Alice Esposito Focuses on Connection

Posted on by Diversions LA

As photographic artist Alice Esposito’s work evolves, she is focusing on evocative portraiture and scene. Noting that connection has always been an important element of her photography, she says that she rarely photographs her subjects without having a conversation with them first.

“I want to understand the person I’m about to photograph, their mannerisms, their posture, their passion, their happiness and their sadness,” she says.

As has been the case for many of us, the pandemic changed many of the ways in which she connected to people. “Being immune compromised, I had to isolate myself for almost two years, and my photography paid the price for this lack of connection.  Once I was able to pick up my camera again, I noticed that my photographic process changed with me… I decided to dig dipper into my fears and the sense of solitude, nostalgia and belonging, and the result were darker images.”

Esposito also decided to simplify her photographic techinque, now utilizing only a single light and less equipment, creating work that was more about ambience and mood.

“When you understand the soul, the essence of a person, it becomes easy to capture their attitude and presence with the camera, and the absence of light instead of the abundance gave me the perfect set up to do so,” she relates.

The artist is currently working on two different projects, one a research documentary concerning religious rituals and the other focusing on reflections.

Travel and experiencing a variety of cultures are both intrinsic parts of her research documentary projects. “I am only going to bring my Rolleiflex film camera with me. I intend to minimize my equipment as much as possible and try to remain anonymous. This camera gives me the perfect tool do to so.”

She eschews a current photographic approach that utilizes big cameras, lenses, and flashes, as well as social media hype.

“Shooting with the Rolleiflex forces me to look down as if I’m bowing or praying and therefore paying my respect to the people in front of me,” she says, something that should work well for her in regard to her religious subject. “People will always be the center of my work, but I’m trying to remain in the shadows and let the photograph speak for itself.”

Her second project, Reflections, will be realized in part through creating a small, dark, and private portrait studio. “The idea is always for me to disappear and let the subject feel relaxed enough to engage with atmosphere and create their comfort zone, instead of me trying to to do it as in the past. I give the person in front of me full freedom of expression, no forced pose, just the freedom to act.”

Esposito is simplifying her work overall, with one camera, one light, and one set up. Her goal is to let her subjects dictate and play in the studio or whatever location she and they choose. “They will be the actors and I’ll be the audience following their process, observing and experience their journey, and how they connect to the environment surrounding them.” She says she is looking forward to seeing how this new approach will change her photography and her world view.

She attests that she wants her photography to be “polite and respectful, not abraisive or forceful.  I want to be a silent observer, and let the world show me the beauty of it instead of forcing my view on others.”

While acknowledging her presence will always be a part of the images she creates she wants to “feel surprised and be there to catch the moment.”  Her artistic expression is focused on meeting and working with others who have experienced a journey similar to her own and reaching beyond her own comfort zones to use different media in new locations. She attests that she is not “trying to force myself to have ideas or create specific projects. I’m letting my emotion and my passions dictate the next step.”

Esposito herself, above

This is a new approach for Esposito. According to the artist, “Usually I need to be able to control every aspect of my work. I’m always extremely organized in every aspect of my work in every detail. Now,  I’m trying to let it go and be more spontaneous and let others and the world surprise me.”

  • Genie Davis; images provided by the artist

Artist Edwin Vasquez Creates a Vibrant Passion Project About the Endangered Joshua Tree

Posted on by Diversions LA

A powerful installation by Edwin Vasquez now at Angels Gate Cultural Center marks the fulfilment of a grant received by the artist. As a part of the Seven Visions X Seven Artists exhibition, Vasquez offer a compelling work created through the MRH Fund for Artists program, which supports artists to expand their creative reach.

The work at Angels Gate is part of the artist’s multidisciplinary series expressing the rich significance of the Joshua Tree, otherwise known as the Yucca brevifolia. Vasquez’s realization of the massive undertaking he calls The Joshua Tree Chronicles grew from an initial written account to one that includes a widerange of visual art including multimedia.

