Darin Klein & Friends

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Tilt-Shift LA: New Queer Perspectives on the Western Edge

2012-01-29T11:59:00.001-08:00

Opening reception crowd

Opening reception performance by Our Lady J

Darin Klein & Friends Present
Tilt-Shift LA: New Queer Perspectives on the Western Edge

January 28 – February 25, 2012

Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
2685 S La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 838-6000
www.luisdejesus.com

Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday, 10am - 6pm
special program hours
and by appointment

Tilt-Shift LA is a complete success! The installation of the artworks turned out fantastic. The opening reception was packed with a crowd of interesting and engaging people. Old friends and new turned up to show support. The highlight of the evening was the intense and exciting performance by Our Lady J.

Still ahead at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles as part of Tilt-Shift LA:

Sunday, February 12, 12-6pm: ‘Zine Fest 2012!
Peruse and purchase publications from local creators and purveyors: 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves, Double Break Gallery and Shop, Glaciers of Nice, itch, JIMMY, Night Papers, prvtdncr & bodega vendetta, Public Fiction, Christopher Russell, spunk (1993-96), Starrfucker, and more. Plus free reading material from The Miracle Bookmobile!

Saturday, February 18, 6-8pm: itch
Experience an intimate and intense dance performance by members of the itch community, whose interests and practices converge in a happenstance yet curiously fortuitous bricolage. itch is an evolving art project qua artist forum cum journal/‘zine published in LA.

Admission to all programs is free of charge

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Box of Books, Hammer Edition

2012-01-24T22:25:00.000-08:00

Box of Books, Hammer Edition. Photo by Emily Anne Kuriyama.

Saturday, January 21, 2012
Box of Books: Hammer Edition
Workshop (pre-registration required): 12-3pm
Release party with live performance by Dunes: 3-4pm
Hammer Museum

Hammer Student Association (HSA) invited me to give a 'zine making workshop. From concept to execution, attendees learned self-publishing in one afternoon. The end result was an edition of 100 boxes containing all of the 'zines created. It was a blast! 29 UCLA students registered and attended, a ton of HSA volunteers helped out, and Dunes played a live set during the release party. It was an inspired and enthusiastic group, and the quality and variety of the 'zines produced is truly amazing. Thank you to everyone who came out to participate and support this workshop.

Hard at work making 'zines! Photo by Emily Anne Kuriyama.

Dunes perform LIVE! Photo by Emily Anne Kuriyama.

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Tilt-Shift LA: New Queer Perspectives on the Western Edge

2011-12-27T16:12:00.000-08:00

Brandon Andrew
Keep Ya Head Up (In memory of my cousin Trevor), 2011
Glass tube, neon gas, electrical hardware, shelf
14 x 12 x 8 inches

January 28 – February 25, 2012
Darin Klein & Friends Present
Tilt-Shift LA: New Queer Perspectives on the Western Edge

Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
2685 S La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 838-6000
luisdejesus.com

Hours:
Tuesday through Saturday, 10am - 6pm,
special program hours, and by appointment

Brandon Andrew, Zackary Drucker = A. L. Steiner, Deanna Erdmann, Matthew Greene, Abel Baker Gutierrez, Lia Halloran, Danny Jauregui, Matt Lipps, prvtdncr & bodega vendetta, Christopher Russell & Halle Tate, George Stoll, Suzanne Wright

“Tilt-shift" refers to the use of camera movements typically employed in creating a simulated environment or miniature scene. The term in this context is well suited to Los Angeles-based queer artists who do not shy away from exploring and exploiting the visibility of a specific timeframe and geographic location, skewing and adjusting concepts of queerness to illuminate individual ideals. Much of the art in Tilt-Shift LA has been created specifically for this exhibition, while key pieces from the past half-decade were sourced from the artists’ studios, and several very recent works not shown previously now reach the public.

A series of free exhibition-related programs are presented within the gallery during the run of the exhibition:

Saturday, January 28, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m
Opening reception and performance by Our Lady J

Sunday, February 12, 12:00 to 6:00 p.m.
‘Zine Fest 2012!

Saturday, February 18, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
itch dance performance

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Box of Books, Vol. IV Release Party

2011-11-25T13:49:00.000-08:00

Box of Books, Vol. IV

Sunday, December 11, 2011
4-7pm
Box of Books, Vol. IV Release Party
Live Performance: Sun Foot
Exhibition Closing Party: Double Breaks
Free admission

Double Break
1821 5th Avenue
San Diego, CA 92101
www.doublebreakstore.com

Darin Klein & Friends touch down at Double Break in San Diego for the release of the latest in the ongoing Box of Books series. This unique and affordable boxed set of 20 artist-made ‘zines is perfect for collectors and gift-givers alike! A limited edition of 100, don’t miss your chance to grab one.

Box of Books, Vol. IV showcases the work of Heather Benjamin, AA Bronson & Ryan Brewer, Julia Dzwonkoski & Kye Potter, Brennan Gerard & Ryan Kelly, Abel Baker Gutierrez, Darren Ankenbauer (Handbook Magazine), Johanna Jackson, Chris Johanson, Christopher Kardambikis, Dawn Kasper, David Larsen, Sarah Locke, Jeaneen Lund, Francesca Mirabella, Zac Monday, Erwin Ong, Davy Rothbart, Jen Smith, Chris Vargas & Greg Youmans, and e war.

Sun Foot: Songs in the Key of R, B & C

Portland, OR and Los Angeles based trio Sun Foot create barely amplified, feel-good vibes on electric guitar and bass nicely intertwining with analog and digital percussion. At live gigs, they deliver spare, honest jams filled with friendly humor to appreciative audiences. Join Sun Foot on the San Diego leg of a California tour supporting their new LP, Songs in the Key of R, B & C, on Awesome Vistas/Teenage Teardrops. Recent appearances include a Quiet Fruit Party in the Los Feliz Hills and legendary venue The Smell in downtown LA; Breeze Block Gallery in Portland, OR; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Oh – did you know that one time they even played on a barge at Art Basel, Switzerland? Sun Foot members are Ron Burns (IS and Amen, again Amen), Brian Mumford (IS, Collectivo and Dragging an Ox through Water), and Awesome Vistas record label founder and Box of Books, Vol. IV contributor Chris Johanson (IS, Deepthroats and Tina, Age 13).

Exhibition Closing Party: Double Breaks

Tonight is also the closing party for the fifth Double Break exhibition, Double Breaks. Co-curated by artists Jay Howell and Louis M. Schmidt, Double Breaks brings together 30 artists working in nearly as many styles. The show features a slew of fantastic artists, including Box of Books, Vol. IV contributor Christopher Kardambikis, 80’s skateboarding legend Neil Blender, iconic comics artist Bill Griffith (creator of Zippy the Pinhead), plus widely exhibited artists like Thomas Campbell, Mel Kadel and Travis Millard.

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Box of Books, Vol. IV Release Party

2011-11-07T21:18:00.000-08:00

Volunteers Phil, Lauren and Angat

Interactive Performance: To Know End by Zac Monday

A glimpse of the awesome crowd!

The Box of Books, Vol. IV release party was amazing! Big thanks to the huge crowd of over 200 supporters, revelers and enthusiasts who came to check out the latest volume of Box of Books! The success of this fantastic event is greatly due to the generosity of our hosts, Human Resources. I want to give a giant thanks to all the artists involved in the project this year, and to the following individuals who all contributed your talent and dedication: Peter J. Brant, Dawn Kasper, Christopher Russell, Camille Thoma, and my volunteers Angat, Lauren and Phil.

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Box of Books, Vol. IV Release Party

2011-10-03T02:12:00.000-07:00

Saturday, November 5, 2011
Darin Klein & Friends Present
Box of Books, Vol. IV Release Party
6-10pm
Free admission

Human Resources
410 Cottage Home
Los Angeles, CA 90012
humanresourcesla.com

Human Resources welcomes you to celebrate the release of a unique and dynamic independent publishing endeavor. For the fourth consecutive year, Darin Klein & Friends present the collaborative 'zine project Box of Books. An all-new selection of artists and friends has learned to make their very own simple booklet using a single piece of paper and a specific folding technique. The outcome is an edition of 100 boxes, all containing each of the participants’ work - a diverse and exciting mix of images and texts, and a broad range of styles and concepts.

Box of Books, Vol. IV showcases the work of Heather Benjamin, Ryan Brewer & AA Bronson, Julia Dzwonkoski & Kye Potter, Brennan Gerard & Ryan Kelly, Abel Baker Gutierrez, Handbook Magazine (Darren Ankenbauer), Johanna Jackson, Chris Johanson, Christopher Kardambikis, Dawn Kasper, David Larsen, Sarah Locke, Jeaneen Lund, Francesca Mirabella, Zac Monday, Erwin Ong, Davy Rothbart, Jen Smith, Chris Vargas & Greg Youmans, and e war.

At this one-night only launch party and reception, the public is invited to peruse the contents of the box, which is available to purchase for $20.00 per box. Also in store for the evening are the accompanying Mini-Exhibition, Interactive Performances and Super-Short Film Screening – all featuring Box of Books, Vol. IV participants.

Mini-Exhibition: Julia Dzwonkoski & Kye Potter | Jeaneen Lund | Christopher Kardambikis | Jen Smith

Julia Dzwonkoski & Kye Potter. Dining Room Table, 2011. Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches

Jeaneen Lund. Mecca, 2011. Color photograph, 15 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches

Christopher Kardambikis. Housebuilding 4, 2011. Multi-pass inkjet print and ink on paper. 21 x 15 inches

Jen Smith. Forever, 2005. Satin on cotton, 60 x 36 inches

Jen Smith. Now, 2005. Satin on cotton, 60 x 36 inches

Interactive Performance: To Know End by Zac Monday

Zac Monday. Untitled (Sketch for a performance at Human Resources), 2011. Ink on paper, 8 1/2 x 11 inches

Super-Short Film Screening: Gerard and Kelly in collaboration with Chelsea Knight | Francesca Mirabella | Chris Vargas and Greg Youmans

Gerard and Kelly in collaboration with Chelsea Knight. Still from Boxes, 2010

Francesca Mirabella. Still from Mistakes Were Made, 2011

Chris Vargas and Greg Youmans. Still from Falling in Love… With Chris and Greg. Oh la la! Paris Special, 2010

Also on view at Human Resources:
Molly Larkey: The Lost Alphabet, Pants That Fit, and Other Implausible Disguises
Through November 11, 2011

With an ever-expanding network of friends, Darin Klein curates exhibitions and organizes arts programming, simultaneously producing, collecting and promoting artists' publications and independent media.

