Under Spring: Another City Is Possible

A harp rigged to a bridge … A night of ambient music … La Ofrenda … Weddings and birthdays … Mushrooms and plants … Another Los Angeles is possible … A space transformed … Lauren Bon’s vision

Regularly transformed between 2006 and 2013 by artist Lauren Bon and her team, Under Spring served as — among many other things — a workshop, a public square, a ceremonial ground, a rehearsal space, a dog park, a conversation in neon, a spot for political stagecraft, a musical instrument, the setting for a hoedown, and the new generation of an infamously bulldozed local urban farm. With each new iteration, not only did the function of the space change, but — as much as the bridge’s arches allowed — its form changed as well. Under Spring is an inspiring blueprint for other interests and entities looking to reclaim analogous marginalized urban spaces.

1 Under Spring: Voices + Art + Los Angeles, published by Heyday and the California Historical Society in 2014. Told through a chorus of voices, the context for the Under Spring underpass’s many metamorphoses is explored.

The contributors to this excerpt are: Anthony Adams, Salvador Bautista, Lauren Bon, Pedro Carranza, Manuel Castells, Olivia Chumacero, Yaskin Chumacero, Bill Close, Alejandro Cohen, Matthew Coolidge, Jenna Didier, Janet Owen Driggs, Brandy Flower, Conrado Garcia, Kindred Gottlieb, Anthony Gutierrez, Prince Hall, Oliver Hess, Robyn Simms Johnson, Ari Kletzky, Tom Labonge, Ramon Macias, Sarah McCabe, Mark “Frosty” Mcneill, Richard Montoya, Richard Nielsen, Adolfo v. Nodal, Karen Nogues, Sergio Rodriguez Jr., Yuval Ron, Autumn Rooney, Rosa, Gerardo Vaquero Rosas, Deborah Szekely, Karen Taylor, Nick Taylor, Irene Tsatsos, Matias Viegener, Fabian Wagmister, Roger Zepeda.

Yuval Ron [Bill] Close invented [the earth harp]. It’s a very large instrument. It’s basically a harp with metal strings that go to one hundred feet high.

Bill Close I installed the earth harp underneath the bridge. You can rig it outdoors. You can rig it to trees. You can rig it to canyon walls. You can rig it to balconies inside performance art centers.

Yuval Ron The strings are connected to a wooden box that is the sound chamber, and the strings extend from the wooden chamber — which is typically on the stage — out above the audience’s heads and over to the far end of the concert hall or the performance space.

Bill Close I had experienced working in ruins at the Coliseum, where we strung a giant arch. There’s just something fantastic about bringing these huge strings into an ancient-world-like quality.

Yuval Ron I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could rig this instrument to the bridge?” And then the bridge becomes part of the instrument, because it’s what the strings are connected to, and the vibration of the strings will vibrate the bridge and the vibration will be felt by the audience that sits under the strings.

Yuval Ron I was triggering the train sounds from my computer, and I was conducting the earth harp with my right hand and, with my left, conducting the woodwind players.

2 Bill Close The middle C on the earth harp is a forty-two-foot-long string. And then the octave above that is eighty-four feet and then the octave above that is 168 feet. The quality of the sound from the earth harp really reminded me of the trains — where the [strings are] bowed more it comes out with that sound.

Yuval Ron It was a full moon, and it was beautiful audience — the audience was a really, really wonderful, wonderful group of bohemians and artists and musicians and art lovers; a great group of people came. And there were dogs and children — it was magical.

Bill Close The most fun moment I had was playing it with The Edge [from the band U2] down there at the show. We were jamming on the earth harp together.

Adolfo V. Nodal Why do we call it an Optimists’ Breakfast? Because only an optimist gets up this early on Friday the thirteenth.

Tom Labonge I just wanna welcome you to Farmlab and welcome Lauren, it’s always good to see you. Ice cream comes when it’s over seventy-five degrees. So I know you’re not gonna get any today.

Anthony Gutierrez I think Under Spring is a fabulous endeavor. I sometimes wish the events and lectures were more accessible and not quite as scientifically oriented, more community oriented.

Brandy Flower [Hit + Run is] a mobile silkscreen unit, so we brought down equipment and set up outside because it’s a beautiful day in Los Angeles and there’s not a cloud in the sky. We set up underneath the bridge, which gave us ample shade, cool breeze, a nice tranquil environment with lots of nice plants and a very calm vibe for everybody to learn a little bit and not necessarily seem like too much of a school-lecture type of thing. We kinda let our actions speak louder and we printed about a hundred shirts for people today, different designs from local LA artists.

Deborah Szekely I’m not just an optimist, I’m a realist, I brought my windbreaker.

Richard Montoya I know you’re freezing; we’re cold, we wanna get on with that most American and patriotic act called the raffle. And so as a clown it is my duty this

3 morning. And the young lady will bring up the raffle basket. Oh, no, that’s fruit. Okay. Thank you, honey. Was she in your way? Oh, man, Uncle Sam!

Brandy Flower I think we probably had babies and senior citizens and every age in between — guys, girls, people on bikes, kids in strollers; and everybody was really receptive to what we did and what we’re doing.

