"The Blurred Line Between Art & Life" @ Sushi Performance and Visual Art
Friday, Saturday, & Sunday, July 26, 27, 28, 2002 (Friday & Saturday 5pm-12am, Sunday 1pm-10pm) 320 Eleventh Avenue, downtown San Diego (located in the Rein-Carnation Building), CA 92101
This event was a three-day multidisciplinary exposition of visual and performing art by over a hundred individuals and artists. Very much inspired by "Fluxus" and "Burning Man", Life Stage took on the experimentation and spontaneous quality of a "happening", as well as the freedom and depth of Burning Man. Most importantly, "the blur, between art, and life", was engaged by disciplines not commonly associated with contemporary art. Such as, the Natural Healing Arts, Culinary, Web Design, architecture, and many other functional genres. All of which, found their place among thought provoking sculpture/installations, conceptual works, painting, photography, video, literature, spoken word, interventions, puppetry, musical theatre, dance, and layer's of musical variations. The term art, and artists, was (at least in the context of the event) open to interpretation. Individuals of all crafts, disciplines, and professions were invited to collaborate, perform, exhibit, and to share what it is that they do, in whatever form it may take. People were encouraged to bring instruments, artwork, home movies/travel videos, literature, poetry, camera's, photo albums/photo's, etc.
In this dichotomy of Kitsch and the avant-garde, we combined artwork, performance/demonstration, both inside and outside of Sushis performance loft and gallery. Transforming the sidewalk, gallery, dressing room bathrooms, lobby, and main theater into a kind of playground of the imagination. The dressing room had become a screening room for scheduled film and video, as well as installations throughout the room and in it's two bathrooms. The main bathrooms, were "critique rooms" for written and verbal critique, on the art, art in San Diego, art, or the event itself...accompanied by two installations, "Kitschman" & "Kitschwoman" in need of GOOD taste and culture. The main theatre was like a labrynth of performance and multimedia installations, with a number of things happening simultaneously. The walls were overwhelmingly occupied with visual works presented salon stylea communal slide projector used by artists to project their work, and a Sushi retrospective slide exhibit. A nude figure model/artist, suspended himself in dramatic endurance poses, soliciting documentation on drawing paper. Collaborations took on many forms, from music and dance, to drawing and performance. A debate was incited between individuals of different religions. A Yoga class was taught on the main stage. The owner of a well-known bakery mounted gourmet breads on the gallery walls along with bags of it for feasting. Over thirty diverse bands and solo musicians played in the lobby. Portrait murals were painted on the outside walls of the building. Homeless street performers engaged in henna and performance. The Hare Krishna's danced and chanted around the entrance, set up an installation in the theatre, played music on the main stage, and served vegetarian food on the final day of the event. The event was documented live, and uploaded onto a computer/work station at the event that allowed for people to view the show. The following images are taken from this installation by Damien Lassater.
Scheduled Artists: (note: many of those who participated were not scheduled.)
Marianne Goyette
Eric Wong
Lonny Wood
Tony Allard
Nathaniel Clark
Dan Adams,
Anna Zappoli Jenkins
Hirsch (The Machine Hirsch)
Grace Welty
Maria Vanville
Dorothy Chance
Diana Duval
James Watts
Mario Lara
Anna Stump
Terry Hughes
James Soe Nyun
Walter Redondo
Pasquale Verdicchio
Mayling Martinez
Jose Romo
Jessica Pearson
Elle Gamboa
Andrea Spitzer
Gary Shimanek
Sharon K. Novak,
Mark Lee Morris
John Rigg
Damien Lassater
Patrick Icon (LA)
Bryan Reyna (Texas)
Vi Nguyen (LA)
Ronaldo Peyton
Beau Lynott
Chris Vannoy
Janet Marie
Trisha Wang
Rebecca Romani
Steve Okallahan
Effi Karakaidos
Kenji Hashimoto (LA)
Crystal Nichols
April Durrett
Jessica Zammit
Maria Mazzi
Claudia Fernety
Andrea Spitzer
Kathy Miner
Brian Gilwee
Larry Caveney
Nigel Brookes
Mirto Golino
Michele Yu
Deb Ogburn
Lizeth Vizvarra
Bryan Beattie
Jakey Toor
Maxwell Hirsch
Henry Duclos
Raul Pureco
Blue Buddah (SF)
Jeff Jones
Karen Reaves
Beth Shneider (LA)
Mike Cunanan
Margaret Katchur
"The Walking"
"Japanese Sunday"
"3 Against 1"
"Lower Left Dancers"
"Parallel Mechanics"
"Emergency Broadcast"
"The Merdiverators"
"Control Theory"
Gerardo Yepiz (Achamonchi)
"Urban Tribal Dance Company"
Dennis Woodruff (Hollywood Icon)
Chani Robinson (in collaboration with Merge Life & Music)
Quinton Carlson (OR) "Quince"
Scott Filler "DJ Bastian"
"Multimedia audio performance Chris Baldwin, Eric Richardson and Jonathon Bewly"