Stefan Roehrle / Group XIX, Jan 05 - May 05

OPEN HOUSE / OPEN STUDIO

5/13/05 to 5/13/05

MAK Center at the Mackey Apartments, 1137 - 1141 South Cochran Avenue, Los Angeles, CA

Group XIX offered a program of Final Projects multi-media presentations on Friday, May 13, 2005 from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. Presented in the courtyard of the 90% renovated Mackey Apartments, the multi-media installation transformed the building’s rear windows into a screening facility. Newly re-stuccoed and with all new windows, the R.M. Schindler-designed apartment complex lent a fresh, clean-edged ambiance to the evening. The multi-media presentations presented image research gathered throughout the residency and related work-in-progress.

Stefan Roehrle developed a five part series of short videos with accompanying photos that dealt with the L.A. region’s many locales that had become cinematic icons, from the heart of the city to the desert, and the symbolism that often accompanies them. Using a minimum amount of information, three showgirls (guides for the viewer) must hunt for links and interactions, in the process underscoring the human need for narrative and dislodging us from conventional modes of perception. The disparity among the scene, the action, and the overall tone within the images questioned our desire to have the distasteful made amenable.