Richard Montoya Come on, Unabomber, let’s go. What’s your name? All right, Sam, how appropriate is that — Uncle Sam. Sam, do they have Soyrizo in Topanga Canyon? A Trader Joe’s? Okay. You can find Soyrizo at the Trader Joe’s. Yeah, but you gotta cook it a long time or it’s really slimy. OK, I’m just sharing that with you, Sam. Did you enjoy yourself this morning?

Brandy Flower I think we even had a couple repeat offenders in the house — a couple people that have been to other [silkscreenings]. But it’s just such a nice space out here. There’s so much potential, it seems. We’re usually at events where they’re either a packed party or club and it’s a little chaotic, so it was nice to come out here and have more than enough space, more than enough breathing room to just make it a great afternoon.

Richard Montoya Okay, Sam, if you’ll reach into Auntie Sam’s hat there and pull out the winning raffle ticket. Don’t you love it here, Sam? Don’t you love it here? It’s like Burning Man meets City Hall, isn’t it? How ’bout a little high five right there? Yeah.

Brandy Flower The open-air atmosphere is just so natural. There’s not as much tension in the air as there would in a club that maybe reeks of alcohol and perfume and smoke and creates a bunch of weird frames of mind. I think this is a much more sober, fresh environment. There’s a place for each and I think this is a great place.

Richard Nielsen Lauren set the ladder chairs for people to sit on and contemplate the reflection of the words “Concrete Is Fluid” while listening [with headphones] to the sounds of a thunderstorm, and that moving water underneath the bridge.

Anthony Adams [A security guard] escorted us all around, and he was being very, very polite, and then he showed us these headphones. He showed us the headphones and we put ’em on and we were trippin’. It was neat because it was nighttime and it really sounded like it was raining. I loved it.

4 Richard Nielsen There was an interesting duality going on because those ponds were — in a sense — not moving, they were almost stagnant, and we had them lined up with the ladder chairs and then [on your headphones] you would have this sort of tumultuous rain shower going on. You would sit there and it was pretty transportive.

Mark “Frosty” Mcneill Tonalism is a night based on ambient music, inspired a lot by the happenings that people like Terry Riley had here in Los Angeles and in San Francisco, where they would do overnight events during which he would play saxophone songs for up to twelve hours and run it through tape loops and stuff like that. People would be encouraged to come and sleep there, to the music. Also people like John Cage and Yoko Ono would have these happenings in New York.

Irene Tsatsos Tonalism was an overnight concert, a series of musical events.

Mark “Frosty” Mcneill I was mostly working that night — running from here to there — and at some point I looked and there were like two hundred people laying down on the floor listening to ambient music, and I’ll never forget that — it was such a great feeling.

Irene Tsatsos There wasn’t a catalyzing event. It was sort of the opposite of that. It was this range of activity that [encouraged] public space to be activated in such a peaceful way.

Mark “Frosty” Mcneill We had suggested to bring sleeping bags or blankets. People really had their full little camping zones set up.

Irene Tsatsos It was a tone, an idea that was put forth that this could be a space for a public outing without an agenda or a purpose. It was sort of, not purposeless — nothing happened at all. It was kind of great.

Mark “Frosty” Mcneill A big part of the concert was molded or influenced by the site itself, under the bridge.

Irene Tsatsos At about 4:30 in the morning, I was on my way to the kitchen — we started to put out some bagels. I was doing that and it turned into an opportunity to have lots of interesting conversations with people who just wanted some bagels. It was the most unscripted kind of natural engagement.

5 Alejandro Cohen The first time I visited the under-the-bridge site, I went to Farmlab to talk to them about doing Tonalism there. Within fifteen minutes it was pretty much decided that we were gonna do it, which is absolutely insane when you think about it. It’s like there’s a million shots coming, all of them are projects, and most of them don’t go through. And there’s just that one — that odd shot that just crushes through all the barriers and manages to get through and hit the target.

Mark “Frosty” Mcneill I played live with my group Languis and we did a surround-sound six-speaker show, and it was a big drone for like twenty minutes. We definitely had melodies and we practiced for it, but it also was highly improvised within certain scales.

Alejandro Cohen When I saw the place, it totally blew my mind. But I have such lack of vision that my mind was like, “It has to be at a park!” And under the bridge is not a park, it’s concrete.

Mark “Frosty” Mcneill I remember at some point me and my bandmate both locked into this loop, you know, these arpeggios of guitars, and we kept it going for a while and it was such an amazing feeling.

Alejandro Cohen Then I kinda hit myself, saying, “Come on. Look at it. This is a great opportunity.” And that’s when I really opened my eyes and saw the possibilities and how amazing that site is, and how it was gonna be better than anything else I could’ve thought of.

Mark “Frosty” Mcneill The space was covered in visuals; it would change as you walked from under the bridge and looked at it. Visuals were being projected on rafters. And you would walk underneath and they would sort of disappear, kind of like pictures forming, as you turn corners and looked at it from different angles.

