Excited to share my film "PORTICULATES" will be part of the group exhibition DecaDENSE opening this Saturday from 1pm to 3pm at the Angels Gate Cultural Center.
"PORTICULATES" is a cinematic exploration revolving around Reza Monahan's immersive sound piece installed at the Angels Gate Cultural Center in 2023 as a highlight of their audio-art series, "soundpedro." This reverberating work was cast across the cityscape of San Pedro from an antiquated cannon panama mount.
The film unfolds beneath a mesmerizing strawberry moon, capturing the multifaceted essence of the installation and San Pedro's landscape. It traverses iconic landmarks: the historic Point Fermin Lighthouse, the U.S.S. Iowa, the ethereal Vincent Thomas Bridge, and the bustling Port of Los Angeles. The film's auditory canvas is woven from the installation's granular aural textures, which guide its editing structure and rhythm.
"PORTICULATES" 2024
Single-channel, color, sound, looping
5 mins 45 secs
Co-Produced with H. Walker Sayen
DecaDENSE
Curated by Marco Schindelmann
Featuring works by Terry Braunstein, Rychard Cooper, Reza Monahan and more
May 16 - June 6
Opening Reception Saturday, May 16, 1 - 3 PM
Angels Gate Cultural Center
3601 South Gaffey Street
San Pedro, CA 90731
Upstairs Gallery, Building A
Gallery Hours Thursdays - Saturdays, 10am to 5pm
@walker_sayen@angelsgateart@angelsgateartgallery
Between 2011 and 2013, I wrote "EXTEARIORS," a film noir inspired by a series of experimental films I produced in downtown Los Angeles. The story follows Rich, an ex-JPL engineer who uses black magic to communicate with buildings in a desperate search for his PTSD-stricken sister, lost somewhere in the heart of DTLA. At its core, though, the film is about Rich’s unexpected connection with a painter-turned-photographer who documents his mysterious discussions in the quiet hours of early morning.
In 2014, my brother @rmeaner and I set out to produce the film, but the challenges of filming entirely on the streets of downtown L.A., from private security to our limited budget, proved too complex.
This year, I decided to unshelve the screenplay, polish it up, and submit it to festivals and competitions. I’m thrilled to share that "EXTEARIORS" has received recognition across the globe:
🏆 2024 Best Screenplay – Hollywood Blvd. Film Festival
🏆 Best Original Screenplay – Dublin Movie Awards
✨ Quarter-Finalist – New York Metropolitan Screenwriting Competition & Film Awards
✨ Semi-Finalist – Hawaii International Film Awards, Melbourne Independent Film Festival, Hamburg Indie Film Festival, and the 100 Screenplays competition.
Here’s to seeing what 2025 has in store 🎥 🎉
📸 @patrickkimstudio
#FeatureFilm #Screenwriting #ExperimentalFilm #NarrativeFilm #DTLA #IndieFilm #FilmFestival #creativeprocess
After you join us this weekend in Long Beach for LBsoundbrowse, head up to @hauserwirthlosangeles for @theicala INCOGNITO !
I’m thrilled to share that I’m a participating artist in this year’s event taking place the evening of Saturday, November 15th.
More than 350 artists, emerging and established, are contributing 12 x 12-inch works, each sold for $750, with all proceeds supporting ICALA’s free exhibitions and programs. All artworks remain anonymous until purchased 🤘🏼
I’ll be in Long Beach earlier exhibiting "The Hot Safe," but I’ll be heading to INCOGNITO afterward and would love to see you there.
Tickets: theicala.org/en/incognito
INCOGNITO 2025 logo by Patrick Martinez @patrick_martinez_studio
On Saturday, November 15th, 6–9pm I’ll be part of LBsoundbrowse “heard,” an art exhibition of interactive sound works exhibited across Belmont Shore, Long Beach, CA.
I’m installing "The Hot Safe," a 20-minute, seafoam-tinted story projected continuously over the three-hour event inside an unfinished storefront. The narrative follows Erkin, a young Uyghur man who wakes in a seaside Torrance restaurant with no memory of how he arrived there, moving through a series of vivid, unexpected moments as he tries to understand what's happened to him.
