News:
  • John Cullum: An Accidental Star
  • Blindness: The First Post-COVID Off-Broadway Show
  • Coming Back to "Live"
  • Voyeur: Street Theater in the Time of COVID
  • Poets on Craft: Laura Grace Weldon and Donna Hilbert
  • D2D: Train Train + Near Perfect Synchronization
  • Contact us
  • About
    • What is Cultural Weekly?
    • Advertise
    • Contributors
    • Masthead
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions: Write for us
    • Cultural Weekly Style & Formatting Guide
  • Contact us
  • About
    • What is Cultural Weekly?
    • Advertise
    • Contributors
    • Masthead
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions: Write for us
    • Cultural Weekly Style & Formatting Guide
Cultural Weekly logo
  • Film
  • TV + Web
  • Poetry
  • Art
  • Architecture
  • Literature
  • Theatre
  • Music
  • Dance
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Film
  • TV + Web
  • Poetry
  • Art
  • Architecture
  • Literature
  • Theatre
  • Music
  • Dance
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • Food

Hung Up: On Hauser & Wirth’s Witty Comeback 

By James L. Chapman on November 14, 2018 in Art, Film, Photography

Click Here To View Comments

The Getty hangs Sally Mann’s photographs for her first major international exhibition, Toshio Matsumoto starts a 4 week tenure at Nonaka-Hill, the infamous Invader storms Over The Influence, and Denk proceeds to produce eclecticism at lightning speed with a Tim Ebner, Kasper Kovitz, and Donnie Molls group show… With so much to see, here’s the Los Angeles art to get hung up on this week… 

You know those tricky moments when your brain comes up with the perfect comeback to an argument that ended hours ago? Sure you do. You might be in the shower mulling a heated text message exchange with a friend or lying in bed recounting some passive aggressive comment from your ex when suddenly it dawns on you; you should’ve said… [insert perfectly articulate and witty comeback here]. The French refer to this sensation as L’esprit de l’escalier — staircase wit — and besides being a beautiful phrase, it’s a fitting moniker for Hauser & Wirth LA’s latest, robust combo exhibition of Calder: Nonspace and Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto. Shaking off the grogginess of what was a sleepy summer exhibition series marred by incoherent themes, poor spatial utilization, and reliance on quantity over quality, Hauser & Wirth rebounds with a thought-provokingly refined 1-2 punch.

Calder: Nonspace (Photo: James L Chapman)

Calder: Nonspace (Photo: James L Chapman)

Boasting the city’s best ratio of industrial revitalization to gallery conversion, Hauser & Wirth employs their beautiful courtyard and garden space to showcase several of Alexander Calder’s larger sculptures. If there’s any downside to H&W’s current exhibitions it’s an embarrassment of riches. While large-scale Calder sculptures usually command attention as grandiose, lone installations, the crammed nature of so many of them in a single space is overwhelming and detracts from their solitary impressiveness. Despite this, they’re an excellent attraction to catch while sipping a cocktail from the patio bar at Manuela — the gallery’s in-house restaurant. Calder: Nonspace continues in the South Gallery where H&W has assembled a collection of 30 stabiles and mobiles created by the artist. Here visitors can enjoy the juxtaposition of Calder’s monumental sculptures and miniature pieces which remain just as impressive. Within a temporal, specially designed gallery layout constructed to offer justice to Calder’s work, visitors are obligated to confront his brilliant talent for creating works which organically occupy space without consuming it. (Hint: How many solar systems can you spot within Calder’s mobiles?)

Calder: Nonspace (Photo: James L Chapman)

Calder: Nonspace (Photo: James L Chapman)

