Sister Sylvia Creswell, Queen of Skid Row
|
PHASE ONE (VISUAL ART) : Mind Maps 1 and 2 (above) |
Yovaar : Porciuncula : Terrain Vague
Designed as a site-specific work-in-progress performance / public art project about the square block of Downtown LA, between Main and Spring, Second and Third. The project is, in these times when we cannot gather, imagined as a virtual exploration / excavation of place and its history. Now it's mostly parking lots, a few vestigial Main Street structures — all tear-downs. It's the largest contiguous parcel of undeveloped land in Downtown Los Angeles, at the very heart of the City, a block from City Hall. It's the most expensive land in the City. What will it, should it be?
IT'S A WORKING TITLE, MEANING IT HELPS ME WORK
Yovaar - native Tongva: “precious, or ceremonial place” : the Tongva people are the original stewards of this land.
Porciuncula - Italian, “little portion” : what Franciscans named the City (Nuestra Senora de los angeles de la porciuncula) after the tiny chapel in Santa Maria degli Angeli, where Saint Francis of Assisi lived and prayed and died.
Terrain vague - French: literally,“empty space,” in the vernacular, "abandoned lot" : what architects call absence/emptiness at the center of a metropolis. Architects say this absence is essential, disruptive. It allows space for flash-innovation, creation. Before reams of blueprints, massive investments. Before wrecking balls.
Terrain Vague is a time and place for wild-mind spirits to soar. Like this time of quarantine, this confinement.
Yovaar : Porciuncula : Terrain Vague seeks to make tangible the phenomenal opportunity that exists in this numinal time
between what-was and what-will-be
The area's history reveals a cultural vortex, an army of tenacious souls, mostly unknown, mostly women. They came to LA, against all odds —former slave; one-armed boxer; 17 year-old kid—made awe-inspiring contributions, on that site. I’ve been building a series of solo performance pieces — not pretending to be them. I don’t do that. Interacting with them, bringing their fabulous persistence into light. Those performances will be part of the virtual piece.
Today, our City, our World, is torn between voracious development/ostentatious wealth and desperate poverty. We stand vulnerable in the face of a virus gone rampant. Who will we be? ... Terrain Vague calls forth spirits and stories of those who chose and choose, in times of similar despair, to live with fierce tenacity. We summon them forth, with all their grace, resilience, and spirit, and ask them to show us what is possible, who we can chose to be.
FROM SAINT VIBIANA PRAY4US:
Saint Vibiana is the patron saint of the City of Los Angeles, which means — and I'm Jewish, so I had to look this up.
It means she is the heavenly advocate for this City and its people. So she — whoever she is or was — has now transcended to the metaphysical, and is therefore able to intercede effectively for our needs. Meaning it’s her job to take care of us. All of us. Like it’s the job of the Mayor, the City Council. Eric Garcetti, Jose Huizar. I call, I write, I knock on their doors. They're busy.
However, you, my dear Vibiana, you are dead, and therefore you have all the time in the world. So where are you?
IT'S A WORKING TITLE, MEANING IT HELPS ME WORK
Yovaar - native Tongva: “precious, or ceremonial place” : the Tongva people are the original stewards of this land.
Porciuncula - Italian, “little portion” : what Franciscans named the City (Nuestra Senora de los angeles de la porciuncula) after the tiny chapel in Santa Maria degli Angeli, where Saint Francis of Assisi lived and prayed and died.
Terrain vague - French: literally,“empty space,” in the vernacular, "abandoned lot" : what architects call absence/emptiness at the center of a metropolis. Architects say this absence is essential, disruptive. It allows space for flash-innovation, creation. Before reams of blueprints, massive investments. Before wrecking balls.
Terrain Vague is a time and place for wild-mind spirits to soar. Like this time of quarantine, this confinement.
Yovaar : Porciuncula : Terrain Vague seeks to make tangible the phenomenal opportunity that exists in this numinal time
between what-was and what-will-be
The area's history reveals a cultural vortex, an army of tenacious souls, mostly unknown, mostly women. They came to LA, against all odds —former slave; one-armed boxer; 17 year-old kid—made awe-inspiring contributions, on that site. I’ve been building a series of solo performance pieces — not pretending to be them. I don’t do that. Interacting with them, bringing their fabulous persistence into light. Those performances will be part of the virtual piece.
Today, our City, our World, is torn between voracious development/ostentatious wealth and desperate poverty. We stand vulnerable in the face of a virus gone rampant. Who will we be? ... Terrain Vague calls forth spirits and stories of those who chose and choose, in times of similar despair, to live with fierce tenacity. We summon them forth, with all their grace, resilience, and spirit, and ask them to show us what is possible, who we can chose to be.
FROM SAINT VIBIANA PRAY4US:
Saint Vibiana is the patron saint of the City of Los Angeles, which means — and I'm Jewish, so I had to look this up.
It means she is the heavenly advocate for this City and its people. So she — whoever she is or was — has now transcended to the metaphysical, and is therefore able to intercede effectively for our needs. Meaning it’s her job to take care of us. All of us. Like it’s the job of the Mayor, the City Council. Eric Garcetti, Jose Huizar. I call, I write, I knock on their doors. They're busy.
However, you, my dear Vibiana, you are dead, and therefore you have all the time in the world. So where are you?
