ARTCENTER DOT MAGAZINE—FALL 2015 FALL 2015—Artcenter.Edu/Dot PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 1

ARTCENTER DOT MAGAZINE—FALL 2015 FALL 2015—artcenter.edu/dot PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 1

I live my life in widening circles that 1 reach out across the world. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE ArtCenter’s 85th anniversary I may not complete this last one, but I give myself to it. — Rainer Maria Rilke 2 LEGACY Remembering Kenji Ekuan As part of ArtCenter’s 85th anniversary, this special issue of Dot celebrates our creative community in three broad fields to which graduates through the decades have dedicated themselves with powerful results: art and 4 visual storytelling; business; and education. Their stories highlight the PEOPLE circles of influence—intergenerational and interdisciplinary—that can Dan Santat ignite an idea, shape a career, define one’s lasting mark on the world.

Some alumni are legendary, like the late Kenji Ekuan, while others are achieving notable success still early in their careers, from the intrepid entrepreneurs building small businesses in three distinct Los Angeles 6 neighborhoods, to the first-time independent filmmaker whose animated FEATURE HQ:LA — Three thriving entrepreneurs short garnered an Oscar nomination. make the City of Angels their headquarters In terms of professional recognition, 2015 has been a year of superlatives for our alumni. Children’s book author and illustrator Dan Santat earned his field’s highest honor, the Caldecott Medal; Diana Thater’s midcareer retrospective at LACMA opening November 22 is the largest exhibition 13 by a woman artist in the museum’s 75-year history; and the founders of 4x4 GALLERY lynda.com, a radical innovation in teaching developed at ArtCenter in the Four alumni, four passionate projects COVER ARTIST 1980s, saw their company acquired by LinkedIn in its biggest deal ever. By turns whimsical and philosophical, the work of New York Times best- Our next issue of Dot (Spring 2016) will serve as a companion to this Vol. 1 selling illustrator and graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton (BFA 99 Fine Art) anniversary edition. In Vol. 2, we’ll meet leaders in fields such as product, is grounded in direct, empathetic ob- 22 servation. Her illustration on our cover, transportation, interaction, graphic and environmental design, and we’ll PEOPLE originally for The Times, reimagines look at transformative examples of design for social impact. Lynda Weinman & Bruce Heavin / Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Her book, Meanwhile in San Francisco: The City Chris Do & Jose Caballer in its Own Words (Chronicle, 2014), We are proud to bring you these stories and those of all our alumni across began as an online series of “illustrated documentaries” about her beloved a suite of platforms including Untold Stories, a new online showcase for city for The Rumpus. She received ArtCenter’s Outstanding Alumni Award alumni projects and ideas. To fully capture the ever-widening circles of in 2011 and inspired the creation of ArtCenter’s influence, we want to add your voice and images to the mix. the Spring 2015 Designmatters studio, 24 Illustrated Journalism, in which she So please be in touch by email, on social media, in person here on campus also served as guest speaker. FEATURE Cover: New Hierarchy of Needs by Wendy or at an upcoming alumni event in your area, and allow us to celebrate Diana Thater’s Sympathetic Imagination MacNaughton, The New York Times (August 8, 2013). Back cover: The artist’s you—even if you’re not yet 85. There is no time like the present. self-portrait commissioned by The Atlantic for Sarah Yager’s article, “Meanwhile in San Francisco” (July/August 2014). Images courtesy of the artist.

At Left: Kenji Ekuan’s Lotus Flowers in a Pond, 30 photo © Yoshiteru Baba. Silver Lake neigh- Lorne M. Buchman PEOPLE borhood, photo: Stella Kalinina. Diana Thater: gorillagorillagorilla at Kunsthaus Graz, photo: president Robert Kondo and Saman Kesh Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner artcenter college of design Fields of Influence, Vol. 1 Vol. of Influence, Fields 2 FALL 2015—artcenter.edu/dot LEGACY 3

1 & 2 Kenji Ekuan’s retrospective exhibition Soaring High in the Sky included the Remembering installation works Lotus Flowers in a Pond and Alighted Heavenly Maiden. © Yoshiteru Baba 3 Kenji Ekuan Rarely seen renderings by Ekuan include his design of the very first Yamaha motorcycle, YA-1.