His work combines photography, mixed media, recycled material, digital art, images generated through AI, video, and poetry. His purpose is to reveal the tree itself in an accessible way that also allows viewers to experience it with fresh eyes and become more aware of the variety of problems facing the tree in the Antelope Valley.

Calling the Joshua Tree “an iconic symbol of endurance,” Vasquez informs his work for this project with the tree’s unique profile, revealing its strength despite the harsh desert environment in which it grows. Having successfully survived in that environment now its resilience is challenged due to climate change, loss of habitat due to increased human encroachment, and wildfires, all of which threaten its survival and reflect the larger ecological crisis facing us today.

Connecting the Joshua Tree with human experience is one of Vasquez signature themes in this project, revealing both its graceful beauty and extreme vulnerability in his diverse works. While some images emphasize the interconnectedness between the tree and humans, others present potential futures and new perspectives, or unfold a motion-centered narrative that lead viewers through a journey that is both empathetic and a contemplative, designed to raise awareness for necessary conservation. Vasquez has grown more aware of this need himself after a Plant a Tree event organized by Transition Habitat Conservancy at Portal Ridge Wildlife Preserve, at which he and his family planted some 40 baby Joshua Trees.

His work represents what is truly a passion project for Vasquez. He relates that “Last year, the laws protecting the Joshua Tree made headlines, and one of our local politicians claimed that we have a housing problem. He voted against the protection of the tree in our community, the Antelope Valley. Unfortunately, some of the best real estate is filled with trees, and in order to build these natural landscapes get destroyed, along with the ecosystem that serves as the tree’s home…Determined to make a difference, I decided to initiate [what I describe as] the #JoshuaTreeChronicles on my own.”

Vasquez explains that he’s documented the Joshua Tree through photography “for quite some time,” but his current project offered “a new opportunity to craft a comprehensive body of work” encompassing many different artistic practices. “In a sense, this marks a new direction in my artistic practice,” he says.

The installation at Angels Gate Cultural Center is one riveting aspect of it. Inspired by a visit to a private property in Lancaster, Calif., which he documented with video and photographic art, the instalaltion creates an entire landscape for the tree itself and the fraught environment it now faces.

Vasquez uses a rich and vibrant palette, which he describes as “inspired by Guatemalan textiles which are colorful and profound. I also find those colors in the desert while hiking, while observing the sunrise or the sunset. The colors represent the distinctive light changes in our area from the softest pinks to the fire reds.”

The installation includes three main components: “Joshua Tree 1,” mixed media on canvas, “Joshua Tree 2,” also mixed media on canvas, and “Joshua Tree” (above), a mixed media installation that includes canvas, found objects, and sand.

At the base of “Joshua Tree,” the largest image of the three in the exhibition, there is a carved totem, an orange safety cone, abandoned water containers, and a rainbow painted tire – the detritus left by man in the desert,.

A sculptural work to the right of this central installation image features abandoned digital components, in a robotic interpretation of what could be a future Joshua Tree.

The sides of the sculpture’s base, featuring painted desert images, can be illuminated in a magical incandescence by the use of a portable black light. A video of Joshua Trees plays on a small wall monitor behind it.

On the opposite side of “Joshua Tree”, the other mixed media on canvas works are hung bracketing another sculptural work, this a series of arrows buried point down in a foam block painted with graffiti and also holding a can of fluorescent spray paint. At the bottom of the block there is a radiant blue and gold image of a Joshua Tree rising from the glow of city lights. The colors and its illumination resemble an icon image of a Catholic saint. At the base of the foam block, another traffic cone, a foam recreation of a Starbucks cup, crumpled papers, and another abandoned water container lie.

