The Homer Project with Parthenia Projects at
OPaf 2021. September 11 and 12, 2021. 12-6PM
Battery Leary-Merriam / Angels Gate Cultural Center
3601 S Gaffey St, San Pedro, CA, 90731
Admission: $5 donation, free for students.
Battery Leary-Merriam / Angels Gate Cultural Center
3601 S Gaffey St, San Pedro, CA, 90731
Admission: $5 donation, free for students.
Belle View
The Homer Project in collaboration with Parthenia Projects brings domesticity and art to Angels Gate Park with a multisensorial installation titled “Belle View.” It explores the specific layers of the park’s local history, particularly with respect to the landscape both natural and built.
Through cultural proximity and physical presence, Justin Lowman of Parthenia Projects presents a reconstructed sculptural installation that triangulates sights and sounds of two dominant features of Angel’s Gate Park. One, the Korean Bell of Friendship, is itself a symbol of domestic, social relations; architectures; and sonic vibrations. The second, more peripheral element, is the port of Los Angeles, a major artery for international commerce just next door. Its visual, aural and symbolic effects are impressive to say the least. Both park neighbors are integrated through the installation with particular views available towards each one. Riffing on the classical/neoclassical belvedere, later the gazebo/pergola/arbor, etc, this structure brings not-so-common design elements to a fairly common back-yard edifice. Out of context, it proposes an alternative gathering place, also a site of contemplation simultaneously celebrating multiple, potentially infinite, points of view both intensely of the moment through color events and more remotely established by longer durations of time, notably patina and other cumulative effects.
Lucia Fabio of The Homer Project turns to the organic matter surrounding the site at Angels Gate Park. Often overlooked as unremarkable and ubiquitous to any “green space” in the city, the plants located at this site are not natives, nor plants commonly used in garden and park ornamentation. Instead, the majority of them are marked as invasive species by the California Invasive Plants Council. They each possess a complicated story of migration and colonization, but also of medicinal and culinary uses. The mature plants currently growing will be held and recognized in ceramic vessels as a token of this particular moment in time.
The intention of this installation is to create a multisensory site that partially absorbs the surroundings to reflect something akin to friendly relations--- alternative art spaces, artists, and varied audiences--- at the very least a space to pass through to contemplate such things, not unlike a strange door and its access with a bell. While there may be more direct and obvious connections to be made with the work, the visitors who linger in the space to sense the passage of time will be rewarded with more subtle nuances throughout the day, weekend, and season.