This week, see 2018 student visions at SCI-Arc; hear Bucky Fuller’s daughter Allegra Fuller Snyder talk about her father’s legacy; find out how ballet and its graphics became a weapon in the Cold War; let loose at Santa Monica’s new architect-designed playground; check out Edmund de Waal’s sculptural response to the Schindler House; and get a canine reaction to art at dOGUMENTA.
1) SCI-Arc Selected Thesis 2018
Candy colors meet formal complexity and social criticism in some of this year’s SCI-Arc graduate thesis projects, to be displayed to the public in a curated show opening this Friday. Above, AtLAs by Abagael Warnars, a student of Graduate Thesis Coordinator Florencia Pita, proposes to “break down colonialism by introducing non-Western forms” into an addition to the Civic Center in DTLA.
When: September 14 – September 23; Opening Reception: Friday, September 14, 2018, 7 pm-9 pm.
Where: 960 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013.
Tickets: Free and open to the public. Click here for more information.
2) R. Buckminster Fuller: Inventions and Models
Famed for inventing the geodesic dome, R. Buckminster Fuller also re-imagined housing, transportation, mapping, engineering, and construction systems. Thirty-five years after his passing in Los Angeles, Edward Cella Art & Architecture presents R. Buckminster Fuller: Inventions and Models, an exhibition of original prints, models, and objects by the 20th-century visionary, affectionately known as Bucky Fuller.
On Saturday, Sept. 22 at 3 pm, Thomas T.K. Zung, partner of Buckminster Fuller, Sadao & Zung Architects will give illustrated talk on Fuller’s life and work. And coming up on Saturday, Oct. 13, his daughter Allegra Fuller Snyder, longtime dancer as well as founder of the Buckminster Fuller Institute, will discuss its current projects with Board President David McConville.
When: Exhibition runs through Nov. 3, 2018
Where: Edward Cella Art & Architecture, 2754 S. La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles.
Tickets: Free and open to the public. Click here for more information and RSVP to alexandra@edwardcella.com.
3) War of Nerves and Red Shoes
For forty years, two superpowers faced each other with fear, distrust, and nuclear brinkmanship. They fought this “war of nerves” on multiple levels: psychological, militaristic, cultural. Two exhibitions at the Wende museum explore this struggle between East and West; one, entitled Red Shoes: Love, Politics and Dance During the Cold War, examines ballet as a cultural weapon. The other, War Of Nerves: Psychological Landscape Of The Cold War, is a show of the media that helped imbue fear — of nuclear war and of “the enemy, including the enemy within.”
When: September 16, 2018, to January 13, 2019; public opening, with remarks and refreshments: Sunday, September 16, 12 – 5 pm.
Where: The Wende Museum, 10808 Culver Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90230.
Tickets: Free and open to the public. Click here for more information.
4) Santa Monica opens the North Beach Playground
Next time you spend a family day at the beach or at the Santa Monica Pier, check out a new “universally accessible” playground. There’s a play area dedicated to children 2-5 years old and another built for children 5-12 years old. Local architect Patrick Tighe designed the futuristic-looking playground, which has barrier-free equipment including the two-mast space net, the bird nest basket swing and a sensory garden. The floating rocks, sound columns, and a stone abacus are inspiring for kids of all ability levels, including those using a wheelchair and who have physical, cognitive, vision and hearing disabilities. The wide open spaces and shade structures make it easier for grown-ups to enjoy as well.
When: Opens Sat. Sept. 15, 2018 at 10 am
Where: 810 Pacific Coast Hwy, located north of the Santa Monica Pier where Montana Avenue runs into the beach
Tickets: Free and open to the public. Click here for more information.
5) Edmund de Waal: -one way or other-
The British ceramicist and writer Edmund de Waal is making a foray into L.A. architecture with an exhibition at the MAK Center. Titled -one way or other-, the new and recent sculptures in the exhibition respond directly to the iconic Schindler House, the birthplace of West Coast modernism.
De Waal has long been interested in themes of migration and exile, as seen in his 2010 book “The Hare with Amber Eyes,” and the show explores this further in the context of Viennese émigré architect R.M. Schindler’s arrival in Los Angeles in the 1920s.
“The Schindler House is an idea about beginnings. It stands as an attempt to create a place for both cooperative living and cooperative practice; to reset the conditions in which a modern family could live and experiment. The last decades of traveling to Vienna have made me think of what it might mean to be an émigré and build a house, to question what you bring with you when you start again so definitively,” de Waal said.
Along with the sculptures, visitors will experience a sound piece conceived with the avant-garde composer Simon Fisher Turner, and performances by English cellist Matthew Barley.
When: Saturday, September 15, 2018, from 6 – 8 pm. Open through January 6, 2019. Open Wednesday – Sunday, 11 am – 6 pm
Where: MAK Center at the Schindler House; 835 North Kings Rd., West Hollywood 90069
Tickets: $10 Admission / $7 for Students & Seniors. Click here for more information.
And, if you think the art and design world gets a little too serious. . . go have some vicarious fun at dOGUMENTA. That’s an art show for canines, who are encouraged to respond to the artworks, in a language dogs can understand. It takes place over the next two weekends at Figand7th, also in DTLA.