2 TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB

Opening hours:Sunday: 11am to 6pm Monday: noon to 6pmTuesday: closed Wednesday: noon to 10pm Thursday: noon to 10pm Friday: noon to 10pmSaturday: 11am to 10pm

April 20th—May 6th, 2012

WEB: AVANTEGARDEDIARIES.COM

FACEBOOK: FACEBOOK.COM/THEAVANTGARDEDIARIES

INSTAGRAM: TRANSMISSIONLA_AVCLUB

TWITTER: TWITTER.COM/AVGD_DIARIES

Floorplan, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 North Central Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90013

Publication: Editorial by Yasha Wallin / www.yashawallin.comDesign by Emily Anderson / www.littleenglishgenius.com

TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUBTHE GEFFEN CONTEMPORARY AT MOCA

BEN JONESPAGE 08

ROBERT MCKINLEYPAGE 06

PUBLIC FICTIONPAGE 14

MIKE MILLSPAGE 06

JUSTIN LOWE + JONAH FREEMAN

PAGE 15

SAGE VAUGHNPAGE 11 CORY

ARCANGELPAGE 13

ROY CHOIPAGE 07

PETER COFFINPAGE 05

WILL FOWLERPAGE 13

WILL FOWLERPAGE 13

JIM DRAIN +ARA PETERSON

PAGE 09

TAKESHI MURATAPAGE 10

FAMILY BOOKSTOREPAGE 14

TOM SACHSPAGE 10

SANFORD BIGGERSPAGE 12

IN THE COURTYARD:

3CURATED BY MIKE D

“When Jeffrey Deitch first approached me about doing this show, the assignment was more simple. It was to pick 10 or 11 artists that I found inspiring, or was inspired by. I quickly, however, spiraled out of control.

I decided to be a bit more ambitious and go for a complete sensory experience inclusive of food, coffee, books, film, and many multi-media installations.

It was after contacting the first couple of artists about being in the show—Tom Sachs and Sage Vaughn—that the idea emerged. When I talked to them, they were both going to include works that were very directly linked to music. With Tom it was the Toyan’s, which was inspired by Jamaican sound systems and a particularly hot New York summer, when we all listened to a bunch of dub records together. With Sage, he talked about Wagner’s Ring Cycle being an influence on the work he creates. It wasn’t until then that I realized the theme had emerged: this notion of how visual art is informed by and inspired by music, and how that then turns back to music. After that, I knew that we also had to have a musical component to the exhibition with DJ nights, performances, etc. to complete the circle.

The food and coffee elements were conceptualized with Jeffrey originally because I thought of the project as two-fold.

One is that LA is all about car culture. The tricky thing is to get people out of their homes, so you need to check multiple boxes off in one day and destination. The other is that we’re trying to create this all-encompassing sensory-rich environment.”

- Mike D, 11:04 pm, April 15, 2012

The paper you hold in your hands is an extension of Mike D’s ambitious vision, but here, we take you beyond the senses to delve in the minds of our 17 creative contributors. Welcome to your very own insider’s guide to Transmission LA : AV CLUB that is equal parts experimentation, brainstorms, fully realized ideas and all that falls in between.

Enjoy.

WORK HARD. PLAY HARD. EVERYTHING AT 11.

4 TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB

TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB CALENDARApril 20th—May 6th, 2012

photo by Sean Thomas

FAVORITE FOODMilk Duds in popcorn

FAVORITE PLACEThe Blue Lagoon, Portland, Jamaica

FAVORITE MOMENTMaking it to the Peak of Kilimanjaro before I realized we had to walk back down.

FAVORITE SONG“Still Ill” by The Smiths

FAVORITE VISUALMy Great Dane’s cute little face

WERE YOU OR ARE YOU A MEMBER OF THE A/V CLUB? If we had one I might have been in it if I got to be the only girl doing boy’s music related stuff, but I went to a girl’s school back then and we learned to dance around the May Pole in dresses with ribbons instead.

STRAIGHT OUT OF BROOKLYN, SANTI WHITE, BETTER KNOWN TODAY AS SANTIGOLD, HAS BECOME AN UNPARALLELED AND INSPIRING FIGURE ON TODAY’S MUSICAL LANDSCAPE. SHE HAS COLLABORATED WITH EVERYONE FROM M.I.A. TO JAY-Z TO THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS ON SONGS THAT LIVE SOMEWHERE BETWEEN HIP-HOP, POP, 80S RAVE AND ABSTRACTION. SHE PLAYS THE OPENING PARTY FOR TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB ON THE HEELS OF HER HIGHLY ANTICIPATED SECOND ALBUM COMING OUT MAY 1.

For 17 days The Geffen Contemporary will come alive with a packed line-up of concerts, DJ nights, book launches and performances demonstrating how audio and visual art forms can unleash unimagined

synergies. Above is a calendar of events to look forward to. Check www.theavantgardediaries.com for the most up-to-date information as the schedule is subject to change.

5CURATED BY MIKE D

FAVORITE FOODAnts on a log.

FAVORITE PLACEA tree house.

FAVORITE MOMENTA Harlem Globetrotter’s game-winning

point.

FAVORITE SONG Toots Thielemans’ “Love Theme” from the

soundtrack to The Getaway (1972). He’s the

greatest jazz harmonica player (Sesame

Street theme song) and also invented the

technique of simultaneously whistling the

same tune he plays on guitar.

