Los Angeles–August 11, 2019

Smorgasburg

Went to Smorgasburg, a food festival that happens every Sunday in East Los Angeles. Here are a few pictures from there:

Signboard: Lade Slush Co. If you were a fruite, you’d be a fine-apple Banner for Baohaus vietnamese food truck Green and red bottles labeled Kill Sauce

Some wall and sidewalk art on the way there:

Wall art: speak/see/hear no evil with three faces whose mouth, eyes, and ears are covered with dollar bills Multi-colored flamingo in graffiti strokes Spary-painted circle with stenciled text: YOU ARE HERE Spray-painted circle with stenciled text: YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL Spray-painted circle with stenciled text: I <heart> DTLA Spray-painted circle with stenciled text: LIFE IS AMAZING koi fish painted onto sidewalk

Nisei Week

I went to see the Nisei Week parade. It went on for quite some time, but I only stayed long enough to get these pictures of the parade and the festival area:

Car with painting of character from Evangelion anime on side Car with character from “Racing Miku“ on side Array of Japanese lanterns Array of multicolored Japanese hanging decorations Array of multicolored tanabata hangings Women in blue kimonos holding pink fans Person in wolf/dog-like costume with read kiomono and headband.

Museum of Contemporary Art

The Museum of Contemporary Art has an outpost in Little Tokyo. On the side of the building is an installation named “Questions“ by the very great Barbara Kruger. (A better picture with explanatory text is here.)

Wall-sized art by Barbara Kruger with questions: Who is beyond the law? Who is bought and sold? Who does the time? Who dies first? Who laughs last?

Also outside the museum is this piece; you can push the parts of the cube to rotate it:

3 x 3 x 3 large cube with sections that rotate freely Cube rotated to different orientation

Here are some of the works inside the museum:

Small frames with text about different colors of people Green people are Leave-it-to-Beaver with his cleaver and his shadow / Green people are pea fuckers Abstract crystal forms on mirror base Sculpture of girl with arm in shape of a bird’s neck and bird’s tail as hand Large sculpture of a cigar with a gold and red band Sculpture of person with vertical grooves walking next to wall with horizontal grooves Front view of vertical grooved person walking in front of horizontal grooved wall Abstract sculpture of twisted masses Large sterling silver sculpture of a wolf Large black plastic commas on floor 1940s vintage car with side smashed in

One exhibit was a series of postcards, each with a message telling when the artist got up that day:

Wall of postcards, most on back side with a few on front

And another, by Chris Burden, “Exposing the Foundation of the Museum“:

Stairs leading down to area excavated under the floor of museum

There was a display of quotes concerning art and destruction by various poets and artists:

Large portrait of Oscar Wilde: “The fact of a man being a poisoner is nothing against his prose.”
The fact of a man being a poisoner is nothing against his prose—Oscar Wilde
Mondrian: “I think the destructive element is too much ngelected in art.”
I think the destructive element is too much neglected in art.—Mondrian
Bakunin: “Destruction is creation.“
Destruction is creation.—Bakunin

Wall Art

Lots of it in the Little Tokyo area:

wall painting of daruma cat Wall art of blue asian-style dragon Wall art of soap bubbles with an eye in one, and abstract forms in others Wall art of people praying, virgin Mary in middle. Various posters on wall Wall art: bearded man in turban Storefront painted in bright pastel colors in abstract shapes Stick figure man drawn on sidewalk; word balloon: I could lie here forever, with you by my side - TrustyScribe Cartoon face drawn on sidewalk with access hole cover as nose Back view of cat in blue dress scratching at wall Old-style TV screen showing Trump with large bug eyes. Text: Bigot Brother is watching you Wall art showing three martial artists Wall art of a martial artist and Bruce Lee Wall art showing one martial artist kicking high and another with a sword Black and white art; man with goatee and ponytail, wearing baseball cap, in profile. Faces of four women, conneced by abstract shapes Heart with smile and inverted interlocked letters LA for eyes Fractal-looking black and white pattern View down barrel of smoking gun; skull in barrel

Finally, this sculpture (sorry, I wasn’t able to get inside the fence to get a better shot):

Large sculpture of human head in egg-white except for caucasian flesh color around eyes and mouth

with a sign with this text:

“Head of Aphrodite (or maybe) Dionysus“

This ancient relic was discovered on March 14, 2019 by a crane operator at Alameda construction site #32.

Modern scholars suggest it is the head of Aphrodite (Greek Goddess of Love & Beauty) but some dispute this conclusion and instead think it is the androgynous head of Dionysus (Greek God of Wine & Theatre).

None of the scholars know how the hell it got here. If you have information please contact:

Randy
@ Los Angeles Dept. of Cultural Affairs
<phone number>