Human Resources is a team of creative individuals which seeks to broaden engagement with contemporary and conceptual art, with an emphasis on performative and underexposed modes of expression. Human Resources is entirely volunteer run and seeks to foster widespread public appreciation of the performative arts by encouraging maximum community access. Human Resources also serves as a point of convergence for diverse and disparate art communities to engage in conversation and idea-sharing promoting the sustainability of non-traditional art forms.

DRUMSTICK at Outfest/Platinum

2011-06-27T21:38:00.000-07:00

DRUMSTICK production still by Eve Fowler

DRUMSTICK production still by Eve Fowler

DRUMSTICK production still by Eve Fowler

DRUMSTICK
A film by Deanna Erdmann & Darin Klein
Cinematography: Rhys Ernst
Followed by: Community Action Center
A film by A.L. Steiner & A.K. Burns

Friday, July 8, 2011
9:30pm
REDCAT Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
631 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Buy tickets: www.outfest.org

Darin Klein speaks with Deanna Erdmann about DRUMSTICK

Darin Klein: You asked me to be in a film with you. We watched some late-‘70s gay pornography to prepare for the shoot. Can you describe the original film that actually inspired DRUMSTICK and the thought process that led you to “remake” it?

Deanna Erdmann: I love gay male porn and this film is one of my favorite memories. I first saw the film that inspired DRUMSTICK in 2004 over an evening of film and drinks. It was an iconic COLT production: foreplay included glistening men with handlebar moustaches feeding each other fried chicken in a hot tub. The sun was bright and the water was turquoise blue, very Southern California. I fixated on the drumstick and for years have wanted to make an homage to this film.

When starting this project, I was unable to locate the film. I watched a lot of COLT films along the way, mostly with the guy who works at Video Active, on all the monitors around the video store. Ultimately, I couldn’t find it, and this phantom source material for our collaboration became part of our oral histories. It is not about remembering what actually happened, but what I remember happening.

What role did hearing about the film play for you? I asked you to collaborate with me, and you said YES. Can you tell me what you found interesting in the project?

DK: I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to work with one of my favorite artists. Whether you’re shooting work with human subjects, making experimental animations, or deferring to structuralism, I feel a meditative quality running through all of the work you make.

I’ve seen my share of vintage gay porn. There’s a certain aesthetic quality to it that can’t be matched by today’s technical processes. Not to mention the body types, fashions, and overall style of fucking going on – it’s all totally different today. So I just went there in my imagination when you described the original. It was interesting for me as a cisgender male to inhabit the role of a transman. Transgender and gendervariant culture, identities and politics are very close to my heart. But after you asked me, I started over-thinking the concept. I was trying to introduce a plot or give the film some sort of narrative. I thought maybe we needed to rewind a bit, kind of explain trans identities, give transmale identity a context. You gently steered me away from that and we made what I think is a simple, humorous and beautiful film. Though we circled back to your original idea, the process was very collaborative.

DE: Simple, humorous and beautiful; I completely agree. I love that we focused on a small gesture, and let it unfold like a landscape. For me, that is narrative.

DK: The theme of switching came into play making this film. I’m thinking of bodies, gender and maybe even dominant/submissive sexual roles. Another theme that emerged was substitution: vegan chicken legs, prosthetic genitalia, fabricated facial hair.

DE: Present from the beginning of the collaboration, substitutions and switching permeate the film and its making. It began with a narration of something palpable and experienced, but not materially available. We created an image from something uttered. I think in the switching and substituting we were being playful with realness. Remember, we matched my soft pack to yours?

DK: Yes! When we were checking them out at the shop, I think I said, “Well, what size cock would you like to have?” We went with the one that was exactly like mine! I felt a fondness for it because it was so familiar to me. We also went shopping for something else we needed - binders. In the finished film, the audience doesn’t see much of our bound chests or anything below that. Can you talk about whether or not it was important to have these items since they are not on camera?

DE: Wardrobe is transformative. We knew what we were wearing. In a restrictive form, think about what happens ideologically when kids wear school uniforms; there’s a psychological effect.

I think part of wardrobe and style is cultural grafting. You can attach, insert or tie anything you want to your body, and there it continues to grow, developing and becoming in an environment with new chemistry. I think ideas can function in a similar way.

DK: There was a real sense of community surrounding the shoot. Access to Lawrence’s hot tub was a key element. Rhys Ernst was invaluable as the lighting director and cinematographer. Jenn Kolmel deconstructed our kooky costume mustaches and made them quite realistic by incorporating hair that was cut from our very own heads. Eve Fowler shot tons of amazing stills.

DE: Totally. Lawrence’s Jacuzzi was beyond ideal and idyllic. It’s a queer location that has its own energy. Rhys was also a fabulous contribution and wonderful to work with.

I look hot in a mustache, and that’s Jenn’s doing.

DK: You are incredibly sexy with a mustache. Look at the production stills!

DE: Eve’s photographs are incredible. During the shoot, Bobbi Jablonski and Jenn helped by holding bounce cards and diffusers, it felt very community based.

DK: It was an incredible experience making this film with you and all the people who helped us out.

END

Darin Klein & Friends Present: 2nd Annual Queer Pile-up!

2011-01-24T23:46:00.000-08:00

An empty studio...

Margo Graxeda's flyer design

Installation shot!

Installation shot!

Installation shot!

Installation shot!

Abel Baker Gutierrez: Artist, DJ, Gentleman

Miracle Bookmobile: Kelly rolls up in the jeep and unloads free reading material

Just like we promised: Queer Pile-up!

January 22
Darin Klein & Friends present with Suzanne Wright
2nd Annual Queer Pile-up!
Plus... 'zine release party for
21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves #2 & #3
Collective Show Los Angeles 2011 Satellite Event

Another smashing success, the 2nd Annual Queer Pile-up! proved beyond doubt that local queer artists working in all mediums are an industrious, thoughtful and motivated bunch. With over 200 guests coming through the doors during the evening and 40 artist participants, the outcome was truly inspired and inspiring. Paintings, drawings, photos, book arts, sculpture, community outreach, videos, wearables, ‘zines and performance shared a nurturing and welcoming space. The result was surprisingly cohesive given the premise of the show: a temporarily repurposed storefront studio cleared out for one evening, filled with art on a drop-in basis, and cleared out again at the end of the night. Big thanks to Amy Adler for once again loaning us her studio!

To round it all out, two new issues of Darin Klein and Suzanne Wright’s ‘zine, 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves, were displayed, celebrated, flipped through and enjoyed.

Participants:
Laida Aguirre, Eden Batki, Math Bass, Larissa Brantner James, Cake and Eat it Collective, Young Chung, Kelly Cline, Christopher Dibble, Nathalie Dierickx, Zackary Drucker, Deanna Erdmann, Mariah Garnett, Paul Gellman, Margo Graxeda, Abel Baker Gutierrez, Michael Hayden, Dawn Kasper, Kim Kelly, Darin Klein, Christopher Kreiling, Anthony Lepore, Dylan Mira, Miracle Bookmobile/Kelly Besser, Zac Monday, Leon Mostovoy, Deirdre Novella, Tyler Matthew Oyer, Karl Pushlik, Charles Rosenberg, Christopher Russell, Jimena Sarno, Darwin Serink, Elisa Shea, Al Sky & Marija Gaier, Nico Solario, Marisa Suárez-Orozco, Sweaterqueens (prvtdncr & bodega vendetta), Martha Windahl, Suzanne Wright, Brenna Youngblood

Collective Show Los Angeles 2011

2011-01-15T20:43:00.000-08:00

Onya Hogan-Finlay, Lesbian Ethics after Hoagland and Biren, 2011.
Watercolor under Sarah Lucia Hoagland's book Lesbian Ethics: Toward New Values (1988), framed page from Joan E. Biren's book Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians (1979) (detail)

Darin Klein & Friends present
Onya Hogan-Finlay
In…
Collective Show Los Angeles 2011
995, 997 North Hill Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Reception: Thurs, Jan 20, 6-9pm
Hours: Fri-Sun, Jan 21-23, 12-6pm & Thurs-Sun, Jan 27-30, 12-6pm

Collective Show Los Angeles 2011 is an exhibition of artwork, publications and posters from over 20 local artist-run spaces and projects formed in the past five years. Screenings, performances and talks will take place during the exhibition. Catalogue available.
collectiveshow.org/LA/

&

Darin Klein & Friends with Suzanne Wright present
2nd Annual Queer Pile-up!
Plus... 'zine release party for 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves #2 & #3
Collective Show Los Angeles 2011 Satellite Event
At Amy Adler's Echo Park Studio
1296 Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Sat, Jan 22
Install 6-7pm
Exhibition/performances 7-10pm
FREE ADMISSION

Local queer artists are invited to participate in this one-night only event. All mediums welcome, with wall and floor space available on a first-come, first-served basis. Artists supply everything they need to install their work. Performers come prepared with all equipment, power cords, props, etc. Last year's wildly successful drop-in DIY experience attracted 29 visual artists and performers. Work must be installed and de-installed on the night of the event. Two new issues of 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves available for purchase: $10 each, editions of 100.

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Box of Books, Vol. III

2011-01-13T01:25:00.000-08:00

Darin Klein & Friends booth at MoMA PS1

Plus: hankie edition, postcards and drawings by Box of Books, Vol. III contributor Onya Hogan-Finlay

Box of Books, Vol. III
Printed Matter’s 5th Annual NY Art Book Fair
MoMA PS1
Nov 4-7, 2010

Featuring the work of Sonja Ahlers, Rich Bott, Sarah Cain, Keith Carollo & Chris Bick, Michael Dates, Jef Diesel, Epsilon + Epsilon, Deanna Erdmann, Michael Hayden, Onya Hogan-Finlay, Anthony Lepore, Matt Lipps, Noah Lyon, Amos Mac, Kirk Maxson, M. Pernod, PJB, Sumi Ink Club, Carla Verea & Francisca Rivero-Lake, Kate Wolf and Austin Young. Fall 2010.

