Arts & Culture

MONA’s new “Brain Without Organs” exhibition explores the ways in which the brain can be sculpted by both biological and cultural influences.

Warren Neidich, the visionary behind “Brain Without Organs,” has combined neurological and aesthetic approaches to further understand humanity’s evolving relationship with information technologies. MONA presents Warren Neidich’s ‘Brain Without Organs’

By Luke Netzley Pasadena Weekly Deputy Editor

As one of the oldest artist-led and -founded museums in the country, Glendale’s Museum of Neon Art has stood as an eclectic and kinetic destination for light-based artworks and historic signage since 1981.

On April 16, the museum hosted the world premiere of Warren Neidich’s “The Brain Without Organs: An Aporia of Care,” investigating the way the human brain acts as both a biologically and socially constructed organ.

“Warren has been working with neon for several years, but his attitude towards it is highly conceptual and brings together a lot of questions about where we are today as a society and how culture is rewiring the brain,” MONA Executive Director Corrie Siegel said. “I think it’s an interesting way of pondering some really big ideas and bringing people into this immersive environment where you’ll be surrounded by this exploded brain and can think about yourself but also feel these conceptual questions.”

In 1996, Neidich co-founded Artbrain.org and “Journal of Neuroaesthetics” and trained as a scientist with Roger Sperry at Caltech before attending medical school. During his studies, Neidich took an intense interest in both photography and neuroscience.

As an artist for more than 35 years, Neidich has looked to combine his background in neuroscience with a distinct creative flair to explore and question the evolving networks of control, surveillance and information prevalent around the world today and how they are redefining and reshaping systems of the brain.

“The reason I’m working with MONA is that in the last five years neon has become the material of my artwork,” Neidich explained.

The exhibition will run until Sept. 25 and will feature two large neon installations as well as a series of blacklight-activated paintings by Neidich himself using light and immersive installations to consider philosophical and conceptual questions around information, capitalism and the evolution of the brain.

“The core message is that the brain is a malleable and changeable entity, what I call the becoming brain,” Neidich said. “It’s not something that’s crystallized and deterministic. It’s something that’s open and that gives a tremendous amount of power to the human being.”

The hanging sculpture “Brain Without Organs” is composed of constellations of levitating branches glowing in white neon tubing. These marks represent the grooves and folds on the outer layer of the brain that serve as mapping devices for scientists to delineate areas of the organ. Rather than forming an anatomically accurate image of the brain, the fissures create an amorphous form which is reflected and distorted by its surroundings.

“‘The Brain Without Organs’ means that the brain is not organized in a set pattern but that it’s capable of change,” Neidich said. “This piece is really about how we can make a brain that understands our ecosystem, relishes it and respects it, that doesn’t want to consume it and use it for our own devices. This is the first piece in which I’ve been experimenting with those ideas.”

The second neon installation is called “Einstein’s Brain” and stands as a wall-mounted sculpture of branching white and red neon shapes that represent the folds in a section of Einstein’s cerebral cortex.

One aspect in the story of Einstein’s brain that piqued Neidich’s interest was the fact that his brain was once stolen from the pathology laboratory at Princeton during autopsy and carried on a journey to Lawrence, Kansas, where it was stored in a basement.

“Warren takes this idea of Einstein’s brain and uses it as a material for his art making, so it’s an abstracted image of the brain, and in abstracting this image of the folds, which are usually dark, he uses neon and makes them bright and expands the space of this map of the brain,” Siegel said. “It’s very abstracted and speaks to all the questions and considerations of when you map anything, because the map itself can be both a tool for discovery and study.”

Before it was stolen, there were photographs taken of Einstein’s brain and it had been examined to reveal what most experts believe are anomalies in his cerebral cortex that distinguish it from typical human brains. In the exhibition, these unique folds are delineated by red neon tubing.

By highlighting the neurodivergence of one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, Neidich’s installation raises the suggestion that neurodiversity is a generator of possibility, rather than limitations.

“Mapping the brain through abstraction can be a liberatory tool, a way of seeing these pieces of flesh that control our bodies as these things that are actually quite expansive, mysterious and ever-changing,” Siegel said. “What Warren puts forth in a lot of his work is that, with the expansion of digital technology and the way that we’re changing our thinking according to algorithms and Instagram, there’s the path of ability to seeing a way out or seeing new possibilities through art and through abstraction.”

Further into the exhibition, there’s a small room filled with black light and paintings that illustrate the brain both anatomically and abstractly. The folds of the brain branch into emojis, text and symbolism mean to reflect the social and political nature of a world where material labor has been replaced by immaterial labor. The fluorescent marks are reminiscent of diagrams, psychedelic paintings and text threads.

“The ‘becoming brain’ is insinuated in an ecosystem of relations,” Neidich explained. “We have to change our idea of the brain to understand it in its ecological sense, its deep ecology.”