Alejandro Cohen The last time I went was for the [seminal German electronica duo] Cluster show. The time before, I went there to see the place and I took my baby Benjamin there, and I put on the headphones with the rain sounds.

Mark “Frosty” Mcneill Just being able to kind of flood that area with a lot of stimulation through sound and through visual aspects was neat, but then really it was about the people coming into the space and just kind of settling in the space and finding their little kind of zone within this kind of a wide-open area.

6 Alejandro Cohen The Cluster guys, when they came on stage, they absolutely loved it. People asked for one more song, an extra song, which — in this context — you never hear that. And these guys are probably just amazed that there’s these crazy people under the bridge going to see them thirty or almost forty years after they started making music.

Salvador Bautista There have been a lot of events, and I think the one that I remember most is when we had the [Old Time Social] square dance.

Alejandro Cohen They did an interview afterwards, and yeah, they were ecstatic about it.

Salvador Bautista I brought all my family and they enjoyed it like always. Everyone did. Lauren was here, Richard [Nielsen], and they danced probably two hours without stopping.

Yaskin Chumacero The most distinct memory I have is when we did La Ofrenda, which is the Day of the Dead ceremony and event.

Olivia Chumacero La Ofrenda comes from what is commonly documented and accepted all through Mayan and Aztec traditions. We create altars and create art that is representative of the ancestors that we’re trying to honor and remember.

Sarah McCabe [At La Ofrenda, 2006] there were a thousand lit candles and all of those flowers from the field, and all of these people that were there with their altars that were just beaming and were so excited. I mean, we could’ve had more people but the spaces were so magical and so beautiful.

Yaskin Chumacero I helped put up the candles and bring out the bicycles that roamed around, with the structure in the back for the kids. And soon after that, I hit the stage — I was standing there with my group, performing.

Sarah McCabe Lauren came and constructed a giant spiral with several thousand of the marigolds, and there was a fire in the center of it. So people were coming and walking through the spiral. You just go and sit and be still. I saw several

7 people crying that were just walking around just in awe of how beautiful it was.

Olivia Chumacero We had dragon dancers from Chinatown. We had Japanese puppets. And from the Bolivian culture we had a dance group and they did all the traditional social dances. We had poets and spoken word and hip-hop artists and performing artists.

Yaskin Chumacero The name of the group at the time was Table of Contents and it consisted of three of my brothers. That was at the La Ofrenda event and ceremony, which was amazing. The group itself was conscious hip-hop.

Karen Nogues My brother had died a year previous, and I had been feeling like I really needed to do something for him. I came down [to La Ofrenda] and it was just, I felt so connected to him. And so many people felt the same way that this … it created this … I’m … I’m losing my words because it was just so powerful. It made it so easy for people to pay homage to their family and their loss.

Sarah McCabe The altar that I built against the wall at Under Spring was dedicated to four girls that had been murdered in Seattle.

Karen Nogues My brother — they called him the Blackbird. He was always kinda this oddball maverick, kind of a lost soul, and he found himself through service. He volunteered for the AmeriCorps after [Hurricane] Katrina, and I found a wooden bird that I printed his name on. I still have that blackbird on my home altar.

Sarah McCabe I built it out of old birdhouses that were being thrown away.

Karen Nogues You didn’t talk very much. You just kind of exchanged weepy glances and hugs. It was just a really emotional overhaul, ’cause there’s just so much guilt for me not really doing much in his honor. I’ve devoted myself to service after going to his funeral.

Sarah McCabe Autumn [Rooney] and Kindred [Gottlieb] went to high school with another girl. I guess her name was Erin. The three of them went to high school together in

8 Pasadena and the three of them were very, very close. And after high school they all sort of lost touch with each other.

Kindred Gottlieb My sculptures for quite a few years all center around grief that’s related to losing a child of mine before birth.

Kindred Gottlieb Part of my process of grieving over all that was to start sculpting again and I started sculpting all these stories, all these sculptures essentially of grief and loss. About two years after that, I was living in Berlin and I guess it was in 2001 or 2002. I was planning on returning to Los Angeles and I caught news that a good friend of mine from high school and also college had lost her five-year-old daughter to an abduction. I was so moved and devastated by that that I actually canceled my trip back to the United States.

Sarah McCabe Kindred and Autumn stayed in touch, but they lost touch with this other girl, and they didn’t hear about her until their friend Erin’s daughter was — I guess it was one of the biggest news stories of the time and it’s a very sad story — but apparently her five-year-old daughter was abducted and murdered.

Kindred Gottlieb I stayed in my room and just worked in the studio. I ended up coming out with a little tiny, tiny sculpture of a grieving mother; essentially very simplified and very abstract and I called it the child and his mother, and it was a piece essentially inspired by the grief [over Erin’s] daughter’s abduction.

Sarah McCabe Not knowing [the story about Erin’s daughter], I had asked Kindred to come and make an altar for the Day of the Dead, and she did, and at the center of her altar, she put that little statue that she had made for Erin and for her daughter several years back.

