need some energy up in there. I thought, ‘How can we use this quirky rooftop Downtown with this beautiful view? Let’s get a dancer in the pool, a performer in the elevator, an actor in the fire pit!’ When I lived in London, I saw a wide variety of theater, and the stuff that moved me the most wasn’t in the theater—like a play in an old abandoned tube station. Or this Argentine troupe with acrobats performing in an old bank. I really respect, love and enjoy traditional theater, of course. People don’t regard this city as a theater hub but there are so many performing artists here who are innovating and who are hungry to work!
You’re a theater girl at heart?
I want to work in the theater again at some point. I like to make people laugh, to give them the opportunity to be self-reflexive and if it can be a cathartic experience, even better! But I also just like to make people laugh. … While THE SERIES was going I started NOMERICA with Ana Calderon—which was really fun. No American music Thursday nights at El Cid. Then I did this show at the Soho house in West Hollywood—I brought Mandy Kahn on as my trusty writer and Mecca Andrews came on as my choreographer/director. We created this character Susan, and it was our opportunity to test this in front of a live audience. I got a standing ovation which I was pretty surprised by. I did this long melodramatic classical monologue then I did a zany dialogue with the audience and I had a three-piece band and I jumped on the bar and sang ‘Love for Sale’ and did a full dance piece in four-inch heels. Totally unique. … I like to make a good moment. It’s a bit of a drug in itself. To have an audience. To navigate their emotions, take them from really quiet to really loud. It’s an incredible gift and it’s what I love to do. Part of why I produce is because I can give myself an opportunity to perform! I don’t deny that. I’m super-driven. It’s hard for me to sit and wait for someone else to give me an opportunity. I find ways to create my own stage. In turn, it’s led me to giving a stage to a lot of others.
Do you learn from studying or from trying?
I think there’s value in both. I learn from watching people every day—both mistakes and achievements. It’s trial-by-error, but I’m young and I have a lot to learn. There are things I’ve done—even in the past two years—that I’m like, ‘What?’ But it’s all good. I’ve created this opportunity for myself and I’m learning all the time. I’m just now growing in to my own skin. I’m not a veteran! I think I’m up-and-coming.

L.A. RECORD AND NICOLE DISSON PRESENT THE SERIES WITH TEARIST, EMILY LACY, JULIA HOLTER, DREW DENNY, SOPHIA MORTE AND MORE ON TUE., MAR. 8, ON THE ROOFTOP OF THE STANDARD DOWNTOWN, 550 S. FLOWER ST., DOWNTOWN. 8 PM / FREE / 21+ / RSVP AT DTLA@STANDARDHOTEL.COM. VISIT NICOLE DISSON AT NICOLEDISSON.BLOGSPOT.COM.