TRANSMISSION LA: AV CLUB

MIKE MILLS PAGE 06 PUBLIC FICTION PAGE 14

BEN JONES PAGE 08

JUSTIN LOWE + JONAH FREEMAN PAGE 15 SAGE VAUGHN PAGE 11

CORY ARCANGEL PAGE 13

WILL FOWLER PAGE 13

JIM DRAIN + ARA PETERSON PAGE 09

ROBERT MCKINLEY PAGE 06

TOM SACHS PAGE 10

PETER COFFIN PAGE 05

WILL FOWLER PAGE 13

SANFORD BIGGERS PAGE 12 FAMILY BOOKSTORE PAGE 14

TAKESHI MURATA PAGE 10

IN THE COURTYARD:

ROY CHOI PAGE 07

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

TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB THE GEFFEN CONTEMPORARY AT MOCA

2

April 20th—May 6th, 2012

TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB

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

WEB: AVANTEGARDEDIARIES.COM FACEBOOK: FACEBOOK.COM/THEAVANTGARDEDIARIES INSTAGRAM: TRANSMISSIONLA_AVCLUB TWITTER: TWITTER.COM/AVGD_DIARIES Publication: Editorial by Yasha Wallin / www.yashawallin.com Design by Emily Anderson / www.littleenglishgenius.com

WORK HARD. PLAY HARD. EVERYTHING AT 11.

“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 multimedia 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 allencompassing 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.

CURATED BY MIKE D

3

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

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.

FAVORITE FOOD Milk Duds in popcorn

FAVORITE PLACE The Blue Lagoon, Portland, Jamaica

FAVORITE MOMENT

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.

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

FAVORITE SONG “Still Ill” by The Smiths

FAVORITE VISUAL My 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.

photo by Sean Thomas

4

TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB

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.

FAVORITE FOOD Ants on a log.

FAVORITE PLACE A tree house.

FAVORITE MOMENT A 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.

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

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.

Untitled (Donut, Bagel Hopf Link) 2010 Gold plated bronze 7 x 4 x 4 inches Untitled (Lines) 2011 Neon Dimensions variable Untitled (Xerox copy)

CURATED BY MIKE D

5

“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.

FAVORITE FOOD I’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 PLACE The Sierra Nevada mountains, The Pompidou, book stores, my bedroom.

FAVORITE MOMENT When 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 VISUAL Grids, 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?

1979 Poster 4 color print on paper 30 x 40 inches

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.

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.

6

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...

TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB

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.

FAVORITE FOOD

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

The ocean.

PASTA!!!

FAVORITE PLACE New York.

FAVORITE MOMENT I 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 VISUAL

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.

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 HALLINSPIRED OUTDOOR LUNCH AND DINNER EXPERIENCE SERVED WITH A SIDE OF “STRAIGHT GANGSTER LOVE.“

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

SERVICE À LA RUSSE

FAVORITE FOOD Kimchi jiggae.

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

FAVORITE PLACE

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.

Olympic Boulevard, Koreatown.

FAVORITE MOMENT Birth of my daughter.

FAVORITE SONG The whole Public Enemy album It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.

FAVORITE VISUAL Pussy.

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

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.

Sketches for coffee bar installation

CURATED BY MIKE D

7

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.

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

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

FAVORITE PLACE Greece.

FAVORITE MOMENT Getting rim the first time

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

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.”

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

My girlfriend.

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

Ben Jones and John Pham Roadtrip, 2012 Video Installation Dimensions Variable Part 1. Tunnel Part 2. Journey

McDonald’s Judd Table Design For Family Bookstore.

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.”

8

TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB

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 MULTILAYERED INSTALLATION OF SPINNING PINWHEELS, PARTLY INSPIRED BY THE “HYPNAGOGIC STATE,” THAT BLISSFUL MOMENT BETWEEN BEING AWAKE AND DREAMING.

JIM: FAVORITE FOOD Pasta primavera.

FAVORITE PLACE When I was a fetus.

FAVORITE MOMENT Being born.

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.

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.

[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.

ARA: FAVORITE FOOD Scarfing material.

FAVORITE PLACE Near the ocean.

FAVORITE MOMENT Coming through the tube.

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

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.

FAVORITE VISUAL Liquid light.

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

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

WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU NEED LESS OF? Capitalism.

Still from “Alsatian Darn” Directed by Ara Peterson Video by Dave Fischer and Ara Peterson Music by Panda Bear 2010

CURATED BY MIKE D

9

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.”

100 Killer Dub Plates as played by Jah Shaka_, 2009 Synthetic polymer paint on canvas 51 x 57 x inches

FAVORITE FOOD Soba.