4 writer Sylvia Sukop His enduring 1961 design of the Kikkoman soy sauce bottle, an object in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, embodies Ekuan’s signature graceful blend of beauty and functionality. 5 He believed everyone, not just the wealthy, deserved beautiful things, and much of his work occupied public space. Here, his sketch for the Komachi bullet train, which began running in 1997 as part of Japan’s rail system. This page: Photos courtesy of GK Design Group Inc. Facing page: Photo © 2005 Ahn Sang-Soo, used with permission

1 “Thoughts soaring high in the sky, a single blossom.” — Kenji Ekuan (1929–2015)

Kenji Ekuan’s singular career began with a singular Hiroshima. Although Ekuan endured the city’s destruc- event—the destruction of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. tion and Japan’s subsequent occupation by United A teenager away at a naval academy when an American States armed forces, he never spoke bitterly about B-29 dropped the atomic bomb on his hometown, either event, says Kerechuk. “He only spoke about his Ekuan survived, but he witnessed the aftermath first- inspiration to help his country recover and restore 2 hand. His sister was killed in the blast and, a year on, normal life for the people.” his father died of radiation sickness. A pioneer throughout the formative years of the The devastating sight of “nothing”—the literal loss industrial design profession, and its tireless global of every “thing”—changed Ekuan forever. He decided ambassador, Ekuan’s legacy includes 13 design offices then to become a maker of things. And throughout his in four countries, a family of companies known as GK long and influential career, the things he made became Design Group; a multitude of design awards including icons of contemporary design. the prestigious International Compasso d’Oro (2014); “Mr. Ekuan simply loved design,” says Norman and scores of published books and articles. He Kerechuk (BS 85 Transportation Design), president of remained active in ArtCenter’s alumni network till the GK Design International Inc. “He believed design had end of his life. no limit in its ability to solve human problems, and he Among Ekuan’s final projects: taking his retrospec- made design his sole mission in life.” Kerechuk joined tive exhibition Soaring High in the Sky to Hiroshima Ekuan’s company in 1987, and has spearheaded an in 2014. Closing just two months before his death, it ArtCenter scholarship in honor of his longtime friend showcased many of his renowned products of utility, and mentor. spanning six decades. But it also featured some of his Before coming to ArtCenter, graduating in 1957 more metaphysical creations, Ekuan’s vision of utopia, among its first group of Japanese students, Ekuan for example: A minimalist golden carriage carries a had trained to become a Buddhist monk, following in “heavenly maiden” amid a fragrant sea of blue lotus the footsteps of his father who oversaw a temple in flowers, resting in the eternal flow of time. 3 4 5 4 FALL 2015—artcenter.edu/dot PEOPLE 5

