Immortalis at Day of the Dead at Hollywood Forever: All Photos – Jack Burke
There are many Day of the Dead Festivals throughout Los Angeles. This celebration of life, memories, and the soul that survives when the body departs is a key part of Aztec culture. Once held in August, the Spanish moved the holiday to November 1, to coincide with the very Catholic All Souls Day. Today, in Southern California, the celebrations begin before Halloween and stretch into November.
October 24th was the date for this year’s Hollywood Forever Dios de los Muertos celebration, and it was a jam packed and eventful as ever. Titled this year the “Shamanic Visions of the Huichol,” the Huichol were once considered a culture of shamans, and the sense of a conjured and dream like tribute was certainly a part of this year’s dazzling event. A mash-up of art scene, costume party, great music and dance, this is a “Deadman’s Party” even Oingo Boingo would be thrilled to attend.
Naturally, the centerpiece here are the altars, crafted by a myriad of participants from individuals to art schools to non-profits.
Also on display: amazing musical artistry on three separate stages throughout the cemetery. Among the musical highlights was the tempestuous, sensual vocals of Malena Durán, and the rhythmic, dream-like dances of the Libre Movimiento. Also on hand: authentic Mexican dishes from food booths – one highlight a UFO-sized quesadilla, crafts vendors offering handmade jewelry and clothing, and a central art exhibition in the Cathedral Mausoleum.
A glimpse at some of the Mausoleum-housed curated art show.
The event runs from 12 noon to 12 midnight. During the day, it’s a brightly colorful event in an appropriate setting.
Fix Nation: among the stray kitties to be fixed are those that “haunt” the cemetery grounds. Great cause, for great paws.
As night falls, colorful lights click on everywhere, vibrantly patterned light shows are projected on the walls of crypts, and glittering colored orbs float in the cemetery’s moat. A procession with Aztec blessings and dancers, costume contests, children’s art workshops, and of course, the stunning attire of both attendees and participants add to the experience.
While there are other Day of the Dead celebrations throughout the Southland, the Hollywood Forever setting – punk rocker Johnny Ramone is buried here, as is Rudolph Valentino, and Mickey Rooney – make this experience hard to top. The beauty of the cemetery itself is offset by a truly magical experience that melds music, dance, lovingly crafted altars, costumes, and lights.
Live deliciously dangerously: take on the Day of the Dead at Hollywood Forever.
Aztec dancers at Gallery H’s Day of the Dead Celebration – Photo: Jack Burke
The Dia de los Muertos exhibition at Gallery H of Phantom Galleries L.A. is a celebration of life, death, and the eternal. On display until November 21, this is one vibrant swirl of fresh, cutting-edge art. Curated by Gloria Plascencia, the art and the live performances that complimented it opening night, creates a joyful atmosphere. For the Aztecs, the image of a skeleton meant the transfer to another dimension or side of life, and this transformational quality is very much present in the Gallery H exhibition.
Last Saturday night, a stellar flamenco guitarist provided the sound track, Aztec dance troop Yankuititl, performed spirited traditional dances, and artist Cie Gumucio evoked the spirit of Frida Kahlo with the assistance of performers from Theatrum Elysum at the San Pedro Repertory.
Viva Frida – Cie Gumucio, Photo: Jack Burke
Bringing fully to life a piece that was part art installation and part performance, “Viva Frida” represents Gumucio’s new installation style, “If Art could Speak…What Would it Say.” Curator Plascencia says Gumucio first created the piece for a Day of the Dead celebration that she’d planned but was forced to cancel two years ago. “She’s been saving it since then,” Plascencia relates.
Viva Frida performance – Photo: Gloria Plascencia
The piece has grown in texture and style since then, aging like a fine wine. “I feel deeply connected to the Latin culture and magic realism so, in the spirit of Dia de Los Muertos I wanted the spirits of Mexican artists, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera to use their own words taken from Frida’s diaries and love letters with an art installation and a 7 minute performance,” Gumucio explains. “Diego and Frida’s lives were inextricably intertwined, so I took clothing resembling those they may have worn and sewed it together with red thread. I began the piece with an old wooden bed frame, which I painted vivid blue and orange, the colors of Frida’s home, Casa Azul. A body cast titled ‘The Wild Heart,’ like the one Frida was forced to wear after a devastating accident, is also part of the installation – at its heart is a red cage with the door open. If one looks deep inside, one can see the butterflies I painted on the inside walls, waiting to emerge – like her creativity.”
Ginette Rondeau’s altar to her mother – Photo: Jack Burke
Artist Ginette Rondeau’s altar, dedicated to her mother, is another outstanding piece. Brilliant with yellows, golds, and silvers and dotted with marigolds, Rondeau’s moving paean to her mother, who loved Spanish dance is deeply emotional. “It has so much meaning to the artist who created it,” Plascencia notes.
Also on exhibit: Ron Therrio’s “Puerta lluminosa,” an Aztec themed arch crafted from wood and concrete, and Patty Grau’s straw and palm “Queen Deadfall” sculpture.
Artist Patty Grau with her “Queen Deadfall,” Photo: Jack Burke
Grau says “The piece is the outgrowth of me picking up dead fall when walking my dog around my neighborhood. It started with a tree seed pod which I always thought resembled a bustier.”
Susan Melly “A Woman’s Work is Never Done”
Susan Melly offers the tongue-in-cheek “A Woman’s Work is Never Done,” an evocative painting wherein a naturalistic skeleton operates a traditional sewing machine.
Lois Olsen’s “Mexican Memories” evokes the living and the dead with an abstract, kaleidoscopic skeleton.
Conseulo Campos’ “Living La Via Muerta,” center
A mauve skeleton with flowers for eyes is the center of Consuelo Campos’ “Living la Vida Muerta.”
ALbert Vitala
Albert Vitala’s “Day of the Dead Girl” was produced specifically for the exhibition, Vitala relates. “When Gloria asked me to participate I realized I had nothing related to Day of the Dead, so I began to spray paint angular geometric shapes, which in the end formed a girl’s face. I adapted the face to become a classical Day of the Dead figure, and then applied an overlaid texture of acrylic paint to create the dimensional flowers.”
Terry Holzman
Terry Holzman contributed several mixed media pieces shaped through found art. “I only collect items within a two mile radius of my house in West Los Angeles,” she relates. “I repurpose neighborhood discards as art.” Using brackets and electrical fragments, she created a dancing electric socket skeleton for the exhibit that looks as if he could dance right off the wall.
Dan Milnor
Dan Milnor’s “Let the Dead Bury the Dead,” uses an orange traffic cone as the basis for his mixed media. Another riveting display is made up of a large, colorful collection of ceramic skulls from students in the Hawthorne and Lawndale school districts.
Gloria Plascencia
Finding the art to contribute to this singular exhibition took curator Plascencia on visits to other Day of the Dead festivals, galleries, and art shows throughout the LA region. “It was a process to find the pieces that represented my own aesthetic vision for the exhibition,” she says. She also contributed her own digital print, “Aztec Warrior.” In her charge to bring a fully realized Day of the Dead celebration to life, Plascencia is herself somewhat of a warrior – for art.
Above: collaboration between Susan Melly and Susan Chuka Chesney
Above: Gloria Plascencia in her element.
Join her triumphant charge – Gallery H is located at 12619 Hawthorne Blvd. just south of El Segundo Blvd. in Hawthorne. The gallery is open Saturdays 3-6 p.m. and by appointment with a call to Plascencia at (310) 869-4992.
Genie Davis, Photos: Jack Burke, additional photo: Gloria Plascencia