Each of the canvas and mixed media wall art pieces contains distinct elements, with “Joshua Tree” featuring a found-object yellow lizard, with a grid-like pattern of orange, blue, gold, and greens as the tree’s limbs, and mandala like shapes representing its leaves. On the ground around the tree are glowing rocks and flowers. “Joshua Tree 1 and 2” each visualize the branches and trunk of the tree as a solid green, with a grid-like pattern forming the sky and a ground-scape in greens, yellows and reds speckled with white and orange flowers in the first image. In the second, representational leaves grow from the tree’s arms, a golden-pebbled road leads out to the dark desert hills in the background. Spikey greenery and white and orange flowers cluster on the sand. In the near distance, desert houses float on the skyline and a multicolored moon hangs above them. The details of each unique work are both reverent and edged with the abstract and surreal, not unlike the mysterious, alien, and beautiful nature of the trees themselves and the chaos of human response to their preservation.

The masterful and passionately elegiac installation also includes a QR code for a moving short video, “Expect the Unexpected,” which can be viewed here, on the artist’s YouTube channel, edwinvasquez100.

Vasquez says that he wants viewers to see his project “in a positive light. Perhaps the best analogy I could use is that much like immigrants who may lack a voice, these plants in the Antelope Valley also face a similar predicament. Someone must at the very least bring attention to the issues they are confronting within the community. As an artist, I believe it is my responsibility to create art that highlights the significance of this unique tree in our community.”

Art in Residence nominated Vasquez for the installation’s commission, with Georgia Freedman-Harvey, the founder and director of MRH Fund for Artists, selecting the project as a part of the impressive collection of works in 7 Visions X 7 Artists. It’s a radiant start to exhibiting Vasquez’  Joshua Tree works. At UCLA Chicano Studies, the artist recently installed 20 other art pieces which are a part of the same mammoth project.

Here’s to Vasquez and the Joshua Tree continuing to grow and blossom. The Angels Gate exhibition closes with an artist talk and reception on February 24th from 2 to 4 p.m.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis, and as provided by the artist

Classic Stone and Bronze Sculptures Provide Compelling Motion from Doug Thielscher

Posted on by Diversions LA

Doug Thielscher’s stone and bronze sculptures are created using a traditional stone carving technique that the artist learned in Pietrasanta, Italy. His classical forms are just as beautiful and powerful as they were centuries ago during the Italian Renaissance, but presented with a fresh, modern twist.  His graceful work will be exhibited through Project Zola at the upcoming 29th iteration of the LA Art Show.

Thielscher’s mastery of stone carving spanned two decades, time spent in part working with the artisans/artigiani in Italy in the coastal Tuscany region known for both its marble quarries and bronze foundries. Both marble and bronze are the materials that the artist prefers to work in despite the difficulties inherent in manipulation of these mediums.

It is his ability to capture delicate detail in such resistant materials that is perhaps most striking;  his works vibrate with passion and desire, struggle, pain, and triumph.  Thielscher’s thematic purpose reveals intense and eternal human feelings and actions. The subjects he creates – hands, feet, faces, horses – all honor the historic art of figurative carving while creating potent images that very much reflect the ethos of today.

The artist explains that he wants his work to truly capture a viewer, compelling moments of reflection. He says that he wants to reveal “the moment of greatest tension” in each visual story. With this in mind, his work is designed to illuminate “the most expressive gestures of a scene…[and] highlight the intensity at that climactic point.”

Much of Thielscher’s work focuses on fragmentary parts of a figure, but he also creates abstract sculptural works that offer multiple interpretations for the viewer.  As an artist working in such classic form, he strives to create work that is utterly original and not derivative of anything that has come before but is still visually meaningful and compelling. He also ensures the image he’s creating will present as a full 360-degree view for a multi-sided experience.

The ultimate purpose of his work, he says, is to exemplify the ways in which human beings seek, reach for, and embody the way we reach and strive for goals in our lives. Thielscher’s art expresses that very moment when success or failure hang in the balance.