While Calder: Nonspace offers fitting tribute to a legend, the true spectacle taking place at Hauser & Wirth is Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto; 13 video works projected on floating screens starring Cate Blanchett as she takes on various personas. Manifesto bombards the brain with stunning imagery of incredible locations from abandoned factories, scientific labs, classrooms, and more, whilst providing a female voice through Blanchett’s stellar performances as an artist (otherwise missing from this dual exhibition where two male creators occupy the galleries). Manifesto explores contemporary artists as insurrectionists of the modern world, and visitors are greeted by the spark of revolution upon entrance. From cubicle prison cells to a local news studio, each piece features microcosms of life, subculture, pains, and experiences all happening at once. As Blanchett rather miraculously portrays each character, visitors are treated to a ride on an existentialist roller coaster witnessing the endlessly possible evolutionary course a single life can take. While no two video works are related, they perform in unison symphonically as each piece’s monologue blares in the background. While viewers will find themselves plugged into each protagonist’s dialogue they can imagine the audio from other pieces as the voices in each character’s head— this stimulating theory is both a curatorial win and evident in the fact that you’ll see so many visitors sitting on benches constantly twisting to catch glimpses of the simultaneous works around them. Depending on when you enter the gallery space, it’s imperative to wait until the videos erupt in coinciding, droning crescendo to enjoy this exhibition in full effect. It’s impossible to fully capture the essence of Manifesto as the show somehow so accurately accomplishes the gargantuan task of presenting life as an artwork itself and in doing so, invigorates the public with a revolutionary call to arms: to accept the massive responsibility of your role as an artist, no matter who you are. In this regard, Manifesto leaves viewers with Blanchett’s dialogue ringing in their ears:

“I am for an art that is as stupid as life itself.” 

A witty statement only visitors to Hauser & Wirth’s latest show will fully understand. Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto and Alexander Calder’s Calder: Nonspace are on view until January 6th, 2019. Hauser & Wirth is free to all visitors.

Manifesto by Julian Rosefeldt (Photo: James L Chapman)

Manifesto by Julian Rosefeldt (Photo: James L Chapman)

Click Here To View Comments

TagsartCaldergalleriesHauser & WirthJulian RosefeldtLos Angelesvisual art

Previous Story

Life After Birth Wonders Who Wears The Spanx In The Oval Office

Next Story

Daniel McGinn: Three Poems

About the author

James L. Chapman

James L. Chapman is a film & television producer, writer, and consummate art lover without an art history degree.

Related Posts

  • Connecting the Dots Between Calder and Picasso

    By Stephen West
    Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso are both...
  • Endangered

    By Victor Raphael and Terry Braunstein
    Climate Change -...
  • Hurricane

    By Victor Raphael and Terry Braunstein
      Climate Change -...
  • Unforgotten: The Art of JD Smith

    By Isabel Spiegel
    Tucked behind a bungalow in Venice,...

Support Our Friends

Follow Us

Join Our Mailing List

Latest Tweets

Tweets by @CulturalWeekly

Comments

  • Lisa Segal Lisa Segal
    Valentine’s Day Redux: a Second Chance at True Love
    Marvelous!!!!!!!
    2/14/2021
  • maurice amiel maurice amiel
    Shakespeare on Despots, Power, and Finally… Transition
    Timely and educational this post Your scholarship...
    1/31/2021
  • maurice amiel maurice amiel
    Abigail Wee: “Growing Home”
    A first place well deserved While the particular...
    1/24/2021

New

  • Trending phone tracker apps you must know about
  • Europa League semi-final preview: Could there be an all-English final?
  • John Cullum: An Accidental Star
  • Bok Choy 101 Guide: From Cooking to Regrowing
  • 4 Ways you can make a profit with the Clubhouse app

Tags

art dance film Los Angeles music photography poem poems poetry tomorrow's voices today

Like us

Please Help

Donate

Who are we?

Cultural Weekly is a place to talk about our creative culture with passion, perspective and analysis – and more words than “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.” Our mission is to draw attention to our cultural environment, illuminate it, and make it ... read more

Site map

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact us
  • Contributors
  • Cultural Weekly Style & Formatting Guide
  • Food
  • Home
  • Masthead
  • Privacy Policy/Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Submission Form
  • Submissions: Write for us
  • Subscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Thank You

Links

Adam Leipzig
Entertainment Media Partners
This Is Crowd
CreativeFuture
Plastic Oceans Foundation
Arts & Letters Daily
Alltop
Alexis Rhone Fancher
Jack Grapes
Ethan Bearman
Writ Large Press

Mailing List

* indicates required


  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy/Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Contact us
Cultural Weekly is the digital magazine and public platform of Next Echo Foundation. DONATE HERE.
Copyright © 2010-2020 by Adam Leipzig. All Rights Reserved.