We ride them and Tingel-Tangel

2010-11-15T18:05:00.000-08:00

We ride them and Tingel-Tangel
October 21- December 4, 2010
20 years of independent publications
by Darin Klein
Curated by Margaret Tedesco

Edition available - text by Christopher Russell

BRX PROJECT SPACE
Baer Ridgway Exhibitions
172 Minna Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 6pm
www.baerridgway.com
tel 415.777.1366

Installation shot of my books, made between 1991 and 2010

Photocopied and tiled wall installation - an homage to independent publications (all taken from work in my collection)

Photocopied and tiled wall installation - an homage to independent publications (all taken from work in my collection)

Cliff Hengst performs in conjunction with my artist lecture (video installation by Mads Lynnerup. Photo by Karla Milosevich)

We ride them and Tingel-Tangel

2010-10-13T01:36:00.001-07:00

Portrait of the artist by Jeaneen Lund

We ride them and Tingel-Tangel
October 21- December 4, 2010
20 years of independent publications
by Darin Klein
Curated by Margaret Tedesco

BRX PROJECT SPACE
Baer Ridgway Exhibitions
172 Minna Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 21, 5pm - 8pm
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 6pm
www.baerridgway.com
tel 415.777.1366

Saturday October 23, 2:00pm
Performance: Cliff Hengst
Exhibition walk-through and artist lecture: Darin Klein
'Zine release: 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves #2 & #3 ($10 each)

Darin Klein & Suzanne Wright present: 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves #2 featuring Ron Abram, Brandon Andrew, Artist Curated Projects, Cody Bayne, Alex Black & Samuel White w/ Closetboy, Lindsay Brant, Timothy Cummings, Cathy de la Cruz, Nathalie Dierickx, Deanna Erdmann, Fag Punk, Ella Gant, Sam Gordon, Jeremiah Gregory, Nicholas Grider, Lia Halloran, Jim Hanson, Hi Fashion, Onya Hogan-Finlay, David Humphrey, Larissa Brantner James, Jonesy, David King, Anthony Lepore, Joe Mama-Nitzberg & Marc Swanson, Kirk Maxson, Lucas Michael, Zac Monday, Leon Mostovoy, Erwin Ong, Paul Pescador, Clifford Landon Pun, Christopher Russell, Steven Reigns, Christopher Schulz, Ethan Shoshan, Max Steele, Doug Stockstill, Sweaterqueens, Margaret Tedesco, Philip Tomaru, Chris Vargas & Greg Youmans, Rob Williams, Marty Windahl, Charles Herman Wurmfeld, Joe Yorty, Austin Young

Darin Klein & Suzanne Wright present: 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves #3 featuring Noël Alumit & Manuel Falcon Padua, Adam J. Ansell, Eden Batki, JohnJoseph Bibby, Erich Bolmann, Micha Cardenas & Elle Mehrmand, Kelly Cline, Malene Dam, Antonio Diaz, Christopher Dibble, Tracy Dishman, Ben Evans, Frankie Fever, Kris Grey, David Gilbert, Hilary Goldberg, Abel Baker Gutierrez, Michael T. Harrison, Michael Hayden, Kate Hoffman, Nadine Hottenrott, Daniel Ingroff, Jason Jenn, Kevin Killian, Molly Larkey, Ian MacKinnon, Martin Masetto, Jason Mecier, Jason Fritz Michael, Sharon Molloy, Grace Moon, Magritte Nankin, Kean O’Brien, Billy O’Callaghan, Tyler Matthew Oyer, Andrew Printer, Iana Quesnell, Lawrence Rinder, Jim Schatz & J.G.R., Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Angela Smith, Molly Stinchfield, Marc Swanson, Irwin Swirnoff, Carla Verea & Francisca Rivero-Lake, Jim Winters, The Yes Men, Justin Yockel

Exhibition related edition:
A Transcription of the Audio Tour
Darin Klein Childhood Home and Museum
Clovis, California
16-page publication, full-color
Text: Christopher Russell / Photographs: Jeaneen Lund
Published by [ 2nd floor projects ] and Baer Ridgway Exhibitions ($9)

Working with an ever-expanding network of friends, Darin Klein curates and organizes exhibitions and arts programming, simultaneously producing, collecting and promoting artists' publications and independent media. A recipient of Printed Matter's Awards for Artists this year, he has been creating, exhibiting, and distributing solo and collaborative independent publications for nearly two decades. Recent curatorial endeavors include Christopher Russell's Hammer Project at the Hammer Museum and a series of exhibitions and related public programs at Amy Adler's Echo Park Studio, both in Los Angeles. A regular exhibitor at Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair since 2007, Klein's recent publishing projects include Box of Books, Vols. I-III and 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves #1-3.

Christopher Russell is an artist, writer, and academic vagabond based in Los Angeles, currently teaching at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. He received his BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1998 and his MFA from Art Center College of Design in 2004. From 2001 to 2005 Russell edited, designed, produced, and distributed the destroy-to-enjoy literary art magazine Bedwetter. Landscape, a monograph of Russell's work, was published in 2007 by Kolapsomal Press. He wrote and edited the exhibition catalog, Against the Grain, which accompanied his 2008 curatorial debut at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. His illustrated novella, Budget Decadence, appeared earlier this year through 2nd Cannons Publications. His first novel, Sniper, will be published in early 2011. Russell has written over two dozen articles about contemporary art and has exhibited internationally, including a solo exhibition at the Hammer Museum, and upcoming solo installations at Luis De Jesus, Los Angeles and the NADA Art Fair in Miami. Russell's work is included in the collections of The J.P. Getty Museum; Rhode Island School of Design Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles; The Hammer Museum; Tom of Finland Foundation, and New York University/Fales Library.

Cliff Hengst is an artist based in San Francisco. His wall drawings, paintings, and performances have been included in numerous exhibitions including Marella Arte (Milan, Italy) and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Gallery 16, and [ 2nd floor projects ] (San Francisco, CA). He has worked collaboratively with Larry Rinder at Testsite in Austin, TX, and with Scott Hewicker on Good Times: Bad Trips, a book dedicated to the phenomena of the bad drug trip. Over 50 contributors (including noted artists Devendra Banhart, Tony Labat, and Chris Johanson) recount their bad trips, each paired with photographs, paintings and collages by Hewicker and Hengst. Hengst has an exhibition currently on view at Gallery 16, San Francisco. For the Baer Ridgway exclusive, CLIFF HENGST performs a ritualistic delivery of the brand new Darin Klein & Friends 'zines, 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves #2 & #3.

Playing Dumb

2010-09-11T10:48:00.000-07:00

Brandon Andrew

Tyler Calkin

Abel Baker Gutierrez

Laura Marchetti

Zac Monday

Nathan Lam Vuong

Playing Dumb Back Room Salon

Playing Dumb
Organized by
Abel Baker Gutierrez & Zac Monday

Saturdays from 7-10pm
September 18 through October 9, 2010
Amy Adler’s Echo Park Studio
1296 Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Brandon Andrew
Tyler Calkin
Abel Baker Gutierrez
Laura Marchetti
Zac Monday
Nathan Lam Vuong

Free admission
Free beer (you bring, OK?)

Friends and strangers alike are invited to a month-long exploration of literal and metaphoric applications of the term “Playing Dumb” through visual and performance art programming. Once again providing a site for experimentation, community building, participation and dialogue, Amy Adler offers her studio to up-and-coming artists whose unique visions need a temporary home and a chance to play.

September 18
Musical chairs + DJ sets by Brandon Andrew

September 25
Storytime with Laura Marchetti + DJ performance by Abel Baker Gutierrez

October 2
Playtime with Tyler Calkin + DJ sets with Abel Baker Gutierrez

October 9
Tarot readings by Zac Monday & Friends
CD listening party: Tarot of the Witches by Tomek Fior
‘Zine release party: Playing Dumb by the Playing Dumb artists (limited edition!)

Playing Dumb - the 'zine!

Brandon Andrew (1982) is speaking in the third person about himself and trying to define who and what he is through the objects he produces in an altermodern dialect to sound more contemporaneous and institutionally structured. Sadly, much like his work, he fails at accomplishing said act and just lets it all fall apart in a big ol’ WAH WAH but hey cheer up, you can pop the balloons at the end of the show. Brandon defines himself as the looped version of the Song That Never Ends by Lamb Chop on a record player with dying batteries. His interest, production, and execution lie within those last four minutes of battery life. He received his BFA in 2010 and works predominantly in sculptural movement.

Tyler Calkin uses participatory sculpture, performance, and video to investigate the relationships between social expectation and physical awareness. A California native but a newcomer to Los Angeles, Tyler has exhibited his work in the United States and Canada. He received his bachelor’s degree from Whitman College in 2009, and is currently an MFA candidate at the California Institute of the Arts.tylercalkin.com

Abel Gutierrez was born and raised in Southern California. Finding inspiration in subjects ranging from rock music's aesthetic trends to Internet subcultures to old master paintings, Gutierrez experiments with art materials and photography to create portraits and installations that reflect our obsession with youth culture and explore issues of 'growing up'. Abel will graduate with an MFA from CalArts in Spring 2011.abelgutierrez.com

Laura Marchetti was raised in Ocoee, Florida, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. She makes paintings and sculptures about growing up steeped in Southern Baptist rituals and lexicon, asking the viewer to consider the residual aspects of indoctrination. Her latest series of paintings and comic books were created at the Hambidge Artist Residency Program after researching abroad in Cluj, Romania. She binds books, curates shows, and makes comics. She graduated from California Institute of the Arts in May 2009, with a BFA in Art and is currently the Director of Education at Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock.

Zac Monday (1985) is an MFA student at University of California in San Diego. He received his BFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007, while an active participant in the Richmond art community. His crochet work and drawings are animated through emotional rituals and mystical experiences that dictate how a viewer and the maker interact with work. The constant question of comfortability is etched into figures that exist and should not exist; they are an accumulation of fantasies but must reside in reality.