authors over the years, but has long desired to get 1 Beekle author Dan Santat with his Dan Santat more of his own stories out into the world. sons, Kyle (left) and Alek. “It’s been a pretty definitive part of my life,” Santat 2 & 3 told Dot. Cover and artwork from Dan Caldecott Medal-winner “makes the Santat’s Caldecott-winning unimaginable, imaginable.” As an example, he recalled working on The The Adventures of Beekle: The Replacements, an animated Disney Channel show Unimaginary Friend. based on his one of his first books. “There were moments working on that show writer Mike Winder where I thought, ‘Even though the show says Created photographer Jennie Warren by Dan Santat, it doesn’t feel like it,’” he said. “Every story note I submitted would get shot down by an executive. I was in this weird spot where I felt like I wasn’t very good at writing stories anymore,” he added. But just like Beekle, who does the unimaginable by deciding to find his own child rather than wait to be discovered, Santat, with encouragement from It’s been quite a year for Illustration alumnus Dan his agent, overcame his creative insecurity and dove Santat (BFA 01). headfirst into his freelance work. Back in February, he was awoken at 4:30 a.m. by “I wanted to know how far I could go as a chil- a call from the American Library Association (ALA) with dren’s author and illustrator,” he said. “I knew I had the news that his children’s book The Adventures of ideas. I knew they were valid. I knew they could prob- Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend had won the Caldecott ably be something special if I really just focused my Medal, the nation’s most prestigious award for children’s attention on them.” literature. At one point he turned down a lucrative job offer And in May, DreamWorks Animation announced at Google working for the tech giant’s Doodle team, that Jason Reitman, the Oscar-nominated director of because it wouldn’t afford him the time to work on his Thank You for Smoking, Juno and Up in the Air, would personal projects. be adapting and directing Beekle for the silver screen. “When I said no to Google I gave myself this “I was book shopping with my daughter, when a condition, something that my instructor Rob Clayton little tooth-shaped character wearing a paper crown (BFA 88 Illustration) advised his students to do at stole our hearts,” said Reitman in a press release ArtCenter,” Santat said. “I told myself I needed to work announcing the deal. “His name was Beekle, and I’m on my brand harder than I’ve ever worked for any now honored to be adapting Santat’s charming story company.” into a feature film.” Another piece of advice Santat took to heart came Beekle tells the story of an imaginary friend who, from instructor Roland Young (BFA 61 Advertising). tired of waiting to be chosen by a real child, sets off “He would ask us, ‘Why are you trying to be flashy? If on a magical journey to find his perfect match. When you’re a style, then people will hire you for your style. he finally finds his human, he’s given his special name: What you really want to be is formless. You want to be Beekle. known as a person that has great ideas.’” The name has special meaning for Santat—it Santat doesn’t appear to be running out of ideas was his older son Alek’s first word, for bicycle. “The anytime soon. Next on his plate is a time-travelling book was my way of saying to my son, ‘Welcome to children’s book titled Are We There Yet?, inspired by the world. I’ve loved you before we even met,’” Santat a question he’s heard ad nauseam from his other son told The Associated Press. Kyle during road trips. “My older son knows that the whole book is essen- When it comes to Santat’s career, the answer to tially a love letter to him,” Santat told KPCC’S Take Two. that question seems fairly obvious. “My intention for the book was that long after I’m gone, and my son grows up, maybe gets married and has his own kids, that he could show this to his kids and say, ‘This is how much your grandfather loved me.’” In its awarding of the Caldecott to Beekle, the ALA praised Santat’s “fine details, kaleidoscopic satu- 2 rated colors, and exquisite curved and angular lines” to “masterfully convey the emotional essence of this special childhood relationship.” Caldecott committee chair Junko Yokota added, “Santat makes the unimaginable, imaginable.” What makes Beekle’s recognition particularly gratifying for Santat is that it’s a book he both wrote and illustrated—a creative goal he took very seriously.

