Thomas Hirschhorn, Andrew Lord, Lari Pittman @ Regen Projects

Regen Projects
633 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Tel. (310) 276-5424Fax. (310) 276-7430
http://www.regenprojects.com/

Thomas Hirschhorn
Andrew Lord
Lari Pittman
March 7 - April 16, 2009
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Regen Projects is pleased to announce a group exhibition of works by Thomas Hirschhorn, Andrew Lord, and Lari Pittman. This exhibition will feature collages from Thomas Hirschhorn's "Tattoo" series, sculptures from Andrew Lord's "Senses" series, and recent paintings by Lari Pittman.

Thomas Hirschhorn's "Tattoo" series explores the themes of violence, sex, consumerism, and global politics. Photos of airbrushed breasts, tattooed limbs, and blown-up body parts of Iraqi citizens are buried among printed matter cut-outs, cryptic messages, signage, and obsessive blue and red scribbling. Hirschhorn's work summons references to philosophy, popular culture, mass media, economics, and poetry. Layering information and imagery, Hirschhorn wants to express the complexity and contradiction of our fragmented world through work that voices his discontent with contemporary politics and public discourse.

Andrew Lord's "Senses" series utilizes the medium of clay to capture sensation as a physical form. The action of the senses (listening, tasting, smelling, and seeing) are transformed into tactile objects through repeated applications of the artist's ears, teeth, nose, and eyes. Lord has always played with scale, form, and surface to create hand made objects imbued with his own physical being. In bringing together the abstract and the visceral his work has opened up new realms in sculptural possibilities.

Lari Pittman's paintings draw upon personal references, politics, philosophy, and society to create intricate, multi-layered works that synthesize figurate and abstraction. In this recent body of work Pittman explores the tradition of vanitas painting, a still-life painting popular with Northern European painters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The notion of vanitas corresponds to the transience of life and the inevitable passage of time. The saturated and layered use of color alongside bold patterns and forms in these operatic works depict both a celebration of life's impermanence and its infinite possibilities.

For further information please contact Jennifer Loh, Stacy Bengtson, or Heather Harmon at 310-276-5424.

Also on view at Regen Projects II:
(9016 Santa Monica Blvd at North Almont Drive)

Elliott Hundley: Hekabe
March 7 - April 4, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 7, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Upcoming Exhibitions at Regen Projects II:

Manfred Pernice
April 11 - May 16, 2009

Scott McFarland
May 23 - July 3, 2009

REGEN PROJECTS
633 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
t: 310 276 5424
f: 310 276 7430

Music Film Art Culture Los Angeles The Zine Issue 1: Beautiful Americans

Well, I finally finished up the first issue of the Music Film Art Culture Los Angeles Zine which I will distribute anywhere and everywhere for free.

This issue is titled Beautiful Americans as I am feeling very optimistic these days despite growing financial pressures, wars, corruptions of just about everything. I had been going through my collection of books and decided that it would be a great time to create an assemblage of excerpts from a few of my favorites. The one theme that has always remained constant is birth/ creation through death/adversity. Too often, the best music, art, literature, cultural growth springs from the depths of human suffering; I think it would do us all a bit of good to remember that.

Here's a list of those movements and individuals who are included in this issue:

Allen Ginsberg

Aldo Leopold

Robert Thurman

Langston Hughes

American Blues

Arrica Rose

DJ Christine Renee

Gill Scott-Heron

Kenneth Anger

JJ Stratford

Harry Smith

Zora Neale-Hurston

Emma Goldman

Noam Chomsky

Winona LaDuke

Hip Hop

Mexican Americans

Punk Rock

ARP

Disco

If you happen to pick one of these zines up please feel free to leave a comment about it right here.

GOOP: Gwyneth Paltrow's Positively Practical Web Page

I was perusing The Huffington Post this evening where I spotted an article regarding Gwyneth Paltrow's defense of her Web Page GOOP:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/26/gwyneth-paltrow-defends-g_n_170241.html

So of course I had to check GOOP out as I was beginning to think that perhaps she had lost her marbles or something. I was expecting to see frontal nudity or worse!

The first question that came to mind after checking out some good tips on healthy cleansing options, which included easy to make recipes for meals and things like smoothies, was: Why is the media picking on a woman who is taking the time out of her busy schedule to kick down some very practical and positive advice to whomever might be interested? As I perused on I read about things to do internationally, current art exhibitions, good books, advice on clothes, tips on parenting, and my favorite, she asked a group of philosophers from varying religious/philosphical backgrounds this fantastic question:

I have a friend who sees the world in a pessimistic light. This person is highly suspicious of people and situations, and sees, as well as experiences negativity at most turns. Why is this and what does it mean? What can be done to help someone of this nature?

