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Artbound
Steel Modern
Season 6
Episode 3
Artbound explores the architectural past and present in Southern California. Featuring Danny Heller’s paintings of mid-century modern architecture in Palm Springs; the superadobe construction techniques of Cal-Earth whose experimental designs are challenging the ubiquitous cookie-cutter suburban communities in the urbanized southwestern Mojave Desert; Jackrabbit Homesteads and the cultural legacy of the Small Tract Act in Southern California's Morongo Basin; the iconic pre-fabricated modular Steel Development houses by architects Wexler & Harrison in Palm Springs; and the preservation efforts to maintain the historic Watts Towers built by Simon Rodia. Also featuring the music of Daniel Lanois.
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56:18
Inspired by Oaxacan traditions, Dia de Los Muertos was brought to L.A. in the '70s as a way to enrich and reclaim Chicano identity. It has since grown in proportions and is celebrated around the world.
54:58
"Artbound" looks at the dinnerware of Heath Ceramics and a design that has stood the test of time since the company began in the late 1940’s.
56:06
Japanese American influence in postwar American art and design is unparalleled.
56:34
Native American basketry has long been viewed as a community craft, yet the artistic quality and value of these baskets are on par with other fine art.
56:40
There's a persisting assumption in contemporary art circles that you can't be both a good artist and good mother. These fou artists are working to shatter this cliché, juggling demands of career and family and finding ways to explore the maternal.
53:20
Throughout its history, the natural beauty of California has inspired artists from around the world. Today, as artists continue to engage with California’s environment, they echo and critique earlier art practices that represent nature in California.
57:10
In East L.A. during the 1960s and 1970s, a group of young activists used creative tools like writing and photography as a means for community organizing, providing a platform for the Chicano Movement.
53:40
This look at Los Angeles’ Olvera Street is part-history lesson and part-immersion in stereotype of the birthplace of Los Angeles.
50:40
For more than 20 years, Doug Aitken has shifted the perception and location of images and narratives. His diverse works demonstrate the nature and structure of our ever-mobile, ever-changing, image-based contemporary condition.
56:30
Frank Lloyd Wright accelerated the search for L.A.'s authentic architecture. This episode explores the provocative theory that his early homes in L.A. were also a means of artistic catharsis for Wright.
2:29:48
“Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch’s Accuser” considers the usage of “female Hysteria” throughout the decades in operatic form.