1 Santat has worked with a number of high-profile 3 6 FALL 2015—artcenter.edu/dot HQ:LA 7

From ArtCenter’s leafy Hillside Campus in the hills of Pasadena, head 14 miles south on Interstate 5 and you’ll find yourself at the edge of the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles. It’s here, in an industrial area where artisanal coffee shops vie for the same space as scrap metal vendors, that you’ll find the pristine studio of tattoo artist and current ArtCenter Illustration major Noah Minuskin. THE DREAMER: “It has a unique and raw energy,” says Minuskin, a Bay Area transplant, describing the neighborhood. “It’s NOaH generated by the creatives here, who For creative professionals, the allure of Los Angeles goes far beyond are genuine, passionate and ambitious.” You can’t beat the weather. Meet three thriving entrepreneurs— MINUskIN As Minuskin outlines a scene of upper-term student Noah Minuskin and alumni Yo Santosa and Spencer spiritual agony on his return client’s upper arm, he says the Arts District Nikosey—who have made the City of Angels their headquarters. compares favorably to ArtCenter. “In this building alone, you have WRITER—Mike Winder / PHOTOGRAPHER—Stella Kalinina fashion designers, architects, photog- raphers, product designers, even an art gallery,” he says. “I’m surrounded by people deeply invested in their craft, making their dreams a reality.” His client, an Iraq war veteran and firefighter who has waited months for a spot on the artist’s packed calendar, takes a look at Minuskin’s outline—a composition which could blend in seamlessly with the work of the Old Masters—and beams. “L.A. has the right ingredients to allow for amazing things to happen creatively,” adds Minuskin, as he flips on the movie Whiplash, the music conservatory horror story, and settles in for what will be a 12-hour session with his client. “I don’t know if you can find that anywhere else.” Soon the rumble of shipping trucks, the buzzing of the tattoo machine and the blaring horns and pounding snares of the film’s score form a fre- netic cacophony. 8 FALL 2015—artcenter.edu/dot HQ:LA 9

Three miles west in the Entertainment District, another clash of sounds plays out, this one driven by jackhammers and a rumbling cement mixer. The noise makes it hard to hear THE TASTEMAKER: Graphic Design alumna Yo Santosa (BFA 00), founder and creative director of design firm Ferroconcrete, whose rebranding projects include helping yO turn Pinkberry into an international presence, creating motion graphics for saNTOsa TBS, and redesigning the logo for The Today Show. Ferroconcrete has incubated several companies, including off-kilter perfume maker Commodity, whose mixable fragrances like “Whiskey” and “Book” are available in select Sephora stores nationwide, and Früute, an online cookie company selling sweet and sour concoctions like “Rum and Raisin Rochers” and “Muscovado Rainbow Crunch.” As we cross 11th Street to visit Früute’s kitchen, run by her mother, Santosa points out that the Staples

Center-adjacent L.A. Live entertainment complex, which includes the Nokia Theater and the 54-story J.W. Marriott Hotel, is just a short walk away. “When I first moved downtown in 2004, I ended up at Main and Sixth, just a few blocks from Skid Row, which was a little intense,” says the Singapore- raised Santosa. “But now this is my home and I don’t think I’ll ever move.” Downtown has changed drama- tically for the better over the past decade, and Santosa is contributing to that change with her monthly publication LA Downtowner, a newspaper that offers an “insider’s view” of the culture and people reshaping downtown. “We’ve had such great feedback, and people are trying to find out how to get involved,” says Santosa of the neighborhood reception of Downtowner. As we reach our destination, Santosa tells us to wait outside as she enters the kitchen. She emerges a few minutes later with bad news. “Sorry, but Mom is very protective of her creations and doesn’t want visitors in the kitchen,” she says. “The Cooking Channel’s Unique Sweets wanted to do a story, and she told them ‘no’ too.” She sighs, and adds with a smile, “That’s Mom.” 10 FALL 2015—artcenter.edu/dot HQ:LA 11

“I felt empowered by that trip,” says including the company’s bestselling Nikosey of the opportunity to study Weekender travel bag and a mini bas- large-scale manufacturing up close. ketball kit, all out of their Silver Lake “Bobby taught me everything.” storefront and workshop. And later, when Nikosey told Chang “I paid Bobby back in full in five he wanted to build a factory in his own months,” says Nikosey, as an industrial backyard of Los Angeles, where he sewing machine competes with his could have “complete control of every voice. “He challenged me to use all detail and create the most comfortable that ArtCenter problem solving to work environment for [his] team,” he create the kind of factory I needed.” discovered that his mentor’s generosity The ability to improve a design extended even further. instantly is one clear advantage to “Bobby said, ‘Okay, set it up and I’ll manufacturing locally. “I don’t have fund you,’” says Nikosey with a laugh. to wait a month for a change to come He accepted a sizeable loan from back,” he says. “I can just walk over Chang (“I’d never seen that much money to Mauricio and say, ‘Hey, let’s not use on a check before”) and soon had a that white thread.’” small advanced studio and factory in And with that proximity comes the Downtown Arts District, filled with camaraderie. “We play soccer on leather, sewing machines, zippers, ship- Wednesdays and Fridays,” says Nikosey. ping boxes, business cards—the works. “We’re like family, and we’re constantly Today, Nikosey, with his team of evolving and growing.” master craftsmen, designs, manu- factures and sells a wide range of impeccably crafted leather products,

