June 01, 2021
(Parentheses)
ArtCenter DTLA presents street-view window exhibition by BRD (Bridget Rosalia Driessen) and Hannah Kim Varamini (founders of Love’s Remedies, an artist-run initiative and the inaugural ArtCenter DTLA Residency Project 2020).
May 1 – July 31, 2021
For the closing projects of their 2020-21 residency at ArtCenter DTLA, BRD (Bridget Rosalia Driessen) and Hannah Kim Varamini depart from their subordinate roles in Love’s Remedies and present entangled works of their own. Harnessing the conceptual and physical space of ArtCenter DTLA after a year and half of supporting other artists through the Love’s Remedies framework, each artist uses their parenthetical and subjective position as a point of departure for a final gesture.
In the window facade, Varamini presents two projects that utilize paper as indexical imprint and spatial environment. In the right window, a large-scale ink painting on washi titled Three Mountains depicts three culturally significant, mythological mountains in North Korea, accessed via Google Earth: Mount Paektu, Mount Myohyang and Mount Kumgang. In the left window, the project Atoll (Idiorrhythmic) arranges hundreds of cast objects of stones, twigs, tacks and other tools. These skins or shadows of domestic and organic marginalia take the shape of labyrinthine forms that one would happen upon. The objects invoke a type of space which Roland Barthes described as idiorrhythmic – a negotiation of solitude and contact with others. From the installation emanates the sound of snapping shrimp, whose increasing volume in our oceans warn of climate change. These incidental artifacts of nature and culture become witness to shifting ecologies and the interconnectedness of all things.
In the main gallery, BRD’s work, Capriccio, is partially-visible through the store front windows as you peek above the walls and into the gallery interior. Capriccio is a simultaneously empty and overflowing field; using the interior surfaces of columns and walls as painting surfaces in combination with a series of tiny frames atop those columns to nest images that are barely legible. A rotating trompe l’oeil color scheme adorns the central columns, while their (and other) column capitals are painted black, red, and green in a layout linked to American-style roulette. The images are similarly arranged according to this game of chance, and their numbers are linked to The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations, a descriptive list written by Georges Polti in 1895, and subsequently used by a variety of writers and storytellers in order to structure narrative. The images themselves, however, are not aligned with the titles except by random selection.
Image content consists of personal iconography and archival material spanning text, photograph, drawing and painting. Elements include an enigmatic constellation of animals fighting, children’s drawings, floor plans and schematics, riddles, recursive references to other Love’s Remedies artists and projects, playful nods to artists both contemporary and historical, and, finally, the choice of BRD’s artistic work operating as ground in the figure-ground relationship both between her and Varamini within the physical site, as well as within the project of Love’s Remedies itself.
Over the course of eighteen months, in the guise of Love’s Remedies and through the shockwave of COVID-19, BRD and Varamini supported five micro-residencies, seven group exhibitions, two solo exhibitions and one solo project in addition to their own. All told, over 60 artists and artist networks were invited to benefit from the residency. With the substantial support of Christina Valentine, program director at ArtCenter DTLA, and the enactment and expansion of institutional relationships, BRD and Varamini were emboldened to exercise significant agency, both for themselves and on behalf of all participating artists. For more information about Love’s Remedies, please visit www.lovesremedies.com.
Founded by Los Angeles artists BRD (Bridget Rosalia Driessen) and Hannah Kim Varamini, Love’s Remedies views art practice as community building; supporting non-hierarchical interactions based on the premise of “nesting” into an institution.
Location:
ArtCenter DTLA
114 W. 4th Street
Los Angeles, Calif. 90013
This is a street-view exhibition.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, exhibitions in ArtCenter's galleries may not be available for visits by the public. Please check with the gallery before visiting.
Email dtla@artcenter.edu.
Free admission
Parking:
Parking is available at 415 S. Main Street (left side of Main St.; entrance between Kazunori and Big Man Bakes.) Rates are $5 for the first 90 minutes. $10 maximum. A kiosk located near the garage entrance accepts both cash and card. ArtCenter DTLA does not offer validation. From the parking garage, walk down Main St. and turn left on 4th. ArtCenter DTLA is on the left side of 4th St.
Subway/Bus:
ArtCenter DTLA is accessible by public transportation. The Pershing Square Subway Station is three blocks away. Metro 92, 33, 68, 733, and DASH Downtown D on Main Street and Metro 28, 40, 45, 83, and 745 on Spring Street all stop within a block of ArtCenter DTLA. Visit Metro for bus and subway maps or call 323 466-3876.
Bike:
Plan your trip using LADOT or Metro bike maps. Refer to Metro Bike Share Map for kiosk near you. Free bike parking is located in the parking garage at 415 S. Main St.
About ArtCenter DTLA: As a satellite of the College, ArtCenter DTLA provides a platform for dialogue and engagement, intersecting the campus with the Los Angeles community. As an extension of the Exhibition department’s mission, ArtCenter DTLA’s programming will focus on events and exhibitions that are critically engaging from a transdisciplinary perspective. Drawing on the resources of the College and the Los Angeles art community to collaboratively build and contribute to a culture that is diverse, innovative and relevant.
About ArtCenter Exhibitions
ArtCenter Exhibitions includes the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery at its north campus in Pasadena, the Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery, the Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography Gallery and the Hutto-Patterson Exhibition Hall at its south campus in Pasadena, and ArtCenter DTLA Gallery in downtown Los Angeles. These curated spaces embody ArtCenter's institutional will to understand artistic thinking and design strategies as levers in promoting social advancement, the pursuit of humanitarian innovation and use of critical inquiry to clarify objectives and truths. Using the lens of contemporary art and design, the mission of ArtCenter Exhibitions is to ignite emotional resonance, provoke intellectual dissonance and conjure unexpected pathways of thinking.
About ArtCenter: Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, ArtCenter College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. ArtCenter offers 11 undergraduate and seven graduate degrees in a wide variety of industrial design disciplines as well as visual and applied arts. In addition to its top-ranked academic programs, the College also serves members of the Greater Los Angeles region through a highly regarded series of year-round educational programs for all ages and levels of experience. Renowned for both its ties to industry and its social impact initiatives, ArtCenter is the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Throughout the College’s long and storied history, ArtCenter alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live and important issues in our society.
Contact:
Teri Bond
Media Relations Director
ArtCenter College of Design
teri.bond@artcenter.edu
626 396-2385
