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You are here: Home / LACE / 2000-2004 / The Rebirth of Wonder

The Rebirth of Wonder

20030215_The-Rebirth-of-Wonder_01February 15 – March 30, 2003

In February and March of 2003, LACE presented a series of performances, concerts, readings, and video/film that documented performative activity entitled The Rebirth of Wonder. The series featured a diverse group of artists working in a variety of time-based media, with the use of the body as a key component of much of the content of the work. This project was organized by Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions’ Director/Curator Irene Tsatsos.

The Rebirth of Wonder
accompanied an exhibition entitled High Performance: The First Five Years, 1978-1982. The exhibition, organized by guest curator Jenni Sorkin, consisted of documentation of and detritus from performances that were documented in High Performance, the first international performance art magazine. Interestingly, many of the artists whose performances were included in the High Performance show presented work at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, and of those performances half actually took place here or under our auspices.

The performance series and the exhibition reflected each other well — one being historical and retrospective, the other a forward-looking series of fresh work and new ideas by artists who are emerging and based in Los Angeles.

Below the Belt
15 February, 7-9 pm, $5
An audio/clash/performance with Juan Capistran, Ricardo Espinoza, Carlos “Ghetto Blasta” Mendoza, and Mario Ybarra
This evening was a vibrant, dynamic melding of sound, music, and live action by four artists who employ (among other things) a DJ sensibility in their work. The presentation/live action/sound melded high- and low-tech, featuring eclectic elements including instruments made from materials as diverse as old Atari computers and plastic cups, turntables (old and new), sampled sound, spoken word, and more.

The Girl Was Saved
22 February, 7-9 pm, $5

Durational performance by Lauren Hartman and Curt LeMieux
In “The Girl Was Saved,” Hartman and LeMieux combined living tableaux with formal drawing and sculptural elements to dissect the four words that comprise the work’s title. These still, contemplative installations delved into language to retrieve buried images, stimulating the viewer’s curiosity and luring one into the work’s suggestive narratives.

Canadian Rain
26 February through 8 March
(reception Saturday 1 March 6-8 pm)
Video projection by Trisha Donnelly
A black-and-white video projection that documents an attempt to produce rain in a distant Canadian forest. The viewer is presented with a picture of the artist enacting a beat sequence that creates rain in Canada. Also on display was a piece entitled “Blind Friends,” a photograph of Trisha’s blind friends on the beach. The artist told them to walk into the wind and then away from the wind. The subjects felt as though the wind surrounded them and became disoriented. They began walking as if they were wandering on the beach

Tom Thumb
A story written and read by Derrick Jefferson and…
8 March, 7 pm, $5
My Dear Sweet Organs Cords, Violet Adjustment After Kusama, Livers in My Belly, and Descriptive Memories
Stories written and read by Pam Strugar
Derrick Jefferson offered a hilarious yet painful account of an apparently regular but ultimately delusional guy who happens to be sitting next to Tom Cruise in a diner on La Cienega. The guy awkwardly discloses personal information and, under the assumption that by sharing counter space they have become confidants, he expects Tom Cruise to do the same.

Pam Strugar offered a shocking series of autobiographical, poetic/prose narratives about surgical procedures, violence, sex, defiance, and social questions.

Dude Dogg
15 March, 7-9 pm, $5
Multi-media concert performance by Dude Dogg with Gerald Davis, David Deany, and Charles Irvin (pictured above)
The members of Dude Dogg are visual artists that wear dog costumes as they perform rock ‘n’ roll covers in a style that is excitingly sloppy, exuberant, raw, and energetic.

Butterfly of the Mountains
19 March through 30 March
(reception Thursday 20 March 6-8 pm)
screening times: 6:00, 6:45, 7:30
Video projection by Alicia Beach
“Butterfly of the Mountains”, shot on black and white, super eight film, documents the painting process for Alicia Beach’s Psychosomatic Epiphanies Series (to be shown at Rosamund Felsen Gallery from 22 March through 19 April 2003). In it, the painter, debilitated by a broken leg, uses a rope and pulley contraption to create 10′ by 13′ paintings, in the form of Rorschach ink blot drawings, on the floor. She applies paint between two sheets of paper, while one is suspended above her. This half, she then lets down, compresses, and hoists up and open, like a sail, to reveal an abstract, symmetrical image. The grainy and silent film, while stylistically reminiscent of performance and action painting work from the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, characterizes her style of painting as a delicate, sensual, internal, balancing act. Yet, her endeavor, given the physical challenge and presence of mind necessary (to avoid ripping the paper or letting the paint dry) also likens to a one-legged mariner’s risky and treacherous sea voyage. And, by virtue of its scale, the psychological test assumes a daunting task for the abstract painter, imbuing her romantic, soul-searching and spiritually transcendent ideals with the egotistically humbling psychoanalytic process.

