May 212023
 

The above photos are of Sanford Biggers’ sculpture The Oracle when it was located at Rockefeller Center in NYC in 2021, where it was part of a multimedia installation.

It now resides outside the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, on the new outdoor sculpture pedestal on Wilshire Boulevard and Glendon Avenue. It will be there until March of 2024.

From the Hammer website about the work-

Anchoring this corner is Oracle (2021), a cast bronze figure weighing 7.64 US tons (15,280 pounds) and standing at 25 feet tall. This monumental commission from Biggers continues his “Chimera” series that hybridizes the canonical figures and gestures of Greco-Roman sculpture with an assortment of iconic African objects from the 14th–20th centuries. Unlike Biggers’s other “Chimera” sculptures that are made in marble, Oracle is cast in bronze. The seated figure in Oracle is a depiction of the statue of Zeus at Olympia, while the head is a composite of several masks and busts from different African cultures, including the Luba Kingdom and the Maasai.

Biggers sculpturally patchworks historical depictions of the body and their subsequent myths, narratives, perceptions, and power. Biggers is intrigued by the recent scholarship about the academic and historical “white-washing” of classical Greco-Roman sculpture simultaneously intersecting with the early twentieth-century “black-washing” of various African sculptural objects. Oracle challenges the associated cultural and aesthetic assumptions about their source material while acknowledging the often dubious origins of the original objects themselves.

 

Oct 022014
 

Slow Club- Beginners

Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (10/2-10/5)-

Thursday

Mark Mothersbaugh is speaking at MOCA Grand Avenue with Adam Lerner, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. He will be discussing his art and music before DEVO through his present day work, which includes being a composer for film and television (he most recently did the original score for The LEGO Movie). He will also be signing his new book Mark Mothersbaugh: Myopia. Admission is free to this event and to the museum where Andy Warhol’s Shadows is currently on display- http://edu.moca.org/calendar/2014-10-02

LACMA is screening Aberdeen, the newest film from Hong Kong director Ho-cheung Pang (free)- http://www.lacma.org/event/aberdeen

Friday

Bombay Bicycle Club are playing The Wiltern with Milo Greene- http://www.thewiltern.net/events/bombay-bicycle-club-milo-greene/

Blitzen Trapper are at The Troubadour- http://www.troubadour.com/event/648763-blitzen-trapper-los-angeles/

LA Live is doing Dark Nights again- $5 food and drink specials at several restaurants, $5 parking and free entertainment (musicians and artists) from 5-9pm- http://www.lalive.com/events/la-live/detail/dark-nights-at-la-live-1

Baauer, Boyz Noise and Spank Rock are at Club Nokia- http://www.clubnokia.com/events/detail/252893

DJ Shadow with Cut Chemist at the Hollywood Palladium- http://www.thehollywoodpalladium.com/events/dj-shadow-the-renegades-of-rhythm-tour/#.VCzZIedfnU4

Saturday

It’s the last of MOCA’s Step and Repeat nights- this one features Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Neil Hamburger, Heather Lawless, and more- http://mocastepandrepeat.tumblr.com/

Slow Club are at The Echo with Roses- http://www.theecho.com/event/605789-slow-club-los-angeles/

Barnsdall Art Park is having outdoor movie nights on the lawn of the Hollyhock House.  This week it’s Rock ‘n’ Roll High School starring The Ramones. It’s $10 for the movie, $25 if you want to add 3 drinks (beer and wine)- http://www.barnsdall.org/event/barnsdall-movie-nights-2014-10-04/

Glass Animals are playing a free show at Origami Vinyl at 1pm before their sold out show at the Troubadour- http://origamimusic.blogspot.com/

Stromae at The Fonda- http://www.fondatheatre.com/events/detail/250601

Sunday

The Drums are at the Mayan Theater for their new album Encyclopedia- http://www.ticketmaster.com/The-Drums-tickets/artist/1364866?tm_link=edp_Artist_Name

Dr. Christine Mullen Kreamer, curator of African Cosmos: Stellar Arts, is giving a lecture on “the historical legacy of African cultural astronomy and its intersection with both traditional and contemporary African arts”- http://www.lacma.org/event/talk-african-cosmos

Ciclavia is back this Sunday creating car free streets from Echo Park to Downtown to East LA- http://www.ciclavia.org/events/687/heart-of-la/924/about