AT: The MAK Center's Schindler House, West Hollywood, CA
DATES: September 15 - December 4, 2004
FEATURING: Andrew Andrew, Bon & Ging, Ingrid Bromberg & Blain Kennedy, Dioscuri, Escher Gunewardena Architects, Feral Childe, Fugue: Andrea Lenardin & Raegan Kelly, Gizmo, Michael Mahalchik, Elena Manferdini, Tina Marin, Giles Miller & Shifty Disco, My Barbarian, L.A. Eyeworks, Liz Larner, Claudia Rosa Lukas, Renée Petropoulos, Ujein, We Are Lucid Dreaming, Millie Wilson & Jessica Rath, Wooden Mustache, Amy Yao
For the Fall 2004 season, the MAK Center and Sundown Salon present SHOWDOWN! at the Schindler House in West Hollywood, California. Showdown! is a multi-phased performance, exhibition and benefit that will use the provocative architecture of the Schindler House to produce creative thinking about design and the body. Participants include architects, artists, fashion designers and performers. Exploring contemporary currents and new frontiers in clothing and fashion, Showdown! will span the complete garment life cycle, from design and production to display, fitting and daily use.
Phase I: In Residence - September 15 through October 17, 2004 - Transformed into fully functioning workshops and studios, the three Schindler studios will be turned over to invited teams of artists and designers. They will have a 5 week residency to publicly produce a collection work.
Phase II: MAK Day - October 10, 2004, 11am - 5pm - Fashion Statement is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Showdown! at the Schindler House, an exhibition of experimental clothing design by artists, architects, musicians, and fashion designers. To compliment this exhibition, the MAK Center presents a day of free activities exploring the social impact of fashion and the act of making clothing.
Phase III: Runway - October 22 and 23 - Celebrating the spectacle of contemporary fashion, the Schindler House will present two kinds of performance events. On the evening of Friday, October 22nd and Saturday, October 23rd the grounds of the Schindler House will be transformed by architects at COOP HIMMELB(L)AU into a stage for a runway show with soundtrack by Giles Miller's Shifty Disco band.
Phase IV: Showdown: Feral Childe vs. My Barbarian - October 30 - The symmetry of the Schindler House will come into play, as performance groups My Barbarian from Los Angeles and Feral Childe from New York face off, orchestrating a series of performances that will begin during the day and continue into the evening.
Phase V: Showroom - November 3 through December 5 - Works created for Showdown! will be on exhibition at the Schindler House. A publication will be produced and be available throughout the duration of the exhibition. Selected works created for Showdown! will be available in a silent auction. Proceeds will support the MAK Center at the Schindler House.
CREDITS: Curated and produced by Kimberli Meyer of the Mak Center and Fritz Haeg of Sundown Salon; Graphic design by Penny Hardy and Shannon Shelly of PS!; Stage and set design by Coop Himmelb(l)au; Music by Giles Miller's Shifty Disco Band; Stage management by Sarah Daleiden; with Amy Hood, Lauri Firstenberg, Bobbi Woods, Nizan Shaked and Angelica Fuentes from the MAK Center; Thanks to andrea moarozas, susan benningfield, chanteuse morganne, krystal chang, amy lee, natascha snellman, jake leslie, dante cervantes, corey oberlin, tania nyberg, jennifer kolmel, axel prichard-schmitzberger, uyen tran and the students of art center college of design, cal poly pomona and sci-arc including seohaa choi, general wadkins, colleen coghlan, jonathan zabala; Very special thanks to the federal chancellery, department for the arts, and the federal ministry of educatioin, science and culture of the republic of austria, the lafetra family foundation, the los angeles county arts commission and the west hollywood visitors and convention bureau
Three participant teams will use the Schindler House as a location for production. Performance groups My Barbarian from Los Angeles and Feral Childe from New York will occupy opposite sides of the house. Architect, engineer and designer Elena Manferdini will also use a studio for the production of high-tech objects. Visitors to the Schindler House will have the rare opportunity to experience the house not only as museum, but as the fully functioning workshops and studios as it originally was intended.
DATE: October 10, 2004, 11am - 5pm
Fashion Statement is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Showdown! at the Schindler House, an exhibition of experimental clothing design by artists, architects, musicians, and fashion designers. To compliment this exhibition, the MAK Center presents a day of free activities exploring the social impact of fashion and the act of making clothing.
11:00 - 2:00pm: Drop-In Fabric Painting Workshop - Make a statement by creating your own graphic t-shirts. This drop-in workshop is led by artist and teacher Oscar Santos. Bring your own drawings and t-shirts for inspiration or choose from provided materials.
