PULSE PROJECTS

PULSE Art Fair's signature Pulse Projects program is committed to the presentation and promotion of audience-engaging large-scale sculptures, installations and performances. Pulse Projects is part of our continued mission to link an international roster of premier contemporary galleries and artists with local cultural institutions, communities and audiences.Among the artists whose sculptures and installations have been presented in the past are Ben Wolf, Desi Santiago, Orly Genger, Christy Gast, Shannon Gillen & Guests, Leo Villareal, R. Luke DuBois, Paul Villinksi, and Clifton Childree.

With 100,000 square feet of combined space in the exhibition tent and surrounding Deck, exhibitors, non-profit organizations, and independent artists will have a unique opportunity to present works that are otherwise incompatible with a standard booth layout. Pulse Projects enables the exploration of artistic practice within an art fair context and exposure to a wider public audience.

Each edition of PULSE Art Fair focuses on the hosting city and its cultural assets. Pulse Projects Los Angeles will highlight the versatility and innovation of artists living and working on the West Coast.

PULSE PROJECTS 2011

3(THREE)
Type 55V, 2011
Figure (PVC), 26.8 x 47.6 x 1.5 in
Courtesy of MEGUMI OGITA GALLERY, Tokyo

3(three) creates utterly new and unique material by breaking and melting cute and sexy plastic dolls of anime characters and reconstructing them into classic forms of the arts. For the first time, in Los Angeles, three different TV-monitor-sized abstract paintings and a human-scale sculpture are presented.


DAVID ADEY
Flock, 2010
Ceramic lambs, neon, electronics, 120 x 144 in (variable)
Courtesy of Luis De Jesus Los Angeles

David Adey's interest in the lamb stems from its significance as a Christian symbol as well as its place in scientific history as the first documented animal to ever be cloned. Over the past decade he has created several sculptures using the same ceramic lamb figurine, sometimes employing hundreds of them and using their broken parts to create larger forms. Sporting neon halos and tethered to a common power source, the lambs in "Flock" speak to ideas of homogenization and cult worship. At once kitschy and menacing, cute and eerie, their replicated bodies imply a sense critical mass - yet without a "leader", there is only uniformity.  All are networked together and dependent upon their identity in the group for existence.

DANIELA COMANI
It Was Me: Diary 1900-1999, 1999
Ink on Net Vinyl, 119 x 267 in
Edition of 5
Editions also available in German, French, Italian, Chinese
Courtesy of the artist and Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles

It Was Me: Diary 1900-1999, is a running list, printed on a mural-size banner, of historic moments recounted in the first person. Beginning on January 1 there is an entry for every day until December 31. The list eschews conventional chronology, imposing the days of the year as an ordering device on moments plucked from throughout the 20th century.


KEVIN CYR
Little Tag Along, 2011
Wood, aluminum, steel, fabric, glass, vintage bicycle, 80 x 152 x 39 in
Courtesy of the artist and LMAKprojects, New York

Little Tag Along is a mini camper custom built to be towed by a 1970's Raleigh 3-speed bicycle. The piece is stocked with items reminiscent of childhood camping excursions and its well-worn appearance gives the illusion that it has seen many years of travel. Little Tag Along is a reaction to current economic and environmental disasters; inspired by a nostalgia for childhood innocence, and an exploration of mobility, shelter, and autonomy.


MARTIN DURAZO
MAX-NIGMATIX, 2011
Mixed media; dimensions variable
Courtesy of Luis De Jesus Los Angeles

Using small sound-sensitive stage lasers, magnifying lenses, a MacBook Pro laptop with DJ software, silver and fluorescent paintings, and pixilated images of troubled celebrity figures, MAX-NIGMATIX explores nightlife nuance that offer an escape from reality. Transitory in nature, the idea of a party is fleeting. Moreover, there exists a parallel with the economic law of diminishing returns¾the longer the festivities last, the less intense the feelings of joy and reverie.


