Los Angeles, I love you

I have been back in L.A for just over one week now and gosh, it is very stimulating! In contrast to San Francisco, logic was something that was clearly not a concern at the town planning meeting. I have seen many interesting people, buildings, art, roads, dead spaces, living zones... all of which are jostling for position and often find themselves on top of one another. It seems at this stage there is no end to what L.A has to offer. One art highlight I would like to mention was the Abraham Cruzvillegas show at REDCAT, the gallery that CalArts founded. The NZ3 went to the opening event for Autoconstrucción: The Film.
http://www.redcat.org/exhibition/abraham-cruzvillegas
With regards to composition and narrative structure, there was an amazing similarity between Cruzvillegas' film and 'Work And Not Work', the film I made at the end of last year. Every shot was stationary, making a composition out of the architecture of his home town, arranged into long sequences detailing the ram shackle houses and improvised structures that were born out of necessity. One might think of them as 'proof of existence'. These passages were interspersed with quite explicit sex scenes, very abruptly dropped into the narrative to provide a dramatically private counterpoint to the exterior surveys, though they were filmed with the same observational distance. Cruzvillegas gave a talk which I found to be very invigorating. I asked two questions that received a thoughtful reply (though my accent sliced through the air with startling inelegance). Fiona and I managed to talk with him afterward and he was very open to conversation. It's so great when you have those experiences where you recognise that you are relating to someone or some idea, that it is resonating with you. That's truth really. About as true as life gets maybe. It's reassuring also, like, yes, I know that this makes sense to me.

Another highlight was the Downtown Artwalk, where numerous galleries or temporary installations open up late into the evening and hundreds of people roam the streets, taking in the art, music and markets. I didn't see many art works that I related to, but the bustling atmosphere and myriad styles of fashion were fascinating. This was especially interesting after considering the current gentrification of the area, which is turning previously derelict buildings into 'stylish' loft apartments. On the way there we ate delicious tacos from a low-fi stand that was operating in a carpark. One of the staff members thought my pronunciation of 'pollo' was quite funny and suggested I simply say 'chicken'



Today is the first day of classes so I guess my holiday is over. I am quite settled now, though I need to buy a blanket for my bed and perhaps a pot plant, as my room currently feels like an abandoned storage cupboard in a primary school. I also need to buy a car and a mobile so that I can be more independent. It is important for me to be able to explore the city further in my own slow way so that I can understand my relationship to it better.



One further point I should make is that I don't have any 'art' ideas at the moment, only questions and concerns. For example, I feel like there is some kind of ethical or maybe moral puzzle to navigate as I start to make work here. I am very conscious of the fact that I am a foreigner and I am unsure at the moment how my relationship to the environment will develop, since I am bound by this condition. So what does it mean for me to film what I see here? Will the work exist as a postcard or travel snap? Or is it possible to gain some kind of solid ground from which to engage? I'm sure that this will resolve itself over time and I am fully prepared to make some bad tourist art along the way. Perhaps there is fertile territory in this idea of dislocation? But I don't really want to make art about me and my isolation.