Kindred Gottlieb I have the piece. It was only about two, three inches tall. I did it all white and I put it on my website not for sale and put under the title Homage to Samantha and called it “child and mother” and always wanted to send it to Erin. It was always in the back of my mind. But I never contacted her.

Kindred Gottlieb By a sort of random amazing series of coincidences, my friend Erin happened to be tagging along with another friend who happened to be tagging along with yet another friend who happened to hear through the grapevine that we were doing this event. So at the end of their night of doing stuff they said, “Hey, let’s go check out what’s happening at Under Spring.”

9 Sarah McCabe Kindred and Autumn were both dancing that night, about 11:30 at night, and lo and behold, Erin — who they hadn’t seen since high school — happened to show up that night. She’d never been to Farmlab and she’d never been to Under Spring, but a friend of hers just said, “I’m going dancing and I want you to come.”

Kindred Gottlieb Erin showed up and I hadn’t seen her since college and so at some point it was just the two of us in there. I said, “I have to tell you something.” I said, “This tiny piece is in honor to your daughter.” She started weeping.

Olivia Chumacero Paul Stamets spoke on a Friday night. Saturday morning, at eight o’clock, we started preparing for his workshop. Paul took us through two different methods of growing mushrooms, using logs and using bags.

Matias Viegener Paul Stamets has an outline of complex interrelated ideas about what the fungus — what the mushrooms — can do for us. What they’ve already done and what they can and will do in the future. Which was so powerful and transformative and utopian in every fabulous sense of that word, and filled me with potential and hope and dreaming.

Olivia Chumacero We bored quarter-inch holes into short pieces of wooden logs. Then we plugged the holes with small round pellets containing mushroom spores. Then we covered the log with hot wax to ensure that no bacteria would come into the holes. This process takes about a year for mushrooms to sprout. The log must be kept in a cool dark space and occasionally misted with water.

Karen Taylor Nick and I were here one night to see Paul Stamets speak, to learn about the magic of mushrooms. We were sitting under here and Nick looked up and said, “I think we should get married here.”

Olivia Chumacero The mushroom spores that were grown in plastic bags were a completely different process. First, dry straw was placed in hot water using special stainless-steel containers for sterilization. Then, the straw was injected with mushroom spores, and this mix was stuffed into plastic bags. The bags were then perforated with tiny holes all over to allow the mushrooms a space to grow out. In time, mushrooms came out and they were beautiful.

Nick Taylor We’d been struggling with where we wanted to get married and it just seemed like a really easy and good place to do it. The symbology of the bridge really resonated.

10 Jenna Didier The exuberance and freshly revived beauty of the Cornfield park struck Oliver [Hess] and I as the perfect place to get married. We were seduced by Farmlab and Metabolic Studio’s transformation of the southern end of the Cornfield into a portable community garden, and the area of Under Spring into a lush garden full of fountains, berries, vegetables, and fruiting vines.

Janet Owen Driggs Under Spring was the site we chose to have our son’s first birthday party. Theo was conceived while I was working for the Metabolic Studio. So all of my colleagues saw me growing with him, and welcomed him into the world with me. And it just seemed like a perfect place to celebrate his first year of life. A place that’s full of plants, beautiful flowers, tinkling waterfalls, lizards. And it’s safe, there’s no traffic. And sheltered from the sun.

Autumn Rooney I wanted to mention Flo [ie, Karen Taylor] and Nick’s wedding. My oldest friends got married under the bridge. One of our other oldest friends [Erica Rawlings] got ordained and conducted the wedding. And she gave a really beautiful speech about how a bridge draws two bodies of land together, and they’re bridging two people together, and made it into a metaphor. That was just a beautiful thing.

Jenna Didier The various enterprises of the team at Under Spring are closely in line with our own [Didier and Hess’s partnership, Materials & Applications] but at a much larger scale. We have always found a kinship with [The Metabolic Studio’s] projects and we were excited to introduce our friends and family who were not already familiar with them to the amazing work emanating out of this group.

Fabian Wagmister The birth of the baby, of our daughter, Sue, has been a very important change for us in terms of our relationship to the community.

Janet Owen Driggs We invited probably fifty-odd people, children of various ages. There were blankets all over the floor with babies crawling on them. We had kids with tricycles and balloons. And seven-year-olds, nine-year-olds, eleven-year-olds.

Karen Taylor We had eighty guests. It was a very warm June day. We had the ceremony at six in the evening and we had it set up so that people could drink and socialize and just be very comfortable. And our ceremony was short and sweet. Our dear

11 friend Erica, who was the officiant, was dressed in a Scottish kilt — the full banana with the shiv and the whole thing.

Jenna Didier The afternoon was without parallel, it was fun and exciting and memorable. Our only hope is that more and more people recognize what is possible in their communities to develop new ways of operating creatively and healthily and sharing with one another.

Fabian Wagmister We’ve had some very good people. Some of the artists in the Woman’s Building like to walk and they stop by, talk to our daughter.

Matias Viegener Last summer, Fallen Fruit — which [is] me, David Burns, and Austin Young — organized an event to mark the end of a project which was called Love Apples, in which we planted tomatoes in public space with Islands of LA — with Ari Kletzky.

