Eclispse Quartet/Jenny Holzer Mash Up at L and M Arts

L and M Arts continued hosting their finissage events with an evening of string quartet music by the Eclipse Quartet in the West Gallery, alongside Jenny Holzer's LED screens scrolling her messages in time to the music, to wrap up the exhibition of her The Future Please show.

The Eclipse Quartet performed Different Trains, written by Steve Reich for the Kronos Quartet in 1988. It's a powerful piece of music, as it documents Reich's train travels across the United States as a kid at the same time the trains were transporting human beings toward the camps in Europe during the Holocaust. Not light or easy listening by any means, and its 27 minute length is just about exactly right.

Recorded words accompanied the music, as the LED screen messages blazed across our eyes, so brightly that you sometimes had to close your lids and just listen. It's a lot to take in.

The first movement was "America Before The War", very upbeat, hopeful, maybe even a little proud and boastful, with phrases like "the crack train from New York" (with special * in the program that "crack" USED to mean "Best" back in the day - ha) and "one of the fastest trains" being repeated.

The second movement was "Europe During The War" and had a much scarier, doom feeling, with a more frenetic pace and a lot more ominous screeching. The words on the front set up of screens all had to do with Baghdad and redacted data and more modern war-related problems. Thus, the repetition of the music and the recorded words and the information on the screens surrounded you with the truth that ALL war is senseless and we're just repeating ourselves in different times in different parts of the world. All the time. At least that's what I took from it.

(I was there with my friend Jessy, who is a professional violinist. She thought that the piece was powerful in that "The out of tune, weird pace was annoying, but it was inspiring at the same time. And I appreciate that it was short." Ha!)

This time the words being repeated were "They were loaded with people" and "They tattooed a number on our arm" and "Flames going up to the sky - it was smoking", with air raid signals going off. Uggghh. You felt helpless and thwarted watching and listening, like "Will we EVER learn?!"

Then the third movement, "After The War" came along and it was hopeful again, and somewhat relieved. The music became more melodic than chaotic, more upbeat and happy, with the excitement you get upon arrival somewhere and the train whistles that go along with that. Though the music was more light-hearted and lovely, it was also wistful, with phrases like "but today, they're all gone" and "There was one girl, who had a beautiful voice" and "And when she stopped singing they said, 'More, more' and they applauded."

And so did we when the music then ended abruptly.

We applauded and stood to leave, and right as I was about to walk out the door, I saw a phrase go by on the sign that said, "Your consolation is that this might be the truth."

I'm not so sure I feel consoled, but I always prefer the truth.

Thanks and CHEERS to L and M for continuing to provide us with insightful, educational, and inspirational moments. What a treasure we have right in the middle of our neighborhood.

L & M Arts
660 South Venice Blvd.
Venice

Jenny Holzer's Words Light Up Venice - L and M's New Show

I'm very much a sucker for art with words in it, so I was excited to attend last night's opening of the new Jenny Holzer show, THE FUTURE PLEASE, at L & M Arts, Venice.

Holzer's LED light signs illuminated the West Gallery, and we stood in front of them so long reading the sometimes positive messages ("Protect Your Earth") and sometimes negative (don't want to put energy into negative so go look yourself) that we had red bars floating in front of our eyes even after walking away.

They're pretty mesmerizing, and always thought-provoking. I might suggest dark glasses for viewing as long as I did. It gets pretty deep.

The East Gallery was made up of Holzer's latest body of work, The Redaction Paintings.

Large pieces on linen portray redacted US Government documents make you wonder about the suppression of words, while the color surrounding the text brightens up the vibe, helping to feel good that at least we're all still talking about the rights and wrongs, so maybe there's still hope for us after all.

Granite benches scattered about inside and out had Holzer's poems etched into the granite surfaces, and these too were deep, and sometimes positive, sometimes negative.

While looking at the benches, my friend Vavine had a memory of visiting benches like these in Peggy Guggenheim's museum garden in our sister city, Venice, Italy. Vav carried film photos around the world with her of these benches, she loved them so, and when she figured out that this Holzer lady wasn't ripping off the Venice benches, but had CREATED them, it was one of those "The Universe led you to this moment" kind of chills for her.

So we had to go find Ms. Holzer and share this experience that had so moved Vav. She said, "Give me the headline of the story", and when Vav did, she shared her enthusiasm for both the story and the Venice Guggenheim garden. A beautiful example of manifestation and cool oneness with the entire world. Hooray for art!

You get the feeling Holzer got really burned at love in the past and looks at the very idea with tainted eyes now.

But you also sense a glimmer of that passion burning deep down within her still, pushing forward the notion that burned or not, it's what you keep trying for, it's what you're alive for. But that could just be me.

Words are also projected on the walls outside in the garden, thus the show could inspire and stimulate you even if you're just walking on by.

A bunch of art world people were there, as well as our Venice movers and shakers, all having a great time in the perfectly balmy evening.

I love the L & M openings. They're always stimulating, enlightening, and simply a good time with cool people coming together for the sake of ART. There's not a lot better than that.

You have until October 27th to get there yourself. Bring your shades.


Jenny Holzer The Future Please
L&M Arts
660 Venice Blvd.
Venice
Tuesday - Saturday


*To see more on Jenny Holzer, check out this site:  https://artsy.net/artist/jenny-holzer