Four miles northwest in Silver Lake, on a stretch of Sunset Boulevard filled with storefronts pitching everything from antique furniture to Spanish- language Pentecostal services, you’ll find Killspencer, the burgeoning company founded by Product Design THE TEAM CAPTAIN: alumnus Spencer Nikosey (BS 08). Killspencer began as a project at ArtCenter in which Nikosey, inspired speNcer by a field trip to the American Military Museum, repurposed the tarp of a Nikosey Humvee into a waterproof backpack. To say his idea caught on quickly would be an understatement. Kill- spencer launched as the centerpiece of Nikosey’s graduating portfolio in December 2008; in January 2009 the company began selling products inter- nationally. So why did Nikosey choose to manu- facture in L.A.? That was also inspired by a field trip of sorts. When his mentor, Incase co-founder Bobby Chang (BS 94 Product Design), learned that Nikosey was planning on growing his business, he generously set up a weeklong tour for him of several factories in China. 4x4 GALLERY 13

The 4x4 Gallery features four alumni whose passionate engagement with recent projects expands artistic boundaries.

You can’t teach passion, but you can accelerate it. ArtCenter Doug Aitken Jen Rosenstein Mark Ryden Lawrence Carroll

Since graduating from ArtCenter Long before Caitlyn Jenner’s Pop surrealist master Mark Ryden Australian-born painter Lawrence nearly 25 years ago, Doug Aitken media moment, Jen Rosenstein (BFA 87 Illustration) blurs tradi- Carroll (BFA 80 Illustration) (BFA 91 Illustration) has blazed a (BFA 08 Photography and tional boundaries between high was commissioned to create luminous trajectory. From his Imaging) trained her empathic and low art to often disquieting a body of work on the theme breakout Electric Earth video eye on the transgender commu- effect, taking cute or kitschy of “Re-Creation” for the 2013 installation at the 1999 Whitney nity. Over the past seven years clichés to darkly enigmatic Venice Biennale’s Vatican City Biennial, to the nomadic Station she’s set up impromptu studios places. Works like his edgy yet Pavilion. His five large paintings to Station (2013), the SoCal native offering free portraits to trans- elegant sculpture Meat Dress exert a commanding yet fragile creates multi-media works at gender individuals, capturing and paintings like Queen Bee presence, strung with re-used once monumental and ephem- them how they want to be seen. #105, whose ornately carved materials like electrical wires eral. His live art happening on “Each shoot brings me more frame projects a baroque exu- and lightbulb sockets—a move a cross-country train is now an hope, love and understanding,” berance, have made him a star inspired by seeing rosaries hung acclaimed film featuring 62 says Rosenstein of her ongoing among serious art collectors on statues in an Italian chapel. takes on modern creativity. Transformational Project. in the music and film industry “In a way I am hanging these “We’re living in a tremendously “‘Liberating’ was the word I kept and beyond. “All of us are wear- things on paintings to believe new landscape,” Aitken told the hearing to describe the experi- ing our bodies,” he told The in painting,” he told Swide Guardian, “and the possibility of ence of being open enough to New York Times, “which are like magazine. “We have to believe what can be created is immense.” shed layers in front of my lens.” a garment of meat.” in something.”