A central theme to Neidich’s exhibition is the idea that the ecosystem that surrounds a human being impacts the architecture of their brain, including the technology that people use. He argues that there must be new technologies that seek to understand the relationship between the sculpture of the brain and the environment that surrounds it.

“It’s been an exciting way of looking at our gallery, transforming it and seeing new possibilities,” Siegel said. “That’s been a really fun aspect of working with Warren, because he brings a totally different perspective to our space.”

Visitors to the Museum of Neon Art will be able to view “Brain Without Organs” as well as MONA’s rotating permanent collection of signage and fine art, the Electric Lab where MONA teaches classes and restores signs, as well as the newly opened outdoor exhibition space, the Sign Garden. Groups of 10 or more can request a docent at least two weeks prior to the day of the visit.

“The Brain Without Organs: An Aporia of Care” WHERE: Museum of Neon Art, 216 S. Brand Boulevard, Glendale WHEN: April 16 to Sept. 25

COST: $10 for general admission. $8 for seniors over 65 years old. $5 for Glendale residents with ID. Free for MONA Members, veterans with ID and children 12 and under accompanied by an adult. INFO: neonmona.org

Caroline Patterson Music Center recognizes talent of 4 Pasadena students

By Bridgette M. Redman Pasadena Weekly Contributing Writer

Pasadena is home to four young vocalists who are ready to take the music world by storm.

They were honored by The Music Center in its 34th Spotlight Competition. It recognizes the top high school performers throughout Southern California with 100 semifinalists going into the final round.

Students Tiffany Hsu, Lily Keating, Ryan Liddy and Caroline Patterson made it to the semifinal rounds in the categories of nonclassical voice and classical voice. They all participated in a master class with top artists in their category and are now competing for scholarships in the finalist rounds.

Tiffany Hsu

Hsu was 6 years old when she discovered her future occupation.

Her family took a trip to Beijing and saw a Chinese opera.

“I was seeing the face masks that they traditionally use for these shows,” Hsu said. “The whole time I was really amused and amazed by how beautiful the art was. Everyone else was bored except for me.”

Two years later, she found a teacher in Los Angeles to introduce her to Chinese opera, and at age 10, she added classical opera to her repertoire.

A 14-year-old student at Mayfield Senior School of the Holy Child Jesus, the ninth grader studies at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music under Marine Ter-Kazaryan. She’s sung at Carnegie Hall, won three platinum awards in the 2020 American Protégé competition, and took gold for the 2021 World Championships of Performing Arts.

While she’s competed nationally, she has high praise for the Spotlight Competition and the opportunities and development it has offered.

“It’s a process of learning, not really competing,” Hsu said. “I’ve been at the Music Center for many shows, and I thought that Spotlight would be very professional. It really is — especially the master class. That really opened my eyes.”

Her master class had 12 semifinalists, and she said the teacher gave them fun warmups and encouraged them to learn from each other, instead of seeing them as competition.

“We should be kind to everyone and listen to different voices and feel their emotions,” Hsu said. “We should include diversity in what we do and in our pieces that we chose. I was much more informed about how I could improve and felt very motivated.”

Lily Keating

A senior at Pasadena’s Polytechnic School, Keating has performed multiple times with the LA Opera as a member of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus.

Also a student of Ter-Kazaryan, she performed in Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass,” conducted by Gustavo Dudamel; “Hansel and Gretel” with the LA Opera; and “Happier than Ever: Goldwing” with Billie Eilish, Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic.

She grew up singing classical music and is focusing on learning arias and doing solo performances.

“I really like diving into the pieces and imagining situations that are similar to what the song is trying to convey,” Keating said. “If there is a sad song, I think of a sad memory or experience I’ve had and try to make the piece as personal as possible. I find joy in being able to connect with the actual composer of the piece 100 years after they’ve written it.”

Keating, 18, is a semifinalist in the classical voice category. Her interest in the Spotlight program was sparked who won for harp during her freshman year. She hadn’t competed previously, but when COVID-19 came along, she thought Spotlight would allow her to show off her artistic talents.

She auditioned last year and didn’t make it, but she said everyone was so nice, comforting and encouraging that she tried again.

“Being able to have this experience in this music competition world is very exciting,” Keating said. “It’s just an amazing experience to have.”

She is still deciding what she is going to do as a career, but she knows that she wants music to be in her life.

She knows many of her peers have competed before, but she still decided to enter.

“Don’t be scared to put yourself out there, even if you don’t have much experience,” Keating said. “It doesn’t hurt to try and start.”

Ryan Liddy

Liddy started playing jazz piano when he was 4, and he’s been making music since then.

He performed in the elementary school choir, as well as musicals at Loyola High School of Los Angeles and at Theater 360 in Pasadena.

