Above: Anita Getzler, Evocation (photo still), Sanctuary of the Aftermath, Angels Gate Cultural Center; Photo Credit LA Art Documents
By Nancy Kay Turner | artandcakela | May 19, 2021
Mankind has a tenuous relationship with the natural world but never has it seemed more precarious then in our current time. Exacerbated by human induced climate change, we are subjected to catastrophic wildfires, annual hundred year floods, vicious hurricanes and all matter of weather-induced calamities with increasing frequency. And then along came the global pandemic, which only increased our pain, sorrow and societal disjunction. With Sanctuary of the Aftermath, the hauntingly beautiful exhibition at Angel’s Gate, artist/curators Jason Jenn and Vojislav Radovanović seek to demonstrate the healing power of art.
By orchestrating light, shadow and sound in surprising and theatrical ways in the overall exhibition design, the curators heighten the viewer’s perception of the gallery as a sacred place of contemplation and peace, a real spiritual refuge rom the hellish year of the plague. The ten visual artists David Hollen, Ibuki Kuramochi, Jason Jenn, Rosalyn Myles, Vojislav Radovanović, Alison Ragguette, Kayla Tange, Nica Aquino, Jeff Frost and Anita Getzler share a high degree of synchronicity with their muted color palettes, their use of natural materials (among them reeds, beans, leaves, rose petals, earth, feathers, sand) and processes (woven, crocheted, knitted, knotted, beaded, intertwined), and their embrace of the ephemeral. Joseph Carrillo, a composer wrote the score for the award- winning movie Minari, creates the evocative and essential soundscape.
Carrillo, whose father passed away in October, has divided this poignant dirge into five parts: Song for the Lost, for the Missing, for the Wandering, for the Forgotten and for the Found. His soulful composition (a cello, English horn and an Indian Flute) is about an hour long and emanates from a black box covered with charred branches retrieved from recent wildfires. Sitting on a white plinth, it is cleverly disguised as a sculpture.