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November 13, 2014  

SO! Amplifies: Shizu Saldamando’s OUROBOROS

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.59350/hbj3n-c0v91

SO! Amplifies. . .a highly-curated, rolling mini-post series by which we editors hip you to cultural makers and organizations doing work we really really dig.  You’re welcome!

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Shizu Saldamando’s solo multimedia exhibition OUROBOROS explores the social dynamics and physical codes integrated within contemporary group dancing and civic participation.  OUROBOROS represents the ancient symbol of revolutionary cycles, rebirth, and circle dancing.  The show, opening at South of Sunset–an exhibition and performance space in Echo Park, Los Angeles, run by Elizabeth DiGiovanni and Megan Dudley–will include a selection of large-scale, photorealistic works on paper documenting the intimate social interactions observed within LA’s dance club scene, as well as recent video work. South of Sunset is pleased to premiere her most recent video, a juxtaposition of footage of traditional Japanese dancers at an Obon festival and punk rockers in a mosh-pit at a show in East LA.  

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“Ouroboros” 2 channel video, 4:58 looped 2014  //  “La Sandra” colored pencil, glitter, spray paint on paper 25” x 32″ 2014
Opening of Ourboros, South of Sunset, 11/12/14, Image by Devon Tsuno
Opening of Ourboros, South of Sunset, 11/12/14, Image by Devon Tsuno

Even as her recent interview with NPR Latino amplifies the “quiet radical politics” of her work, the sonics of Shizu’s work are loudly resonant. Her pencil and ink drawings, glittery gilt paintings, and video pieces reverberate with the sights and sounds of the two California cities she has called home–San Francisco and Los Angeles–the three cultures that have profoundly shaped her–Mexican, Japanese, and American–and the myriad voices, favorite bands, and energy of the friends she photographs out at dance clubs and concerts while “documenting the vibe” of LA music subcultures.

The exhibit runs from November 12th to December 3rd 2014; the gallery is open on Sundays 1 – 4 pm through November 23 (and by appointment).

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Featured image: Ozzie and Grace, 2014, Shizu Saldamando, colored pencil and spray paint on paper, 25 x 32 inches.

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Shizu Saldamando (b. 1978, San Francisco) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. A graduate of UCLA (BA, 2000) and CalArts (MFA, 2005), she has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at the Vincent Price Art Museum (Los Angeles, 2013), Moore College of Art and Design (Philadelphia, 2012), and Steve Turner Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, 2010). Saldamando’s work has also been included in influential group exhibitions including Portraits of the Encounter at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (Washington DC, 2011), Audience as Subject at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, 2010), and Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, 2008).

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tape reel

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SO! Amplifies: Mendi+Keith Obadike and Sounding Race in America

Maile Colbert, Rui Costa, and Jeff Cain’s “Radio Terramoto” 

Yvon Bonenfant’s Voice Bubbles App 

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SO! Amplifies: Shizu Saldamando’s OUROBOROS_2014Download
October 16, 2014  

SO! Amplifies: Carleton Gholz and the Detroit Sound Conservancy

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.59350/t8c5p-ebg96

SO! Amplifies. . .a highly-curated, rolling mini-post series by which we editors hip you to cultural makers and organizations doing work we really really dig.  You’re welcome!

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I founded the Detroit Sound Conservancy in 2012 in order to preserve what music producer Don Was has called “the indigenous music of Detroit.” I also did it to preserve my own archive of Detroit sound related artifacts – oral history interviews, recordings, vinyl records, cassette tapes, 8-tracks, posters, t-shirts, buttons, articles, clippings, books, magazines, zines, photos, digital photos, notes, jottings, and other miscellaneous ephemera — knowing that if I could not help preserve the materials of an older generation of musicians, producers, DJs, writers, collectors, and fans, my personal archive and passions would not weather the storms (literal and figural) of the early 21st century – PhD or not. After a year or so of organizing virtually from Boston where I had found academic work teaching media & rhetoric, the DSC had its first major success with an oral history project for Detroit music, funded through Kickstarter.  Donations allowed us to throw a great party in Boston, form the non-profit, and push me home to work on the DSC full time.

.The results of the move have already manifested themselves. This summer we had a successful conference at the Detroit Public Library — the first of its kind — dedicated to Detroit sound.We will hold another next year on May 22 dedicated to the key role of Michigan in general, and Detroit in particular, in the emergence of the modern soundscape.  We plan to have the call for papers out this fall.

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October 14, 2014, interview with historian / musician Larry Gabriel and myself at #RecordDET, image courtesy of the author

In addition, we currently have an organizing/promotional night called #RecordDET at a downtown coffee shop  called Urban Bean so that we can continue to both record interviews and playback the sounds / stories we are learning from. So far we’ve interviewed a retired disco / house DJ, a record retail and radio veteran, and two blues historians and musicians.

.The long-term goal is to use the stories and sounds to propel us into a more sustainable future for Detroit’s sonic heritage. Recent local floods  have reminded Metro Detroiters just how vulnerable we are and continue to be. We must preserve or our sonic dreams will perish.

I imagine the DSC as the sonic dream weaver. As one of our inspirations, the Black Madonna in Chicago, says: We still believe.

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Carleton Gholz (PhD, Communication Studies, University of Pittsburgh, 2011) is the Founder and Executive Director of the Detroit Sound Conservancy, a lecturer in Communication at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, and President of the Friends of the E. Azalia Hackley Collection at the Detroit Public Library.

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tape reel

REWIND!…If you liked this post, you may also dig:

SO! Amplifies: Mendi+Keith Obadike and Sounding Race in America

SO! Amplifies: Regina Bradley’s Outkasted Conversations

SO! Amplifies: Eric Leonardson and World Listening Day 18 July 2014

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SO! Amplifies: Carleton Gholz and the Detroit Sound Conservancy Sounding Out!_2014Download
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