11:30 - 12:30: Craft Workshop - "Craft Night" will host a hands-on workshop. For more information on "Craft Night" www.crafthead.com.
2:00 - 3:30: Garment Worker Center Presentation - Garment Worker Center of Los Angeles, an organization dedicated to empowering garment workers in the Greater Los Angeles area, will give a presentation on sweatshops in Los Angeles, including alternatives to sweatshop-made clothes and what you can do to support garment workers. A garment worker will speak about her experiences and a question and answer period will follow.
3:30 - 4:30: Knitting Demonstration - Showdown! designer Tina Marrin will demonstration how to make "crazy boots" using old shoes and a lot of yarn.
Throughout the Day: Schindler House Tours - Hourly docent-guided tours of the landmark Kings Road House, 1921-22, by R.M. Schindler.
Return Engagement to Garment City, 2002, by Jessica Rath - Video documentation of this commissioned theatrical artwork evoking the history of 1930s Los Angeles garment workers conditions and the 1933 general strike lead by anarchist Rose Posetta performed on the Los Angeles MTA subway system will be screened all day.
Feral Childe - "Model Casting Call" - Showdown! design duo Feral Childe will conduct a "casting call" for models and hip-hop dancers to sport their fashions at the upcoming Showdown! runway show (October 22 & 23) and performance (October 30).
DATES: October
22 and October 23, 7:30
p.m.
Twin runway spectaculars featuring some 75 pieces produced by more than 20 participants, these theatrical productions will incorporate sound, music, light, spoken word and architecture. Presenters include: andrew andrew /bon & ging /ingrid bromberg & blain kennedy / dioscuri / escher gunewardena architects / feral childe / fugue / andrea lenardin & raegan kelly / gizmo / michael mahalchik / elena manferdini / tina marin / giles miller & shifty disco / my barbarian / l.a. eyeworks / liz larner / claudia rosa lukas / renée petropoulos / ujein / we are lucid dreaming / millie wilson & jessica rath / wooden mustache / amy yao
Attitude will be abundant at the runway shows, from serious to playful, from intellectual to tongue in cheek, from "let¹s dress up" to "let¹s get down." SHOWDOWN! designers cite a multiplicity of inspirations, including flags, architecture, the natural environment, politics, native garments of the Philippines, and the movement of flying insects! Materials range from the finest Thai silks to paper, plastics and recycled old clothes, and methodologies are as high-tech as aeronautic laser cutting and as down-home as the stapler and "Handy Stitch." Stunning models will stride the catwalk, to be sure, but in their midst will be stumbling zombies, Mr. Tape Jockey Plus, a baton twirler and a woodwind quintet, among other "surprise" mannequins. To the accompaniment of ambient soundscapes and live music by Giles Miller¹s Shifty Disco Band, the runway shows will simultaneously serve a double audience seated in gardens on either side of the Schindler House. Using sculptural, two-story stair towers designed by COOP HIMMELB(L)AU, models will descend from upper-level sleeping porches and walk a path snaking across the site, offering dynamic perspectives framed by R.M. Schindler¹s renowned architecture. Giles Miller¹s Shifty Disco Band will create an exciting aural environment, combining ambient sounds from various social milieus ‹ from street life to Dodger games ‹ with live and sampled Soul music.
PHASE IV: My
Barbarian vs Feral Childe
DATE: October 30, 2:00 - 6:00
My Barbarian presents a new multi-media musical work: The Web of the Ultimate! Allow us to take you on a time travel adventure, as My Barbarian frees the Medieval within the Modernist (the sword in the stone). My Barbarian performs a new musical entitled 'Medieval Morality Play!' A troupe of troubadours leads the audience through Everyman¹s struggle to find a decent job in the creative field. As Heaven and Hell collide, in a decidedly prog-folk-acid-choral-rock score, expect a Satanic showcore finale! This is a collaboration with artist Pearl Hsiung and Scott Martin of Snake Versus Wizard. My Barbarian presents their latest video, 'Morgan Le Fay', shot entirely on location at the Schindler House, which is transformed into a sexy, druidic fantasy fortress! Human sacrifice = HOTTT! My Barbarian presents the video project 'Séance at the Schindler House', a document of a real séance held by the band (with the help of one of their mothers) and a cast of unsuspecting invitees. My Barbarian is so pleased to be joined by the NY-based design / performance team Feral Childe. Feral Childe presents Dingo Derby, a confectionery caucus race. Participants jockey and joust for the lead with effigies clad in Baby Dingo. From the inner ring, the Kung Fu Shek Dance-Pak cheers them on. Butterknife Krüsh will meet up with Feral Childe to disperse fallen edifices in energetic rumbles. Butterknife Krüsh is a dance-a-phonic transitive architecture band. Feral Childe is no mere spectator sport: rabid fans and casual passersby alike are welcome to join in the fray. Prepare to get dusty.