FAVORITE VISUAL Sunset and sunrise.

YOU GREW UP IN BERKELEY, IN THE 70S. DOES THAT MEAN YOU HAVE A HIGH THRESHOLD FOR CRAZY?There are different kinds of crazy, I guess. There’s the Dick Cheney kind of crazy and then there’s the Wavy Gravy kind of crazy. I’d rather hang with Wavy.

WHEN YOU CONCEIVED OF THE SCULPTURE, UNTITLED (DONUT , BAGEL, HOPF LINK) DID YOU REALIZE YOU WERE MARRYING THE TWO THINGS CLOSEST TO A JEWISH GRANDMOTHER’S HEART: GOLD AND BAGELS? The friendly folks at Peter Pan bakery in Greenpoint, Brooklyn made this delicious interlocked donut and bagel specifically for this bronze casting. I love donuts and I love bagels but there’s a sweet and savory conflict. They’re wrestling one another in eternal conflict.

I got excited about it again when I learned about the Hopf Link named after 19th century topologist Heinz Hopf. Hopf believed that two linked tori [ring-shaped objects] made of one material like wood, metal or stone, could be used to invite the spirits from the fourth dimension to lift one torus link apart from the other into this other dimension without destroying either torus. According to Hopf, the linked tori could be separated without breaking either, so Hopf made a wooden Hopf Link from one solid piece of wood for the purpose of testing his theory. No known spirits have successfully separated Hopf Links with both tori remaining intact. In mathematical knot theory, the Hopf link is the simplest nontrivial link with more than one component. It consists of two circles linked together exactly once. The two tori shapes linked also contain the Vesica Pisces, geometry related to the study of the Hopf Link. Physicists believe the shape of the universe is a torus and that its form represents the fourth dimension. That’s the kind of thing I like to wonder about while I’m eating a toasted sesame seed bagel with cream cheese and/or a chocolate glaze with sprinkles.

YOU’VE MADE WORK EXPLORING CARL JUNG’S THEORY THAT TIMES OF WAR AND UNREST MAY MANIFEST HIGH RATES OF UFO SIGHTINGS AS SYMBOLS OF OUR UNCONSCIOUS STATE. COMPARE THAT WITH TODAY - WHAT WOULD YOU SPECULATE IS POPULATING OUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS AT THIS VERY MOMENT? Yeah, trends like this may be unconscious. I noticed after 9/11 that the Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings craze was pretty dominant and I wondered why. Another popular archetype of the collective unconscious that came a few years later was the recurring zombie. Then vampires were big for a while. These things, the UFO sightings and the alien visitations included

that Carl Jung talks about, might tell us something about ourselves and how we project our collective unconscious. WHAT WAS A MEMORABLE MOMENT FOR YOU PARTICIPATING IN THE OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT LAST FALL? Occupy Wall Street is more of a state of mind than it is the events in a park in downtown Manhattan or in a public place in any city. While that sounds like a cliche, it really does carry the sentiments most practical minded people share everywhere: the value of being free, living in a fair society - all that good patriotic stuff. Its probably the most patriotic dialogue happening at a time when our leaders allow themselves to be influenced by powerful lobbies. I don’t think that its a dialogue of left versus right. People on both sides are watching the harmful effects of corporate influence in the affairs of government and the effects are real. I was inspired by a talk Angela Davis gave at Washington Square Park about the problems of the prison industrial complex as part of OWS. [Journalist and author] Chris Hedges shared some wisdom during peaceful gatherings downtown and on TV talk shows. The highlight last fall might have been a gathering that included Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, David Amram, Guy Davis among others jamming together at Columbus Circle. Seeing a police officer moved to tears. I think we’ll see some positive changes come out of the discussions that the occupy movement encourages. FOR FAMILY’S POP-UP YOU HAVE A ZINE ABOUT PEOPLE SNEAKING INTO MUSEUMS. WHERE ELSE HAVE YOU PERSONALLY SNUCK IN? I hopped off the boat and snuck into the Small World set once. We tried to blend in with a smile.

NEW YORK-BASED PETER COFFIN USES VARIOUS ARTISTIC FORMS OF EXPRESSION TO BOTH SUBTLE AND SPECTACULAR ENDS. HIS ART IS MOTIVATED BY POSSIBILITY AND USES PHENOMENOLOGY AS A POINT OF DEPARTURE. IT IS ALSO A PROPOSITION ENGAGING RECONSIDERATION, NEW PERSPECTIVE AND AGENCY THROUGH PLAY. FOR TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB HE PRESENTS AN ITERATION OF HIS NEON LIGHT INSTALLATION UNTITLED (LINES), 2011. HERE, WE PICKED HIS BRAIN ABOUT OWS AND UFOS.

Clockwise, from left: Untitled (Pink Cloud)2012Cloud, pink dyeDimensions variable

Untitled (Donut, Bagel Hopf Link)2010 Gold plated bronze7 x 4 x 4 inches

Untitled (Lines)2011NeonDimensions variable

Untitled (Xerox copy)

6 TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB

ROBERT MCKINLEY IS PRINCIPAL OF ROBERT MCKINLEY CREATIVE SERVICES (RMCS), AND CO-OWNER OF GOLDBAR IN NEW YORK’S LITTLE ITALY AND THE SURF LODGE IN MONTAUK, NEW YORK.