Nathan Lam Vuong was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi to Vietnamese refugees. His videos, photography, watercolors, karaoke works, installations, and performances deal with Asian-American culture and the nuances of loneliness and confusion in dating. A graduate of the University of Miami, he trekked from Florida to California to pursue an MFA at CalArts. In 2009, he performed with the group J-Lep for Machine Projects at LACMA. Recently he has been producing a weekly comic strip, Post-Ironic, for TheHeatLightning.com. He is usually playing violin, reading comics, or waiting by the refreshments table for people to hit on him. nailsbyasians.com

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Original Plumbing #3 Release Party

2010-07-11T12:15:00.000-07:00

Darin Klein & Friends Present
Original Plumbing #3 Release Party
Saturday, July 10 2010
8:30pm reception
9:30pm films and performances
An OUTFEST/Platinum Party
REDCAT Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
631 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Butchlalis de Panochtitlan
Cosa Rara (exerpt)
Cast members: Claudia Rodriguez, Marianna Marroquin
Cosa Rara (Strange Thing) is a romantic comedy with a queer, cross-cultural, transgender spin. Jacqui, a butch Chicana lesbian falls in love with Katrina, an immigrant Salvadoran transgender woman. It isn't long before the complexities of attraction, sex, and gender open up to the hot-button issue of marriage. Butchlalis de Panochtitlan, or BdP for short, is a trio comprised of Mari Garcia, Raquel Gutierrez and Claudia Rodriguez. This Los Angeles-based multimedia performance ensemble renders cartographies of desire, identity, and localized histories on the bodies they walk in as they perform themselves, each other, imagined characters and caricatures. BdP emerged from community based activist spaces to create visibility around politicized identities and the limitations in identity politics within a Los Angeles-centric context. Their work also touches on the humor and irreverence found in the everyday lives of gender minorities and outlaws living in the 20th and 21st century.
myspace.com/butchlalis

Lost Lake
Zackary Drucker & Van Barnes, 2010
Filmed at the peak of autumn foliage in a rural Midwestern US locale, this non-narrative collaboration posits beauty and fear as inextricable from the psyche of the American landscape. Contemplative moments and stunning vistas are jarringly punctuated with the vocabularies of witch-hunts, hate crimes and psychological violence. Edited by Martha Windahl. Zackary Drucker has performed and screened films at venues including The Hammer Museum, LACE, Outfest, Redcat, and Steve Turner Contemporary, all in Los Angeles. Her previous film collaboration with Van Barnes, You will never be a woman… (2008), screened at Acuna-Hansen Gallery in Los Angeles, as well as festivals in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
zackarydrucker.com

WRCKNG WLL
Math Bass, 2010
A weighted, hanging trophy topples a brick wall. Math Bass has recorded and toured as one half of the performance duo Marriage, contributed to the journal LTTR and has been featured in exhibitions including Shared Women at LACE in Los Angeles, and The Way That We Rhyme at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Having moved to LA to collaborate with feminist inventors, Math most recently blew our minds with amazing gastronomical skills as one half of International Brunch as well as performing at Women Together… Fantastic! (WTF!).

Stick, Stick, Stuck
Eden Batki & Daniela Sea, 2010
A woman navigates the aftermath of a recently pruned and bare bed of rose bushes. Despite being snagged, stuck, and torn, she finds unexpected moments of solace and stillness. During this performative struggle, the line between resistance and acceptance wavers. Edited by Martha Windahl, performed by Dawn Kasper. Eden Batki and Daniela Sea live and work in Los Angeles and the world.
edenbatki.com
danielasea.com

Falling in Love... With Chris and Greg Episode #3: Food!
Chris Vargas & Greg Youmans, 2010
A situation comedy about a gay odd couple, one liberal, one radical; one transgendered, one not. They don't have a whole lot in common, but somehow they manage. In this third episode, the pair's conflicting body issues threaten to tear their love apart. The Falling in Love... series has screened at Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, CA; Homo-a-Go Go @ ATA, Frameline #33 and #34, and K’vetsh Queer Open Mic, all in San Francisco; Hamburg Int’l Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Hamburg, Germany; BFI London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, London, UK; Outfest, Los Angeles; and MIX NYC, New York, NY.
fallinginlovewithchrisandgreg.com

Katastrophe (Photo by Allison Michael Orenstein)
Original Plumbing Assistant Editor Rocco Kayiatos is a San Francisco based rapper and producer under the name Katastrophe. He's a seasoned vet on the mic and got his start competing in poetry slams in 1997. Combining his love of music and language, he started rapping and making beats in 2002. He uses his poetic grasp of language to weave dense tales of lives lived outside the mainstreams of education, gender, and culture.
katastropherap.com

Hi Fashion $9.99
Committed to costume, make-up, and spectacle, Hi-Fashion $9.99 explores the creation of identity in a pop music idiom. Dependent upon incorporating anyone interested in performing into the work, each piece becomes a relationship between construction, coincidence, instinct, and direction. By inviting the audience to collaborate, the work blurs the line between spectator and performer, thereby offering all involved an opportunity for a visceral and primal experience. They have thrilled audiences at LACE in Los Angeles and Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica.
myspace.com/hifashion999

The Miracle Bookmobile
Operated out of Kelly Besser's Jeep with the help of friendly volunteers, The Miracle Bookmobile offers free reading materials with an emphasis on queer publications, books in Español and "anything that can be Xeroxed and prepared for mass consumption". Besser and co-conspirators aim to keep it free, so donations of books and zines are welcome. The Miracle has made Los Angeles appearances at events and institutions including the Municipal Art Gallery and Sea & Space Explorations.

Selling like hotcakest at the merch table in the REDCAT lobby during the pre-show reception: Katastrophe's "The Worst Amazing" CD and t-shirts and all three issues of Original Plumbing magazine plus OP t-shirts, buttons and stickers.

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Original Plumbing #3 Release Party

2010-06-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

Amos Mac
Luke, 2010
Color Photograph

Darin Klein & Friends Present
Original Plumbing #3 Release Party
Saturday, July 10 2010
8:30pm reception
9:30pm films and performances
An OUTFEST/Platinum Party
REDCAT Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater

Darin Klein & Friends invite you to celebrate the third issue of San Francisco’s trans male quarterly, Original Plumbing. This showcase of talent from the trans, genderqueer and queer communities includes four sizzling LA film premieres from Math Bass, Eden Batki & Daniela Sea, Zackary Drucker & Van Barnes, and Chris Vargas & Greg Youmans. Also in store are performances from activists/humorists Butchlalis de Panochtitlan, techno-pop art band Hi Fashion $9.99 and rapper Katastrophe. PLUS: be sure to check out The Miracle Bookmobile (free reading material – book donations welcome) and a pre-screening reception with OP editor Amos Mac, offering affordable original art and copies of Original Plumbing #3, hottt off the press!

Original Plumbing is the premier quarterly print magazine dedicated to the sexuality and culture of FTM trans guys. Independently published and distributed out of San Francisco, CA., Original Plumbing documents diversity within trans male lifestyles through photographic portraits and essays, personal narratives and interviews. We feel that there is no single way to sum up what it means to be a trans man because we each have different beliefs, life experiences and relationships to our own bodies.

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Suzanne Wright Viewing Party/Closing Reception + DJs Rich Bott & Kelly Eginton

2010-04-25T21:20:00.000-07:00

Cockpit (work in progress), colored pencil on paper, 84x156"

Recent work, installation view

Recent work, installation view

Sketches, drawings, collages

The traxxx!

The crowd

April 24
Viewing Party/Closing Reception
+ DJs Rich Bott & Kelly Eginton
A good sized crowd came out to celebrate the conclusion of Suzanne’s residency at Amy’s studio. We’ve spent the last month communing with, looking at, thinking about and highlighting different configurations of Suzanne’s work, all the while enjoying the talents of our friends and peers with a full schedule of public programs. Tonight was really all about people engaging in dialogues with the artist and one another about the gorgeous new installation of Suzanne’s recent work. Oh, I almost forgot mention, WE PARTIED HARD with an insanely diverse and somewhat obscure music playlist, all on actual vinyl records, courtesy of DJs Rich Bott and Kelly Eginton!

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Suzanne Wright + Queer Pile-up!

2010-04-19T00:31:00.001-07:00

Suzanne cleared wallspace in anticipation of...

Queer Pile-up!

21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves, hottt off the press

Pocket Niko & Nathan Jones perform in front of Suzanne's work-in-progress, Cockpit

Zac Monday reads tarot cards in the back alley

Daniela Sea performs in front of Suzanne's work-in-progress, Cockpit

Micha Cárdenas & Elle Mehrmand perform Virus Circus

Just like we promised... Queer Pile-up!

April 17
Queer Pile-up!
Plus… ‘Zine release party: 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves
Local queer artists were invited to bring work to the studio for a one-night exhibition. All mediums were welcomed, with wall space available on a first-come, first-served basis. 24 artists brought everything they needed for installing their drawings, paintings, photos, videos and sculptures. Pocket Niko and Nathan Jones performed live electronic guitar and keyboard (their very first show ever, and the music was really sweet!). Daniela Sea improvised a movement piece in front of Suzanne’s work-in-progress, Cockpit. Micha Cárdenas and Elle Mehrmand performed Virus Circus, a new piece involving amplified electronic sounds created by the proximity of their bodies to one another. But wait, there’s more: Jen Smith brought a homemade vegetarian feast for everyone to enjoy and Zac Monday did tarot readings in the back alley. Whew!

Visual artists: Sadie Barnette, Eden Batki, bodega vendetta, Chris Diaz & Vivian Babuts, Drew Dunlap, Kelly Eginton, Deanna Erdmann, Eve Fowler with Math Bass and Martha Windahl, Brian Gainey, Kate Gilbert, Michael Hayden, Kuan Hwa, Larissa Brantner James, Dave Jones, Anthony Lepore, Zac Monday, Andrew Printer, prvtdncr, Mina Rahnema, Christopher Russell, Jimena Sarno, Daniela Sea, Jen Smith, Elysa Voshell, Suzanne Wright, Joe Yorty

Also featured tonight was 21st Century Queer Artists Identify Themselves, a ‘zine by and about queer artists living and working in the 21st Century. A resource for sharing information and educating ourselves and our peers. A guide to identifying, contacting and inspiring each other. Artists from from around the world were invited, and 59 participants answered the call, each producing 100 standard size copies of images and/or texts documenting or representing their work. Contributors were instructed to include biographical info, web and email addresses and artist statements on the backside. The pages were collated alphabetically and stapled together. The result: 100 ‘zines including all the submissions, released to the public tonight at the Queer Pile-up!

‘Zine contributors: Adam J. Ansell, Brent Armendinger, Eden Batki, Christopher Baughman, Jennifer Blowdryer, bodega vendetta, Erich Bollmann, George Bolster, Kathrin Burmester, Enrique Castrejon, osvaldo cibils, Kelly Cline, Tracy Dishman, Drew Dunlap, Kelly Eginton, Deanna Erdmann, Edie Fake, Daphne Fitzpatrick, Brian Gainey, Paul Gellman, Abel Baker Gutierrez, Michael Hayden, Kate Hoffman, Onya Hogan-Finlay, Larissa Brantner James, Dave Jones, Dawn Kasper, Hedi El Kholti, Darin Klein, David LeBarron, Anthony Lepore, Matt Lipps, Marget Long, Ian Mackinnon, Lucas Michael, Joanne Mitchell, Sharon Molloy, Ali Naschke-Messing, Amir Nikravan, Maria E. Piñeres, Joshua Ploeg, Andrew Printer, prvtdncr, Steven Reigns, Christopher Russell, Jimena Sarno, Daniela Sea, Zachary Sharrin, Cedar Sigo & John Huston, Jen Smith, Max Steele, Margaret Tedesco, Elysa Voshell, Jim Winters, Suzanne Wright, The Yes Men, Joe Yorty, Austin Young

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Suzanne Wright + Women Together... Fantastic! (WTF!)