Throughout the evening, I’ll be handing out small cards with the title on one side and a gentle prompt on the other: you’re welcome to read the text aloud if you feel like it; staying silent is just as welcome.
Please join us! And be part of a gathering where sound + narrative shapes the space.
Our second, Getty-funded "Views of Planet City" film has now launched. Check it out on SCI-Arc Channel. channel.sciarc.edu
“Views of Planet City” is a hybrid documentary that captures the depth of a speculative exhibition envisioning a radically sustainable future. Filmed across two Los Angeles galleries as part of Getty’s PST ART initiative, the project brings together artists Liam Young, Jennifer Chen, John Cooper, Damjan Jovanovic, and Angelica Lorenzi in response to Young’s visionary worldbuilding project “Planet City” - a future in which all ten billion humans live in a single, hyper-dense city, allowing the rest of the Earth to rewild.
Through richly composed footage of the exhibition and in-depth interviews with the participating artists, along with exhibition organizer Namik Mackic, exhibition designer Adam Bandler of Oficina.la, and writer, filmmaker, and strategist Samantha Culp, the film reveals the conceptual, spatial, and ideological scaffolding of “Planet City.” The exhibition spans fiction and documentary, video games and models, textiles and performances, forming a planetary imaginary rooted not in speculative fantasy but in the ecological, technological, and cultural urgencies of the present.
“Views of Planet City” is not a story of climate change as a purely technical challenge, but as a cultural and political reckoning. It asks what kinds of collective imagination, systemic rethinking, and aesthetic strategies are needed to confront global warming at its most daunting scale. The film offers a counterimage to outdated environmental narratives, presenting a conceptual blueprint shaped by architecture, cinema, collaboration, and radical optimism.
@gettymuseum@pstinla@sciarc@liam_y@angelica_lorenzi@xzaqwsxzaqwsx@d4mjan@jennifermulanchen@namikmackic@ola.oficina@_samantha_culp_
🚨 "Split Diopter 2" has officially been extended through July 27, 2025 — which means there’s now extra time to catch the exhibition if you haven’t made it out yet!
Please see above for installation views.
📸 @joshuawhitephotography
Curated by Jan Tumlir and Reza Monahan
On view at SCI-Arc Gallery @sciarc
"Split Diopter 2" explores the relationship between fine art and cinema, as well as the impact of technical optics on creative practice. This exhibition disassembles the cinematic apparatus of the “waking dream” into a collection of parts: still frame, action sequence, mise-en-scene, soundtrack, film reel, promotional poster, etc.—each of which is assigned to an individual work of art. Navigating this array of objects in the space of the gallery, viewers are enjoined to imagine their own filmic narrative, while also reflecting on its material means of construction.
Featuring works by Uta Barth, Matthew Brannon, John Divola, Alex Israel, William E. Jones and Hedi El Kholti. A soundtrack has been composed for the exhibition by Eyvind Kang. Also included is a dance video shot with a split diopter lens, choreographed by Brian Golden and performed by Jas Lin, Madison Ostrach, and Euseon Song. Finally, "Split Diopter 2" presents a documentary in which artists Stan Douglas, Lynne Marsh, Patti Podesta, Jeffrey Stuker, and Liam Young discuss the influence of cinema on their respective practices.
@utabarthstudio@matthew_brannon_1@divola@alexisrael@theotherhedi@eyvindkang@briangolden13@allthatjasss@madiooo_@you__sunnny@lynnemarz@jeffrey_stuker@liam_y@rezamonahanstudio #jantumlir #williamejones #standouglas #pattipodesta #sciarc #splitdiopter #splitdiopter2 #fineart #cinema
Let this landscape be a brief distraction from the weight of the world. A video documenting my installation "Blackmailing the Universe" @yuccavalleymaterial@lazy_eye_gallery
...through distance, distortion, dust.
Narrated by #alanbishop