“In 1979 I was 13 years old, and this is the year that all the cultural choices embedded in “punk” would finally make its way to me in suburban Santa Barbara, California. I remember hearing Black Flag at Marina del Rey Skate park. I bought The Clash’s “London Calling” and The Damned’s “Machine Gun Etiquette” in that year. For me it was the beginning of things that would shape my adult life.

But what did 1979 really look like? And feel like? 1979 is not a watershed year - but in its banality there’s an important transition from an older world of ideas and images to a world we are still “in” today: In these photos collected from Life and Time magazines from 1979 we see The Oil Crisis and gas lines, the Iranian revolution and hostage crisis. It’s the summer of the Three Mile Island

nuclear disaster, and the year Brenda Ann Spencer shot 10 students at her school. Her explanation, “I don’t like Mondays.” High fructose corn syrup rose to sweetner/additive supremacy, Apple computers was starting its rise. It’s the year of the first commercial e-mail software, the invention of the snowboard, roller blades, Asteroids, the cell phone, and the Pritiken diet. 1979 is Jimmy Carter’s last year, the last year of his ambiguity, self-reflection and doubt. In the summer he delivered his “Malaise” speech to a nation afraid that the future was not to be as good as the past. By the following January Ronald Reagan would be delivering a very different story.”

-The year 1979, as told by multi-media artist and filmmaker Mike MIlls.

1979 Poster4 color print on paper30 x 40 inches

FAVORITE FOODI’m a cheap date. When being honest I

admit that I am most comforted by Two

Boots Pizza, peanut butter and jelly

sandwiches, ripe watermelon.

FAVORITE PLACEThe Sierra Nevada mountains, The

Pompidou, book stores, my bedroom.

FAVORITE MOMENTWhen you wake up and your body’s

swimming in endorphins or whatever all

that stuff is.

FAVORITE SONG“Basin Street Blues” by Louis Armstrong

and Earl Hines.

FAVORITE VISUALGrids, the color grey, skies, dogs, the other

colors too.

WERE YOU OR ARE YOU A MEMBER OF THE A/V CLUB?Is that for me to say?

FAVORITE FOODPASTA!!!

FAVORITE PLACENew York.

FAVORITE MOMENTI don’t have one favorite moment but any

moment that includes laughing is always at

the top of my list.

FAVORITE SONG“All I Do” by Stevie Wonder.

FAVORITE VISUALThe ocean.

WERE YOU OR ARE YOU A MEMBER OF THE A/V CLUB?My school didn’t have an A/V club but I

was always into music, sound systems, and

all things A/V so I guess my friends and I

had our own A/V club. And of course now

this A/V club - it’s official.

When Mike first told me he was asked to curate the AV Club and wanted me to be one of the artists in the show to create and design a coffee bar installation, as well as co design the show with him, I was stoked for more than a few reasons.

First and foremost, anytime you get a chance to work in a creative capacity with friends you always achieve great things. Additionally Mike and I share a lot of common interests; coffee, food, surfing, music and art. This was kind of a dream project for me. I always have the craving to make art but I also love designing environments that people interact with. Nothing gives me more satisfaction than watching people using and enjoying things I’ve designed and built. This exhibit gives me the chance to do both...

The coffee bar is inspired by Italian bar culture, Federico Fellini, and the streets of Napoli. The design of the Roy Choi Restaurant came about when Mike and I were in Germany visiting both the Mercedes race track and a complete tour of their factory in Stuttgart we also managed to squeeze in a very inspirational trip to some of Berlin’s great galleries and an Olafur Eliasson studio visit. On the tour I was taken with Eliasson’s color wheel paintings and decided to translate that to a physical space that people can exist in.

The journey that is The AV Club has been a wild and inspiring ride...I’m a lucky man.

7CURATED BY MIKE D

Sketches for coffee bar installation

FAVORITE FOODKimchi jiggae.

FAVORITE PLACEOlympic Boulevard,

Koreatown.

FAVORITE MOMENTBirth of my daughter.

FAVORITE SONGThe whole Public Enemy

album It Takes A Nation of

Millions to Hold Us Back.

FAVORITE VISUALPussy.

WERE YOU OR ARE YOU A MEMBER OF THE A/V CLUB?No.

DATE: FRI, FEB 10, 2012 AT 7:20 AM

SERVICE À LA RUSSE

Cloud #1Service à la russe: service in the Russian style

i’m riffing off the Lenin sculpture out front and want to do this dope ass juxtaposition of classic Russian service which changed the French from beasts to gourmands. And fill that with rustic LA barrio food done in a French way.Twisted shit in the amber sunset of La Brea.Grimey south Hollywood glamour mixed with ornate precise spot on service you would get at Eleven Madison Park or Le Bernardin but by some fly as youngsters trained to be assassins.

everyone sat at tables with artist drawn place cards.the silverware and stuff is all wrapped up in burlap and twine with a napkin.there is a charger plate and the guests start unraveling the burlap and reading about their courses in the place card.the place card is also how they know where to sit as it is their name or symbol that marks their seat.

