Cheri Gaulke premieres new video work at Otis College of Art and Design

Please join me this Sunday, September 22, 4-6 pm, for the opening of the exhibition Tapping the Third Realm and the premiere of my latest video work.

Venus

TAPPING THE THIRD REALM

SEPTEMBER 22 — DECEMBER 08, 2013

An exhibition spanning two galleries and college campuses exploring the spiritual, metaphysical and alchemical in contemporary art.

The Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design (OTIS) and the Laband Art Gallery at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) are pleased to present an exhibition of contemporary art entitled Tapping the Third Realm on view September 22 through December 8, 2013. Opening receptiontakes place on the fall equinox, Sunday, September 22, 3pm-6pm (3pm-5pm OTIS; 4pm-6pm LMU) followed by three months of related exhibition programming.

A large group exhibition, Tapping the Third Realm presents the work of thirty-four artists who deal with ideas of spirituality through four main avenues: conjuring, communication, collaboration and chance. It explores how artists tap into another dimension, whether it be a place of spirits, ideas of heaven, or the collective unconscious. Elements of magic, witchcraft, and profound attention or intuition are evident in the artists’ creative processes. In this collection of work there are portals to the spirit world, communications with the dead, spells manifested in glass, prayers as drawings, potions as paintings, and dreams transformed into sculpture. This exhibition is curated by Meg Linton, Director of Galleries and Exhibitions, Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design and Carolyn Peter, Director and Curator, Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University.

Artists in the Exhibition: Ruth Ann AndersonAnnie BuckleyChristopher BucklowJohn CageLinda EkstromClodagh EmoeAmanda Yates GarciaCliff GartenCheri GaulkeZach Harris, Philip Havice, Alicia HenryGilah Yelin HirschKyle August LindDavid LloydDane Mitchell,Christina OndrusNaida OslineSohan QadriRon Regé, Jr.Ross RudelLiza RyanBetye SaarMarie SchoeffKenzi ShiokavaLinda Stark,Andrés Torres-VivesDani TullLinda VallejoAnne Walsh and Chris KubickBryan McGovern WilsonTom WudlRebecca Tull Yates

Third Annual ONE Queer Film Fest

Please join me tomorrow when the 3rd Annual ONE Queer Film Fest will screen two short films that I executive produced that also happen to be by my daughters Marka and Xochi Maberry-Gaulke. “This PSA is Gay” was written by Marka and turned into a Claymation by students in my Harvard-Westlake Summer Film Program. “Love Our Families” is a public service announcement created by Xochi and her friend Anjoum Agrama during The Righteous Conversations Project, which brings together Holocaust survivors and teens to make PSAs about contemporary injustices. In addition, Marka and Xochi are featured as subjects in a documentary by Lisa Udelson and Catherine Opie called “Same Difference.” There’s a link to the trailer below.

There are screenings all day long and we are part of the HERE & NOW: Youth & Family Shorts Series from 1 – 2:30 PM at the REDCAT (under Disney Hall). Tickets are available at http://www.redcat.org/event/one-queer-film-festival and cost $13 in advance and $16 at the door.

The fest is a celebration of the rich cultures and diversity within our LGBT communities.  All proceeds benefit the great work of ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, the world’s largest LGBT history collection (based right here in LA)!

HERE & NOW: Youth & Family Shorts Series, 1 – 2:30 PM  

Screening followed by panel and Q&A with filmmakers including Cheri Gaulke, Marka and Xochi Maberry-Gaulke.  Panel moderated by James Gilliam, Deputy Director of ACLU Southern California.

Films include:

THIS PSA IS GAY (Miranda Kasher, George Khabbaz, Patric Verrone, Marka Maberry-Gaulke, Albert Zeng) – When a girl wears a rainbow button to school, she discovers that people’s words can sting!

THRESHOLDS (Yovani Flores) – An urban tale about pushing barriers in the moments lived between each breath.

TWO BOYS (Victor Bumbalo) – Two recently transplanted New Yorkers, a mother and her sixteen year-old-son, are lugging a Christmas tree through the streets of Los Angeles unaware of what Christmas has in store for them.

LOVE OUR FAMILIES (Anjoum Agrama, Xochi Maberry-Gaulke, Gabe Benjamin) – A Public Service Announcement that looks at the true meaning of family.

SPIRAL TRANSITION (Ewan Duarte) – A compelling, candid, and interwoven documentary exploring the filmmaker’s relationship with his mother as he transitions genders.

SAME DIFFERENCE (Lisa Udelson and Catherine Opie) – Among the cries of “What about the children?” during the debate over California’s Proposition 8, where were the voices of actual children?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylh234VWVYY&feature=youtu.be

-Cheri Gaulke

Celebrating an Artistic Collaboration between Holocaust Survivors and Teens

Join us tonight, November 15, 6:30-8:30 pm, at a Launch Celebration for Public Service Announcements from The Righteous Conversations Project. I am the artistic director for this wonderful cross-generational project that empowers teens to use media to speak out about injustices in our world. My daughter Xochi Maberrry-Gaulke participated in our pilot workshop and created one of the PSAs  with her friend Anjoum Agrama. We are currently developing new workshops for this coming summer which will be offered through Harvard-Westlake’s summer program.Tonight’s event takes place at Peter Fetterman Gallery, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue, #A1, Santa Monica, CA 90404, 310. 453-6463. Appetizers and drinks will be served. Kindly RSVP to 310. 656-2806 or [email protected].