2010-04-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

Particle Accelerator installation view

Westminster Panties installation view

Shuttle Launch poster

fierce pussy installation view

Catherine Lord

Math Bass

Dawn Kasper

The crowd

April 3
Women Together... Fantastic! (WTF!)
With Math Bass + fierce pussy
+ Dawn Kasper + Catherine Lord
Suzanne installed all new work in the studio for this salon style gathering that proved to be both educational and entertaining. The installation was impressive and focused, highlighting the large drawings Particle Accelerator and Westminster Panties along with a series of smaller, framed drawings. Also on view were the sculpture Double Transmission and a poster-sized reproduction of her Shuttle Launch collage. To top it all off, the outer walls of the restroom were wallpapered with ephemera from the fierce pussy collective, on top of which was hanging Suzanne’s sculpture Transtar (Orange).

The crowd gathered and the anticipation for the events built. Around 9pm, Catherine Lord took the “stage” (in this case, Math’s scooter) and read a moving passage from King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes. Next came Math, who repositioned the scooter to the middle of the studio, hooked up a computer and sound-system in the back basket, donned an helmet (safety first!) and performed a single, ominously utopian song accompanied by recorded music and the sound of the scooter’s motor. Rounding out the night was Dawn Kasper in a performance that involved an array of props, masks, hats, wigs and musical instruments. What transpired was part confessional monologue (to paraphrase: “It seemed like a good idea to glue this ass to this soy milk container, but now I’m not so sure”) and part absurd kindergarten storytime (a passage from a childrens book chronicling the life of a sausage who cooks himself).

Math Bass has recorded and toured as one half of the performance duo Marriage, contributed to the journal LTTR and has been featured in exhibitions including Shared Women at LACE in Los Angeles and The Way That We Rhyme at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Having moved to LA to collaborate with feminist inventors, Math most recently blew our minds with amazing gastronomical skills as one half of International Brunch.

Suzanne Wright and her fierce pussy co-conspirators have wheatpasted their posters and printed and distributed stickers and t-shirts throughout New York City. Other projects include re-designing the bathroom at the Gay and Lesbian Center, a greeting card campaign directed against the policies of Cardinal O’Connor and Senator D’Amato, and a moving billboard/truck. For Gay Pride 1991, fierce pussy re-named streets along the parade route after prominent lesbian heroines using stencils and spray-paint. In 2008, Printed Matter released an eponymous book of fierce pussy posters, many of which were on view tonight.
printedmatter.org

Dawn Kasper is a Los Angeles based performance and mixed media artist who describes her work ethic as one that ”houses a need for process, systems and the blurring of art and life.” She has performed and exhibited at venues including Anna Helwing, Circus of Books, The Company, J. Paul Getty Museum, LACMA, Raid Projects and Statler Waldorf in Los Angeles; Art Positions: Art Basel in Miami Beach; Art in General in New York City; and Migros Museum fur Genenwartskunst in Zurich.
dawnkasper.com

Catherine Lord is a writer, artist, and curator whose work addresses queer theory, feminism, cultural politics, and colonialism. She is the author of The Summer of Her Baldness: A Cancer Improvisation (University of Texas Press, 2004) and her critical essays and her fiction have been published in numerous journals and catalogues. She is Professor of Studio Art at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, UC Irvine.
studioart.arts.uci.edu

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Suzanne Wright + Community Gardening and Home Pickling

2010-03-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

New work

Work in progress

Galactic Gloryhole

Sketches, drawings and collages

Jen Smith

Julie Burleigh

The crowd

March 27
Community Gardening and Home Pickling
With Julie Burleigh + Jen Smith
Julie Burleigh is an artist, mini (not micro) farmer and community organizer in Los Angeles. She started Raymond Avenue Community Garden in 2008. Tonight, Julie provided information about her community garden and her vegetable gardening business. She demonstrated potting technique for tomatoes, basil and cayenne peppers. For those not sure if they have a green thumb, Julie offered tips on how to make sure they flourish. She even had her own seedlings and homemade hand salve and lip balm for sale.

Jen Smith is an artist who grew up eating industrial food. When she was a teenager, she endeavored to make a homemade pie, something she could not remember ever having eaten before. A month later, she swept the local county fair with her peach pie! She has been curious about food, how it is grown, the politics of its production and how it is prepared and eaten ever since. For this event, Jen answered questions about pickling, preserving, fermenting and also demonstrated how to make sauerkraut. She is interested in how food might intersect with contemporary art practices and the mundane but important practice of being a person. Many of her pickled and canned goods were sampled by our eager audience, and jars of homemade goods were purchased.

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Suzanne Wright

2010-03-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

The Whole Future, 48x40". Colored pencil on paper, 2008

Darin Klein & Friends return to Amy Adler’s Echo Park studio with artist Suzanne Wright. During her month-long residency, Suzanne will be using Amy’s studio as her own. Displaying sculptures and works on paper in various states of completion, Suzanne will grant visitors access to her creative process as she works on the drawing Cockpit as well as her new Galactic Glory Hole series.

Suzanne’s large-scale drawings rendered in rainbow hues often critique cultural standards with their placement of the female body in positions that question power and control. She states that “Manmade structures simulate and fuse with the body. The women in the work dominate these industrial structures as they incorporate them into their own bodies, simultaneously being corrupted by them.”

Meanwhile, her intricate geometric sculptures made from balsa wood and cut photographs could be seen as futuristic teleportation devices. Of Double Transmission (from the Transtar series), Suzanne offers us this: “There is a sense of potential, a process beginning or perhaps a separation nearing completion. Two entities in a liminal state. The lines of communication are severed, but at the ready to re-engage.” These ideas are presented through the abstraction of ubiquitous images such as religious iconography and electrical towers.

Social engagement and political action have long been aspects of Suzanne’s life and work. Hosting community-driven get-togethers while educating and learning from friends and strangers remain integral parts of this ongoing project which temporarily re-purposes Amy’s studio to give other artists a platform for the expression of their own ideas. We invite you to attend our scheduled series of programs at the studio featuring artists and peers using vocabularies complementary to Suzanne’s.

Suzanne Wright
Suzanne Wright received a BFA in sculpture from Cooper Union in 1990, attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2004 and is currently completing her MFA at the University of California, San Diego. She has had solo exhibitions at Monya Rowe, Stefan Stux, DeChiara-Stewart, and White Columns, all in New York City; and Church and Maple Gallery in Burlington, VT. Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions nationally and internationally.

Amy Adler
Amy Adler currently lives and works in Los Angeles and is Associate Professor of Visual Art at the University of California San Diego.
amyadler.com

Darin Klein
Collaborating with an ever-expanding network of friends, Darin Klein curates and organizes exhibitions and arts programming, simultaneously producing, collecting and promoting artists’ publications and independent media. Darin is the Programs Coordinator at the Hammer Museum, where he also curated his first museum exhibition, Hammer Projects: Christopher Russell (January – April 2009).
darinklein.net

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Kate Barclay + Closing Party/ASAP Lecture

2010-03-14T21:41:00.000-07:00

Liftoff, 52x80". Colored pencil, marker, photos on paper, 2009

Christopher Russell

Lily Simonson

Closing Party/ASAP Lecture attendees

March 13
Closing Party + ASAP Lecture:
A Complete Art History in About an Hour
with
Christopher Russell* & Lily Simonson

We closed Kate's exhibition with a great night which included Easter snacks, a little Remy Martin (hey Matty and Audra!), fantastic presentations by Christopher and Lily, and a great crowd of friends both old and new. It was a wonderful month filled with exciting programs, Kate's beautiful work, visits from two important curators, and the sale of two of Kate's pieces! Thanks to everyone who came out to support us and to all of the program participants. It's so exciting to be involved and engaged with all of you. Of course, a BIG thanks to Amy for providing the space to make it all happen.

After School Arts Program (ASAP) provides innovative and experimental arts programming for artists, curators, historians and critics interested in continuing their education in the visual arts. ASAP is a not-for-profit community service offering lectures, salons, workshops, critiques, exhibitions, film screenings and publications.
www.asap-la.blogspot.com
*Special thanks to Ohio University

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Kate Barclay + Readings by Brent Armendinger & Amina Cain

2010-03-07T10:31:00.000-08:00

Buttressed, 51x63" (detail). Colored Pencil, pen on paper, 2009

Amina Cain

Brent Armendinger

March 6
Readings by Brent Armendinger + Amina Cain
Brent Armendinger is the author of two chapbooks of poetry, Undetectable (New Michigan Press, 2009) and Archipelago (Noemi Press, 2009). He won first prize in poetry in the 2009 Chroma International Queer Writing Competition, and his poems have been published in many journals. He teaches creative writing at Pitzer College in Claremont. For tonight's reading, Brent read from both chapbooks and played a collaborative poem created from phone messages. To participate, people called 1-877-EAT-POEM, pressed 1 and described a time they fell asleep in an unusual place.

Amina Cain is the author of I Go To Some Hollow (Les Figues Press, 2009), a collection of stories that revolve quietly around human relationality, landscape and emptiness, and A Body That Has Trouble, a newly completed book of fictionesques and their companion prose pieces. She is also a curator (most recently for When Does It or You Begin? Memory as Innovation, a month long festival of writing, performance and video) and a teacher of writing/literature. Her work has appeared in numerous publications. Tonight, Amina read The Meaning of Your Body (which is included in Box of Books, Vol. II) as well as a passage from I Go To Some Hollow. www.aminacain.com

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Kate Barclay + Live Music by Ben and Bruno & Catchy Gory

2010-02-28T12:03:00.000-08:00

Untitled, 40x63". Pencil on Duralar, 2009

Wall Storm, 20x25". Pen, colored pencil, acrylic, photos on Duralar, 2009

Ben and Bruno

Catchy Gory

February 27
Live music by Ben and Bruno + Catchy Gory
Since 2003, Ben and Bruno (more recently "BB") has released five albums and an assortment of EPs and collaborations. For this performance we heard a stripped-back set, including songs from the forthcoming album Marcescant. Ben and Bruno is based on the story of a character named Benjamin and his boyhood dog, Bruno. The songs follow Benjamin from childhood to adulthood through a saga of abduction, marriage, divorce and visions of death. www.myspace.com/benandbrunomusic

Since 2004, Catchy Gory has released five albums and has performed at venues including Backyard Campfire in Albuquerque, NM and Colonial Tavern in Fredericksburg, VA. As a minstrel of rousing dreamy ballads, for this performance we heard from Catchy Gory six new tales of fortune in a 'suburban folk' style. www.myspace.com/catchygory

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Kate Barclay + An Evening of Short Films and Videos with Julia & Kye

2010-02-21T17:15:00.000-08:00

Pile Up, 52x80". Colored pencil, marker on paper, 2009

Solid Things Go Liquid, 52x80". Photos on paper, 2009

Couchstorm, 23x36". Colored pencil, marker, photos on Duralar, 2009

Still from Mystery Tamers by Julia Dzwonkoski and Kye Potter

Opening night crowd

February 20
Opening Reception
Plus… A night of short films with Julia & Kye
Impressive in execution and engaging in subject matter, Kate’s colored pencil, marker, acrylic, graphite and photo-collage works on paper and Duralar now grace the walls of Amy’s studio. Kate did an amazing job of choosing which pieces to show and installing the work. Responding to the space, a preliminary hanging of the work was tried, and that evolved gracefully into the installation in the studio now.