I’m looking at rows of long ornate tables and high back Gothic chairs. Big candelabras and medieval decorations.LA succulents as plants and flowers, weeds throughout the table.

the appetizers will be very vegetable driven. futuristic soulful colorful stuff like my vegetable nest or pickle platters or island cole slaw or chego asparagus.small portions.sliced raw crudos or tatakis as well.

there will be a few courses brought out on plates leading up to the main meat courses which will be served on platters for the guest to pick how much they want to eat. (read about Russian Food Service in Wikipedia or any historical context) the meat will be shaved al pastor or grilled kalbi or slow cooked goat on a rotating shwarma spit or fried chicken, etc.

dessert will be milkshakes.

it’s Kanye’s video with the ballerinas meets taco stand in highland park meets Ruskie service meets French technique meets Los Angeles east side west side south side whatever.

Tagger Swagger.Like a a twisting mural low and slow on PCP through the history of immigrant and Latino LA.

LENIN, THE AMBER SUNSET OF LA BREA, MILKSHAKES. THESE WERE SOME OF ROY CHOI’S INITIAL SOVIET-STYLE BRAINSTORMS, REVEALED TO THE RIGHT, AFTER TALKING TO MIKE D ABOUT A TEMPORARY RESTAURANT FOR GEFFEN CONTEMPORARY THAT WOULD BE BASED ON THE MASTER CHEF’S AWARD WINNING KOGI KOREAN BBQ FOOD TRUCK. WHAT ACTUALLY CAME TO FRUITION, HOWEVER, IS A MESS HALL-INSPIRED OUTDOOR LUNCH AND DINNER EXPERIENCE SERVED WITH A SIDE OF “STRAIGHT GANGSTER LOVE.“

8 TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB

WHAT IS META-GRAFFITI?Maybe an example would be the funny graffiti joke that talented graffiti dudes write to make each other laugh.

YOU’RE FROM THE SUBURBS OF NEW ENGLAND. WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT L.A. THAT YOU COULD NEVER FIND ON THE EAST COAST?Night-blooming jasmine.

FAVORITE LARRY DAVID QUOTE?“I am bad at swiping credit cards. I have to do it like four times.”

WHAT MAKES YOU NERVOUS?When you’re jogging at night at you come up to a cute dog but it’s a coyote.

WHAT DO YOU LEARN ABOUT YOURSELF OR YOUR OWN PRACTICE BY COLLABORATING?What you suck at.

IN A 2009 FECAL FACE INTERVIEW YOU SAID, “I THINK THE NEXT BIG THING IN THE ART WORLD IS GOING TO BE THE BEASTIE BOYS.” HAVE WE COME FULL CIRCLE?[Laughs], oh snap! I remember saying that so well. And like everything I say I meant it on many different levels. I am so, so happy to be able to further explain and celebrate why I said that and what I meant. Which is this: I feel 99.9% of modern art-making is utterly consumed with coming off as a deconstructed, unique, discrete intellectual or visual idea, but when you walk through art fairs all of today’s art functions and looks exactly like the displays of the homogeneous yet “edgy” merchandise in the mall chain store Hot Topic. We are all making the most superficial commodities ever on earth, and at the end of the day, we are just taking cues and trying to be cool like it’s high school, but we are in this hyper-culture reality of Western modern art.

So … I think all that is cool, or it’s fine to think that what I just said is totally wrong or so obvious or bullshit, but to me when I see the next Sterling Ruby or Sam Falls, I still insist it’s no different than the experience of trying hummus or salsa for the first time. Yes, art may affect large cultural changes, but it mainly fosters subjective personal journeys.

If you have a Whitney Biennial curator, a senator, Mark Zuckerberg, a Hollywood producer, and a super rich dude in a room, the curator is easily totally useless, lame and worthless. Art fills in the gaps between science and philosophy – it’s a place for experimentation. Its lame and worthless to culture and most humans. But people who have identity issues (gallery owners, critics, art world dudes) or people who simply make “reactive” decisions all day, have to take art really seriously.

So, when I said The Beastie Boys were going to be the next big thing, I was taking all that into account and trying to say: Fuck anyone who says the phrase “next big thing.” Fuck people for not cherishing truly important personal and cultural artistic experiences, such as The Beastie Boys. Fuck people who are just consumed with maintaining the cycle of shit/art that goes into the Hot Topic-Art World system.

And by the way, I fully love serious fucking art world shit, and serious artists like Robert Mangold, and Ruby and Falls. I am not trying to sound like a street artist or something, I am just saying, to quote Ad-Rock from an interview he did in Tape Op: “..I mean, come on.”

FAVORITE FOODAll variations on the dish “Shepherd’s Pie.”

FAVORITE PLACEGreece.

FAVORITE MOMENTGetting rim the first time

FAVORITE SONG“In My Time of Dying,” Led Zep.

FAVORITE VISUALMy girlfriend.

L.A. BASED BEN JONES, MASTER OF MANY MEDIUMS AND MEMBER OF THE CELEBRATED COLLECTIVE PAPER RAD PULLED OUT ALL THE STOPS FOR TRANSMISSION LA: AV CLUB, DESIGNING FURNITURE FOR FAMILY’S POP-UP (CONCEPTS SHOWN BELOW) AND CREATING THE ANIMATION ROADTRIP WHICH INCORPORATES HIS WRY HUMOR, COLOR AND CRAFT.

Ben Jones and John PhamRoadtrip, 2012Video InstallationDimensions VariablePart 1. TunnelPart 2. Journey

McDonald’s Judd Table Design For Family Bookstore.

9CURATED BY MIKE D

JIM: FAVORITE FOODPasta primavera.

FAVORITE PLACEWhen I was a fetus.

FAVORITE MOMENTBeing born.

FAVORITE SONG “Spinning Wheel”.

