Chora Projects Blog

Medals of Dishonour Exhibition @ British Museum

2009-05-31T08:26:00.000-07:00

Chora's Felicity Powell -- part of the family behind Crystal Ship -- is the co-curator of, as well as a participating artist in, Medals of Dishonour.

MoD is the title of a forthcoming exhibition scheduled to take place at the British Museum, in London, England, from June 25-September 27, 2009

From the Medals of Dishonour web page:

Medals are best known for celebrating important figures or heroic deeds, but this unique exhibition features medals that condemn their subjects. The display exposes the long and rich tradition of this darker side of medals.

The first part of the exhibition focuses on the Museum’s collection of satirical and political medals from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Subjects range from the sombre and the bizarre to the scatological and the humorous, and the medals will be placed in context through the use of contemporary prints and drawings. Two of US sculptor David Smith's influential Medals for Dishonor of the 1930s (from which the exhibition borrows its title) are included, along with a little-known medal by Marcel Duchamp.

The second part of the exhibition features medals recently commissioned from leading contemporary artists Jake and Dinos Chapman, William Kentridge, Grayson Perry, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Richard Hamilton, Mona Hatoum, Ellen Gallagher, Langlands and Bell, Cornelia Parker, Michael Landy, Yun-Fei Ji, Steve Bell and Felicity Powell.

The subjects they depict are wide-ranging, from the war in Iraq and consumerism to ASBOs and the environment. The new medals have been commissioned by the British Art Medal Trust, a registered charity dedicated to the making and study of medals. The Trust has presented an example of each of the newly commissioned medals to the British Museum for its permanent collection.

Support for the exhibition is provided by Chora.

Chora Prints '08 Participant Sandow Birk To Give Farmlab Public Salon on Friday, April 3, 2009 @ Noon

2009-04-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

Screening of the film, "Dante's Inferno" -- With a discussion with artist, art director, writer, and producer Sandow Birk

About the Salon

The Salon Series today screens the film, "Dante's Inferno."

From the film's website: Melding the seemingly disparate traditions of apocalyptic live-action graphic novel and charming Victoria-era toy theater, Dante’s Inferno is a subversive, darkly satirical update of the original 14th century literary classic. Retold with the use of intricately hand-drawn paper puppets and miniature sets, and without the use of CGI effects, this unusual travelogue takes viewers on a tour of hell. And what we find there, looks a lot like the modern world.

Sporting a hoodie and a hang-over from the previous night’s debauchery, Dante (voiced by Dermot Mulroney) wakes to find he is lost — physically and metaphorically — in a strange part of town. He asks the first guy he sees for some help: The ancient Roman poet Virgil (voiced by James Cromwell), wearing a mullet and what looks like a brown bathrobe. Having no one else to turn to, Dante’s quickly convinced that his only means for survival is to follow Virgil voyage down, down through the depths of Hell.

The pair cross into the underworld and there Virgil shows Dante the underbelly of the Inferno, which closely resembles the decayed landscape of modern urban life. Dante and Virgil’s chronicles are set against a familiar backdrop of used car lots, strip malls, gated communities, airport security checks, and the U.S. Capitol. Here, hot tubs simmer with sinners, and the river Styx is engorged with sewage swimmers.

Also familiar is the contemporary cast of presidents, politicians, popes and pop-culture icons sentenced to eternal suffering of the most cruel and unusual kind: Heads sewn on backwards, bodies wrenched in half, never-ending blowjobs, dancing to techno for eternity, and last, but certainly not least, an inside look at Lucifer himself, from the point of view of a fondue-dunked human appetizer. Each creatively horrific penance suits the crime, and the soul who perpetrated it.

As Dante spirals through the nine circles of hell, he comes to understand the underworld’s merciless machinery of punishment, emerging a new man destined to change the course of his life. But not, of course, the brand of his beer.