-Cheri Gaulke

More information:

On Tuesday, November 15th the Righteous Conversations Project will be screening two new media PSA’s created by Los Angeles Teens and Holocaust Survivors in an extraordinary intergenerational workshop taught by Cheri Gaulke that took place at Harvard-Westlake last year with participation by students from Harvard-Westlake, Crossroads, and Marlborough Schools.

The Righteous Conversations project, a pilot program that connects Holocaust survivors and teens in a dialogue of remembrance and social conscience, was founded last year at Harvard-Westlake School by five students with support from Remember Us, a non-profit organization that invites personal connection to the name of one child who perished in the Holocaust in the hope that young people will honor their memory by acting, in their names, for good in the world today.

Over a one week period, students worked in partnership with the survivors, using the narratives of survivors and the nature of their personal histories as a source of inspiration for creating new media messages about a contemporary issue that resonated with the workshop participants.

The screening of the media messages and a short film documentary of the project will take place at the Peter Fetterman Gallery, one of the pioneer tenants at Bergamot Station best known for housing a vast collection of classic 20th Century photography specializing in humanist photography. Featured at the event will be a premiere exhibition of photographs of the participants of Righteous Conversations beautifully captured by Paul Ryan, an artist who has documented California history and culture for decades. paulryanphotography.com

In this photographic exhibit, Ryan explores the meaning and nuance of these historic partnerships between young Californians and elder survivors, who were themselves young at the time of the Holocaust. These photographs commemorate the momentous encounter between teens and the last generation of survivors while celebrating the intersection of memory and social consciousness.

Following the screenings, the media messages will be gifted by the teens and survivors to organizations that work to advance the causes highlighted in each of the new media messages. Organizations who will be gifted at this event will be COLAGE, Hebrew Union College Institute for Judaism and Sexual Orientation, and  Uri L’Tzedek,

For further information please contact Samara Hutman at [email protected] or by phone at (310) 656-2806

Spotlight on the composer: Wiley Webb

The composer for my Peep Totter Fly installation at LACE is Wiley Webb. Wiley is a young talent who already has a good body of work available online at http://soundcloud.com/wileywebb. I teach Video Art at Harvard-Westlake School where Wiley is a senior. Last year he asked me if he could get involved with my student filmmakers by providing audio sweetening, sound effects and original scores. I was very impressed with his work and his professsionalism. I was already working with some of my just-graduated students — Nick Lieberman was the assistant director and Gabe Benjamin was the editor — so I asked Wiley to join the team. He put together a beautiful soundtrack — a rich layering of natural sounds, many of which he gathered himself, to accompany each scene. He then added a subtle but powerful layer of tones derived from a recording session with musical artist Ananda using her voice and instruments like a harmonium, frame drum and singing bowl. I put together this video documentation for Wiley to show off his music (although the final version that I went with is a little different than this – more natural less human-generated sounds). The sound is an important aspect of the installation. It causes the video to become mesmerizing (even for me who’s seen it a million times)! But to really experience it you need to go to LACE at 6522 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028.

Peep Totter Fly was commissioned by LACE and is part of Los Angeles Goes Live: Performance Art in Southern California 1970-1983, September 27, 2011 – January 29, 2012, which is part of the Getty initiative Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945-1980. For more info go to http://www.pacificstandardtime.org/.

– Cheri Gaulke

Peep, Totter, Fly on Hollywood Blvd

Peep Totter Fly: Cheri Gaulke at LACE

photos by Paul Redmond http://paul-redmond.com/

Here are a few shots from my performance Peep Totter Fly at LACE on September 27. Performers in white activated my wall of red high heels by putting them on and walking on Hollywood Boulevard. When they returned to the gallery they offered the shoes to the audience and all mayhem was unleashed as people tried on the red high heels. I’ve got shoes in women’s sizes 5-16 which means they fit men sized 6.5-17.5 or so. The wall of shoes is meant to be interactive and viewers are allowed to wear the shoes while in the gallery. I have found that men really get a kick out of this as they have been curious about what it feels like but have never had a chance to try on shoes that would fit them.

So I invite anyone and everyone to come check out the installation which will be open through January 29, 2012. The installation is more than a wall of high heels. It has a beautiful video of high-heeled legs walking through natural environments – slogging through streams, lavafields, beaches, geo-thermal sites and against dramatic vistas. It was shot in locations as varied as Los Angeles, Death Valley and Iceland. There’s also a lovely sound score that makes the video quite mesmerizing. For more info and the hours of LACE, go to http://www.losangelesgoeslive.org/. All photos in this post are by Paul Redmond.

– Cheri Gaulke