Janet Owen Driggs We had a little treasure hunt. The theme of the day was dogs. And we hid bones. And the children found them. And we ate cake, and took photographs. And had a wonderfully happy time. And Theo was completely joyous, very, very, happy, being in Under Spring.

Autumn Rooney It was evening. It wasn’t too hot. They were worried it was going to be hot. And also we were worried about the trains passing like right when they say the vows, but luckily no trains passed.

Jenna Didier Under Spring is a beacon for those that can envision a different city — the neon signs there say it all.

Matias Viegener We planted tomatoes in unused traffic islands, basically, all over Northeast Los Angeles. They were planted in spots where there should’ve been green things, where there was soil, and that were actually being irrigated but nothing was growing.

Fabian Wagmister [My daughter, Sue, is] this amazing bridging force. You want people to talk to your children and you want your children to be in touch with people.

Janet Owen Driggs Theo loves trains. Theo went on a miniature train on Monday, for the first time. Yes, the choo choo is a very important factor in his life.

12 Karen Taylor Our officiant had made a sign for us to hold up that said “Pause.” Just in case the train came by. On the other side of the sign she’d written “Applause,” so that when it was all over she could hold it up.

Oliver Hess From the outset our wedding was designed to be a series of events that linked all the areas that we work in.

Fabian Wagmister You can be a loner when you are single, but you cannot be a loner when you have kids. You have to go out. And I think that that’s been very healthy for us. Of course, that’s not the reason to have children — we love our daughter!

Ari Kletzky We were planting a bunch of tomato plants — about seventy tomato plants on twelve traffic islands in Northeast LA — as a way to explore the availability of those public spaces.

Janet Owen Driggs Theo kept laughing and trying to jump in the pond. And crawling as fast as he possibly could, from one end of the place to the other. He just loved to crawl at that point. And I think it was the pond that he really, really liked.

Autumn Rooney Flo is one of my oldest friends and it was just a mixture of her bohemian friends and her husband’s old South Pasadena family friends. And a lot of them probably don’t come downtown too much. But it was beautiful. They just put some potted plants on the stage and it was very simple.

Oliver Hess We were already showing a piece of work in the Glow festival the night before the wedding and also had a moon pavilion built for us by friends that night on the Santa Monica beach made from hundreds of LED-illuminated balloons tied together.

Fabian Wagmister But also, [Sue has] played really into this. For example, we get a lot of the Chinese women that work a couple of buildings down, as they are walking out every day, saying, “Bye-bye, bye-bye.” So it’s a very nice thing going on. I think that’s one of the things that this neighborhood needs: a few more residents.

Matias Viegener Our hope was basically that the tomato plants would grow unmolested and that we would be able to harvest them at some point; but also that other people would come upon them and either eat the tomatoes or just look at them. That

13 had a mixed history. Some of the plants were mutilated and — and others survived.

Karen Taylor Our friend Eddie played his accordion during the ceremony. We had potted orange flowers and we wanted our cake to look like one of the mushroom stumps here, so we did white meringue mushrooms so that we had mushrooms everywhere and flowers all within the food.

Oliver Hess We spent the night celebrating on the beach and in the morning got dressed and went to Under Spring for an amazing organic meal made by our friends from Large Marge Sustainables. The groomsmen [and I] then led everyone to the Anabolic Monument, on the Cornfield site, where taiko drummers played as Jenna and the bridesmaids walked from the far end of the park to the assembled crowd, led by Dorian Bon [Lauren Bon’s son, a musician], drumming.

Fabian Wagmister I’m not sure if I’m talking about massive development — probably that’s not what I would want. But I think with a few more residents, it would warm up. And it would make us all a little more unified. Right now it’s a little sort of still industrial, institutional.

Autumn Rooney They had a big, beautiful cake that looked like mushrooms, because at the time we were working on mushrooms here. It was just kind of informal and fun. And it was a full moon. I remember everybody being captivated by the moon and they all ran over to the corner to watch it rise.

Matias Viegener At the end of that project and that experiment in public space we wanted to have a harvest festival, so we thought we would pick the tomatoes and make salsa, and also — at the same time — play salsa music and call it Salsa Salsa.

Karen Taylor I think some of the older guests were a little suspicious about the whole thing, just because it was in a nontraditional space. But overall everybody was really excited about it because who wants to go sit in a stuffy building and eat boiled chicken?

Oliver Hess One of our oldest friends, Phil, dressed as a bishop in red and black with sunglasses, married us, using a fifties microphone and amp as we stood on top of a platform built by [another friend]. We said our vows, drank thimble- size amounts of champagne with hundreds of friends, and then held an after party at Mountain Bar in Chinatown.

14 Ari Kletzky We worked with people from Farmlab to create an afternoon during which people could come and interact in this interesting mixture between dance and salsa and public space and ecology.

Janet Owen Driggs The older children said that they really enjoyed themselves. It was a place where they were very safe, protected from the traffic. Their parents would let them run around. And yet the trains are literally feet away, and they loved that.

Nick Taylor The people who knew us immediately thought, “Perfect.” Because it does symbolize a lot of what we’re about.