About the Salon Presenter

Sandow Birk: Art Director, Writer, Producer
Raised on the beaches of Southern California and currently living and working in Los Angeles, Sandow Birk is a product of California culture. With an emphasis on social issues, frequent themes of his past work have included daily life in L.A.’s barrios, inner city violence, graffiti, various political issues, surfing, and skateboarding. His work has been shown extensively throughout the U.S. He was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996, and a Fulbright Fellow to Rio de Janeiro for 1997. In 1999 he was awarded a Getty Fellowship for painting. Birk’s epic, pseudo-historical series of the “The Great War of the Californias”, in which Los Angeles and San Francisco wage all out war for control of the Golden State, was featured at the Laguna Art Museum in 2000. His latest project, a rewriting (with co-author Marcus Sanders) and illustrating of Dante’s The Divine Comedy set in contemporary urban America has culminated in three books, currently out from Chronicle Books: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. An exhibition of the project was organized by the San Jose Museum of Art in 2005.

Sean Meredith: Director, Writer, Producer, Editor
Born and raised in New Jersey, Sean Meredith studied film at Emerson College in Boston. His senior film won the school’s Evvy Award for Best 16mm Film. After toiling away the years as a vintage dishware expert, he has finished directing his first feature film, “Dante’s Inferno.” He directed and produced the 2003 film “In Smog and Thunder: The Great War of the Californias.” After premiering at Slamdance in 2003, the California Civil War mockumentary went on to play at twenty film festivals. It was released on DVD in 2004 and had it’s broadcast premiere in 2005.

Image courtesy Sandow Birk

Neon Sign, Chora Prints Legacy

2009-03-31T13:43:00.000-07:00

Above: Do Nothing.

By Qingyun Ma, presented to the Metabolic Studio (Farmlab + Chora + AMI).

Installed March, 2009, Under Spring.

See Ma's print that preceded the neon, and was part of Chora Prints 2008: New Political Posters from TJ2LA.

Metabolic Studio FlipVideo

Chora Prints 2008 Exhibition Has Closed(Prints Still Available Via Website)

2009-02-16T19:50:00.000-08:00

The Chora Prints 2008 exhibition at Metabolic Studio, in Los Angeles, has concluded, as of Friday night, February 13, 2009.

Great thanks to everyone who participated in the project, and who came to see the work in-person, both in Los Angeles, and previously, in Tijuana.

Prints remain available for purchase via the www.chora.info website.

And visitors to the Metabolic Studio (Farmlab+Chora+AMI) are welcome to ask any team members for a look inside the print drawers.

Thanks, too to Richard Montoya, of Culture Clash, and to Auntie Sam, our patriotic stilt walker, for selecting the winner last Friday of the Chora Prints 2008 raffle.

Chora Prints 2008 Exhibition Closes FridayThis is Final Week to Enter Raffle to Win Box Suite of Prints

2009-02-09T12:32:00.001-08:00

Metabolic Studio's exhibition of the Chora Prints 2008 project concludes this coming Friday, February 13, 2009.

Also concluding this week: the chance to win a complete handmade box suite of all 22 prints in the project.

The drawing of the winning raffle ticket for the suite will be held Friday morning, February 13, 2009 @ 8am during the Optimists' Breakfast.

Purchase one or more prints prior to that date and time, and you'll be entered in the raffle.

Prints can be purchased this week at the Metabolic Studio (Farmlab + Chora + AMI), located here, or online, by visiting the Chora Prints 2008 website's "purchase" page and following the links.

The raffle winner need not be present Friday morning, as long as the Chora team has your contact information on file to let you know you've won.

Chora Prints 2008 Has Booth At Los Angeles Art Show

2009-01-24T11:50:00.000-08:00

The Chora Prints 2008 project has a booth at this week's Los Angeles Art Show, running through Sunday afternoon, January 25, 2009, at the Convention Center, in downtown Los Angeles.

If you're heading to the show, please stop by and visit the Chora team in the non-profits section, booth number NP-63.

Happy Holidays & New YearChora Open By Appt. Only December 25-January 4

2008-12-24T13:16:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

The Metabolic Studio -- Chora and Farmlab included -- will be open to the public by telephone appointment only** from Wednesday evening, December 24, 2008, through Monday morning, January 5, 2009.

The Chora Prints 2008 installation reopens Jan. 5 @ 10am.

On behalf of everyone here, here's wishing you and yours a great holiday season and a happy new year!

Sincerely,
The Chora Team
323 226 1158

Chora Artists Assemble in Tijuana

2008-12-23T13:47:00.001-08:00

La Casa del Tunel: Art Center held their first neighborhood winter holiday party last Saturday night. Pinatas were struck, champarrado imbibed, and a great baked lasagne and a ham devoured, at Cafe EcoVillage, the scenic CDT rooftop spot.