FAVORITE VISUAL

Naked geriatrics in Miami.

WERE YOU OR ARE YOU A MEMBER OF THE A/V CLUB?I don’t know but I def. belong to the PEN

15 Club.

ARA:FAVORITE FOODScarfing material.

FAVORITE PLACENear the ocean.

FAVORITE MOMENTComing through the tube.

FAVORITE SONG“Wasn’t Born to Follow” The Byrds.

FAVORITE VISUALLiquid light.

WERE YOU OR ARE YOU A MEMBER OF THE A/V CLUB?I am a lifetime member of the A/V Club,

right?

YOU’VE SHOWN ITERATIONS OF THE INSTALLATION THAT YOU ARE INCLUDING AT MOCA IN OTHER LOCATIONS. DOES IT TAKE ON NEW MEANING EVERY TIME IT OCCUPIES A NEW SPACE?Jim: I don’t know why this is a hard question to answer. I don’t think the meaning changes, but then again, it becomes about your relation to the space as you experience the installation.Ara: The pinwheels have so many possibilities for how they can be shown. The work is built on and updated each time it is presented.

IF THE INSTALLATION HAD A SOUNDTRACK, WHAT WOULD IT BE?Jim: Anything adult contemporary- anything by Blood, Sweat and Tears.Ara: I may force Jim to listen to very long Northern Soul mixes while we make pinwheels for 11 hours nonstop. Our other standard pinwheel music has also been E.A.R.

HAVE YOU EVER TRIED TO CONTROL OR ALTER YOUR OWN HYPNAGOGIC STATES?Jim: Never. Don’t try it!Ara: Around the time that I was in high school I had the most vivid experiences with this. Before I fell asleep I could half-consciously project myself and fall backwards through a strange and expansive unknown grey space that had endless veils of milky star layers…and then I would dream I was getting chased by a giant pickle.

[Questions for Jim]HOW HAS YOUR PAST WORK WITH FORCEFIELD INFORMED HOW AND WHAT YOU CREATE TODAY AS A SOLO ARTIST?Forcefield allowed my brain to travel to this new place with my friends – a place I would have never got to on my own. We are never just one person. We are like diamonds.

WHAT IS SOMETHING IN YOUR STUDIO RIGHT NOW THAT YOU FEEL YOU NEED MORE OF?Nothingness.

WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU NEED LESS OF?Capitalism.

[Questions for Ara]LAST YEAR YOU CREATED A MUSIC VIDEO FOR PANDA BEAR’S “ALSATIAN DARN.” HOW MUCH DOES MUSIC AND SOUND AFFECT YOUR VISUAL WORK?Music and sound have affected my visual work dramatically. At times visual music was my absolute focus. On the other side of that, music and sound are very much non-existent in my process and in my final product. I think that losing track of sound or should I say time is the most freeing.

YOUR SCULPTURES INCORPORATE A VARIETY OF DIFFERENT MATERIALS. WHAT’S THE BIGGEST DISASTER THAT HAPPENED WHILE EXPERIMENTING WITH NEW MEDIUMS?When I was in school I started a film project based on a real life ‘Liquid Mercury Pinball Machine.’ The idea was that there would be various live action scenes of quicksilver traveling through shoots, filters, tubes, passageways, holes, funnels, tunnels…I barely got started on it because I realized how risky it was. I poured mercury on this weird shaped aluminum tray not knowing that the mercury would ‘eat’ through it.

WHAT’S ONE THING YOU WOULD CHANGE ABOUT YOUR COUNTRY RIGHT NOW?Jim Drain for president.

FOR TRANSMISSION LA: AV CLUB JIM DRAIN AND ARA PETERSON – WHO HAVE COLLABORATED FOR TEN YEARS, INITIALLY AS MEMBERS OF THE GROUP FORCEFIELD – PRESENT A MULTI-LAYERED INSTALLATION OF SPINNING PINWHEELS, PARTLY INSPIRED BY THE “HYPNAGOGIC STATE,” THAT BLISSFUL MOMENT BETWEEN BEING AWAKE AND DREAMING.

Still from “Alsatian Darn”Directed by Ara PetersonVideo by Dave Fischer and Ara PetersonMusic by Panda Bear2010

10 TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB

TOM SACHS IS A CONCEPTUAL SCULPTOR BASED IN NEW YORK CITY. FOR TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB SACHS PRESENTS A WET BAR – FIT FOR THE PRESIDENT – AND RE-IMAGINES THE SOUND SYSTEM. THE ARTIST’S INCLUSION HAPPENED INTUITIVELY, AS MIKE D. EXPLAINS: “IT IS KIND OF A FULL CIRCLE THING FOR ME BECAUSE OVER A DECADE AGO DURING A HOT SUMMER IN NYC A SMALL GROUP OF US INCLUDING MYSELF AND TOM KEPT GATHERING IN THE EVENINGS AT A FRIEND’S SHAVED ICE

STAND IN LOWER MANHATTAN TRYING TO COOL OFF FROM THE SAVAGE HEAT. WE WANTED TO LISTEN TO MUSIC, SO TOM STARTED BUILDING DIFFERENT BOXES SO WE COULD LISTEN TO DUB WHILE WE ENJOYED THE SHAVED ICE, GOOD COMPANY AND SCENERY. THESE CONTRAPTIONS BECAME BIGGER AND MORE ELABORATE AS THE SUMMER WENT ON AND EVENTUALLY TOM BUILT THE BEHEMOTH THAT YOU ALL WILL SEE, FEEL AND HEAR IN THE SHOW.”