Ari Kletzky Dave [Burns, of Fallen Fruit] and I were sitting around and we wanted to find a location that had a connection with what the Love Apples project was about — public space and the use of public space and the question “What is public space?” And I think that’s obviously an element of Under Spring and Farmlab. And then of course, there’s also the connection [to] growing.

Karen Taylor Everybody just really enjoyed being here. Because it was our space. You know, it wasn’t some artificial place that we never would spend time in. And the thing is that we love to spend time here. And we both grew up next to train tracks, so that kind of made sense, too.

Ari Kletzky There’s a connection through and interest in dialogue, which I think all three of the groups are interested in. So there were these, these kind of multiple layers of connections among all three of us that just seemed like such a natural fit. And we wanted to have local proximity and have it in a space that’s cultural, but not just white box cultural.

Nick Taylor Maybe it’s not a coincidence — with this space and spaces like this — that I have worked with homeless people and done street outreach for fifteen years.

Ari Kletzky We invited the community. We had people making salsa. There were a bunch of tomatoes and all the other things that you would want to add to make your special salsa. We had a salsa band here, and a free salsa dance class.

Karen Taylor We like what this place was about. It was sort of city and garden all in one. Kind of goes along with how we like to live.

15 Matias Viegener It was a great odd mix of humans. The kind of weird mix, which is really just a mix that emerges from language, right? From “salsa” having two meanings. It just created the most interesting result for us — it was one of those moments where I felt like the space got, like, another inch taller.

Nick Taylor [Our officiant, Erica] basically talked for a while and then kinda reached behind the plants and pulled out a big screen.

Ari Kletzky We didn’t have a large crop. We had enough to make a bowl of salsa. So we made a bowl of traffic island salsa and then went around to people offering it to them and then asking them what they thought about traffic island salsa.

Karen Taylor She had a portable projector screen.

Matias Viegener Here we are, all dancing salsa under a bridge in the industrial part of the city. So it had a very integrated feeling, just whimsy.

Nick Taylor And it was a picture of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which was symbolizing us.

Ari Kletzky The way we found the salsa band is one of the band members was an employee of the Department of Public Works. We met the Department of Public Works on the traffic islands and there was this whole interaction and as a result they planted the tomato plants with us on an island in El Sereno. One of the employees was Rudy — he’s a bass player in a salsa band.

Karen Taylor I’m the peanut butter ’cause I’m kinda salty. He’s the jelly.

Matias Viegener You would see the most eclectic mix of people dancing salsa, some of them fabulously and brilliantly, and some of them incredibly badly, and all having kind of insane fun and laughing. There was a giddy feeling and it was certainly related to the location.

Karen Taylor At the end of the ceremony, we toasted with a belt of scotch. It was nice to seal the deal.

16 Ari Kletzky The band was out here literally in front of the “Concrete Is Fluid” neon sign. The dance class was right here. The salsa-making was inside, in the kitchen. We were frying tortillas and there was sangria.

Audrey Taylor [Nick and Karen Taylor’s baby] Gehhh.

Ari Kletzky That connection happened in this public space in a city where you have a blending of Latino culture and history with Anglo and Indigenous. So it was that kind of mixture, which is I think what salsa’s really about. The making of the salsa is this mixture. The dance is a mixture of different kinds of musical histories. And this space, I guess, is a space that has invited all these kind of different things.

Karen Taylor Audrey is our first project together. The fruit of our labor. Or, my labor.

Ari Kletzky This whole project was interweaving, like vines that grow together.

Oliver Hess Thank you, Under Spring, for giving us and our community this beautiful memory.

Matthew Coolidge I never had been to the Under Spring location before. But Lauren and the Studio developing that resource there drew people into the space to confront it, and everything it represents. And that’s a real service.

Lauren Bon Welcome to a little piece of magic, a little piece of the Mediterranean in your hometown.

Adolfo v. Nodal Under Spring is what we call a previous social brownfield. A place that was full of drugs and negative activity. It’s been remediated with good thoughts, good works, farming, and gardening, talking about things. All these were social remediations for Under Spring. It’s been a work with the community, for the community.

Manuel Castells This [a neon sign that reads “Another City Is Possible”] is piggybacking on the slogan that has been, from 2001 on, the slogan for movements that call themselves “Global Justice Movement,” which exist all over the world. They are coordinated over the Internet, by those that make public demonstrations.

17 Richard Nielsen When we had Lauren and Manuel [Castells] talk underneath the bridge at the second Optimists’ Breakfast, we moved Manuel’s piece [the neon sign reading “Another City Is Possible”] so that it was opposed to [the neon sign that reads] “Concrete Is Fluid.”

Manuel Castells Fundamentally, [Movement for Global Justice] reacted not against globalization, but against the kind of globalization that had been happening and that has been presented as the only possible way — this kind of absolutely market-oriented type of globalization, [which ultimately reduces] societies to markets.

Richard Nielsen In the evening we had both lights going on and we realized that it was a whole new relationship of reflections going on in the ponds back and forth from the two artworks and it totally changed the orientation of the artwork working underneath Spring Street. That was a period of time [when] the space really became activated as a bit more formal artwork rather than sort of a process- based artwork.

