Angels Gate Cultural Center - Salty Dog Bites the Hand

April 27, 2008 - Jun 15, 2008

Public Reception: Sunday, April 27, 2 - 4pm

This exhibition emerges from a two-year seminar-laboratory on globalization taught by Allan Sekula at the California Institute of the Arts. No idea of globalization is worth its salt unless it tastes of the sea and seaports. Why is the Port of Los Angeles considering promoting an international art biennial like other ports? Why is the waterfront getting gussied up, with stacks and stacks of monuments to industries and jobs that have vanished? We looked at other ports and waterfronts, from Ensenada to Istanbul. We even took a bargain-basement cruise, and tried to figure out how the cruise lines make their profits. And we wondered if a small exhibition produced by a small group of collaborators could address the confluence of local and global forces in a port city in a more modest and efficient and quirky way than a big international exhibition. What happens to the ocean when we eat big fish that eat little fish? Can a satellite photograph of a container terminal translate into minimalist origami? What does an old sea captain have to say about the monster port?

The exhibition features work by 2008 MFA graduates Ian Arenas, Allie Bogle, Louisa Conrad, Lindsay Foster, Sidonie Loiseleux, Justin Long, Alejandro Sanchez, and Carlin Wing, 2007 MFA graduate Heather Rasmussem, CalArts Photography and Media faculty members Andrew Freeman and Allan Sekula. Curated by Allan Sekula in collaboration with the artists.

Allan Sekula attended Point Fermin School, Dana Jr. High School and graduated from San Pedro High School in 1968.

Sunday May 18
3PM: Discussion with the artists

6PM: Film Screening
Justin Long, "Epic," 12 minutes, 2008
A mad-cap sci-fi "Odyssey" in Biscayne Bay

Allan Sekula "The Lottery of the Sea," 189 minutes, 2006
Adam Smith spoke of seafarers as gamblers. The film moves from Japan to Panama to Spain, tracking seagoing collisions and oils spills and waterfront development schemes. What are the gambles today, and who are the gamblers?

All events are open to the public.