Five of the artists who participated in Chora Prints 08 were on hand for the bash. Let's go all tabloid here and list our comrades-in-art below in boldface type: Mely Barragan, Daniel Ruanova, Roberto Rosique, Marycarmen Arroyo, and Luis Garzon.

To see their respective artworks, please visit the www.chora.info print gallery.

Chora Prints Exhibition Dark MondayInternational Day Without Art is Dec. 1

2008-11-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

In honor of the upcoming international Day Without Art, the Chora Prints 2008 exhibition at Farmlab / The Studio will be dark on December 1, 2008.

Video Now Posted

2008-11-17T16:24:00.000-08:00

Click here to watch a five-minute film about the Chora Prints 2008 project. The stylish documentary piece was made by Metabolic Studio / Farmlab team members Paolo Davanzo and Lisa Marr.

Action takes places in East Los Angeles, at Self-Help Graphics, and in Tijuana, Mexico, both along the border and at the location of La Casa Del Tunel: Art Center.

Watch the video.

Chora Prints 2008 Opening Reception Photos

2008-11-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

Opening guests

Discussion with the artists

Reception fare: hot dogs and tamales

The very popular sales booth

Chora Prints 2008 EXTENDED

2008-11-03T17:10:00.000-08:00

The exhibition, closed until 11/5/08, will reopen that date and continue through 2/13/08.

We look forward to seeing you M-F 10am-5pm and otherwise by appointment.

- The Chora Team

Updated Announcement Text -- Chora Prints 2008

2008-10-29T17:11:00.000-07:00

Chora Prints 2008

Note: This text has been slightly updated from what's on our Chora Projects homepage.

The Metabolic Studio presents Chora Prints 2008. On the occasion of the run-up to the November 4, 2008 US election, the Studio has encouraged dialogue by enabling two non-profit art institutions to curate original prints from eight artists; the Studio has also invited six. The artists’ prints address key North American political issues, as selected by the artist. Printing took place at the venerable Self Help Graphics in East Los Angeles and at La Casa del Tunel in Tijuana. Chora Prints 2008 was inspired in part by Medals of Dishonour, a Chora project opening in spring 2009 at the British Museum in London.

The Metabolic Studio is an LA River-adjacent Studio for the Annenberg Foundation under the directorship of Lauren Bon, artist and trustee. The Studio’s aim is unity with the laws of metabolism to achieve environmental and cultural sustainability. Chora is a Studio project.

La Casa del Tunel: Art Center is located in Tijuana’s Colonia Federal neighborhood, just meters from the Mexico-U.S. border, in a building that once served as the starting point for a cross-frontier smuggling route.

Self Help Graphics is a nationally recognized center for Latino arts that develops and nurtures artists in printmaking. SHG seeks to advance Latino art broadly through programming exhibitions and outreach to diverse audiences in East Los Angeles and beyond. SHG seeks to identify and engage young and emerging artists from the community in all aspects of its activities.

Chora aims to support the intangibles that precede creativity.

Thanks Everyone + See You Monday

2008-10-25T09:22:00.000-07:00

Great thanks to everyone involved with the Chora Prints 2008 project, and to everyone who attended and participated in last night's opening reception.

The Farmlab gallery will be closed the rest of the weekend. We look forward to welcoming all of you to see the project next Mon-Fri, from 10am-5pm daily, or by appointment.

For more information, including a print gallery, print purchasing information, and photo gallery, please visit the www.chora.info website.

Thank you all again, and everyone soon.

-The Metabolic Studio / Chora / Farmlab team

Artists' Discussion @ 6:30pmFriday, October 24, 2008

2008-10-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

Just decided moments ago:

Prior to the Chora Prints 2008 opening reception, all of the participating project artists are invited to come for an early look at the prints and posters, and to sit around a table, meet each other, and talk about the how / what / where and why?s of their respective work.

The artists don't know this yet -- we'll be inviting them tmrw...

But if you're reading this blog tonight, come join us 6:30pm 10/24/08 and listen in on the dialogue...

(And if you're an artist or friend of one or more of the artists here, please let 'em know.)