FAVORITE FOODSoba.

FAVORITE PLACEPoint Dume on a Monday afternoon.

FAVORITE MOMENTBirth of baby Frances.

FAVORITE SONGThis month: “I Want To See The Bright

Lights Tonight” by Richard and Linda

Thompson.

FAVORITE VISUALOften made by Pat O’Neill.

WERE YOU OR ARE YOU A MEMBER OF THE A/V CLUB?4 Lif.

TAKESHI MURATA PRODUCES EXTRAORDINARY DIGITAL WORKS THAT REFIGURE THE EXPERIENCE OF ANIMATION. THE NEW YORK-BASED ARTIST PRODUCES ASTONISHING VISIONS THAT REDEFINE THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN ABSTRACTION AND RECOGNITION. HE ACHIEVES THIS BY ALTERING APPROPRIATED FOOTAGE FROM CINEMA (LIKE B MOVIES AND VINTAGE HORROR FILMS); CREATING RORSCHACH-LIKE FIELDS OF SEETHING COLOR, FORM AND MOTION; OR – AS SEEN AT TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB – REIMAGINING POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN.

100 Killer Dub Plates as played by Jah Shaka_, 2009Synthetic polymer paint on canvas51 x 57 x inches

Cyborg, 2011Pigment Print28 x 42 inches2AP, Edition 3/3

11CURATED BY MIKE D

Some one searched for Tranquilitythey found it and quickly became boardand left

- Anthony Anzalone

FAVORITE PLACEHome.

FAVORITE MOMENTTBD.

FAVORITE SONG“Red Headed Stranger”

[Willie Nelson].

WERE YOU OR ARE YOU A MEMBER OF THE A/V CLUB?I worked in the library.

WILDLIFE AND WILD LIVES MAKE UP THE WORLD OF ARTIST SAGE VAUGHN. HIS PAINTINGS, WHICH ARE COMPRISED OF SWARMING, BRIGHTLY COLORED BUTTERFLIES AND KIDS DRESSED IN SUPERHERO OUTFITS, MASKS AND SAD BUNNY EARS, CONJURE A FEELING OF TENSION BETWEEN NATURAL AND UNNATURAL ELEMENTS. THE L.A.-BASED ARTIST ALSO HAS AN APTITUDE FOR COLLAGE AND COLLABORATION, LIKE THE ONE BELOW WITH POET ANTHONY ANZALONE.

Expanded Cinema, 2011Pigment Print27.43 x 42 inches2AP, Edition 3/3

I, Popeye, 2010single channel video6 mintues2AP, Edition 5/5

Jazz Funeral, 2011Pigment Print23.2 x 32 inches2AP, Edition 3/3

12 TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB

Ghettobird Tunic, 2006 Bubble Jacket with assorted feathers 61 x 31 inches

Bittersweet the fruit (video still)- Single channel video with sound element. trt 5min. 1999-2001

Shake (as installed in The Cartogra-pher’s Conundrum) – 2 Channel HD video, sound element. trt 16min.

TELL US ABOUT “GHETTOBIRD TUNIC.”I talk about [the piece] in terms of being used for rights of passage. This is very relevant to Los Angeles because the neighborhoods around LA have the “ghettobird” flying over them in circles. The “ghettobird” is slang for police helicopter. So if one wears the ghettobird tunic and runs into the street and is able to camouflage themselves in the urban environment and not be detected by the ghettobird they can move on and become a man.

YOU’RE A TRAINED PIANIST AND OFTEN INCORPORATE MUSIC INTO YOUR PRACTICE. HOW DID THE MERGER OF THESE TWO MEDIUMS COME ABOUT?I started more so with music, trying to jam in my brother’s band. So I’d hang out with him and his friends and try to play what they were playing or I’d turn on the radio and sit for hours and play every song that came on. But by the time I was 13 or so I started to listen to jazz. I couldn’t play what I was hearing, it was too complicated for me. So I started to paint pictures of the musicians I was listening to and of other historical figures. I was also doing graffiti around this time as well. Of course graffiti – New York-style graffiti – is deeply related to music, hip-hop, break dancing and all the B-boy arts.

WHAT WAS THE GRAFFITI CULTURE LIKE IN L.A. BACK WHEN YOU STARTED?I don’t know if you would call it the “golden age,” but the age that I remember on the West Coast is when WCA was big at the time. And crews like OOCA and KSN. It was still black kids, a lot of white kids, Asian kids, Korean

kids, Latinos. They were a very eclectic group. Some were skaters, some were hippies, some were thugs - but not Bloods and Crips type of thugs.

HOW DID YOU EVOLVE FROM DOING GRAFFITI TO THE KIND OF WORK YOU’RE CREATING TODAY?I got busted. So I started oil painting.

YOU REFERENCE MEDITATION AND BUDDHISM IN YOUR WORK. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU PRACTICE YOURSELF? I grew up in a church. Then on my own volition after living in Japan for so many years I figured out that Buddhism is sort of my life “guide.” But I don’t think I’m dogmatic enough to really follow any religion strictly. As far as the thinking and philosophies go, however, Buddhism sits the most comfortably with me.

