When I first heard the idea behind the newest exhibition at Scion Installation Gallery LA, a collaboration with upstart organizer Flux and 8 young filmmakers, I thought the show would be a mess. Eight projectors running side-by-side with eight different audio tracks - sounded like a recipe for the incomprehensible.
I drove down Helms on August 15th to find a gallery completely unlike the one I knew. The main gallery space was divided into four distinct areas - one large space for live performances, one space divided with shipping crates dedicated to hip snippets of commercials, an interactive space with upturned playing cards and a crowd trying to figure out the musical pattern they created on a huge screen, and in the back, a full 1960s living room, complete with wood paneling and shag carpet.
The crowd, a mix of Culver City's commercial producers (perennial powerhouse Anonymous Content is only two streets over) searching for the next great creative director and a crowd of young filmmakers wishing to be inspired, wishing that one day, their work would be projected on screen.
Jannes Hendrikz, representing The Blackheart Gang of South Africa, a group that worked over three years on the work they presented at the gallery, had an idea of just how difficult that really is. Their piece, The Tale of How is a stunning work of animation, printmaking, sculpture, and (why not?) opera, and illustrated the difference between their efforts and those of a major studio. The behind-the-scenes video to accompany their piece took months to complete. According to Hendrikz, the project almost broke him. But a project the scale and quality of How gives hope to producers and peons alike: That good art still comes from hard work.
Originally in Los Angeles Magazine
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