Hammer Blog

Continued from the last blog…

…the next morning I met my friend, He Xiangying (Huh Shee-ahng-Ying), and his girlfriend at the bus station. It was early morning, we talked awhile, ate and waited on our bus to arrive and take us to Yongxin (Yong-sheen), his hometown in southwest Jiangxi Province. This type of travel is an ordeal for Chinese. Xiangying works in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, near Hong Kong, and can usually only go home once a year.

Circles glowing with orange and brown tones, light and dark playing across their surface like hills and hollows on the face of a celestial body, sharp yellow curves with ragged edges resembling some foreign calligraphy, small dots of iridescent green, points and pocks on the bright white surface, and flowing organic yellow lines twisting their way almost touching but not quite bridging the gap between the two distinct compositions differing in shape and color.

In early-May 2000 I arrived at LAX on a flight from JFK. It was my first time here as an adult. I rented a car, consulted the map given to me at Budget and pulled out onto Century or Sepulveda in search of the 405. Lost somewhere near Manchester Blvd, still trying to find the on-ramp, I decided to turn back and start over.

I had just turned 30, was on tour performing at Redcat, dancing for Neil Greenberg, living in New York. I had some beautiful tasty avocados lined up on my window sill at The Standard and I think they told me I had to live in this place. Every time I came to visit Los Angeles I was surprised how much I liked it here. Maybe it was from growing up in San Francisco, where there was a strong dislike of SoCal -- stealing water / air pollution, bubble heads, valley girls! I didn't want to leave New York but Los Angeles beckoned and so I came.

Between the museum store and elevator there is a space that Hammer staff has fondly designated “the Nook.” Formerly an underutilized area that housed a small comment box tucked away in the corner, the Nook has grown into an active participatory space for visitors to share ideas, reflections, and feedback generated from their experience at the Hammer Museum.