An LA Children’s Choir member, he has spent seven years performing in such works as the LA Opera’s productions of “Carmen” and “Tosca,” and with the LA Philharmonic in “Carmina Burana,” “Missa Solemnis” and “A Trip to the Moon.”

Also a student of Ter-Kazaryan, he is competing as a baritone in the classical music category. He credits Ter-Kazaryan with exposing him to classical voice and opera.

He was surprised when he found out he knows six semifinalists. His best friend since kindergarten went to a different high school, and they haven’t seen much of each other but both were in the same master class. Others he recognized from the LA Children’s Choir or as fellow students of Ter-Kazaryan.

Now a junior, he’s enjoyed performing in musicals. He’s currently cast as the lion in his high school’s production of “The Wizard of Oz.” He was also the crab in the pre-Broadway production of “Moana Jr.” Years ago, he was the younger brother in “Bye Bye Birdie,” and he would love to someday play Conrad Birdie.

He also loves the challenge that comes from singing opera.

“Opera is just different from any other type of music,” Liddy said.

“The amount of endurance and work and thinking that it takes is not comparable to any other type of singing or instrument playing. You’re constantly thinking about not just proper pronunciation of lyrics and being artistic with the music but your technique and support and resonance. There are a lot of things going on at once. That is what I like about it. It becomes muscle memory, and you can hone those specific skills.”

He said he had a great time in the master class, which was led by the mezzo-soprano Suzzana Guzmán, an opera singer well known for her role as Carmen.

“It was really amazing,” Liddy said. “It helped my technique a lot. It helped with how to present yourself in an audition, how to speak to the judges, how to take the right amount of time and introduce yourself correctly. It was also nice to meet the other semifinalists and just have so much talent in that one room was pretty amazing.”

Caroline Patterson

Patterson’s theatrical role model is her older brother, who alerted her about opportunities.

“I kind of grew up around it,” Patterson said. “My brother did a lot of musical theater and went to college for it as well. I can’t remember a time I wasn’t seeing shows he was in or with my family. It seemed natural when I was 7 or 8 to start doing children’s theater in Pasadena.”

Now a 17-year-old senior at Polytechnic High School in Pasadena, she is planning to major in music at the University of Michigan next fall.

This is her fourth time competing in the Spotlight program, and she is a finalist in nonclassical voice. Music has been a priority early on.

“From the second I started doing it, it was my highest priority,” Patterson said. “I kind of realized that was where I fit the best and it was the community I found in theater that I hadn’t really found in other places.”

Her audition pieces for Spotlight were Stephen Sondheim’s “Move On” from “Sunday in the Park with George” and “I Found a New Baby” from “Bullets Over Broadway.”

Her brother was also a semifinalist in the program years ago, and she remembers when she was 8 or 9 observing the master class and watching him perform.

“All the semifinalists seemed so individually passionate,” Patterson said. “Everyone was so eager to improve and so supportive, which when you hear the word competition isn’t necessarily something that comes to mind. It’s just such a healthy environment.”

One of Patterson’s favorite parts as been the titular role in “The Drowsy Chaperone,” something she said she likes because of the jazzy classical musical theater style. She’s also performed such roles as Judy in “Ruthless,” Winnifred in “Once Upon a Mattress,” Dolores in “Working: The Musical,” Chava in “Fiddler on the Roof,” and Pamela in “Head Over Heels.”

She performed the role of Chaperone while she was at Michigan’s Interlochen music camp. The camp and her voice teacher were inspiring.

Patterson had reservations about the master class because she knew Zoom can be a tough when singing, but the teacher made everyone feel comfortable.

“I had an unexpected emotional reaction to the whole situation,” Patterson said. “He gave me a note to be more specific about who I was talking to. He gave me a scenario that really resonated with me — I had a good cry.”

Next steps

The Spotlight program is committed to providing not just money for the winners but a supportive environment.

“Despite the limitations we all faced during the pandemic, The Music Center’s Spotlight persevered,” said Jeri Gaile, the Fredric Roberts director of the Spotlight program.

“We were fortunate to be able to continue the program as a completely free competition and the results are simply spectacular, with so many young people from all across the Southland applying and inspiring us with their enthusiasm, talent and passion for the arts. While Spotlight is very much a competition, we also focus on developing each student’s artistic skills and nurturing their growth.

“Our goal is to support each applicant in every way possible, be that providing detailed notes from a judge on how to better their performance or showing them alternative careers in the arts beyond the stage.”

In each master class, leading artists in the field provide feedback to students on their performances. Semifinalists then audition again before a new panel of judges, who select the top two finalists in each category for a total of 14 grand prize finalists. There will also be an honorable mention in each category.

The finalists will perform at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 15, at the Music Center. Semifinalists each receive $300, and finalists receive $5,000 scholarships, with honorable mention winners earning $1,000.

Ryan Liddy