PLUS: Performance by Michael Mahalchick 'We Are Legion'
DATE: November 4, 7:00
In We Are Legion, Michael Mahalchick stages a performance in which he populates the Schindler House with an army of Zombies. These Zombies, while presenting themselves as entirely human, lack consciousness. They understand how to behave, how things work, how to engage with sentient beings, but cannot fathom "what is is like" to feel the sting of a bee, the kiss of a mother, the hatred of a killer. They are slaves to a higher power that manipulates their will for its own benefit.
New York-based artist Michael Mahalchick is known for his electric, colorful and noisy performances, which draw on subcultures and pop entertainment to explore themes of love, lust, sex and death. His spontaneous performance work, which often involves music, collaborators and costumes, is an extension of his sculptural creations. These reanimate discarded old clothes and trash into woven and stitched totemic objects. Improvisatory and fanciful, Mahalchick¹s raggedy sculptures may be seen as explorations in color and form, but elicit anthropomorphic associations as well, evoking festish objects, the homeless and childlike imaginary friends. Much as fashion "cannibalizes" styles from earlier eras, Mahalchick¹s Frankenstein-ish creations bring old clothes back from the dead. At the Schindler House, expect the unexpected as the artist orchestrates an invasion by an "army of zombies," guest performers and the artist himself.
Exhibition and
silent auction: October 24 November 15; November 5 - December 5, Wednesdays - Sundays, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
In its final phase,
SHOWDOWN! at the Schindler House transforms the house into a gallery/boutique
with items from the runway shows on display and available to handle and try
on. As a benefit for the continuing restoration of the house and the programs
of the MAK Center, these fashions, along with limited edition T-shirts designed
by all the participants, will be available online and the MAK Center. Selected works
will also be available for sale at LA Eyeworks, South
Willard, and Ooga-Boga
ADDRESS: 835 North Kings Road, West Hollywood, CA 90069
The radical grace and beauty of modern architect Rudolph M. Schindler’s own house and studio has influenced architects, artists and all manner of designers since its completion in 1922. R.M. Schindler’s seminal 1922 Kings Road House/Studio is renowned in architectural circles for its complex, interlocking spatial composition, total integration of interior and exterior spaces and innovative use of simple, unadorned materials. But Schindler’s home was a social experiment as well, providing communal live/work space for two families, fusing functions and challenging lifestyle norms. The Schindler House also served as a gathering place for Los Angeles’ 1920s and 1930s avant-garde, opening its doors for salons, performances, readings and exhibitions. As a site whose premise mingles public and private, the Schindler House provides a resonant context for SHOWDOWN!, which adapts an interdisciplinary approach to exploring issues of public and private space vis á vis the body. Whereas architects usually address these issues on a macro scale and fashion designers more intimately, SHOWDOWN! asks each to consider the other’s viewpoint in creating new clothing works. Artists from other fields will make this a lively conversation as each considers the interface between the body and social space.
A satellite of Vienna’s acclaimed MAK (Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art), the MAK Center for Art and Architecture has been in residence at the Schindler House since 1994. Through a program of exhibitions, publications, performances, public events and international exchanges, the MAK Center explores the intersections of art and design with an emphasis on experimental, boundary-defying work. A sampling of MAK Center programs include the exhibitions TRESPASSING: Houses x Artists, The Havana Project, Frederick J. Kiesler Endless Space and American Pictures 1961-1967: Photographs by Dennis Hopper, the popular annual series sound. at the Schindler House and a Kenneth Anger film retrospective. Currently on view is Yves Klein: Air Architecture, a groundbreaking exhibition introducing an important body of work by the French artist. This fall, th MAK Center contributes to political discourse with a series of Fireside Talks, featuring notable authors and activists such as Tariq Ali, Laura Flanders, Tom Hayden and Gary Indiana.
Rudolph M. Schindler’s Studio-Residence has been described as the first modern house. Designed and built in 1921-22 as a live/work space for two families, the house was radical in concept and design. Taking full advantage of the southern California climate, Schindler extended the house to include the exterior environment, ingeniously linking outside with inside through the use of sliding canvas panels, outdoor rooms with fireplaces, and roof-top sleeping porches. Schindler practiced architecture in the house from 1922 until his death in 1953; during this period he completed projects that are now considered landmarks of the modern movement in architecture. The Kings Road House redefined notions of the public and private sphere.