TAMARA GAYER
LA/NYC/MIAMI, 2011
3 LED Lightboxes, 30 x 90 in
Special Thanks to Mixed Greens, New York

LA/NYC/Miami - is an artwork that toys with the emerging jetsetting global status of the art fair. The piece is made up of the tent that houses the fair and 3 LED entrance signs each bearing the name of one of the cities where a PULSE Art Fair takes place. Two of the signs are hung above bluff entrances and one above the real entryway. The piece playfully asks: 'where am I and which way is in?'


KIEL JOHNSON
Studies on an Airship Ride, 2011
Pine, fir, poplar, chipboard, aluminum tubing, acrylic paint, video, 120 x 120 x 60 in
Courtesy of MARK MOORE Gallery, Culver City and Davidson Contemporary, New York

Kiel Johnson's drawings and sculptures tell tales; layered narratives speak of his travels and adventures through everyday life. In his most recent work, Johnson has investigated the cosmic frontier through video, cardboard sculpture and ink - forcing us to question the concrete and truthful through a whimsical and Orwellian lens.


GREG LAMARCHE
Cut Corners, 2011
Interior latex house paint, 144 x 192 in
Courtesy of Joshua Liner Gallery, New York

Cut Corners expands an original two-dimensional collage into a large scale wall painting of abstracted letter fragments deconstructed and re-assembled as an urban architectural encounter. The viewer's perception of structure and movement is engaged and challenged by the wall painting's rhythms of repetitive forms and colors.


BRIAN LEO
The New Cough, 2010-2011
An installation of paintings, acrylic on canvas; dimensions variable
Courtesy of CHRISTINA RAY, New York

Brian Leo's paintings, as described by Carlton DeWoody in a recent essay, "contain ironic social observations that wrestle with timeless themes and somehow guide the viewer from despondence to acceptance...melting existential angst with hot pink satire."" For PULSE LA, Leo creates a floor-to-ceiling installation of small works in which scenes of chaos and disaster play out the over-tweeted news stories of the day across happy, bubblegum-colored canvases.


MINEO MIZUNO
Teardrops (large group), 2009-2011
Ceramic, large 85 x 34 in, small 45 x 14 in
Courtesy of SAMUEL FREEMAN, Los Angeles

Mineo Mizuno's large ceramic installation is the most current stage of his decades-long study of water drops.  Arriving from Japan in 1965, Mizuno graduated from Chouinard Art Institute in 1968, and has worked with and around this singular form ever since.   Numerous six-to eight-foot tall ceramic 'teardrops' are placed on the deck at LA LIVE, in a subtly overwhelming summer shower of scale and material.


OKAY MOUNTAIN
Multi-station Machine, 2011
Wood, lead, steel, leather, rope, rock, hardware, 144 x 108 x 96 in
Courtesy of Okay Mountain, Austin and Mark Moore Gallery, Culver City

OKAY MOUNTAIN
Stationary Machine, 2011
Wood, rope, hardware, 72 x 30 x 54 in.
Courtesy of Okay Mountain, Austin and Mark Moore Gallery, Culver City

OKAY MOUNTAIN
Dragging Rock, 2011
Rock, leather, rope, hardware, dimensions variable
Courtesy of Okay Mountain, Austin and Mark Moore Gallery, Culver City

Okay Mountain's installation, comprised of several large-scale sculptures, blends the forms and discourses of specifically historical torture practices associated with Medieval Europe and contemporary physical fitness culture. The set of sculptures disrupts the boundaries between the contemporary and the historical encouraging dialogue to emerge around the similarities and differences across modes of socially controlling and physically altering the body. The vernacular construction and scale of the objects place the viewer into relationship with the machines in order to highlight the shifting states of having discipline applied physically and the internalized state of self-disciplining particularly as an integrated or routine part of everyday lived life.


