Kingdom Come at Stone Malone Gallery

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“Kingdom is an exercise in merging sight and sound,” says co-creator Aaron Bleep. 
This conceptional mixture of visual art and sound, developed by Aaron Bleep and Semjâzâ Ludovico, needs to be witnessed to be fully understood. We intend to do exactly that this coming Saturday, March 26th at the Stone Malone Gallery, located at 7619 1/2 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles.
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“The technology developed as the ideas were dictated,” Bleep asserts. “Semjâzâ engineered the whole maneuver. The idea came to me about 10 years ago when I was drawing to music, and noticed I was drawing in rhythm. Then I started practicing it for fun. I was about to present it to a studio I used to work with, but we parted ways before I could present it,” he explains.
The product lay dormant for a long period of time – until now.
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“Essentially, people can expect to experience music visually,” Bleep says.
The work is organic to Bleep’s art as a whole. “My previous work is a foundation for Kingdom. People familiar with my work will be able to recognize central themes and motifs throughout, as well my classical training as a musician and artist.”
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The other half of Kingdom, Ludovico, is the engineer and electronics coordinator for the project. The two met at work, and bounced the ideas behind the sound/visual art merger around.
Ludovico decribes himself as the engineer and live composer for the project. “I built most of the equipment that we use, and I handle the effect processing and audio side of things. It’s basically my job to turn Bleep’s painting into music.”
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Ludovico insists that he can’t take much credit for the original idea. “I’ve been building and using synthesizers for years, and one day Bleep came to me asking if I could make this idea happen. I drew some schematics and a few days later the machines that are Kingdom were born.”
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Pressed to elaborate on the experience, Ludovico says he cannot really describe how important the music/visual art mix is to our culture, or how the project is perceived by individual viewers. “I suppose part of it depends on how much they understand about the process. I expect intrigue and curiosity, but either way it’s a new realm for people to explore.”
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The self-professed sound guy describes Kingdom as a meeting of sight, sound, and technology. “It’s a way to break down the boundaries of conventional thinking, and a way to inspire experimentation. It’s a way for people to ask themselves, ‘Why should we be limited by artistic medium, genre, or even physical boundaries as we know them?’ We, as humans, have the technology to create anything that we want, and this is a celebration of that progress.”
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Celebrate and go visit next Saturday. For a sneak peak of what you’ll see:
The video above was shot at the first performance of Kingdom, at renowned tattoo artist Sean from Texas’ solo show closing event held at Stone Malone Gallery. Kingdom’s creators advocate viewers documenting through photos and video unobtrusively throughout the performance.
– Genie Davis; photos and video by Hollowdoubt

Zachary Aronson at Stone Malone Gallery

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What’s pyrography? It’s wood burning, it’s art, it’s the sweet-smelling creation of artist Zach Aronson now on view for one week only on Melrose at the Stone Malone Gallery. Friday and Saturday night there’s live music, too, so go on down and be sure to inhale – the redwood creations are as fragrant as they are cool.

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Metamorphosis is the title of the show, and it really is just that for me. I’m really exploring in my work,” Aronson says.

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“I like the idea that I’m changing the medium I’m working with. I’m turning wood to ash with fire – without adding any new elements,” he asserts.

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“Fire is traditionally a destructive element, but I’m creating with it, not destroying,” he continues.

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“Each work is drawn from life using an open flame. I do portraits on the spot. It’s relatively fast work,” he explains.

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Sometimes, Aronson goes for a complete, rather than partial portrait image, but he says he prefers the partials for now, that their nature is more evocative.

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Viewers will find Aronson’s work haunting. There is something profoundly moving about these artistic “scars” reshaping the wood, creating a very life like portrait in an unusual medium.

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Aaronson’s work with wood originated from necessity. “One night I couldn’t find any paper to draw on, so I salvaged a scrap piece of lumber and decided to draw on it instead. The first time was with graphite, and soon afterwards charcoal. I came to the realization that charcoal is simply burnt wood, and tried using a flame as a drawing implement. Over time I became more skilled with this medium and came to prefer drawing with fire.”

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His large-scale work is surprisingly intricate and revealing. With such detailed portraits shaped on wood panels, the wood takes on an aspect of skin. These could be the faces of giants, impressions realistically superimposed. The pyrographic technique provides a layer of softness in the work, and in the scarring of the wood to create the portraits, a three-dimensional aspect that draws the viewer. Aaronson describes his art as “Portraits focused around ideas of identity and anonymity, and how these concepts influence who we are, both as individuals and as a culture.” However they’re described, it’s not just the size of the pieces that make it hard to look away.

Stone Malone is located at 7619 1/2 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046, the show runs through Saturday night.

  • Genie Davis; all photos: Jack Burke

Bleep at Stone Malone Gallery

Bleep "Eat" at Stone Malone Gallery - Photos: Jack Burke

Street artist, musician, art poet, Bleep‘s “Eat” exhibition closed Saturday at Stone Malone Gallery in Hollywood.

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Gobble this one up – Bleep devours American food, pop culture, and that quintessentially American vacation, the road trip. The result: a poignant, even childlike mash-up of images, words, and emotion.

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“I watched and listented to cartoons and music, and just sporadically splat right on paper and canvas, there were the images. I used media paper, which is very strong, as my canvas,” Bleep says.

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The show features recipes acquired through travels around America, among other tasty cultural icons. “There’s bourbon baked beans from Texas. the Trinity’s Italian fare from Chicago. I even met Priscilla Presley, who gave me Elvis’ banana peanut butter sandwich and bacon recipe. It includes butter and cinnamon,” Bleep relates.

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But beyond food, “Eat” offers a perspective on American culture. “Gurus, junk, Homer Simpson, King of the Hill. It all characterizes my own experience, its fragments of our culture, heightened points. Like free jazz, I just run with it,” Bleep says.

Watch for more Bleep, collaborative and solo – soon.