WHO IS THE MOST OVERLOOKED MUSICIAN OF OUR TIME?Prince on a certain level. Even though he’s mega-famous I don’t think people have sat down and just realized how bad he is on guitar. Or piano. Or drums. He could be playing any one of those things by themselves and that would be his career.

Also, Raphael Saadiq is a genius and extremely underrated. And D’Angelo. I’m speaking not as a performer but as a straight up musician – he is serious on piano. But Raphael Saadiq and D’Angelo probably wouldn’t be making what they make if they hadn’t grown up watching Prince as a musician, which they clearly have.

BASED IN NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES NATIVE SANFORD BIGGERS HAS BUILT A CREATIVE PRACTICE OUT OF COMBINING VISUAL ART, MUSIC AND PERFORMANCE. AT MOCA HE’LL PRESENT “GHETTOBIRD TUNIC” AS WELL AS A VIDEO FEATURING SAUL WILLIAMS AKA “NIGGY TARDUST” PERFORMING IN THE JACKET, WHICH IS COMPRISED OF 1,000 FEATHERS.

FAVORITE FOODAnything my mom makes.

FAVORITE PLACEKyoto in the summer and

fall, Salvador do Bahia in our

winter.

FAVORITE MOMENTDaybreak on an empty beach.

FAVORITE SONGToo many to pick one. “Pop

Life,” “Irresistible Bitch,” (both

by Prince), “One Mo ‘Gin”

D’angelo.

FAVORITE VISUALThe fairer sex.

13CURATED BY MIKE D

Clock #1, 2011Acrylic on canvas66 x 60 x 1.5 inchesCollection of David Kordansky andMindy Shapero, Los Angeles, CA

Folded Chariot, 2011Acrylic on canvas54 x 78 x 1.5 inches

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NEW YORK-BASED CORY ARCANGEL IS A MULTIMEDIA ARTIST MOST KNOWN FOR HIS VIDEO GAME MODIFICATIONS. HE OFTEN EMPLOYS THE ARTISTIC STRATEGY OF APPROPRIATION, CREATIVELY RE-USING EXISTING MATERIALS SUCH AS DANCING STANDS, PHOTOSHOP GRADIENTS, AND YOUTUBE CLIPS TO DEVELOP PIECES THAT EXPLORE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE. FOR TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB ARCANGEL SUBMITTED THE SINGLE CHANNEL VIDEO “DREI KLAVIERSTÜCKE OP. 11.” FOR THIS PUBLICATION HE INCLUDED THE SAME PIECE – ONLY JUST THE VIDEO’S SCORE – TRANSLATED INTO THIS TEXT FILE SEEN AS AN EXCERPT, HERE. WHAT PART OF AJEJDUT2QZA,9212002 DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND?

FAVORITE FOODSoup?

FAVORITE PLACESoup.

FAVORITE MOMENTDropping two cups of coffee and broken

umbrella in rain on Friday, 13th.

FAVORITE SONG“I Drowned the Sun in a Glass of Water,” by

Shower Curtain Umbrella

FAVORITE VISUALSun in a glass of water.

WERE YOU OR ARE YOU A MEMBER OF THE A/V CLUB?I was not in A/V club, I was in art club. We

painted a D&D mural in the cafeteria.

WILL FOWLER IS A PAINTER WHO LIVES AND WORKS IN LOS ANGELES. SINCE HIS PAINTINGS CAN SOMETIMES TAKE YEARS TO COMPLETE, WE ASKED FOWLER FOR A TIMELINE OF HIS LIFE FROM THE START OF A CANVAS TO THE FINISH. GIVEN THAT HIS WORKS ARE ABSTRACT, IT WAS ONLY FITTING THAT HIS TIMELINE WAS EQUALLY SPECULATIVE.

4/10

4/11 parasitic, falling forward

4/13 need sponges

4/14 saw two suns in the sky, one

scraping away at the other

4/15 half rain, half marbles, smiling

buckets (upside-down)

4/17 cheese on bread

4/16 salt on conveyor belt

5/4 salted paint

4/12 ant with a headache, road cone

soup, cooks jump overboard and

font sharks get in line to sample

everything. boat leaves wake of

recorded messages.

5/7 “wall” as a verb

14 TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB

PUBLIC FICTION IS A SPACE AND JOURNAL LOCATED IN L.A. CREATED BY LAUREN MACKLER AND INCLUDING J. PATRICK WALSH III, MATH BASS, DLS SOLUTIONS, TOTAL FREEDOM, NGUZUNGZU AND NATALIE LABRIOLA. THEIR INSTALLATIONS ARE ‘FICTIONAL SPACES’ THAT EXPLORE SPECIFIC CONCEPTS, LIKE THE CHURCH THEY OPENED LAST YEAR TO HOST A SERIES OF EXHIBITS BASED ON RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY. THE JOURNALS THEY PRODUCE COME OUT OF THESE

SHOWS, ADDRESSING THE SAME TOPIC BY LOOKING AT WHAT TOOK PLACE IN THE PHYSICAL VENUES. FOR MOCA, PUBLIC FICTION DELVES INTO THE IDEA OF THE “CLUB,” CREATING BOTH A MAKESHIFT SOCIAL CLUB AND A NIGHTCLUB COMPLETE WITH A STAGE FOR PERFORMANCES AND PROJECTION-MAPPED LIGHTS. THE PUBLICATION MADE CONCURRENTLY WILL TRACE THE HISTORY OF ARTIST CLUBS AND NIGHTCLUBS THROUGH THE KIND OF VISUAL RESEARCH SEEN HERE.