Both Rudolph and his wife Pauline Schindler were committed to challenging traditional family structures, and viewed the house as a social experiment. The house became a site of lively, avant-garde aesthetic, cultural and political activity throughout the 1920s-50s. Dozens of cultural luminaries lived at the house over the years, including architect Richard Neutra and his family, composer John Cage, and art collector/dealer Galka Scheyer. Pauline Schindler’s political party affiliations made the house an important meeting place for Los Angeles political leftists.
The MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House The mission of the MAK Center is to continue the conversation initiated by Rudolph and Pauline Schindler. By creating and supporting programming that explores the dynamic intersection of art, architecture, and culture, The MAK Center is committed to preserving the Schindler House not only as a historic residence, but also as a living object. The Center offers a year-round schedule of exhibitions, symposia, lectures, performances, workshops and publications, and hosts a residency program for visiting artists and architects.
The Mackey Apartments and Residency Program Each year the MAK Center offers two 6-month residencies to approximately 8 artists and architects. These residencies are awarded through an annual international competition The artists and architects in residence live in R. M. Schindler’s Mackey Apartments built in 1939 and located in Los Angeles’ mid-Wilshire district.
"Rudolf M.
Schindler's Studio-Residence was the first modern house to respond to the unique
climate of California, and as such it served as the prototype for a distinctly
Californian style of design. From 1922 until his death in 1953, the building
functioned as Schindler's house and studio. During this 30-year period, Schindler
designed houses and small commercial buildings that today are considered landmarks
of the modern movement.
In his own house, Schindler expressed his philosophy about structure and materials
most clearly, but the entire site demonstrates his exploration of the relationship
of space, light, and form.
In this, his first independent design in the U.S., Schindler set forth the basic
tenets of his architectural philosophy, which he called "Space Architecture."
In this masterwork he established himself as a major figure in the history of
the modern movement.
Rudolf Michael Schindler was born in 1887, in Vienna, Austria. He studied both art and architecture and was associated with Otto Wagner and Adolph Loos. In 1914, at the age of 26, Schindler left Austria for Chicago with a 3-year contract to work in a commercial architectural firm. At the expiration of the term, he accepted an offer from Frank Lloyd Wright to join his studio. Wright became Schindler's most important influence, and in 1920, he came to Los Angeles to supervise the construction of Wright's Hollyhock House.
In 1921, Schindler
began his independent practice by designing his own house and studio. With his
wife, Sophie Pauline Gibling (later known as Pauline), Schindler joined another
couple, Clyde and Marian Chace, to build a cooperative dwelling for two couples
with a guest unit. Loans of $5,000 from a bank and $3,000 from Pauline's parents
enabled construction in 1922. Shortly after the completion of construction Pauline
gave birth to the Schindlers' only child, Mark.
The Chaces departed for Florida in 1924 to pursue better financial prospects,
but the Schindlers were joined by Richard Neutra and his family in 1925. Neutra,
a former schoolmate of Schindler's from Vienna, soon became one of the most
important modern architects in Los Angeles. Between 1926 and 1930 (when the
Neutras moved on), Schindler and Neutra produced several significant contributions
to early 20th-century architecture: Schindler's Lovell Beach House at Newport
Beach (1925-1926); their joint competition entry for the League of Nations Building
(1926); and Neutra's Lovell "Health House" in Los Angeles (1928-1929).
During this period, the new life style embodied in Schindler's design for his house was observed by the Schindler and Neutra families through diet and exercise, psychoanalysis, education, and the arts of music, dance, painting and photography. The outdoor courts were dining rooms and playrooms for their toddlers, who ran free under the sun year round. They slept in the open air, ate simple meals of fruits and vegetables by the fireplaces, and wore loose-fitting garments of natural fibers closed with ties rather than buttons. At their parties, the terraces served as stages for musical and dance performances; in the audiences were many aspiring California artists and writers.
By the end of the
1920s, Pauline Schindler had left with her son, only to return in the mid 1930s
to live, separate from her former husband, in the Chace studios. Her death in
1977 coincided with the founding of the Friends of the Schindler House.
Undoubtedly the Schindler House has been one of the most influential designs
of the 20th century, and its daring innovations became commonplace by the time
of the architect's death. The California House - a one-story dwelling with an
open floor plan and a flat roof, which opened to the garden through sliding
doors while turning its back to the street - became the established norm of
postwar housing. The Schindler House is now recognized nationally and internationally
as a totally new beginning, a genuinely fresh start in architecture."
- Kathryn Smith