Metabolic Studio Public Salon
Abigail Lazkoz
Friday, October 30, 2009 @ Noon
Free Admission



About The Salon
For me Art is in equal measure a laboratory of imagination and a tool to reflect on life.

The cultural products that have encouraged me to follow the creativity path have almost always had the existentialist ingredient. I believe that identification with the others uneasy approach to life has been the main reason for me to try to use the creative medium.

Let’s say that uneasiness is an inclination that I have inherited and art is the way I use to deal with that fondness for distress. War is for this matters a very useful subject, it can be used literally or, even better, metaphorically to express the struggles of being alive.


About The Salon Presenter
Abigail was born in Bilbao, Spain in 1972, she makes drawings, wall-paints and site-specific installations. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including in solo exhibitions at Monya Rowe Gallery, New York; Sala Rekalde, Bilbao; and the Joan Miró Foundation, Barcelona; and Group Exhibitions in Hungary, Algeria, France Spain and the United States.

Above: More medals, bigger responsibility: Abigail Lazkoz, 2004

Indian and pigmented ink on paper, 43 1/4 inches x 72 1/2 inches

Image courtesy: Abigail Lazkoz

 



 

Metabolic Studio Public Salon
Sherwood Chen, Flavio Alvarez & Carlos Gonzales
Friday, October 23, 2009 @ Noon
Free Admission


Alliance for California Traditional Arts

About The Salon
What are traditional arts? From Native Californian Kawaiisu basketry and language, to African-American quilt-making, Mixtec guelaguetzas and Hmong maykhong wedding negotiation chants, Western saddlemaking, or sacred Afro-Cuban batá drumming, Vietnamese opera and son Jarocho luthiery, California is home to hundreds of diverse traditions. Some folk and traditional arts have been brought to California from other countries or regions and have taken root here to become interwoven with the state’s cultural landscape and identity. Others have prospered long before California was ever a state, developed here by indigenous cultures and sustained today on and beyond California’s over 130 tribal reservations and rancherias.

Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) Associate Director Sherwood Chen will share rich examples of ACTA’s participating artists and organizations statewide, and discuss the community-driven power and the staggering beauty and diversity of a complex, vital, and oft underrepresented sector of arts practice in California today.

Joining Sherwood will be featured artists and ACTA participants Flavio Alvarez and Flavio’s grandnephew and protégé Carlos Gonzales. Flavio serves as Wanaragua chief amongst a group of drummers, dancers, and singers in Los Angeles—including Carlos—who represent, celebrate and sustain Garifuna language, dance and music, forms deemed by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Together Flavio and Carlos will share Garifuna history and culture, talk about what it means to pass on tradition, and how these traditions live and flourish in Los Angeles today.

About The Salon Presenter
Guided by the principles of cultural democracy, diversity and equity, the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) strives to ensure that California’s future holds California’s past by providing services to support the state’s myriad living cultural heritages and to increase access to resources and opportunities for folk and traditional artists.


Above: Garifuna master artist Flavio Alvarez (left) and his apprentice Carlos Gonzales (right) hold a Wanaragua headdress worn by Flavio the night before during the New Year’s Day 2009 Wanaragua processions.
Image courtesy: Sherwood Chen, ACTA 2009

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Metabolic Studio Public Salon
Suma Josson
Friday, October 16, 2009 @ Noon
Free Admission






I Want My Father Back


About The Salon
I Want My Father Back is a 60 minute-long film on the suicide of farmers in Vidarbha. Vidarbha is in the eastern region of Maharastra State in India. Cotton is the main cash crop in this area.

The film looks at the reasons behind these suicides, beginning with the fallout of the Green Revolution and the impact it had on the soil and input costs for the farmers. This was followed by globalization processes which further led to a fall in prices of commodities. The other sections in the film include the changing traditional methods of farming especially with regard to seeds, the debt-loan trap faced by farmers, and the devastating effects of Bt. seeds. It also looks at the impact of pesticides on the soil and gives emphasis on organic farming.

The film raises these issues through ordinary farmers and activists like Vandan Shiva. It also looks at some farmers who have been practicing organic farming.

About The Salon Presenter
Born in Kerala, India, Suma Josson graduated in English Lit. from the College of St.Teresa, Minnesota, U.S.A. Having begun her career as a journalist, she switched over to the visual medium. Since then she has made two feature films and many documentary films on a wide range of issues. Her film on the suicide of farmers in Vidarbha, Maharastra has won several awards. She is also a poet and a fiction writer with Penguin having published a novel titled Circumferences.

Further Information

Image
Still from I Want My Father Back
Copyright Suma Josson

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Metabolic Studio Public Salon
Jessica Hall
Friday, October 9, 2009 @ Noon
Free Admission



Water and Los Angeles - what is a sustainable water future?


About The Salon
Is Los Angeles a desert? Conventional wisdom tells it is. Reviewing the historical conditions of the region, however, suggest otherwise. How should this ecologically fragile region plan for its future and manage its water resources? Ms. Hall presents looks at landscape and urban design from the standpoint of water resource management.

About The Salon Presenter
Jessica Hall is an advocate for ecologically resilient urban waterways, and for the integration of functional ecosystems within cities. Through her work as a designer, watershed coordinator, and educator, she has become a leading voice in LA; her efforts have resulted in stream daylighting becoming a restoration goal identified in many local watershed plans. With a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from Cal Poly Pomona and an undergraduate degree in architecture from Princeton University, and experience working in both fields, she understands the challenges and opportunities of the built environment. She is a Senior Design Associate with Restoration Design Group, and also consults and lectures part-time. Ms. Hall was a Switzer Environmental Fellow in 2000-2001. Her work has been covered in the local media.

Further Information

Image
Courtesy: Jessica Hall

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