FAVORITE FOODMint Cliff bar.

FAVORITE PLACEInternet.

FAVORITE MOMENTSleeping.

FAVORITE SONG“Egg Raid on Mojo.”

FAVORITE VISUALBacks of eyelids.

WERE YOU OR ARE YOU A MEMBER OF THE A/V CLUB?You mean in high school?

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?Australia.

HOW DID YOU END UP IN L.A?Circuitously. The guy that I started FAMILY with is American but he went to high school in Australia. I was living in New York and he dropped out of Cal Arts and I wasn’t doing anything too productive so we thought it was a good time to do something like this. It was almost six years ago.

WHAT SELLS THE BEST AT FAMILY?Nothing.Actually we have a newsprint exhibition catalogue by Sarah Soquel Morhaim that sells well. And we just published a book by this artist Joanne Oldham. She is in her late 60s and has never exhibited her work. She’s Will Oldham’s mom and we discovered her work from some artwork done on a bunch of his album covers like “I See a Darkness.”

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE ART BOOK AT FAMILY? There’s a new Jim Shaw book that’s really cool, it’s called My Mirage. I love everything here, but when I think of things that I feel a close bond it’s hard to say, really. [They are] so much a part of my environment that it’s almost like my front yard or a garden. It’s just like a part of my life that I have to water every day.

SINCE YOU SEE SO MANY ART PUBLICATIONS, WHAT DO YOU THINK THE “INDUSTRY” NEEDS LESS OF?I can’t even see it as an industry. Sometimes I feel like I’m one of the few people strange enough to want to do this. It’s not the kind of reward that most people desire: the reward of having a space full of books. That’s the only reward. It’s definitely not financial and it’s not particularly glamorous.

BUT YOU STARTED IT WITH THE IDEA OF CREATING A COMMUNITY OUT THERE.Yeah, that’s another reward. Having people around that you admire.

FAVORITE FOODPopcorn.

FAVORITE PLACESpace.

FAVORITE MOMENTMoments in love.

FAVORITE SONG“Down in the Park,” by Gary Numan.

FAVORITE VISUALA pitch dark room.

WERE YOU OR ARE YOU A MEMBER OF THE A/V CLUB?We are now!

ONE HALF OF THE ALT-ART BOOKSHOP FAMILY, DAVID KRAMER HAS BUILT AN INDUSTRY OUT OF THE VERY THING LEAST LIKELY THESE DAYS TO BRING IN BUSINESS. NOT ONLY A BOOKSELLER, FAMILY HAS BECOME INSTRUMENTAL IN FOSTERING L.A.’S

CREATIVE COMMUNITY THROUGH EXHIBITIONS AND POP-UPS, LIKE THE ONE LAUNCHING AT MOCA. IT WILL FEATURE HARD TO FIND ARTIST PUBLICATIONS, ZINES, AND OTHER EDITIONS.

J. Patrick Walsh III, “wall detail”

15CURATED BY MIKE D

COLLABORATORS JONAH FREEMAN AND JUSTIN LOWE EXPLORE CULTURAL AND PERSONAL COMPLEXITIES AND SOCIAL RELATIONS IN THEIR ELABORATE INSTALLATIONS, A RESULT OF A UNIQUELY LABORIOUS PROCESS. ISSUES CENTRAL TO THEIR WORK INCLUDE ALCHEMY IN A MODERN CONTEXT, THE ASCENT AND DESCENT OF SOCIETAL INSTITUTIONS, CONSUMERISM, PSYCHOSIS AND MEDIA SATURATION. THE INVESTIGATION OF THESE IDEAS RESULT IN A SPATIAL COLLAGE THAT EXTENDS ITSELF INTO THE ROOM, OR IN THIS CASE INTO THE IMAGERY HERE, WHICH ARE VISUAL EXCERPTS FROM THE ZINE ARTICHOKE UNDERGROUND, PRODUCED ESPECIALLY FOR TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB.

Justin + Jonah:

FAVORITE FOOD Anything animal style/fantasy food.

FAVORITE PLACE Laurel Canyon/Hell’s Kitchen/the bar in Star Wars.

FAVORITE MOMENT Miller time/nap time/I’m going on break.

FAVORITE SONG “Revolution blues” by Neil Young.

FAVORITE VISUALCrystal Voyager, The Echoes chapter/ the face melting sequence in Indiana Jones/werewolf transformation scene/Boo diamond on the beach.

“Artichoke Underground Newspaper,” 2010

MIKE D - IT HAS BEEN HARD WORK AND LONG HOURS SO

I WANT TO MAKE SURE TO THANK:

Everyone who built or helped us build this thing

My team: Rob Mckinley, Paula Rodriguez, Joe T and the make it happen video crew

Meghan Coleman

Shelby, Marcy and the Fresh and Clean crew

Rob and Don from WMA

JC, Silva, Jen, Jerome, Fleshli and the whole SAM crew

Jeffrey Deitch

Ben, Jasmine, Melanie and all the make it happen folks at MB

Sven and Andy up in the Avant Garde Diaries head space

All the HL peeps

The coffee at Café Dolce

My peeps at Juice Press and Sunlife keeping me juiced!

All the artists taking part without whom there would be no show

To all the music in the world that serves as an endless source of art of all kind