Aghh! I will begin the gushing now. Human Resources is probably my favorite art collective in all of Los Angeles. To put this in a more proper context I would have to cite all my years of reading art history - the Bohemian 1900's in Paris, 80's New York, Andy Warhol's factory in the 60's, Tony Shafrazi tagging "KILL LIES ALL" on Picasso's Guernica. In other words I have spent multiple decades reading about the art world, assuming it was feral and off-kilter. Now I go to a lot of shows, chat with a decent amount of art dealers and I thought things would be different, I thought the vibrant art scene would be palpable and it wasn't. The art does not disappoint though. But then there's Human Resources. In Los Angeles I have not came across another gallery that feels as vibrant, cutting edge and forward thinking as Human Resources does. They have performance art, noise bands and art shows. When attending I regularly get the feeling that I'm privileged enough to be part of something amazing. It feels like I'm witnessing creativity being pushed to it's most avant guard boundary by seriously talented and intelligent artists. The art work shown here really projects the best Los Angeles art has to offer. I've lived in Chicago, the liberalness of this city is good for creative souls.
I can't say how much I love this art collective. It used to be in a much smaller spot in Chinatown, it moved to a former Kung Fu Theater on Cottage Home St. For a while it was a porn theater, but it still has a neon sign above in chinese characters. It's a really amazing space.
A prime example of an amazing performance there was Bret Nicely, Hecuba & John Knuth show Fading Horizon. When I was there I felt like what was happening was special, it lives up to all the years of reading crazy shit from the art scene of the 80's or Andy Warhol factory days. Most of all it feels very cutting edge in the best possible way.
Fading Horizon was a performance piece that evolved through out the show. When I first walked in it was dark and smelled like dessert. John Knuth walked around the room and had bags of sugar, I think they might have been around 10 pounds. He proceeded to pour sugar on top of various light bulbs across the room. The light bulbs had soft mounds of sugar on them and evolved so beautifully, they would glow and transform from white to brown and sometimes bubble. Knuth would move some of the mats that were placed under these mounds and expose the lightbulb so the room would elegantly transition to a brighter space. It felt brilliant and improvisational, he would sometimes move the mats with the sugar and pour it on another light bulb. Standing there I felt really lucky to have found a gem of a art space like Human Resources, I just feel like the performances there are of the highest caliber, period.
The art collective is made up of several co founders, mostly from band members of Lady Noise and LA Fog and another well known performance artist Dawn Kasper. I really enjoy running into them because they're pretty down to earth.
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