Artist portrait by Alayna Van Dervort Self-portrait by Jen Rosenstein Artist portrait courtesy Kohn Gallery Artist portrait by Lucy Jones Carroll (2015), an interactive color-changing sculpture using e-paper technology, by Nik Hafermaas in collaboration with E Ink. Installation view in ArtCenter’s Hutto-Patterson Exhibition Hall. Hutto-Patterson in ArtCenter’s view with E Ink. Installation in collaboration Nik Hafermaas by using e-paper technology, sculpture color-changing an interactive (2015),

ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, California 626 396 2496 artcenter.edu/giving e°FLOW writer Sylvia Sukop Doug Aitken, Station to Station. Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles © Doug Aitken Jen Rosenstein, Rocco, from the series Transformational Project, 30" x 20". Archival inkjet prints. Image courtesy of Jen Rosenstein.

Jen Rosenstein, Queen Victoria Ortega of West Hollywood, from the series Transformational Project, 30" x 20". Archival inkjet prints. Image courtesy of Jen Rosenstein. Mark Ryden, Meat Dress, 23" x 8" x 8". Porcelain. Image courtesy of Kohn Gallery.

Mark Ryden, Queen Bee #105 (2013), 30" x 19.5". Oil on canvas. Image courtesy of Kohn Gallery. Lawrence Carroll, Untitled (2013), 310 x 245 x 20 cm. Oil, wax, canvas on wood, with metal freezing panel, steel, ice and plexiglass. Image courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve, Galerie Buchmann, Galerie LA Louvre.

Lawrence Carroll, Nothing gold can stay (2013), 310 x 245 x 20 cm. Oil, wax, dust, canvas on wood, with wooden stakes, electric cord and metal light fixtures with bulbs. Image courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve, Galerie Buchmann, Galerie LA Louvre. 22 FALL 2015—artcenter.edu/dot PEOPLE 23