Filed Under: 2000-2004, Exhibition, LACE, Performance, Video Tagged With: 1978-1982, 2003, Alicia Beach, and Descriptive Memories, Below the Belt, Butterfly of the Mountains, Canadian Rain, Carlos "Ghetto Blasta" Mendoza, Charles Irvin, concert, Curt LeMieux, David Deany, Derrick Jefferson, Dude Dogg, Exhibition, Gerald Davis, High Performance: The First Five Years, Irene Tsatsos, Jenni Sorkin, Juan Capistran, Lauren Hartman, lecture, Livers in My Belly, Mario Ybarra, multi-media, My Dear Sweet Organs Cords, Pam Strugar, performance, reading, retrospective, Ricardo Espinoza, The Girl Was Saved, The Rebirth of Wonder, Tom Thumb, Trisha Donnelly, Video, video projection, Violet Adjustment After Kusama

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PRESS RELEASE: Announcing LACE’s Next Emerging Curators

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On Saturday, August 2 from 2–7pm, join LACE for On Saturday, August 2 from 2–7pm, join LACE for this year's Artists’ Film International (AFI'25) at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society).

This touring film program is collectively curated and presented by 16 international arts organizations and convened by Forma (@formaartsmedia). AFI’25 introduces the work of talented moving image artists to worldwide audiences, and will be live over 300 days, with exhibitions, screenings and public programs hosted across 4 continents.

LACE’s selection for AFI’25 is "Leymusoom Garden: New Sun" (2024) by Heesoo Kwon (@leymusoom). Kwon’s oneiric visual language and unique animation style allow her to create memoryscapes of personal and community liberation. The film rewrites mythical matrilineal histories through utopian and whimsical abstractions of time, space, and memory to ultimately bring forth healing and transformation. 

Admission is free! RSVP at the link in our bio.

Image caption:
Still from Heesoo Kwon, Leymusoom Garden: New Sun, 2024. Courtesy the artist
Join LACE for “Obsidian Reflections” happening Join LACE for “Obsidian Reflections” happening Saturday, July 19, 2–5 PM at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society).

Curated by Selene Preciado and Andrea Acuña, this film program presents a selection of video works that integrate ancestral knowledge and indigenous storytelling, imagining futures where the past and present connect through the power of ruins and resilience. Followed by a musical performance with multimedia NeoCumbia artist El Keamo (@el_keamo).

Learn more and RSVP at the link in our bio!
We are excited to announce LACE's 11th Emerging Cu We are excited to announce LACE's 11th Emerging Curator! Meet Semaj Peltier (@horsebreath87) and pom*pom (@__pom____pom__), collaborators in a curatorial collective and experimental film archive organizing community-based events since 2022. For the Emerging Curator Program, Semaj Peltier and Pom Pom curate "No Loneliness Like This," a film and food event showcasing experimental films that traverse the many manifestations of state-sanctioned isolation.

Peltier, a projectionist, archivist and filmmaker, brings a praxis shaped by her studies at the University of Amsterdam’s Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image Masters program, specializing in ephemeral histories shaped by coloniality and otherness. pom*pom, developed by Russell Hartling and Crystal Dawana, is an experimental food collective whose sensory-driven dining experiences intersect with film programming to evoke memory, storytelling, and connection. Together, they build worlds where film and food become tools of resistance—rituals that evoke memory, incite dialogue, and nurture solidarity through shared sensation and subversion. 

This year’s panel included Jheanelle Brown (@jheaneeeeeelle), faculty member at CalArts and Curator of Film at REDCAT; Carrie Chen (@carriechen01), artist, curator, and educator; and Heber Rodriguez (@hebereatschips), Coordinator for the City of Lancaster’s Parks, Recreation and Arts Department in the Arts and Museums Division. 

Read the full press release in our bio!
If you missed “ENDURANCE” or want to relive th If you missed “ENDURANCE” or want to relive the experience, head over to the LACE website to watch a selection of the performances with more to come soon!

“ENDURANCE” presented performance art and interdisciplinary work by elder artists. These artists use their practices to share wisdom, knowledge, and experiences that they have gained throughout their lives. This series is a companion program to LACE’s 2024 performance series, “ABUNDANCE”, both featuring often invisibilized bodies.

This program was held at L.A. Dance Project (@ladanceproject) from May 16–17, 2025.

The online presentation of “ENDURANCE” is supported by the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles (@culture_la). 

Photos by Angel Origgi (@angeloriggi).

Image captions in order:
Barbara T. Smith, OWB, 2025
Ulysses Jenkins and his band “Who Dat!,” Ethnic Cleansing, 2022/2025
Hirokazu Kosaka, Shoot Yourself, 2025
The Dark Bob, Beirut, 1982/2025
Kamau Daáood, Griot notes: Poem in Invisible Ink
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