SIREN REEF
MICHAEL TURNER

January 22 - February 19

Michael Turner is a self-taught artist with a unique craftsmanship learned through various industrial trades, as he calls it, "The School of Hard Knocks." Turner identifies his work as, "Functional Surrealism," fusing artistic aesthetic value with the functional use of a structure in a surreal form. Surrounded by tropical waters in his home state of Florida, Turner has always been very attached to the coral reefs.
The pieces in this installation are roughly 90% made from recycled materials such as plastic bottles, wood and wires found in the streets of San Pedro. Other materials came from music video sets that were going to be thrown away.
Turner hopes to open a facility in which people can get rid of their unwanted materials (glass, plastic bottles, wood, old electronics, etc), and artists can pick it up instead of buying new material which makes companies produce more items and ultimately more waste. This continuous growth of waste is one of the primary causes for the exceedingly rapid loss of coral reefs.

AN ANCIENT MISUNDERSTANDING
A Video Installation by ELMIRA MOHEBALI

March 5 + 6

An Ancient Misunderstanding is a short video exposing the link between ancient events and women’s everyday life in contemporary Iran. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, tablet 7, Enkidu, who is Gilgamesh’s beloved friend, dies from an illness. Just before he dies, in the peak of suffering, he curses Shamhat, the harlot of Ishtar temple. Shamhat is the woman who civilised and educated the wild Enkidu by taking him to the city of Uruk. Warnings of Shamash, great god of justice, cause Enkidu a change of heart, so he takes back his curse. Just before he dies,

Contemporary Iranian women are treated with a disrespect not unlike that shown to Shamhat by Enkidu's curse. They are harassed and assaulted sexually in public everyday due to cultural misunderstandings.  An Ancient Misunderstanding conservatively tries to open a conversation to investigate the roots of this cultural problem. 

ELMIRA MOHEBALI is a video artist and sculptor. She was born in 1982 and grew up in Tehran, Iran. Elmira moved to the United States in 2002. She has lived in California since, and in 2008, graduated from UCLA. Elmira has kept her connection to her home country by travelling back to Iran several times since 2002.

BALLS & BUNDLES
MIKE MOLLETT

March 12 - April 18

Recent sculpture, BALLS & BUNDLES, consists of bound or twisted together elements of sticks, branches, bamboo, twigs, stalks, pipes, rope, cables, hoses, wires, cords & recyclables, etc. mostly from his home & gardens. The Balls are autobiographial. Ball commissions are biographical.

Concurrently with BALLS & BUNDLES, Mollett is co-organizing a 15 artist exhibition at pLAyLAnd, an Eagle Rock DIY pop-up space. April 3 - May 31. Mollett will have a 20' bundle in this show. The L.A. MUDPEOPLE will create  a site specific mudroom, & will also perform.

MIKE MOLLETT is a founding member & leader of the L.A. MUDPEOPLE. Since 1988, the L.A. MUDPEOPLE have evolved into being non-verbal, slow-moving, improvisational & curious. The L.A. MUDPEOPLE are the newest tribe of the Los Angeles River. THE L.A. MP have been seen from the Venice Boardwalk to the streets of Hollywood, Downtown L.A., Silverlake, Reno, NV & the Big Island of Hawaii... They have been up & down the Los Angeles River, headwaters to ocean. Walkabouts & non-performances @  the LA Convention Center, Downtown Public Library & Bunker Hill, raves, clubs, parks, festivals (Mask Festival, L.A. Arts Festival, Solstice Celebration, Nisei Festival), etc… They have been featured in National Geographic Magazine (June 1992) & various newspapers, cable & tv shows in L.A., NYC, France, Reno, Hawaii, etc. MP artifacts, fetishes & other documentation have been exhibited at UCLA & Cal State L.A.

Mollett is also a co-founder & member of the CARMA BUMS (w/ SA Griffin, Doug Knott, Scott Wannberg & Michael Lane Bruner), a performance poetry troupe-- 1989-present.  The CB's have toured California, the Westcoast , the Southwest, & recently invaded Kansas City (August 6-9, '09) for The Unregulated Word (a national poetry festival). Twisted Cadillac-A Spoken Word Odyssey was published by Sacred Beverage Press. The CARMA BUMS have a section in the seminal anthology The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.  The CARMA BUMS' loose, mostly free formed style evolved from an earlier, rehearsed incarnation The LOST TRIBE ('84 to 89's).

Mollett was co-host, performer in Victoria Looseleaf's long-running cable show THE LOOSELEAF REPORT, & a performance art regular on the early to mid-80's cutting-edge cable TV music show New Wave Theater, director/editor David Jove, host Peter Ivers. Mollett has co-produced art/music festivals: DADAFEST-LA, 1980, & TARGET L.A. (anti-nuclear), 1982. Mollett co-directed ZTZU, a gallery & performance space w/Neal Taylor, '83-85.  ZTZU toured Canada w/ 2 residencies, creating art, installations, & performances.

Mollett was an active player in the international Mail Art Network in the late 70's & 80's. He produced scores of stickers & xerographic prints, hundreds of postcards, dozens of books, catalogues, & rubberstamps. Photos, other documentation, artifacts & manuals of his 64 V.W. BUS Project were included in local L.A. & international exhibitions, books & catalogues. The late Judith Hoffberg (art librarian, lecturer/curator, publisher of UMBRELLA) considered the 64 V.W BUS a book.