Collaborative duo Julia Dzwonkoski and Kye Potter showed 10 short films and videos from 8:30-9pm. Poignant, absurd and sincere, I thought the selection played perfectly in the context of Kate’s work. Julia and Kye have organized exhibitions and screenings at the MAK Center and the Echo Park Film Center in Los Angeles; the Carnegie Art Center in Buffalo, New York; and the Herndon Gallery, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. Creators of paintings, works on paper, videos and numerous artists’ books, they are also co-authors of a book of interviews conducted while traveling throughout the US, The Sky Opened Up with Answers (Onestar Press, 2009). www.weirdshadow.com

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Kate Barclay

2010-02-09T23:34:00.000-08:00

Darin Klein & Friends return to Amy Adler’s Echo Park studio with recent work by Los Angeles based artist Kate Barclay. Kate will be exhibiting works that demonstrate both the beauty of chaos and the labor of lyricism. Collage, as a medium and as a concept, plays a vital role in Kate’s work. “I increase the size of the in between, stretching it, inflating it,” writes the artist in her catalog for Rawhang Teewang, a recent solo exhibition in Bangkok, Thailand. And, “I am focused on the moment of most potential in an object or a site, when there is a movement or a transition from one form to another.” The result of her observations is the documentation, prediction or fabrication of the outcomes to obvious and/or barely perceived movements.

Hosting community-driven get-togethers and educating and learning from friends and strangers remain integral parts of this experiment. Temporarily re-purposing the studio of an already established artist to give emerging artists a platform for the expression of their own ideas, we invite you to attend our scheduled series of programs featuring artists and peers using vocabularies complementary to Kate’s.

Kate Barclay
Kate Barclay graduated with a BA in Visual Art from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2004 and completed her MFA at the University of California, San Diego in 2008. Her work has been featured in local group exhibitions at Black Dragon Society, Fox Studios, LACE and LACMA Lab. In 2008, she was an artist in residence at Bangkok University, which culminated in her solo exhibition there.

Amy Adler
Amy Adler currently lives and works in Los Angeles and is Associate Professor of Visual Art at the University of California San Diego. www.amyadler.com

Darin Klein
Collaborating with an ever-expanding network of friends, Darin Klein curates and organizes exhibitions and arts programming, simultaneously producing, collecting and promoting artists’ publications and independent media. Darin is the Programs Coordinator at the Hammer Museum, where he also curated his first museum exhibition, Hammer Projects: Christopher Russell (January – April 2009). www.darinklein.net

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Original Plumbing #2 Release Party

2010-02-06T17:49:00.000-08:00

Ayden from OP #2 photographed by Amos Mac

Khane from OP #2 photographed by Amos Mac

Rocco: He doesn't just work on OP, he also modeled for the first issue! Photo by Amos Mac

Mustache Station!

From our screening of short films: Fish: A Matrilineage of Cunty White Woman Realness by Zackary Drucker

16mm film loop installations: Rhys Ernst (R) and Mariah Garnett (L)

workspace

OP #2

Despite the rain, approximately 200 people came out to workspace for the release of the 2nd issue of Original Plumbing magazine. A diverse crowd of all genders and many variations of self-representation were there, and throughout the evening people expressed their appreciation for being recognized and celebrated. The look of wonder on many people’s faces would hint that the underserved trans community is really happy to have spaces like this created. Everyone was pleased to have filmmakers Silas Howard and John Cameron Mitchell among the attendees.

Upon entering workspace, visitors were greeted by Amos Mac who was surrounded by an exhibition of his photographic portraits of subjects from past, present and future issues of Original Plumbing. Amos personally sold about 60 copies of issue #2 while chatting with fans and friends.

Heading into the back of the space, loads of people were busy at the Mustache Station all evening, where Jenn Kolmel and Kate Hoffman encouraged people to partner up and assist one another in applying fantastical facial hair creations. The results ranged from fairly realistic five o’clock shadows, goatees and mustaches to glittery synthetic mystery wisps, or feather sideburns and fake fur chest hair. Austin Young took pics all night which you can view here.

Meanwhile, the 16mm film loop installations by Rhys Ernst and Mariah Garnett were playing side by side against the back wall. A short video screening had to be cycled through twice, so that we could empty out the packed back room and usher in a second round of visitors who wanted to see the videos. We showed The Stroke by Austin Young and Barry Pett, Fish: A Matrilineage of Cunty White Woman Realness by Zackary Drucker, Drumstick by Deanna Erdman and Darin Klein (that's me!), and finished it off with Baby Got Front, a Jackie Beat video by Austin Young.

10pm rolled around, and I was sorry to have to shut the event down (a girl can't stay all night, can she?). I did pop in for a nightcap at the Akbar where I spotted many familiar faces sporting faux facial hair (Hi JP Craft Captain and your awesome friends!). Looking back on the night, it's obvious that we'll have to organize another event for the next issue of Original Plumbing. Stay tuned...

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Original Plumbing #2 Release Party

2010-01-20T00:43:00.000-08:00

Amos Mac
Tuck, 2009
Color Photograph

Friday, February 5
7-10pm
workspace
2601 Pasadena Ave, Unit C
Los Angeles, CA 90031
www.workspace2601.com

Darin Klein & Friends touch down at workspace in Los Angeles to celebrate the release of the 2nd issue of San Francisco's trans male quarterly, Original Plumbing. The event will feature an exhibition of Amos Mac's photographs showing the diversity of the FTM community in size, age, body, surgery, and hormone use and non-use. Plus, stop by Jenn Kolmel's Mustache Station to make your own mustache using nontraditional materials and adhesives. Throughout the evening we will screen short films by local artists including Zackary Drucker, Deanna Erdmann & Darin Klein, Rhys Ernst, Mariah Garnett and Austin Young & Barry Pett exploring gender and queer issues, identities, aesthetics and possibilities. Copies of Original Plumbing will be available for purchase, hottt off the press!

Darin Klein interviews Amos Mac and Rocco Kayiatos

I heard about the first issue of Original Plumbing before it was even printed in fall 2009. Los Angeles based artist Zackary Drucker thought I should know about it because of my interest in independent publications and queer culture. Later, artist Margaret Tedesco, who also runs the San Francisco gallery [ 2nd floor projects ] was asking me if I’d heard of it. Around the same time, Michelle Tea (one of my all-time favorite writers) posted on SFMOMA’s Open Space blog a feature of the very same magazine. I went online and ordered my very own copy of the first issue. I devoured it as soon as it arrived in the mail. It holds my interest in so many ways – the photo spreads and interviews are by turns sexy and sweet, the features run the gamut from informative (“Be a Man for Free,” and “Talkin ‘Bout a Transformation: 24 Hours on Craigslist”) to hilarious (Fuck/Stalk/Love).

A short time later, I was surprised to receive an email from Amos Mac, Original Plumbing Editor-in-Chief. He wondered if I knew of any place in Los Angeles to throw a release party for the second issue. I was thrilled to be asked, and immediately contacted Daniel Ingroff at workspace in east LA who agreed to host us. Wanting to add an element of longevity to the planned one-night event, I decided to interview Amos and Original Plumbing Assistant Editor Rocco Kayiatos. As you will see, both were generous and thoughtful in their responses to my questions.

Darin Klein: When did you first identify as male?

Amos Mac: For me it was that I realized I just wasn't "female" way before I realized I was male. I never felt like a "man trapped in a woman's body." I was a cliché tom-boy as a child who would throw fits and sob when a dress was presented to me, and I also had an obsession with nicknames and masculine personas, wanting a different name my whole life, never identifying with my birth name. I was comfortable in my own skin until puberty hit, which is when I began to feel completely alienated from my own body and my sense of self. So I guess I'd say around age 11 I started to feel not that I was necessarily in the "wrong" body, but more like I wasn't in my "own" body...yet. Year by year I felt increasingly less connected to my body, seeing less and less of me in the mirror each day. When I moved to San Francisco at 21 I realized there was a whole community of people who identified similarly to myself and that there was a language that described it, and it was very comforting. I saw that I could present as a masculine person, and even physically transition if I wanted to. There were options, there was nothing wrong with me, and I was relieved to realize that.

Rocco Kayiatos: I first identified as male as a child. I remember being in preschool and introducing myself as George, later I wanted to be called Peter, then Perry. Anytime I would meet a new kid, I would tell them I was a boy. It didn't really occur to me that I wouldn't grow into being a boy until puberty hit. After that I didn't know what to do. I found out I could change my body to match my brain when I was 19. I thought long and hard about that and began physical transition when I was 21 years old. I asked my parents to rename me and started hormone therapy. At first I was very identified with being trans, and at this point I identify as TtoM (trans to male). I feel done transitioning and identify as a queer, mostly straight man.

DK: Can you talk a bit about what kind of steps you took to have people read you as male?

AM: As a young child I would get read as male without trying and throughout grade school, even though I had long hair. I dressed like a boy for as long as I can remember, so that could have had something to do with it. My mother tells me I had male energy even as a tiny baby, whatever that means. But back then as a kid I hated being read as male! It embarrassed me and deeply hurt me when I would be read as male at those younger ages, mainly because it made other people who knew me as a female react and correct the person, which in turn was humiliating to me. I felt as if I was damaged, or that there was something wrong with me. When I was that young it felt abnormal to be called the gender I was not assigned to at birth, especially because all I wanted to do was to blend in and not be noticed or singled out. I can even remember writing a letter to Seventeen magazine when I was 12 years old, asking the advice columnist: "People keep saying I look and act like a boy but I can't help it and I don't understand what I'm doing wrong, what can I do?" Clearly, they never responded to my letter. Ha!

