Colors for the Blind.
Los Angeles - March 17th, 2004
by Teka-Lark Lo
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An artist has a choice of anywhere in the world and chooses LA as the spot to showcase his One Year series, either this individual A. wants to be an actor, B. has been run out of NY, or C. they really like the climate. David E Stone is 'C' a laid back artist with a wicked sense of humor.
His space is within the old Capitol Records building, where according to the guy that leased him the space a Beatles record or two was actually pressed within it’s hallow halls. What an appropriate environment to mock American kitsch.
I missed his first two installments and I was pretty disappointed, because according to David they were pretty interesting. I also saw pictures of the work on his website and his prior installations seemed fascinating.
Every month artist David E Stone combines art with a little tongue in cheek. His first installment in January was a take on the subliminal messages of the 1950s. In the 1950s flashing signs of "drink coke" and "buy popcorn", was suppose to get viewers to go out and buy more junk food, of course it was completely bogus or so they say. Apparently David has some juice, because he got Laemmle theaters to let him show his recreations of vintage 1950 propaganda slides, the drink coke and popcorn kind not the other type silly, in between movies during the month of January and later he showcased the slides at a reception entitled "Suggestive Persuasion".
In February David let you participate in the business venture of opening up an amusement park, where you the "investor" could observe the coming together of your dream of the most fabulous amusement park ever. You could "approve" prototypes of bobble head dolls, you could give a yay or nay to plans and schematics, you could look at models, admire your stock certificate, and even get a souvenir from the groundbreaking ceremony. This installment was entitled "Invest in Ordinary World". David is different, but in a good way.
On March 6, Saturday David presented his third installment "HTML Colors for the Blind" exhibited prints of the HTML mark up for various colors presented in Braille font, which included your favorite 1960s labels for colors such as, chartreuse and lemon chiffon, it was humorous on many levels, because how exactly do you read Braille that has been printed out on paper and that’s behind glass if you are blind and if you can see how do you read dots? I initially went thinking that he was trying to say something about society in regards to disabilities, but it was not that at all it was a very quirky exhibition that made you laugh about how miscommunication can be funny and how do people come about creating the pointless.
David’s exhibition is an irreverent critique of our society and it’s many contradictions. His "One Year in LA" series continues through December. His next installation takes place in April with a reception being held the first Saturday of each month.
David E Stone's space is within the old Capitol Records building at 2121 North San Fernando Road his hours are 11am-6pm, Friday-Saturday and 1pm-4pm, Sunday. For more information check out his website at http://www.oneyearinla.com.
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