Manuel Castells They launched this idea — another world is possible, meaning, wait a second, let’s discuss within the same technology, the same economy, the same everything, the other possibilities, and these other possibilities cannot be dictated by the elites of the world, by the elites of society. They have to be discussed, be debated and ultimately implemented by society at large, which means, ultimately, people.

Richard Nielsen The new neon went up, which is the “Wu Wei” gift from Dean [Qingyun] Ma: Chinese symbols [translating to “Do Nothing”], which are now in opposition to “Another City Is Possible.” There’s a definite conversation between Dean Ma and Manuel over their differences of opinions of the meanings of their two statements and their overall philosophy of what a city is, how to transform a city.

Anthony Adams I hadn’t been here in years, and one of my friends — he was like, “Hey, let’s go hang out at the Tombs.” So we came here and then we seen this, and we seen the security right here. He was like a guard dog right there. We came, we didn’t even see him. He came up on the side of us with a light and then we asked him, “Where’s — what happened here?”

Gerardo Vaquero Rosas I grew up in a small farm and we learned how to grow things, how to grow everything. Everything is growing very beautiful now and we have Señora Lauren

18 to thank. If it weren’t for her, these plants would have died. I hope she continues to take care of them for many years to come.

Anthony Adams [The security guard] started telling us about the plants that you’re growing and how you guys get junk or stuff that you find and make something of it creative, so we asked him if we could look around and he escorted us all around here.

Gerardo Vaquero Rosas See how the vine grows out or up, the way they grew up the lattice? I had to secure them, tie them, because they can weigh as much as twenty to thirty pounds. There are several kinds of squash, some white, some green, some striped. There are several kinds that I planted in the bins but there is mostly the tamalayotas, that is what we call that type of squash, and then there are some left to mature, or we say cáscara dura — hard skin — the yellow, the red ones, and white one.

Manuel Castells Los Angeles has been presented as the city that is full of vitality, creativity, wealth creation — it attracts immigrants from all over the world. [But] as an urban form, it’s not functional, it’s not working. Its people take it because they have to, because it is what I call a combination of private affluence and public misery. Everything that is private flourishes; everything that is public is treated as disposable.

Anthony Adams I came back a week later with more of my friends to show ’em. I’d say, “Man, look what they did to the Tombs.” So everybody’s comin’ over here.

Gerardo Vaquero Rosas I’m gathering radish seeds from the plants here and also green bean seeds right now. Much of my time is spent collecting the seeds but I never neglect nurturing the plants. Just now I planted cilantro, and more radishes, because we need to continue having the bins producing and filled with green beans.

Manuel Castells Some people think that the world — even in our current form of social economic, social technological growth and organization — can be shaped differently when people want to do it and have imagination and the strength to do it. The same way, cities can be transformed. And I think that is particularly applicable to Los Angeles, because it is the city on which everybody has given up in terms of urban thought, in terms of the ability to increase quality of life. Of course, people believe in the beautiful tropical

19 canyons, they don’t need anything. But as a city, not as private spaces within the city, [Los Angeles] has been given up on by people all over the world.

Gerardo Vaquero Rosas Everyday I offer thanks to God that I can continue growing this and the flowers, and Lauren continues to give me this work, and I’m very thankful. If the time comes that I’m no longer needed, well then that’s life, but I ask one thing: that all the plants go where somebody will take care of them; don’t let them die. They just need to be watered and taken care of. They will continue to live and produce fruit: guamoche, peach, apple, persimmons, avocados. They will give fruit by the middle of this coming summer, especially the bananas and the plants in the bins.

Manuel Castells I think a number of people, and certainly the Farmlab people, and myself connected to that project, we think that another city is possible, and even in Los Angeles, another Los Angeles is possible.

Roger Zepeda Everybody would ask me, like, how was it now. I told them it’s clean. They all just laughed. They would always tell me that they could come in the night and, like, I guess, jump the fence. But everyone still goes to the other bridge over there.

Prince Hall Everybody still comes by. I see them doing aerobic classes and everything. Ya know what? It’s nice up underneath there, man. You come up here and sit back and the breeze blowing you cool. I tell them all the time, I say, “Listen, hey, we can’t let you mess it up.”

Conrado Garcia My favorite thing overall is the gardening. The plants help us breathe cleaner air, fresher air, purer air.

Robyn Simms Johnson It’s a hidden space, it’s a gem, a treasure. You get the feeling that you’re someplace else.

Karen Nogues [It recharges] your battery every time you come here, and, you know, you have faith in the world. You can go out and you feel like you’re ready to do battle with evil, that you have confidence and friends and information from other corners of the globe. People converge here.

Rosa I appreciate this because I have a little girl. She’s into nature; she has her own plants in front of my house. So I’m gonna bring her here.

20 Roger Zepeda [Some of my friends say] they should’ve left it the way it was. But that was their opinion. I like it here now, like that.

