Downtown LA’s Day of the Dead: “Top of the Dome V”
By Aeppel; LVR

The Crewest gallery prides itself in their “street sensibility with an urban perspective.” They take chunks right out of the Los Angeles Downtown, the skaters, graffiti artists, tattoo artists, fine urban artists, and even some of those who wander the streets, and showcase their pieces in a fine-art arena which is highly inclusive and amenable. This month is their fifth annual Day of the Dead show, “Top of the Dome V,” which displays ceramic skulls by the sculptor and watercolorist Gregg Stone (“Sacred Cholo”), customized by over 100 artists who painted, cracked, built, and sculpted with this unifying medium; and unifying indeed, since the art piece cannot remain outside of our own skulls, with a sticky-note that tells us “Remember, you will die” (“Note to Self” by Scott Power).

Note to Self by Scott Power


Sacred Cholo by Gregg Stone

The place was packed with people of all sorts and styles, meshing and flowing like little schools of fish from skull to skull. “Top of the Dome V” unifies an ancient ritual with new and modern outlooks on life, death, among other themes like the war and pop culture. Colorful skulls are lined up in racks, each one expressing a different background and story from the next, so that each little skull becomes a new experience and a changing voyage into someone’s mind and perspective.  Some skulls are painted with the traditional and symbolic day of the dead themes and colors (“Sacred Plant Visions” by Midori Takata, “Infinite Wisdom” by Butterfly), while others are reflections of pop surrealism (“It’s all Fun and Games” by Macsorro) and popular graffiti art. I could have sworn that I recognized the very walls of LA painted in these skulls. Cache’s graffiti chickens and Roa’s roaches are icons from the streets, familiar faces that are suddenly transported into the gallery setting, taking graffiti from the street lights to the new light of a gallery.

Sacred Plant Visions by Midori Takata

Each skull told a story, as was the case with Marty Katon’s skull, “They Teach Us Art,” which opened to us with a cracked cranium into a parallel universe painted within and without the skull, in gratitude of the artists of old which laid the foundation for our own expression. Marty Katon confessed that the skull was cracked open accidentally in an angry rage when he kicked a misplaced hair brush that bounced right from the floor into the skull. After a brief moment of shock which Kafon calls “the minute of desperation before art,” he picked up the pieces and built this beautiful tribute to all artists who have passed away.


They Teach Us Art by Marty Katon

I listen intently to the stories that the pieces were trying to teach us through this urban style which is also a vehicle for social criticism. I ventured into Edgar Hoill’s traditional Day of the Dead altar, which commemorates the lives of all of those who died trying to cross the border into the US. About 152 have lost their lives this year due to several factors including exposure to the elements, drowning, and border patrol violence. His symbolic altar rises in three steps towards a photograph of the border’s dusty desert through barbed wire. I peered in and got the enclosing sensation that many may feel when they stare into that sharp barrier between dreams. Sitting beneath the photograph are items that are normally carried by immigrants, like a bottle of water, some dusty clothing, tennis shoes. Photographs of candles were lit for the lives of adults that were lost, little candles lit for the lives of children. I couldn’t help but light a candle in my mind as well for the unfortunate travelers who fall on the ground between progress and disparity. It is effective and informative, reflective and sensitive. 

A variety of skulls were also part of elaborate sculptures, like Steven Sattler’s “Hypnoticus Gaga Fowl,” which features a hilarious prototype of a towering half-dead, half-alive chicken monument; or Treiops Treyald’s “Archeological Exhibit” of a skull and a remote control on display as if they were hanging in a natural history museum, the only remains of today’s western civilization. I thought about where I would be found if disaster struck. Would I really be surrounded by the excess of my generation’s technological novelties…with some luck, I would rather be buried under my stack of books and poetry! Messenger’s “Satan is Dead,” is a darker representation of a sculpted demonic skull atop a whimsical column, which brings edge to the show, along with a little bit of “Dia de los Muertos” fright. 



The beautiful thing about the show is that it is truly open to all of those who have talent and an idea. Curator, Man One, encourages artists of all types of backgrounds to show them their art in order to participate in future festivals. His scouting has reached from the very streets of LA to interesting stranger’s Myspaces. Good art cannot hide! This growing art show has become an art-tradition in Los Angeles that is not only fun, but affordable. By the end of the night, I was aching to have one of my very own skulls. Unfortunately, little red “sold” dots are quickly spreading through the pieces! Each skull is priced modestly so that anyone can own a beautiful piece of artwork by emerging or established artists, be it your first art piece or something new to grace your collection; something to remind us to reflect on those who have passed, in order fix our focus on the living solutions. 


Battle Skull by Chad Stone

Nov 8 - Nov 30
Crewest Gallery
110 Winston St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013

The exhibit will also be part of the Downtown Art Walk on Thursday November 13th from 12 p.m. to 9:30 p.m

For submissions to their future shows, contact manone@manone.com and show them your work!

DAY OF THE DEAD ORIGINS
The Day of the Dead celebration originated in Janitzio, Mexico. It began among the Aztecs as a day of remembrance of their deceased loved ones and a day of offerings to the goddess of the underworld, Mictecacihuatl. Even then, skulls were artistically decorated and crafted out of varying materials, including wood and sugar, which was eaten afterwards as a memorial to those who passed (Carlos Miller, “Indigenous People Won’t Let Day of the Dead Die”). Unlike many western cultures, death was not seen as a frightening end to our lives, but a continuation and a rite of passage into the afterlife. Today, the Day of the Dead is not only celebrated in Mexico, but in the United States, as it becomes a fresh new part of U.S. culture, decorated in golden marigolds (cempasuchitl), the traditional flower of this day.

 
Tijuana by Karoline Drachenberg


Infinite Wisdom by Butterfly

Links:
Man One - curator’s website
Gregg Stone’s portfolio – maker of the skulls

ALL photographs taken by Jay Huffschmitt and pulled from flickr.com. See the full gallery.

Aeppel; LVR is an emerging writer and poet from Santa Monica, CA. She is an editor for the growing Ministry of Obscure Knowledge website and a self-published spoken word poet. Her "words (are) marked by a youthful spirituality of sci-fi antiquity."