HOLD - Far Bazaar
Elizabeth Tinglof, Still image from Narrow Footings video installation for Rough Play’s Hold - Far Bazaar 2017
Main Events: Saturday, January 28 – Sunday, January 29, 2017
The word “vessel” connects to wide-ranging associations. From a hand-held object of daily use to a ship transferring cargo across an ocean, the vessel serves to hold something transitory so that it might be digested or preserved, grounding the ephemeral to an earthly collection point. Whereas the human body is mere empty flesh, it can be seen as a vessel for the immaterial elements of humanity—the “soul”, “spirit”, or “consciousness”.
Organized by artist collective, Rough Play, to be on view in the ceramics studio at Cerritos College on the occasion of the FAR BAZAAR, the work in Hold engages with these ideas through contemporary notions of the literal versus the metaphorical, in some cases referencing the physical form of the vessel; and in others, through metaphorical associations with the location of the “soul”, “spirit”, or “consciousness”. Approaching the vessel as a concept, the art object is considered in its capacity to operate as a vessel for ideas, emotions, and memories.
Kim Abeles, Jonathan Apgar, Adam Berg, Patricia D. Burns, Ashley Hagen, Ben Jackel, Bessie Kunath, Gerardo Monterrubio, Erin Morrison, Thomas Müller, Thinh Nguyen, Emily Sudd, Elizabeth Tinglof, Kim Truong
About FAR Bazaar:
This coming year, 2017, marks the fortieth anniversary of the Foundation for Art Resources (FAR - http://www.far-la.org/), one of the oldest artist-run non-profits in Southern California. FAR has helped to produce some of the most significant alternative art events in Los Angeles. From the monthly Art Talk Art lecture series of the 1980s (http://www.far-la.org/art-talk-art/) to the massive FAR Bazaars of the 1990s (http://www.far-la.org/history/featured-events/far-bazaar-at-the-federal-building/), FAR was blazing trails for today’s LA art community. Billboard art, artist coloring books … you name it and FAR probably did it first.
To honor this major milestone of 40 years, FAR is collaborating with Cerritos College to host its biggest FAR Bazaar event ever. After over 55+ years of use, Cerritos College will be retiring and demolishing its existing Fine Arts complex. This mid-century modernist structure now sits side-by-side with its replacement, a massive new Fine Arts building to be completed in December, 2016. Before the old building is torn down, however, Cerritos College, with the help of FAR, will transform every abandoned classroom and administrative space into temporary exhibitions, each to be guest-curated by local art collectives and alternative art spaces, as well as the graduate programs from regional colleges, universities, and art schools.
This non-commercial alternative art fair will take place on January 28th and 29th, with a VIP preview the night of January 27th. Much like the way that art fairs provide access to disparate galleries from across the globe, the FAR Bazaar will allow the various art communities that are physically spread far and wide across the megalopolis of Southern California to come together temporarily in one place for easy access and for productive exchange.
Because the building is slated for destruction immediately after the end of the event, there is ample opportunity to explore alternative methods of installation and even transform the individual spaces into walk-in tableaus. Two day-long events will include a food truck festival in the parking lot, a series of panel discussions, ongoing musical/dance performances, video screenings, and an art book fair.