FAVORITE PLACE Point Dume on a Monday afternoon.

FAVORITE MOMENT Birth of baby Frances.

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.

FAVORITE SONG This month: “I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight” by Richard and Linda Thompson.

FAVORITE VISUAL Often made by Pat O’Neill.

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

10

TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB

Cyborg, 2011 Pigment Print 28 x 42 inches 2AP, Edition 3/3

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.

FAVORITE PLACE Home.

FAVORITE MOMENT TBD.

FAVORITE SONG “Red Headed Stranger” [Willie Nelson].

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

Some one searched for Tranquility they found it and quickly became board and left - Anthony Anzalone

I, Popeye, 2010 single channel video 6 mintues 2AP, Edition 5/5 Jazz Funeral, 2011 Pigment Print 23.2 x 32 inches 2AP, Edition 3/3 Expanded Cinema, 2011 Pigment Print 27.43 x 42 inches 2AP, Edition 3/3

CURATED BY MIKE D

11

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 FOOD Anything my mom makes.

FAVORITE PLACE Kyoto in the summer and fall, Salvador do Bahia in our winter.

FAVORITE MOMENT Daybreak on an empty beach.

FAVORITE SONG Too many to pick one. “Pop Life,” “Irresistible Bitch,” (both

by Prince), “One Mo ‘Gin” D’angelo.

FAVORITE VISUAL The fairer sex.

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

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 Cartographer’s Conundrum) – 2 Channel HD video, sound element. trt 16min.

12

TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB

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.

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.

FAVORITE FOOD Soup?

FAVORITE PLACE Soup.

FAVORITE MOMENT Dropping 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 VISUAL Sun in a glass of water.

4/10

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

4/11 parasitic, falling forward

I was not in A/V club, I was in art club. We painted a D&D mural in the cafeteria.

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

Clock #1, 2011 Acrylic on canvas 66 x 60 x 1.5 inches Collection of David Kordansky and Mindy Shapero, Los Angeles, CA Folded Chariot, 2011 Acrylic on canvas 54 x 78 x 1.5 inches

recorded messages.

5/7 “wall” as a verb

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?

aJEjduT2QZA,9212002,47010 2COuDGUX-cU,1042375,41410 9ATv4DSkKZs,410507,45511 r-cmz6-MgHw,655761,45688 HwmtFQoGrfk,270114,18125 SF4JC5DdN3E,4362660,24916 r-cmz6-MgHw,472746,43704 95wb8pW9EaY,295257,43923 SL9FE0cWThQ,724593,51862 9ATv4DSkKZs,618835,57374 wK8GE4ZZQiA,1286644,44541 V2GkSR-Tc4E,532187,20021 QM0hNBftUDs,2562392,20859 WWkE2i-6ekI,874082,25446 vuO0xYdyMO4,94572,17949 TAfEj43gI5U,521377,14773 66FF3JN_9PE,1025802,15876 WWkE2i-6ekI,2825507,14642 SL9FE0cWThQ,1038144,38455 QvZIFUgd9iY,674173,13627 M_SaeCYglqQ,1042379,21697 Ehl1lpSxPnw,4205879,21036 fLOYZpQoSCo,1724375,18301 aJEjduT2QZA,9955087,16493 mtxlyXRGWvw,4303397,19493 66FF3JN_9PE,487782,25269 aJEjduT2QZA,4592527,34001 scwRUGgv9Jw,2337823,27607 UDtidPbpWG4,10791329,33251 66FF3JN_9PE,742062,19536 ZqTnGQit7nA,1186857,17685 F6ZxE63Hb1o,3419740,36647 HwmtFQoGrfk,387729,28268 WWkE2i-6ekI,874082,22579 vuO0xYdyMO4,94572,17728 TAfEj43gI5U,521377,19492 66FF3JN_9PE,1025802,28092 yuMeEDfzz5k,679800,42689 aJEjduT2QZA,10365217,54331 9T6zVQzmSsI,162870,45203 r-cmz6-MgHw,313986,42644 scwRUGgv9Jw,2329180,51862 6stIerPNNic,238128,51861 aJEjduT2QZA,8089657,62270 9ATv4DSkKZs,399482,63460

