FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sky Burchard "No Point Takes Up Space" video game sculpture
September 16--October 21, 2006
The exhibition celebration: Saturday, September 16, 7:00 to 11:00 p.m.
1020 E. Fourth Place (between Molino and Mateo Sts.), Los Angeles, CA 90013
Contact: Tim Quinn or Kathryn Hargreaves
213-617-8483
E-mail, events@dangerouscurve.org
Web site, http://dangerouscurve.org
Hours, Wednesday – Saturday, 1-6pm
Sky Burchard "No Point Takes Up Space" video game sculpture
at Dangerous Curve, a Downtown Exhibition and Performance/Live Art Space
Los Angeles, CA - Ever wanted to live inside a video game? Now you can at Dangerous Curve, at Sky Burchard's "No Point Takes Up Space" sculpture exhibit. Step inside the mind of a great artist/hacker. The exhibition celebration is on Saturday, September 16, 2006, from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. Live art and music TBA, with the usual great vegan food prepared by our master vegan chef, John Saslow. The exhibit is up until October 21, 2006. See our website http://dangerouscurve.org for directions, pictures, and updates.
We're located at 1020 East Fourth Place, between Molino and Mateo Streets, in the back of the 500 Molino Street Lofts, #102, between the Fourth Street Bridge's (on the LA River side of downtown) two on/off ramps.
Burchard writes that he "was intensely analytic" as a child. He didn't just play with toys---he "would find their seams, test their strength, take them apart, put them back together, and exaggerate the way they were intended to be used." As with Richard Feynmann, the famous physicist, he has always been interested in how things are made, how they work. "Now I take things apart as I consume them," he writes. "I cannot thoroughly enjoy something if I am not taking it apart as it is coming together in front of me." He deconstructs movies as he watches them, video games as he plays them. "Avid gamers know that the best way to beat a game is to see what is behind the surface, behind the graphics and the narrative, down to the code," he writes. In fact, that is how Burchard makes art, going "about living, analyzing things, consuming them, poking holes in them while appreciating them."
This show highlights one leg of Burchard's multifarious output: his video game environments. He prefers light games to horror ones. His "Emerald Hill Zone/Act 2" is a 10-foot-long 3D version of the grass in the "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" game. He played the game when he was a child and always wanted to be inside it. In the game, we see the 2D version of the grass. Burchard "imagines" the 3D version of it, opting not for a relief, but a full-blown 3D version. He imports the image into Flash, makes a 3D template for it in Maya, snaps to grid to get measurements for cutting the parts out of EPS foam, cuts the foam, paints it, and assembles the pieces. He works bottom-up, building up works from small pieces. Nevertheless, Burchard learned from his employer Yutaka Sone not to get too detailed.
Burchard makes his "Blue Set" furniture pieces from the "Animal Crossing" game with texture maps on polystyrene, with more foam. They depict the way the game's objects are built out of 2D elements to appear 3D. He extrapolates the inner workings of various computer applications to sculpture fabrication. For instance, he noted that when one flips an image in computer graphics, one reverses the image rows, but if one "flips" each pixel-high row, one gets the same image. In "upside-down chair," he slices an IKEA children's chair horizontally, turns each slice upside down, and reassembles the chair with each slice in its respective position horizontally. The result is a chair that is globally right-side-up, but locally upside-down.
Burchard holds a BFA from UCLA and an MFA from USC. He's been seen in numerous group exhibits at such places as Black Dragon Society, Bowie Van Valen, Raid Projects, Shenandoah House, and Akiyoshidai in Japan.
Come see this beautiful show and be transported into worlds you never thought you'd visit.
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Dangerous Curve related events:
September 23: Surrealestate http://www.soundcommons.org/Members/JeffSchwartz, a long-running improvising group of variable membership, with Phil Curtis (laptop), Bruce Friedman (trumpet), Jonathon Grasse (guitar), Emily Hay (flute and voice), Ken Luey (reeds), David Martinelli (percussion), Robert Reigle (tenor sax), and Jeff Schwartz (double bass).
September 30: Singer Esperanza http://www.montibon.com/esperanza.html, our contemporary Jenny Lind, plus Line Space Line's Jeremy Drake <http://jeremydrake.com> with others TBA.
More good things being added by the moment. Check http://dangerouscurve.org for updates/changes and subscribe to our email list to get announcements.
Also:
Kathryn Hargreaves teaches Body Awareness classes, incorporating Kundalini Yoga and actual artmaking, at Dangerous Curve for all types of art people. A new class is starting up on Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m., just after the Arts District neighborhood walk. Call (213) 617-8483 if you need more information.
Take a look at our column, Dangerous Blurb, on http://eyespyla.com, where we write occasionally about art collecting and other things art-related.
Artists, submit your art for art-in-windows installations in Los Angeles County. Dangerous Curve sometimes curates for Phantom Galleries LA http://phantomgalleriesla.com. See the website for submission information. This is an ongoing open call for installation art, sculpture, video or new media, 2D visual art, and even live art/visual art performance.
Check out the new free newspaper, The Arts District Citizen http://theartsdistrictcitizen.com, published in The Arts District and distributed throughout the city. Tim Quinn and Kathryn Hargreaves contribute writings on art and other things.
Sign up for Kathryn Hargreaves's Kundalini Yoga workshops, with an emphasis on using that physical technology to enhance creativity at Bashtet Movement Studio, 201 S. Santa Fe, Suite 200, Los Angeles, 90012. (213) 680-YOGA.
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Dangerous Curve is a leading contemporary art space in the Arts District of Los Angeles. It is a privately run venue for live art/visual art performance, experimental art and music, and installations. The gallery supports visionary established and emerging artists of all ages, with live art residencies and one-person shows of high-quality risky and intelligent work that's ahead of the curve.
We are always looking for submissions of live art, installation art, and experimental sculpture. See our submissions page link on http://dangerouscurve.org.
Visit our website at http://dangerouscurve.org. Sign up for email announcements, see photos of past exhibits and events! Support our vital art community by donating to our Events and Openings Fund! Buy some art online, book parties in the space! Rent Dangerous Curve for non-art-show events! Have your wedding, private/corporate party, CD release party, you name it! Call (213) 617-8483.
Another way to support Dangerous Curve is to buy an ad in The Arts District Citizen http://theartsdistrictcitizen.com. We get a portion of the ad price! Contact us at events@dangerouscurve.org for more information.
A huge thank you to our supporters, The Dale and Edna Walsh Foundation, Kate Bartolo of The Kor Group, and others listed on our sponsor page. Because of their and your generous support, Dangerous Curve is able to make a difference by helping emerging artists and educating the community about high-quality art.