To which, the likes of Deepak Chopra, replied!

And if none of the above shocked the shit out of you...check this out:

You can sign up for the weekly newsletter http://goop.com/

Gwyneth Paltrow is an intelligent woman who seems to pull from various spiritual/philosophical belief systems most of which includes ideas of connectedness, kindness, sharing, being grateful for what one has, and realizing that there are many individuals who may not be as fortunate; she is sharing some of the information that she has amassed over the years and she is doing it with kindness and honesty. So haters need to step off!

Mike Stilkey

Fecal Face has a really great Mike Stilkey interview which includes a lot of photos of Mike's work and his new studio:

http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1428

For information on upcoming exhibitions:

http://www.mikestilkey.com/

Flux Screening Series @ UCLA Hammer Museum

The first Flux Screening Series event of the new year is filled with exciting new films including the World Premiere of the collaborative film project PSST! 3, never-before-seen NASA videos from Logan and Three Legged Legs and the just completed Become a Microscope - 90 Statements on Sister Corita. DJ Josh Marcy (Mophonics) will be rocking the Hammer courtyard.

Program highlights include: World Premiere: PSST! 3, a collaborative new film project featuring shorts by a worldwide network of designers, directors, animators, and composers. PSST! founder and curator Bran Dougherty-Johnson will be in attendance to present the films. PSST! 3 is a brand-new series of 17 original collaborative short films made over the last year by over 175 participants in cities worldwide, including: New York, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Nashville, London, Glasgow, Paris, Vilnius, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin, and Copenhagen. World Premiere: NASA music video A Volta directed by Logan in collaboration with The Date Farmers. World Premiere: NASA music video Gifted featuring Kayne West, Santogold and Lykke Li, directed by Three Legged Legs. special screening of Become a Microscope - 90 Statements on Sister Corita: an innovative new short film from Beautiful Losers director Aaron Rose with music by Money Mark. The 22 minute film tells the story of Sister Mary Corita, the California nun who captured the national imagination in the turbulent 60s by making art that influenced a generation of Americans. Flux Screening Series Wednesday February 25th 7PM - Box Office opens and Pre-screening Reception. Hammer Cafe and Bar will be open. 8PM - Screening and Filmmaker Presentations 9:30PM-11PM - After-party with guest DJs. Hammer Cafe and Bar will be open. Free Admission, RSVP Suggested (flux.net/rsvp) Hammer Museum Billy Wilder Theater 10899 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90024 *Seating is first come, first served. RSVPs do not guarantee seating. Box office opens at 7PM. The new HAMMER CAFE will be selling food and drinks all night.

Memo to Obama Transition Team: Home-Run Policies for Small Business

Now that the street cleaners have finally swept up the signs, flags, confetti and other debris left by the millions who came for the inaugural last week, we can finally return to the critical issues of policy. I'm pleased to report that the Obama Transition Team asked us to join their teams working on sustainable business and socially responsible investment. What will become of our recommendations, I don't know, but the fact we were invited to share our view – and that key policymakers in the administration were listening – represented a huge sea-change.

Below is the memo we submitted, incorporating many of the points you've seen on this blog over the past six months. We welcome your input. Let us know what you think, and what else you would add to this wish list.

***
A credible "jolt" for the U.S. economy requires, first and foremost, boosting small businesses. Small businesses make up roughly half the private economy and create 60-80 percent of all new jobs.

Moreover, the locally owned character of nearly all small businesses makes them better contributors to community and economic development than most large businesses are. Because locally owned businesses spend substantially more money locally, they typically generate two to four times the economic multiplier benefit for their communities as do nonlocal businesses. A growing literature shows that local businesses are also more reliable promoters of tourism, social equality, entrepreneurship, carbon-dioxide reductions, political participation, and "creative economy" benefits.

Given this, we recommend that the Obama Administration appoint a blue ribbon commission charged with identifying public policy obstacles to the expansion of local and small business, and laying out new, low-cost opportunities for the federal government to expand local business. Here are some of the low-hanging-fruit possibilities we believe such a commission would highlight.

* Balance Federal Support for Small Business – We believe there is a need to overhaul a wide range of programs giving grants, loans, loan guarantees, tax breaks, and other special benefits to business, since nearly all these programs are tilted toward larger business, and thereby place small business at a competitive disadvantage. It should be a high priority of the Obama Administration to end federal subsidies that favor centralized electrical generation stations over micropower and efficiency, centralized fossil fuels over decentralized renewables, factory over family farms, large-scale manufacturing over microbusiness. The tilt of the current and proposed stimulus programs, including those labeled "Green," ought to be reset accordingly. For example, at least half of all funds given to troubled financial institutions should go to small community banks and credit unions.