TED RIEDERER
The Resurrectionists, 2007
Re-constructed electric guitars and electric bass, drum set, video (8:59 min.), and musical score composed with de/re-constructed instruments; dimensions variable
Courtesy of the Artist and Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans
Shipping Courtesy of Elizabeth Stevens & Company

Musician/artist Ted Riederer assembled a fictional band of punk rock survivors, called The Resurrectionists, who were filmed smashing their instruments. Riederer then swept up the remains of the instruments and painstakingly re-assembled them so that they could make music again. Using the resurrected electric guitars and drum set, Riederer, and his band The New You, then scored the slow motion video of the destruction of the instruments.


KIM RUGG
Things to Say About Dinner Guests, 2011
Reconfigured newsprint on panel, 30 panels, 22 x 12 in. each
Courtesy of Mark Moore Gallery, Culver City and P.P.O.W., New York

Kim Rugg dissects and reassembles newspapers, stamps, comic books, cereal boxes and postage stamps in order to render them conventionally illegible. Through her re-appropriation of medium and meaning, she effectively highlights the innately slanted nature of the distribution of information as well as its messengers. In this work, Rugg has harvested white space from an entire section of the New York Times (thirty panels) to individually conceal each printed letter except those that fall in sequential order.


MIKE STILKEY
Times of Uncertainty, 2011
Acrylic and Ink on Recycled Books, 96 x 144 in
Courtesy of LeBasse Projects, Los Angeles

This installation by Mike Stilkey was commissioned specifically for PULSE LA by LeBasse Projects. The artist has been commissioned for similar installations internationally by companies like Nike/Hurley, Chinese retail giant Joyce, Rice University, The International Book Fair in Milan, and the Bristol Museum in the United Kingdom.


BEN WOLF and HEIDI TULLMANN
Fame Retardant, 2011
Found wood, found metal, paint; dimensions variable
Courtesy of CHRISTINA RAY, New York

Ben Wolf and Heidi Tullmann combine the elements of scavenged materials, sign painting, and mural art in a collaborative installation. A dilapidated structure sinks into the ground as cropped sections of overlapped lettering and images add new layers of life to the forgotten materials, alluding to the  recent months the artists spent in Detroit and New Orleans.

PULSE PROJECTS AT THE STANDARD, DOWNTOWN LA AND HOLLYWOOD

BRICE BROWN
Service Everyday (Dish Queens), 2011
18th-20th-century porcelain, gilt shelves, Plexiglas; dimensions variable Courtesy of SCHROEDER ROMERO & SHREDDER, New York
Located at The Box, The Standard, Hollywood

Brice Brown's Service Everyday (Dish Queens) is a site-specific installation consisting of actual 18th-century Sévres (French) porcelain plates and free-standing sculptures comprised of vitrines containing broken pieces of antique and contemporary porcelain. The Sévres plates are used as an unexpected "drawing" element, activating space as compositional element one moment, historically important decorative object the next. The Dish Queens, as pieces of "conceptual porcelain," transition from a historical to a contemporary context, imparting valueless, broken porcelain with new life, and new value, affirming their contents as both historical record and work of art

DAVE KINSEY
Prospects of Despair II, 2011
Acrylic and ink on panel, 82 x 489 in
Courtesy of the artist and Joshua Liner Gallery, New York
Located at the 6th Street Mural, The Standard, Downtown LA

This piece is a commentary on the ultimately volatile and disruptive nature of the human species; we are in a constant battle to dominate our surroundings, and in doing so we're becoming our own worst enemies-further detaching ourselves from the reality of our natural base, and all the while seemingly naive to the cause of the loss.


NOEMIE LAFRANCE
Melt, 2010-2011
Short film, 9:50 min
Courtesy of Black & White Gallery/Project Space, Brooklyn & Sens Production
Located at the Pool Deck, The Standard, Downtown LA

Melt is a short dance film inspired by the Melt live performance work that premiered in 2003 at Black & White Gallery, Brooklyn, New York. The short film depicts a delicate, sensual, and dramatic experience of the physical body in exile and surrender. Perched on a wall and wrapped in sculptural beeswax and lanolin costumes that are slowly melting away, dancers progress in euphoria and exhaustion as if approaching the sun, melting until their souls escape their ephemeral bodies and disintegrate into light.