I'm sorry I missed this...
LEGALLY! An evening in cuffs
Organized by Christopher Michlig
Friday, November 16, 2007 from 9 pm- 2 am
Hyperion Tavern, 1941 Hyperion Avenue, Los Angeles CA, 90027
Located in a space that was once the gay leather bar “Cuffs”, the Hyperion Tavern now houses a complete law library dimly lit by large crystal chandeliers. This transition from a space where the norm was willfully suspended, providing occasion for exceptional activities, to a bar where the law is now literally within arms reach is a unique occasion for an on-site event addressing the flexuous proximity and impact of the law upon the individual.
LEGALLY! An evening in cuffs features contributions by artists, musicians, writers and legal professionals whose works address their relationship to the law.
Tirdad Zolghadr presents Hila Peleg’s A Crime Against Art, a film in six chapters based on a trial staged at ARCO, Madrid in February 2007 in which Zolghadr and Anton Vidokle play the accused. The trial, inspired by the mock trials organized by Andre Breton in the 1920's and 30's, playfully raised a number of polemical issues in the world of contemporary art: collusion with the 'new bourgeoisie', instrumentalization of art and its institutions, the future possibility of artistic agency and other pertinent topics.
Jeff Ostergren writes of his video Borderline, “The multiple literal connotations of the word borderline – political and legal boundaries, a strain of personality disorder, a generic liminal space, the pop song by Madonna – all can settle comfortably into the space of this video. Multiple personalities of the police, the prisoner, and the medical authority weave a fractured narrative of the problematics of the borderline and its relationship to the body.”
About her video Push, Vienna-based artist Anna Witt says, “’Get down there!’ I asked passers by in Venice Beach to push me down on a car. It’s a classical image of an arrestment and an act of power and control. In return I did the same action to them. In the change of roles each can experience the position of power and inferiority.”
William E. Jones contributes Mansfield 1962. In the summer of 1962, the Mansfield, Ohio Police Department filmed men having sex in a public restroom under the main square of the city, resulting in the conviction of over 30 men on charges of sodomy. William E. Jones found the film in a degraded version on the internet, then reedited the footage to make Mansfield 1962, a haunting, silent condensation of the original.
Pianist Jeremy Gilien will perform an improvisational piece based on the theme song to L.A. Law, the dramatic television sitcom that brought the courtroom to the living room from 1986-2004 on 20th Century Fox.
Jeff Cain presents Police Station, an audio installation that receives and decodes live LAPD radio transmissions and rebroadcasts them near LAPD’s original 1931 frequency on AM 1710. Police Station is part of an ongoing investigation of the history, culture, and technology of the Los Angeles Police Department communication systems.
Tao Urban will provide a set of music focusing on songs addressing the law as we know it, as well as other songs under his jurisdiction.
Artist and attorney York Chang will offer elastic legal advice as “’THE ASTOUNDINGLY REASONABLE MAN’- Witness the amazing elasticity of the law! Hear death-defying equivocations! See awe-inspiring feats of justification! Relativism Gone Wild! Rhetorical contortions that will shock you! Watch the bright line between right and wrong VANISH into thin air!”
Artist Lucas Michael teams up with former Cuffs fixture Principal Bob for a collaborative and audience-inclusive performance addressing the punitive aspect of the Law, while referencing the venue's history as the former leather bar Cuffs. Cuffs was to Principal Bob his schoolyard; and as the Principal it was his duty to discipline the unruly patrons, well deserved of a spanking.
In a strategic essentialist spirit, Linda Pollack provides buttons that simply state “PATRIOT”. These buttons elicit a micro-political re-calibration of the individual’s relationship to one’s country and its laws. In Edward Abbey’s words, “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government”. Pollack’s contribution is part of her ongoing project Patriot Acts, a series of events hosted in The Habeas Lounge at the 18th Street Art Center in Santa Monica.
Theorist and writer Jason Smith will call from Berlin to contribute his voice and words in the tradition of rap vocals recorded from inside rehabilitation facilities. Smith will speak about a range of topics including the suspension of the constitution, his experiences as a consultant for Pervez Musharraf, and his meeting next year in Jerusalem with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Karthik Pandian presents a YouTube-based excavation of the Guantanamo that lies in the hearts, minds and basements of America's finest performers. Additionally, Pandian will mark the end of the evening with a performance entitled Finale Furioso, a one-man eruption, lovingly prepared and brazenly executed.
Please join us on Friday, November 16, 2007 from 9 pm- 2 am at the
Hyperion Tavern, 1941 Hyperion Avenue, Los Angeles CA, 90027
For more information about Legally! An evening in cuffs, contact Christopher Michlig at cmichlig@yahoo.com
