Fantastic Performances and Exhibits I've seen this Fall in Los Angeles

I just wanted to take a moment to document some of the absolutely fantastic events and exhibits I have attended in Los Angeles in October and early November alone (I won’t even get into the things I experienced earlier in the year). I’ve gone to a wide variety of venues and museum spaces, several of which I had never visited before. I’m sure there will be so many more in the future, but please check out the cultural events I’ve experienced so far and if you also live in the LA area, hop on over to the exhibits, or check out the organizers so you can make sure to see the next event heading this way.

The Day/World to Come.

Image from the newyorker.com

A Performance featuring cellist Maya Beiser with dancer Wendy Whelan, choreography by Lucinda Childs, and music by Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Lang. You can listen to it here, and you can read a about it here (complete with beautiful photography from the performance), and you can watch a short video below. My favorite part visually was at the end. I adored the imagery with the fabric and how Whelan interacted with the material ESPECIALLY the final scene (which is not included below). This was presented by CAP UCLA at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus Friday, October 18.

A collaboration among legends, THE DAY is a new work by cellist Maya Beiser, beloved dancer Wendy Whelan, iconoclastic choreographer Lucinda Childs, and Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Lang. A New York premiere, this momentous melding of multi-genre creative genius comes in an evening-long sensory exploration of two journeys-life and the eternal, post-mortal voyage of the soul.

LA Phil Gala - From Space I Saw Earth by Daniel Bjarnason

I wrote a review of this piece for corpßonore - sound | body | wellness which you can read here, because it was such a momentous experience for the audience and the performers (at least, for me). I can’t imagine the next time this piece will be performed again, specifically when you will see Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Zubin Mehta share the stage for such a beautiful and moving performance. This was presented by the LA Phil on October 24th at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Andrew Sean Greer and Sloane Crosley in Conversation

Another event presented by CAP UCLA. I read the Greer’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Less last year and adored it. It is charming and funny, and sad, and heart warming. For whatever reason, I have followed Crosley on Twitter for several years but never read her works. This conversation (and Q&A) was charming and delightful and I appreciated that I understood and knew many of the cultural references made and authors referenced. It felt like I had found my literary people or something. The banter was witty and enjoyable and they both signed my copy of Sloane’s book which I felt rude asking Greer to do, but I had left Less at home. This event took place on November 3rd and was held in Kaufman Hall on the UCLA campus which is a beautiful smaller theater so the event felt very intimate. Check out the rest of the CAP UCLA event calendar here

Medea Insurrection at the Wende Museum

Sibylle Bergemann, Heike, Allerleirauh, Berlin, 1988

I went to the opening night of this event and it was a beautiful celebration and full of fascinating pieces created by women behind the Iron Curtain. I strongly recommend this exhibit! It runs from November 10, 2019 - April 5, 2020. I had never been to the Wende Museum (located in Culver City) but it is beautiful, and very close to the lively downtown area and Sony Pictures. The art in this exhibit is in so many different mediums from photography and oil paint, to woven and sewn materials, and video.

The Wende is free and open to the public. https://www.wendemuseum.org

W | ALLS: Defend, Divide, and Divine at the Annenberg Space for Photography.

Due to the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and other current political jargon, Walls seem to be a theme in the art world, at least in Los Angeles (and in my own head). This exhibit was stunning. The photography caught intimate and expansive imagery of walls, including the Berlin Wall, the Wailing Wall, the border with Mexico, and Marina Abramović.

from the Annenberg’s website:

Complex, challenging, and immersive, W|ALLS: Defend, Divide, and the Divine is a historical look at civilization’s relationship with barriers, both real and imagined. For centuries, across diverse civilizations, walls have been central to human history. This exhibit explores the various aspects of walls – artistic, social, political, and historical – in six sections: Delineation, Defense, Deterrent, The Divine, Decoration, and The Invisible. These categories overlap and change meaning according to context, much like the walls themselves: erected for one reason, their appearance and use is then altered and modified over centuries, reflecting the civilizations that have grown and changed around them.

This exhibit runs from October 5th, 2019 - December 29, 2019 so make sure you carve out some time this holiday season if you haven’t checked it out yet. https://www.annenbergphotospace.org/exhibits/walls/