In his Carrara marble sculpture “Crux,” above, a twisting, reaching arm and perfectly wrought hand, partially wrapped in a ribbon, rise upward from an abstract form below. Of this work he says “I was trying to create the feeling of an old-fashioned spinning top that is just at the point where it starts to lose momentum, and the point kicks out at the bottom… The ribbon can also be seen to symbolize a ribbon that is often given out as a prize in a competition.” For Thielscher, that competition might well be life itself.

Other commanding images include a foot stepping on an amorphous bundle in the Carrara marble “To Be Different,” and the Red Persian travertine, bronze, wood, resin, and stainless steel “Equine XI.” The piece is an entirely unique image of a horse that is also an homage, the artist says, to favorite artists such “Henry Moore, Brancusi, Dali, Tony Cragg, Mondrian, Rodin, Francis Bacon, Giacometti, Alexandros of Antioch, and Anish Kapoor,” in terms of both form and material employed.

Many of Thielscher’s fine works will be viewable through Project Zola at Booth 918 of the LA Art Show. The LA Art Show’s Opening Night Premiere is February 14th, with the show on view via general admission February 15-18th. The event features over 120 galleries and a diverse selection of art, artists and galleries that span over 180,000 square feet of exhibition space.

  • Genie Davis; images provided by the artist

 

Betye Saar Offers Haunting And Evocative Immersive Installation at the Huntington

Posted on by Diversions LA

Paddle your own canoe.

Never, though the winds may rave,

Falter or look back:

But upon the darkest wave

Leave a shining track.

Sarah Bolton

Drifting Towards Twilight, Betye Saar’s large-scale immersive installation, commissioned by the Huntington Art Museum and Library, is a deeply moving sculptural piece, comprised of evocative found materials collected over years along with dried cuttings from the gardens. Set in the middle of a blue-gray hued room, the large canoe filled with assembled travelers is an evocative piece rich in metaphor. With a nod towards global mythic narratives, the canoe, which the artist altered to make it look more vintage, rests on a bed of dried organic materials sourced from the myriad gardens, seemingly in a liminal state between heaven and earth. The intense neon blue light visible underneath the canoe suggests a supernatural voyage into the looming unknown.

In the middle of the canoe, situated on small children’s chairs, are three almost identical bird cages (each slightly larger or smaller than the preceding one) with deer antlers sitting inside. In the front and rear of the canoe are guardian human-like figures which are constructed of altered staircase balustrades. One cannot help but see this as a family portrait of the artist with her husband and three children. Though the white bone antlers can reference death, here they are a symbol of regeneration – as they fall off naturally and grow back even larger. The skeleton-like cages become a vessel for containing the soul while paradoxically letting light and air in.

While Saar has used cages in the past to allude to the slave trade, in this piece the intent seems different. The canoe serves as a metaphor for transitioning from one place to another, from the physical plane to the spiritual plane. The dazzling neon blue light mysteriously illuminates the ground under this cosmic canoe, amplifying the imminence of a supernatural excursion. The subtle and exquisite lighting design shifts the mood ever so slightly, suggesting the sun setting and rising through daylight to nightfall. The phases of the moon painted on the wall speak to Saar’s longstanding interest in mysticism and the occult.

The accompanying short film directed by Kyle Provencio Reingold, program director of Ghetto Film School LA, is a gem. It documents Saar’s history and childhood connections to the Huntington while documenting her process building the installation. This contemplative piece connects to the burial traditions of the Vikings and South Asians whose rituals include majestic funeral pyres floating out to sea. The boat is a widespread and potent symbol of transitioning from one world to the next in mythology. Betye Saar, at 97, is la national treasure, upbeat and masterful as she continues to delight, educate, and surprise as she and we all are drifting inexorably towards the twilight, enjoying the pleasures of creativity, family and kin along the way.

  • Nancy Kay Turner; photos by Joshua White provided by the Huntington Art Museum and Library