Pedro Carranza I remember talking to one guy, he worked around here for ten years. He said that before, when he was coming, it was scary. I ask people today, “What do you think now?” They say, “Now it’s different. It’s a good place.”

Conrado Garcia The furniture people across the way, they see the change, they see all that we do. They say that it’s good — it’s got plants, flowers, it’s clean.

Karen Nogues It’s like if you were hovering over the Earth, you would see this radiant spot here under the Spring Street Bridge.

Sergio Rodriguez Jr. I’ve been coming back doing some photo shoots here. I did one in the garden when the pumpkins were there. And then I think there was another installation still in the process, but I mean, I remember this place. And it looks way different than what it used to look like before. It’s an upgrade.

Anthony Adams Lauren Bon? Boy, she got a beautiful vision.

Ramon Macias I live close to here. People in the neighborhood say they changed a lot of things here. They’re happy because there are no more drugs here, no more violence.

Anthony Adams This was our haven, but you guys made a real haven.

Contributors (descriptions circa the Under Spring era)

Anthony Adams: Los Angeles native.

Salvador Bautista: Superintendent, ValleyCrest Landscape Development. Team member, Metabolic Studio.

Lauren Bon: Artist, Metabolic Studio.

Pedro Carranza: Employee, ValleyCrest Landscape Development. Team member, Metabolic Studio.

21 Manuel Castells: University Professor and Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society, University of Southern California. Professor of Communication, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California. Farmlab Public Salon Series and Under Spring Optimists’ Breakfast speaker, 2008.

Olivia Chumacero: Team member, Metabolic Studio.

Yaskin Chumacero: Activist, hip-hop artist.

Bill Close: Musician, inventor. Artistic director, MASS. Installed and played monumental “earth harp” at Under Spring, 2007.

Alejandro Cohen: Co-founder and deejay, Dublab.com. Musician. Performed at Tonalism at Under Spring, 2007.

Matthew Coolidge: Founder and director, Center for Land Use Interpretation.

Jenna Didier: Founding director, Materials & Applications. Bride at wedding reception held at Under Spring, 2008. Speaker at Farmlab Public Salon Series, 2007.

Janet Owen Driggs: Artist, writer. Team member, Metabolic Studio.

Brandy Flower: Founder, Hit + Run. Live silk-screened at Under Spring, 2008.

Conrado Garcia: Employee, ValleyCrest Landscape Development. Team member, Metabolic Studio.

Kindred Gottlieb: Los Angeles resident. Participated in La Ofrenda, Under Spring, 2006–08.

Anthony Gutierrez: Los Angeles resident.

Prince Hall: Caretaker of 1745 North Spring Street building. Formerly lived underneath the Spring Street Bridge.

Oliver Hess: Co-director, Materials & Applications. Groom at wedding reception held at Under Spring, 2008. Speaker at Farmlab Public Salon Series, 2007.

Robyn Simms Johnson: Comedian, puppeteer. Performed at Under Spring, 2007.

Ari Kletzky: Artist, Islands of LA. Speaker at Farmlab Public Salon Series, 2008.

Tom Labonge: City Councilmember for the Fourth Council District, Los Angeles. Speaker at Under Spring Optimists’ Breakfasts, 2008–09.

22 Ramon Macias: Employee, ValleyCrest Landscape Development. Team member, Metabolic Studio.

Sarah McCabe: Team member, Metabolic Studio.

Mark “Frosty” Mcneill: Co-founder and deejay, Dublab.com. Musician. Performed at Tonalism at Under Spring, 2007.

Richard Montoya: Actor, writer, member of Culture Clash. Emcee at Under Spring Optimists’ Breakfast, 2009.

Richard Nielsen: Artist. Team member, Metabolic Studio.

Adolfo v. Nodal: President, City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission. Team member, Metabolic Studio.

Karen Nogues: Fashion designer and activist, neighborhood resident.

Sergio Rodriguez Jr.: Former graffiti artist. Los Angeles resident.

Yuval Ron: Composer, musician. Performed at Under Spring, 2007.

Autumn Rooney: Team member, Farmlab.

Rosa: The first name of a longtime area resident and Belmont High School graduate.

Gerardo Vaquero Rosas: Former South Central Farmer. Staff member, ValleyCrest Landscape Development. Team member, Metabolic Studio.

Deborah Szekely: Health spa pioneer. Speaker at Under Spring Optimists’ Breakfast, 2009.

Karen Taylor: Bride at wedding held at Under Spring, 2008.

Nick Taylor: Groom at wedding held at Under Spring, 2008.

Irene Tsatsos: Gallery director and chief curator, Armory Center for the Arts. Team member, Farmlab.

Matias Viegener: Faculty member, California Institute for the Arts. Co- founder, Fallen Fruit. Speaker at Farmlab Public Salon Series, 2007.

Fabian Wagmister: Faculty member, UCLA. Under Spring neighbor. Owner of the Raphael Junction Block Building, a Historic-Cultural Monument.

Roger Zepeda: Local resident and LA native.

23 Generated automatically on September 26, 2021 from https://www.metabolicstudio.org/117. Metabolic Studio supports living systems.

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