* Revise Subsidy Procedures – For business subsidies that remain, uniform procedures should be developed to make these programs more accountable and ensure local businesses have a fair shot at competing for them. These rules should also include: a) uniform, web-based public disclosure requirements that indicate how much beneficiary companies received, how many jobs were produced for how many years, and b) clawback provisions for companies that fail to fulfill their promises. (A full elaboration of these ideas is at the Good Jobs First website.)

* Enact Securities Reform – While there is a clear need for greater regulatory oversight of large-scale financial institutions, there is actually a need for less oversight of smaller ones. For these smaller institutions, the existing regulatory regime has essentially wiped out small-business stock issues. We recommend the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) consider excluding from regulation all small securities (<$100) that link unaccredited investors with microbusinesses and all intrastate stock exchanges that trade such securities. This would enormously boost the availability of local capital to start and expand local businesses with the greatest economic development potential. It will also free up SEC resources to focus on bigger institutions like hedge funds that have been under regulated. Additional reforms should make it easier for cooperatives, mutual funds, and retirement funds to invest in microbusiness. To speed these reforms, one home-run policy to implement is a tax credit for any individual investment in microbusiness. Your campaign policy papers argued for a 20 percent credit for investments up to $50,000 in rural microbusinesses, and we encourage you to extend this credit to all microbusinesses, rural and urban...

http://www.small-mart.org/obama-policy-recommendations

Conservatives Have a Point: Michael Shuman Reacts to Economic Stimulus Bill

I'm afraid I agree with Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and nearly all the congressional Republicans that the pork in the approved "stimulus bill" is nauseating. It takes the worst ideas in economic development – massive payouts to government white elephant projects and gigantic incentives to attract, retain or otherwise bribe global corporations – and puts them on steroids. I'm not condemning every line in the package, but the careless and thoughtless way this bill was assembled, packaged, and shoved through Congress ought to give small-mart advocates pause about the priorities of the new administration.

I'm not against a stimulus, per se, and here I do part company with many conservatives. I agree with John Maynard Keynes, perhaps the greatest economist of the 20th century, that when private purchasing peters out, the public sector ought to step in, borrow, and spend. It's like a defibrillating shock to a heart that stopped beating – necessary emergency treatment.

But whatever stimulus this legislation induces will be accidental, not intentional. Ultimately, stimulus in any state or community requires a strong economic multiplier. Core to the local economy movement is an understanding that economic development works best when it maximizes the local circulation of spending. One reason we "Think Local First" is that locally owned businesses spend more of their money locally. Nonlocal businesses re-spend money willy-nilly across the planet, not targeted within a community, and therefore have weaker multipliers. And white elephant projects, like highways, are usually characterized by big contracts with nonlocal contractors, plus they are frequently tainted by the inefficiency and corruption.

Let me be clear: There are important and long-neglected priorities in the country that government spending should address. I would like to see, for example, more spending on repairing infrastructure and on energy efficiency. But the stimulus impact of such spending requires local entrepreneurs.

Where Are Local Businesses?
There is nothing in the stimulus package to assure that federal funds will be spent on small, locally owned businesses. The more likely prospect is that "green jobs" initiatives will be led by Monsanto, General Electric, and Bechtel. Indeed, the Chicago Tribune just editorialized that stimulus ought to include the spread of Wal-Mart stores throughout the city.

If the stimulus package is implemented like economic development usually is, the last beneficiaries will be local business. We're about to release the results of a two-year research project, funded by the Kellogg Foundation, on the local business priorities of the top three economic development programs in 15 rural states. In all, we studied 84 program-years. In only eight of those program-years – about ten percent – was a simple majority of funds spent on locally owned business. Ninety percent of the programs spent most of their funds on nonlocal business, in many cases well over ninety percent of the funds.

Economic development today invests in big businesses least likely to stimulate local economies. And it does this, despite the fact that local businesses account for roughly half of local economies, in terms of jobs and output (an even greater percentage of the rural economies that we studied).

More reasonable conservatives, who appreciate that government can sometimes play a positive role in fixing a broken economy, lobbied for the current package to have more tax cuts and less spending. They argued that cuts in personal taxes – like payroll taxes, placed primarily on working Americans – would put more money in the economy more quickly than the megaprojects put forward by the Democrats. Frankly, they have a point...

http://www.small-mart.org/stimulus-bill