2008 California Biennial Artist Residencies, Projects and Performances

2008 California Biennial Artist Residencies, Projects and Performances
Orange County Museum of Art
October 25, 2007 – March 15, 2008

Jedidiah Caesar, California Road Trip
For his residency project, the summer prior to the Biennial Caesar took a road trip in his red truck and traced the borders of the state of California. During the trip he collected all sorts of found objects and junk with the aim of casting them into a sculpture. Instead, he liked the way the truck looked filled with what he collected and showed it as a sculpture along with a series of drawings and one of his monumental scale resin bricks.

Kara Tanaka, Crushed by the Hammer of the Sun
During her residency, Tanaka researched Iranian culture, specifically the Sufi religion. For the biennial she made a mechanical sculpture that references a disembodied, “whirling dervish” with a white silk skirt that dynamically spins into mushroom cloud, conflating the ancient, peaceful spirituality of Sufism with the war environment of contemporary Iran.

Julio Caesar Morales, Interrupted Passage
Morales’ project focused on the transfer of Alta California from Mexico to the United States in the mid-1800s, Mexican General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo’s last hours in power and his subsequent arrest. He re-interpreted these events in his two-monitor film in the gallery and in recreating the dinner served at Vallejo’s home. This banquet/performance, featuring native California foods, was the opening dinner for the 2008 California Biennial exhibition.

Mary Kelly, Flashing Nipple Happening
Kelly arranged for fifty women in 4 lines of 25 persons processed from the “backstage” of the parking lot behind the museum towards the Orange Court, the site of the crowded exhibition reception. The women suddenly appeared out of the darkness and made loud sounds to attract attention and disrupted the crowd. Each wearing three flashing lights (at their nipples and crotch) they recreated the 1971 Flashing Nipple Happening in which women protested against the Miss World beauty pageant at the Albert Hall in London.

Shana Lutker, Hear it Here
This performance consisted of two buskers standing on a platform with microphones in the Museum’s pavilion. They wore headphones and took spontaneous, real-time instructions from members of the audience who had told them what to say into the public address system. With no delay or filtering, the result was a somewhat absurd, stream of consciousness performance.

Ruben Ortiz-Torres, High n’Low Rider
Ortiz-Torres’ large-scale kinetic sculpture resembled a scissor lift like those used in a museum but was outfitted with hydraulics similar to those used in low-rider vehicles. It started out as an open cube, opened up and unfolded up to a height of 21 feet, then spun around and danced to Norteca music as a performance at the Biennial opening–part portable monument, part spectacle.
Click here to download a PDF of an interview between Karen Moss and Ruben Ortiz-Torres.