Once I was in my 20s I started binding my breasts, which helped me present even further, and when I stopped trying to hide my mustache, it was all over. I looked like a 15-year-old boy for years. For a long time I resisted taking testosterone, changing my name to a male name, and even changing the pronouns people used when referring to me, because I felt that it was obvious that everyone should just know by knowing me and seeing me that I was male. As time went on it became more and more painful to hear people refer to me as "she" and god forbid "ma'am", especially after I had been presenting as male for years. At age 27 I started hormone replacement therapy and changed my name. And then 2 years later had a bi-lateral double mastectomy with Dr. Brownstein in San Francisco.

RK: People have “read” me as male my whole life. In fact, I have a twin sister and people always thought my parents had boy/girl twins. I had short hair and a deep voice and never felt comfortable as a "girl". I was always confronted with, "There's a man in the women's room," or, "Are you a man or a woman?" or, "I’m sorry sir, I mean ma'am, I thought you were a man," or, "Are you wearing shoulder pads?"

DK: I feel lucky to know people who are trans, who are genderqueer, and who do drag. I often find myself playing a kind of “20 questions” with friends who are trans. Are you comfortable addressing topics of surgery, hormones, your sex life? I imagine it can feel invasive or supportive depending on who’s asking.

AM: Unless I bring them up myself, I am only comfortable addressing those topics if they are being asked by friends, doctors, lovers or people who are considering a gender transition themselves. What's funny is that only strangers (usually of the gay male variety) who find out I'm trans feel the need to ask me what's in my pants and if I've had "THE surgery." When I feel annoyed that someone I don't even know is asking me personal questions about my body, I'll usually lie and tell them that I have had "THE surgery" and that I paid extra for the biggest dick the doctor had in stock.

RK: It can feel invasive for sure. I have found that often people who I think I share a community with, ie gay people, can ask the most dehumanizing and upsetting questions. I have never been asked about my genitals by a straight person. I am assuming that gay people feel "down" and then ask inappropriate questions. I used to feel that I owed everyone an answer and now I think it is none of anyone’s business what's in my pants unless I will be taking off my pants with them.

DK: So much about gender is reliant upon signifiers. I find it fascinating and also confusing. If I were to realize today that I identify as male, I don’t know where I’d start. Of course, a lot is built in to the way I was raised and how I view society. But if I had to decide, I’d have a hard time defining the kind of “man” I’d like to be. Do you feel the same?

AM: It's such a crazy trip to change genders. Even if you've felt like a man your entire life, your whole world changes when you physically transition and start passing as male 100% of the time in the real world. For instance, back when I lived in Brooklyn, I knew I was finally passing as a man when I got verbally gay-bashed and threatened a few times in one month by dudes on the subway or on the street, simply for looking in their general direction with a smile on my face, or for checking out their sneakers without a scowl on my face. I guess my eye contact might have lasted longer than an eighth of a second and they were offended. That's when I realized that I guess men don't smile at other men in public unless they want to have sex with them… or their shoes.

I never identified as a butch lesbian, nor was I a hyper-masculine person before I transitioned. Regardless of whom I have been romantically involved with, I have always identified as some sort of fag and I knew when I was younger that when I physically transitioned I'd be a fey, faggy man. I was excited about that because that's how I had always seen myself. I didn't get to pick what kind of man I was going to be. And I didn't really think of how it would affect me when I was viewed by outsiders as this femme guy with a girlfriend on his arm. To strangers, people I first meet, and even girlfriend’s family members, I am presumed to be a gay man who is dating a woman. What I thought would be empowering often makes strangers see me as some sort of "closet case" who has yet to realize he's gay, simply because of my effeminate mannerisms (and perhaps the ascot or pink bow-tie I may or may not be wearing). At first I struggled with this, because it bothered me that anyone would ever think I was a closet case, considering how outwardly queer I am. Knowing that I could never change my mannerisms to be someone I wasn't, I found peace with it and now realize it's other people’s assumptions and issues, not mine. Although in small-town middle-America I will gladly butch it up in situations to avoid being murdered.

RK: I don't feel that way, because I have not had the privilege of not thinking about gender everyday. I would, however, have a hell of a time figuring out how to be a woman; being a man feels natural to me. I think that people don't even consider that it is a privilege to be born the gender you are comfortable being. My twin is a very feminine female and she is really into gender theory; she studies it. I, on the other hand, am transgender and could not be less interested in gender theory. However, as a result of being who I am, I am an expert in the field. Not a moment goes by that I am not forced to think about gender and how it informs everything. I never had to give a second thought to what kind of man I wanted to be. I have, however, had to give a great deal of thought to how I could be a good man and a feminist.

DK: You are already working on the third issue of your magazine, Original Plumbing. Can you tell our readers how the magazine got started?

AM: The magazine started when I woke up and decided to make a ‘zine documenting FTM trans male culture. I had just photographed my friend Tuck and done an interview with him for BUTT magazine's blog, and they posted it. It was the first trans man on the BUTT blog and the response was positive and I instantly started to get feedback from people who read my bio and saw that I was working on a ‘zine called Original Plumbing. Trans men from all over the world wanted to help out, write articles, model for photo spreads. It just blew up. Rocco was so excited about the project that he volunteered to help me out, and together we turned it into a larger vision that we both shared for what is now the premiere magazine on FTM culture. That's how it grew from a photocopied photography ‘zine into a pocket-sized, limited edition magazine.

RK: The magazine was initially going to be a ‘zine Amos was making. When he told me about it, I immediately wanted to become a part of it and work on it with him to make it a regular quarterly magazine. We started getting together and having crazy inspired brainstorming sessions. We really riff off of each other and work well with one another. This collaboration is so easy and dreamy.

DK: Amos, when did you start taking photographs? When did you focus your lens on the trans community?

AM: I can't remember when I started taking photographs. I can always remember stealing my moms camera and playing around with it from a very young age and always finding importance in the photographic image, being obsessed with memories and wanting constant visual reminders of where I've been and who I was surrounding myself with. I have been personally committed to documenting the queer community for about 5 years now. I turned to shooting the trans community specifically in 2009 when I didn't like what I saw when it came to trans male representation through other photographic projects. The severe lack of trans men in the media in general also fueled my fire. By taking photos of these guys, I'm creating a history for the trans men that come after us. The trans guys who came before me who wrote books, made art and lived a visible life truly paved the way for me to live the life I have today, and I am grateful for them and want to create even more of visibility for those of us who wish to be out there in the future.

DK: Rocco, tell our readers about Katastrophe. And how did you, as a performer, get involved with the production of a magazine?

RK: I started rapping under that moniker around 2001, right when I started transitioning. I was the first out trans guy rapping, or making solo music for that matter. As a result of being public with my transition, and my first album being about that type of stuff, I got a lot of press and gathered an audience of a lot of trans folks and allies around the world. I just released my third album, which does not have much to do with my trans identity, because I have been a man for almost a third of my life now and it is not the focus anymore.

When I heard that Amos was thinking about making this magazine, I knew I could be a great resource to him, from years of traveling and interacting with transguys all over the place. I have been an active part of the community - and with touring and traveling, I am connected to guys all over the world and different parts of the community all across America and in Europe. With touring, I get to meet transdudes everywhere and see a small slice of what life is like for them in their hometowns. My performance roots are in writing, and I am passionate about creating visibility, so Original Plumbing seemed like the exact melding of everything I wanted to be involved in creatively.

DK: The first issue of Original Plumbing was the Bedroom Issue. While the sexual connotations of that particular room are obvious (and some people in that issue do pose nude and address the topic of sex), sexuality is only one of the facets explored. The second issue is the Hair Issue. Will sexuality continue to play a part in the magazine as it progresses? Has the theme of third issue been determined?

AM: Sexuality will continue to be explored in each issue because it's one of the things that make the trans male community so diverse. The third issue is going to be the Health and Safer Sex issue, and in that we'll be addressing obvious topics such as surgeries, hormones, and the alternatives to both, as well as taking care of our bodies, specifically about the importance of pap smears for trans men.

RK: The third issue is going to be about Health and Safer Sex. Sexuality inevitably will be a part of the magazine, however it is not a focal point. The Hair Issue is all about hair. Doing a different theme for each issue is super fun, because we really get to delve deep into different things our community is already spending a lot of time thinking about.

DK: What has the feedback been like since the first issue of the magazine came out?

AM: All the feedback I've personally received has been 100% positive. I get emails from people every day saying how they love the project. Some even say how they've used it to come out to their friends and family, things like that. It makes me happy to hear those things.

RK: The feedback has been globally overwhelmingly positive. We have a much further reach than we anticipated we would have at this point in the magazine's life. It is now clear that this community was really ready for something like this to exist. It makes me excited and proud to be helping create history and documenting our movement and our lives in this publication.

DK: Are there any magazines out there that you look to for inspiration – content, design or otherwise?

AM: BUTT magazine has always been a visual inspiration to me, as well as teen magazines from the 90's such as Big Bopper and Teen Beat. Even though OP doesn't look like those big, colorful glossy teen mags, my general thoughts and my aesthetic are inspired by them. Also, remember old-school SASSY magazine from the early-90s? That's another inspiration.

DK: Do you have a lot of people close by that you plan to feature in Original Plumbing? Are you looking for interview subjects and models to feature in the magazine who are not in your close circle of friends or who live outside of San Francisco?

AM: I've already featured the people close to me that I wanted to feature in the first issue. I'm dedicated to shooting the diversity of the community. So whether it ends up on the pages of OP or not, I try to shoot as many guys as I can - especially those that are from outside of San Francisco. In the second issue, the models are from NYC, Toronto, and Oakland. I try to photograph guys for future issues whenever I travel around, because of course I want people from all over to grace the pages of the magazine. The only reason all of the guys were SF-based in the first one was because they were people I had seen around the city, and I wanted access to their bedrooms since that was the subject of the issue.

RK: It is our hope and intention to feature guys far beyond our immediate circle. It made sense that the first issue would be guys that live here in SF, but the second issue has folks from other places. We've already done shots with guys for future issues that don't live here. We are always looking for models and interview subjects. I spend so much of my life on the road, and that is a great place to meet potential guys for OP.

DK: You came to Los Angeles to meet with and interview Margaret Cho for the magazine. Did you enjoy your time in LA? Do you feel that having celebrity allies to the trans community will improve visibility, understanding and acceptance?

AM: I really love LA, and I especially love Rocco for driving our rental car all over the place during our last visit. We had a blast interviewing Margaret - she's the warmest, sweetest woman ever. She's so inviting and supportive of what we're doing. She even let me take over her home so that I could do a photo shoot with (trans man comedian) Ian Harvie while we were there.

Of course having outspoken celebrity allies creates visibility in a positive way, which leads to understanding and acceptance.