3r8NTt7RYzQ,5773327,64077 QvZIFUgd9iY,674173,60770 wK8GE4ZZQiA,1286644,44056 TvuAzIUnGtg,745908,62357 yb2NiCv3Xd0,7777,48334 3r8NTt7RYzQ,238777,22887 3r8NTt7RYzQ,3325777,20772 nmqXM51Ey9M,2458051,50406 xqxr5TYIqgQ,746783,34751 UDtidPbpWG4,14568494,49348 QvZIFUgd9iY,250416,140326 HM-1VzJUejw,683880,82996 Z9BTkX00HeY,488302,60461 8OTADd1THKU,316871,33207 66FF3JN_9PE,1755657,29812 HM-1VzJUejw,2551735,106457 SF4JC5DdN3E,3745877,41719 6stIerPNNic,253166,45952 vuO0xYdyMO4,94219,56933 QvZIFUgd9iY,595189,125288 45YA4KefHVM,1464890,20463 GGFJiNTFWEg,226240,72368 Hdqhprr03bY,1246355,77484 UDtidPbpWG4,14565054,83437 SF4JC5DdN3E,3753506,43438 LqBpEnlAcZo,15037,155805 QM0hNBftUDs,2562392,27475 8yQTF3EUKuo,1177851,25005 scwRUGgv9Jw,2203495,31752 0ywiSuCDiOM,42018,49391 9ATv4DSkKZs,187802,68973 0G2dd2nNixE,1223349,26548 BgF56KQ8ldU,404611,32281 9FMvf9lyiBA,1103394,54376 SL9FE0cWThQ,1062443,26504 PlME0VQDRuo,3229442,57991 scwRUGgv9Jw,2315950,57463 neZNdOnf7RY,214503,47804 BgF56KQ8ldU,545908,26813 ngy0PCtNd0k,100077,30208 BgF56KQ8ldU,402803,34354 fLOYZpQoSCo,3457505,60549 Ehl1lpSxPnw,3859694,78102 UDtidPbpWG4,12641324,71397 yuMeEDfzz5k,688576,29592

cttKu6xQSzg,302455,36911 UDtidPbpWG4,9192704,47893 66FF3JN_9PE,447783,90317 scwRUGgv9Jw,2026874,67737 mtxlyXRGWvw,122718,28798 DOebEX8PukU,993057,41983 SL9FE0cWThQ,563583,61299 Zg6yqtq3FVE,67793,41807 fLOYZpQoSCo,1455982,25622 8wG4gGW8pAs,871399,16714 45YA4KefHVM,752631,29988 BKtdYzHyx6M,2487204,74881 Zg6yqtq3FVE,2478343,28092 45YA4KefHVM,206056,192188 3r8NTt7RYzQ,4254081,87186 JsQds6T-JUo,712696,114174 45YA4KefHVM,2641611,60109 Bf9Xi4iqeL0,104152,170843 HM-1VzJUejw,2550809,84849 M_SaeCYglqQ,1245239,50715 yb2NiCv3Xd0,2362717,63945 1n8vybiPn0I,139199,17507 nmqXM51Ey9M,1878224,39823 yb2NiCv3Xd0,991383,52699 Ehl1lpSxPnw,4579935,44321 fLOYZpQoSCo,2662778,30870 yb2NiCv3Xd0,2372154,39690 45YA4KefHVM,788882,13230 -gzV983BqNE,667564,37529 DwX_Wih97WA,7933468,24122 fLOYZpQoSCo,1715643,26504 XyuXvWouDEk,288473,41940 ryyvfjMHRGg,1429317,17640 yb2NiCv3Xd0,2252467,26460 a5M515QZMYM,943534,59535 BKtdYzHyx6M,2488395,20418 qP9PAF_7HAI,1244880,14950 SL9FE0cWThQ,380524,42733 BKtdYzHyx6M,1787293,27739 a5M515QZMYM,397223,86039 45YA4KefHVM,738563,39381 OgmXR7k_ _WU,1217797,50627 qP9PAF_7HAI,1300049,79733 6stIerPNNic,1221557,50714 DwX_Wih97WA,2616596,81586

CURATED BY MIKE D

13

FAVORITE FOOD Popcorn.

FAVORITE PLACE Space.

FAVORITE MOMENT Moments in love.

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

FAVORITE VISUAL A pitch dark room.

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

J. Patrick Walsh III, “wall detail”

FAVORITE FOOD Mint Cliff bar.

FAVORITE PLACE Internet.

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.

FAVORITE MOMENT Sleeping.

FAVORITE SONG

WHERE ARE YOU FROM? Australia.

“Egg Raid on Mojo.”

FAVORITE VISUAL Backs of eyelids.

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

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.

14

TRANSMISSION LA : AV CLUB

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.

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

“Artichoke Underground Newspaper,” 2010

CURATED BY MIKE D

15

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 CafĂŠ 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