Art+Architecture+Possibilities Mix on A Night in Los Angeles

The man in the yellow tie was quiet. He stood at the entrance of the party, not saying much. Once in a while he rearranged a pile of fine black powder ground from steel rods that sat on the driveway before a strip of white paper. Between arrangements Jongku Kim might take off his boots and walk onto that white paper to add another calligraphic mark or abstract image.

People began to arrive and walk by him on the driveway. They were coming to the Bailey Case Study House #21 designed by Pierre Koenig. They were coming to see the collected works of the cutting-edge Korean art gallery, One and J.  They were coming because they knew, or knew of, Pat Lee and Won Jae Park, the gallery owners. They were coming because they were invited by Bill Turner, owner of William Turner Gallery, one of the Korean gallery’s  L.A. connections. Or they were coming because of Carl Bendix, owner of JupiterPx/Ambrosia who was organizing the entire event.

Whatever the reason, the guests knew when they walked by the man in the yellow tie something was going to happen. He was the one to keep an eye on. His relationship to the white paper and the black dust in his metal dustpan poised for action was just too focused. Plus, there was a monitor showing the white paper and black dust set up at ankle height. Video — today’s unpoken symbol that something is of importance.

But until it did, they walked into the house, tiny and very sparse by today’s standards. But they knew they were walking into a piece of Los Angeles history. Which they were. The Case Study Houses were commissioned in the fifties by the magazine Art+Architecture to explore ways to create cost-efficient model homes to supply the large demand for homes from soldiers returning from World War II. They were designed by major architects such as Shindler, Neutra and Koenig. There aren’t many left in this pristine of condition and even when they are, like #21, are rarely open to the public.

 So there was something special in the air already.

Add to this the show of 13 artists from Korea and Japan curated by Gabriel Ritter and One and J. No one knew how this new wave of international art would interact with such an iconic venue. And when installing the pieces, even Lee and Park were surprised by how naturally they fit in.

Even the big ball of tape created on site by artist Koki Tanaka looked right.

And the large photo of a tofu Buddha spouting soy sauce by Tatsu Nishi? Perfect in the kitchen. And appropriately titled — Perfect Bliss.

Truly, it was meeting of iconoclastic architecture with new wave art and it worked.

And still the man in the yellow tie waited.

And then he waited no more.

Quietly, the boots came off for the last time. He walked onto the paper, his metal dust pan loaded and ready for action. Thoughtfully he alternately created piles with the fine poweder, then calligraphic, Asian characters, then simply, brush strokes.

When viewed in the second dimension – looking down onto the flat canvas – he was creating painting. In the third dimension, it became a landscape of negative and positive space with islands of black floating amid the large white areas. Lines of small characters ran down one side, a message, a thought. Then suddenly, a slash of black powder, an explosion of dust from the pan and then, silence.

A crowd had gathered and uncharacteristically for most Los Angeles parties, was quiet too and seemed to deeply appreciate Jongku’s movements within this living art installation.

Perhaps it was because this artwork was unassuming and yet all about that which we fear most in today’s modern age. Quiet. Space. Emptiness. And the beauty of it.

But it is also about that which we most admire and desire. Risk taking. Zero percent of error. Letting everything be as it is.

The man in the yellow tie walked into the emptiness we fear with no protection, in just his socks. Literally, a man of steel.

There were no mistakes in his artwork because it simply existed for that moment then was gone.

Permanence makes us afraid of risk, afraid sometimes even to attempt moving the black dust that fills our minds around to form something that is new, fresh, different, useful. Seeing it, as Jongku Kim does, in two different dimensions, can help us see the challenges in our lives from different perspectives.

That idea was met with quiet appreciation on this unusual night in Los Angeles, at a glass house in the hills surrounded by art from the past and the present and the possibilities of the future.

The man in the yellow tie knew that anything could happen on that white paper. Why not? It was only there for the night … and so were we.

–Liese Gardner

Photos by MJ Kim