RK: I always have a great time in LA, and Margaret was such a great host to us. She even put me on the bill at her birthday party, which was super fun. I got to meet and play with John Roberts, whose videos are now an obsession of Amos’s and mine.

I think having any allies can help with understanding and acceptance, and if they are celebrities, that inevitably helps improve visibility.

DK: I know that visibility is not the goal of all trans people. Some prefer to be read, or to pass, as a specific gender, while some like being read as trans. San Francisco seems to be a good place to play with different ways of being read. Do you think that there are other places where people have that freedom?

AM: I don't know. I think that if you want to be read as trans you should get our NOBODY KNOWS I'M A TRANSSEXUAL t-shirt. It's a great conversation starter, no matter where you are! Then you can be visible anywhere in the world.

DK: Anything else you’d like our readers to know?

AM: Check out some virtual Original Plumbing by going to OP TV at http://www.youtube.com/user/OriginalPlumbingTV

END

Editor in Chief Amos Mac is a San Francisco based photographer and writer. He documents diverse members of the queer community through a vibrant lens. His work has been shown in galleries in Atlanta, New York, San Francisco and Melbourne. www.amosmac.com

Assistant Editor Rocco Kayiatos is a San Francisco based rapper and producer under the name Katastrophe. He's a seasoned vet on the mic and got his start competing in poetry slams in 1997. Combining his love of music and language, he started rapping and making beats in 2002. He uses his poetic grasp of language to weave dense tales of lives lived outside the mainstreams of education, gender, and culture. www.katastropherap.com

workspace is a venue for installations, performance and projects. It was conceived as an accessible and flexible space for creative people to execute their ideas through site-specific artwork and programming.

Darin Klein and Friends Present: Box of Books, Vol. I & Vol. II

2009-12-04T21:28:00.000-08:00

Box of Books, Vol. II

Fall 2009
Brent Armendinger & Ben Fife, Kate Barclay, Math Bass & Eve Fowler, Eden Batki, Amina Cain, Crystal Z. Campbell, Shannon Michael Cane, Patrick Dunagan, Simon Fujiwara, David Gilbert, Lia Halloran, Johnny Ray Huston, Lamesha Melton, Amir Nikravan, Louis M. Schmidt, Christopher Schulz, Cedar Sigo, Max Steele, Margaret Tedesco, Carla Verea & Francisca Rivero-Lake, Sy Wagon & Orson Wagon

Both volumes, animated to dizzying delight by Peter J. Brant. Thanks, Peter!

Box of Books
Fall 2008
Micah Ballard, Robert Becraft, Noel Black, bodega vendetta & prvtdncr, Timothy Cummings, Chantale Doyle, Zackary Drucker, Julia Dzwonkoski & Kye Potter, Marina Eckler, Edie Fake, Darin Klein, Nate Luce, Lucas Michael, Christopher Russell, Jim Schatz, Kelly Sears, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Ami Tallman, Sunnylyn Thibodeaux, Jim Winters

Books, books and more books: The beginning of Darin Klein & Friends:
I’ve produced roughly 70 different artists' publications, starting back in high school in 1991. Coming from quite a small town, I’d never seen a ‘zine or a chapbook or anything of the sort, so I basically believed I was inventing something new! My first project was a kind of literary journal with contributions from friends, and my second project was a chapbook of my own poems. From there I began publishing chapbooks by other people. A trip to San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore opened my eyes to a world I had unknowingly become a part of. Once I moved to San Francisco, I continued to make solo work in near solitude for many years, handing out copies of my latest books to friends or consigning copies to City Lights. I slowly began working with friends again – one of my first collaborators was Jim Schatz. We ran a gallery called scene/escena and made a bunch of books together. Then Sarah Cain hand-painted the covers for a small edition of my writing. From there I grew increasingly comfortable opening up to other people’s ideas and contributions. Now, almost 20 years since my first foray into independent publishing, I rarely even consider doing book works on my own. Gathering friends to participate in my latest scheme, assigning themes, teaming up with other small press publishers, teaching non-book artists how to create book works, and organizing book arts exhibitions and small press festivals have all become a driving force in my artistic and curatorial practices. “Darin Klein & Friends” was in the back of my mind for a while; I liked the casual, goofy sound of it. And while many prior projects could have been labeled with the moniker, the Box of Books project is the first place it appears in print. I make them specifically to take to Printed Matter’s New York Art Book Fair, an amazing annual gathering of publishers that includes fancy commercial publishers, scrappy independent ones, and everything in between. Editions of 100, each book is made by the individual artists with the instructions that I give them, each box contains a complete set of all the books, and each contributor gets 2 sets. The rest seem to disappear like magic at the fair… I’m already starting to work on Vol. III.

Check out this interview: http://blog.sfmoma.org/2010/01/darin-klein/

Check out my website for a list of my other publications: www.darinklein.net

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Louis M. Schmidt + Move Along People Nothing To Feel Here #5

2009-11-29T20:42:00.000-08:00

November 28
‘Zine release party. Move Along People Nothing to Feel Here #5. Louis successfully pulled off the production of a brilliant new issue of his ongoing 'zine amidst the hustle of creating several new large-scale works on paper and hosting events four weekends in a row. Also on view were a new selection of hand-painted canvas tote bags which sold like hotcakes. Free with any purchase was the 'Zine Fest 2009! Commemorative 'Zine that attendees of our November 14 event helped to create. Anyone with a keen eye for observation would have noticed that the menacing cityscape made from cardboard boxes and spraypaint had grown almost to the 12' high studio ceiling. DJ Trickmilla (aka Patrick Miller) set the perfect mood playing an eclectic mix of vinyl all night. The power of the Cornhole was felt by many, and since we still had the game at the studio from the November 21 event, an impromptu mini-tournament was played out.

November 29
Special Sunday viewing hours: 12-6pm. We spent the afternoon reflecting on the past month, welcoming friends and strangers alike who dropped by to celebrate Louis's work.

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Louis M. Schmidt + Cornhole Tournament

2009-11-22T15:22:00.000-08:00

November 21
Cornhole Tournament. We had a blast at this unauthorized, non-sanctioned, high-impact sidewalk game among friends. A fall chill was in the air as Louis measured and marked off the court. The platforms that Louis and classmate Vince Manganello made and often use at the Visual Arts Facility at UCSD were freshly painted with sharp looking racing stripes. As the first guests arrived, we were heating apple cider with allspice, cardamom, cinnamon and orange slices on the campstove (thanks Ananias!). We even made stovetop JiffyPop, which brought back fond childhood memories of sitting in front of the big, clunky VHS machine with my family to watch rented movies. The first cornbag tossers got the games started and it went nonstop until 10pm. Champions were challenged, challengers became champions. Cornbags were declared dirty for touching the ground before hitting the platform. Cries of defeat and victory were sounded in the night. Meanwhile, Louis snuck back into the studio to install two brand new large scale drawings. Still not sure what cornhole is? Check out http://www.playcornhole.org/index.php

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Louis M. Schmidt + 'Zine Fest 2009!

2009-11-15T17:49:00.000-08:00

November 14
‘Zine Fest 2009! In keeping with Louis's 'zinemaking practice (he spent the last week creating 3 brand new 'zines!), we hosted local ‘zine makers and independent publishers who showcased and sold their wares. We inserted cardboard boxes into Louis's cityscape sculptures and used them to display the 'zines. Participants included Eden Batki, Rich Bott, Ted Chung, Cathy de la Cruz, Micki Davis, Robin Eisenberg, Encyclopedia Destructica & Christopher Kardambikis, eohippus labs, Eve Fowler, Aaron Guerrero, Darin Klein, Kiyoshi Nakazawa, Joshua Ploeg, Christopher Russell, Louis M. Schmidt, Jen Smith, Sumi Ink Club (Luke Fischbeck & Sarah Rara), Sweaterqueens, and Elysa Voshell. Plus: many people created work on the spot to contribute to an as-yet-untitled 'zine using markers, glue, scissors and collage materials. We'll distribute this 'zine on November 28, along with an all new issue of Louis's Move Along People Nothing To Feel Here.

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Louis M. Schmidt + Beach Jazz Noir performance by Rich Bott

2009-11-08T03:08:00.000-08:00

November 7
Opening night! Louis spent the week installing a massive black hole voidspace, creating large-scale drawings of despondent humans and assembling a modular cityscape in cardboard and spraypaint. Rich Bott performed Beach Jazz Noir to a packed house. The performance was a live audio visual chronicle of toe rings, day cruises, sea food restaurants, landlocked artificial island suburbs, the cries of seagulls, scuba dogs, shells, tanning zones, specialty coffee drinks and cell phones in tandem, lighthouses and more. Check out more of his work here: http://www.animalcharm.com/

Darin Klein & Friends Present: Louis M. Schmidt

2009-10-16T01:23:00.000-07:00

Darin Klein & Friends embark on an experiment in transparency that questions and examines accepted modes of presentation and representation. By temporarily re-purposing the studio of an already established artist, an emerging artist is given a platform for the expression of their own ideas. Possibilities for intervention and creative collaboration are expected to be explored within the walls of the studio. For the first in a series of exhibitions and related programming, Darin Klein & Friends will touch down at Amy Adler’s Echo Park studio for the month of November 2009 with work and projects by Louis M. Schmidt.

During his month-long residency, Louis M. Schmidt will be installing, exhibiting and creating works on paper, producing a brand new issue of his ‘zine Move Along People Nothing to Feel Here, hosting parties and community-driven get-togethers, educating and learning from friends and strangers, and shooting for the stars – all before your very eyes. He will be joined by a selection of artists and peers using vocabularies complimentary to his own. We invite you to drop by and see how it all plays out.

Saturdays in November, 6-10pm
At Amy Adler's Echo Park studio
1296 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Free admission
Free drinks and snacks (you bring, OK?)

Louis M. Schmidt
Born and raised in rural Illinois, Louis M. Schmidt earned a BFA in Studio Art (graduating Summa cum Laude) and a BA in Art History from the University of Colorado in Boulder in 2004. Louis is currently completing his MFA at UCSD. His drawings, ‘zines and installations deal primarily with a dialectical tension between epiphanic moments and existential void space. http://bridgethevoid.blogspot.com/

Amy Adler
Amy Adler currently lives and works in Los Angeles and is Associate Professor of Visual Art at the University of California San Diego. http://www.amyadler.com/

Darin Klein
Collaborating with an ever-expanding network of friends, Darin Klein curates and organizes exhibitions and arts programming, simultaneously producing, collecting and promoting artists’ publications and independent media. Darin is the Programs Coordinator at the Hammer Museum, where he also curated his first museum exhibition, Hammer Projects: Christopher Russell (January – April 2009). http://www.darinklein.net/