Hammer Blog

For Made in L.A., James Kidd Studio makes Gold Stage, a satellite center based on her Lincoln Heights dance studio named Pieter. This gold-painted rounded stage in the Hammer Courtyard is an open platform for local, national and international artists of all disciplines to perform, rehearse, mediate, think, exchange, consider. This stage as studio space is an experimental practice in designing a truly functional space to work in, conscious that the courtyard is a public, yet protected.

I was born in Los Angeles. I choose to live and work here because there is no better place to be an artist.

I came here to go to school. I stayed because of the light.

I like L.A. because it is strange. It is many cities and many things at once and there is no unifying custom or pattern. There also seems to be an ease about it that I thought would help me be productive and enjoy work.

For the last month strangers have been sending me photos. Well, technically Hammer Museum visitors have been sending me Snapchats from an iPad under the alias of ‘almost-there.’ I ‘jbellzamy’ receive mostly PG rated photos that disappear after a few seconds, mimicking a ghost, the app’s mascot. Now perhaps I’ve watched Amelie too many times but I’m addicted; it’s a less haunting alternative to seeing beyond the veil.