and a massive improvement from books.” It also offers 1 & 2 The educational innovators behind Company logos for lynda.com and massive reach. “I think ArtCenter has a 1 to 9 faculty- The Skool. lynda.com and The Skool, and the student ratio, and that’s great,” says Heavin of his alma booming business of online learning. mater. “A lot of schools have 1 to 20, still not bad. But we thought, what if it’s a 1 to 1 million ratio?” Lynda Weinman Weinman and Heavin’s bold vision has been real- writer Cynthia Eller ized and lynda.com has become the go-to site for photographer Jennie Warren millions of people around the world seeking on-demand & resources to make their work simpler, more productive and more effective. Commentators trying to predict the future of Bruce Heavin online learning proffer opinions that range from dire to utopian. Weinman leans optimistic: “We’re in the infancy of this industry,” she says, “and there’s a lot of room for a lot of different angles on how to attack the The pioneers problem of teaching online.” Forbes magazine once called it “the 800-pound gorilla in the e-learning space.” So it was not altogether sur- The next generation prising when lynda.com was acquired by LinkedIn for a price befitting a giant: $1.5 billion. As LinkedIn’s larg- Attacking the problem from their own unique angle est deal ever, the announcement made international are ArtCenter Graphic Design alums Jose Caballer headlines. Less well known is the company’s origin (BFA 96) and Chris Do (BFA 95), who recently co- story—one that goes back to a classroom at ArtCenter. founded The Skool, an online learning resource for Company co-founder Lynda Weinman joined the designers. faculty of ArtCenter in 1989. A film industry pro hired Alongside Blind, the successful Santa Monica to teach motion graphics, her classes in computer- design studio he heads, Do has taught graphic design based design—a field still in its infancy—were soon at the College for the past decade. Around 2010, he filled to overflowing. began to think about how he might give online clients Long hailed as a pioneer in website design (her something of the education his students were receiving first book, a bestseller published in 1995 and now in its at ArtCenter. fourth edition, was Designing Web Graphics), Weinman Completely independently, Caballer had also sees her contribution primarily as one of foresight: become interested in teaching designers: “I thought, “What I probably saw before many other people was instead of charging half a million dollars to build that artists and designers and creative contributors somebody’s website or product, why not teach half were going to have a huge role in the Internet, and a million people how to do it?” With that thought in that they needed to understand how to publish to this mind, Caballer called his mentor from ArtCenter— medium.” Lynda Weinman. She urged Caballer to explore his In 1996, she and lynda.com co-founder, ArtCenter concept further, saying, “Jose, if anybody can do it, alumnus and Trustee Bruce Heavin (BFA 93 Illustration), I know you can.” left the College to open their own business. They began Caballer began by recording This Week in Web offering recordings of lectures, first on VHS tapes, Design, a weekly video distributed free on YouTube. then DVDs and, with the arrival of the Internet, online. Later he reconnected with Do, and the two began “When we first started we were doing a lot of producing videos together, ultimately founding The things like live classrooms and consulting and confer- Skool. Like Weinman and Heavin in the early days of ences. We were recording videos and writing books. their business, Caballer and Do currently provide a We were kind of doing everything,” says Weinman. By variety of services, from workshops to corporate train- 2007 she and Heavin decided that it was the expand- ing to two online educational kits—“Agency in a Box” ing online video library that made their most valuable and “Core Strategy”—which aim, in Do’s words, to educational contribution. Today lynda.com offers its offer “a kind of graduate business studies program for subscribers more than 83,000 videos spanning busi- designers.” ness, creative, technology and software skills. Caballer’s own education has been a transforma- Chris Do At ArtCenter, she discovered a passion for teaching tive journey. “ArtCenter made me who I am today. I others in a clear, straightforward way to do things she was just some Puerto Rican kid who liked to draw, and herself had to learn on her own through a combina- I went to one of the best design schools in the world & tion of curiosity, experimentation and a soul-crushing and had opportunities that I never would have had.” slog through telephone-book-sized technical manuals. Now he offers others the chance to learn. “We have 1 From that passion a wholly new pedagogy was born. creative people of all sorts, and suddenly, by us teach- Jose Caballer “The act of storytelling is very human, and the act ing them business tools that they can use to manifest of giving instruction is something we’ve all been doing their ideas, they have more power.” all our lives,” says Heavin. “To use the Internet as a

tool, as an enabling extension, is a natural progression, 2 24 FALL 2015—artcenter.edu/dot DIANA THATER 25

1 & 2 Oo Fifi, Five Days in Claude Monet’s Garden, Part 1 (1992) Video projector, player, and Lee filters; dimensions variable. Installation view at 1301PE, Los Angeles, 2012 Photo © Fredrik Nilsen, courtesy 1301PE, Los Angeles 3 Diana Thater in Pripyat, Ukraine, 2010 © Diana Thater, photo by Volodymyr Palylyk

She’s snorkeled with wild dolphins, regularly watches the Nat Geo channel and lives with four rescue cats. So it seems only natural that Graduate Art Chair Diana Thater (MFA 90) would use her empathy for animals as the foundation for a remarkable series of video and film installations dissecting the knotty dynamic between humankind and wildlife.

1 writer Hugh Hart

Sipping an espresso in the cozy Highland Park studio and monographic exhibition dedicated to a female artist in home she shares with artist/musician T. Kelley Mason, the museum’s history. Works range from 1992’s Oo Fifi, Thater, dressed in a hoodie, black pants and sandals, Five Days in Claude Monet’s Garden, which separates says, “When I go on shoots, I find my relationship to the video images into red, blue and green components, to animals is very different from that of the crew. They’re her 2015 Life is a Time-Based Medium, a three-channel not alien to me.” video installation inspired by the 18th-century Galtaji As stray Spiffy insinuates himself alongside her on Temple in India currently occupied by wild monkeys. the sofa, Thater elaborates. “I’ve had very close contact LACMA Director Michael Govan has championed with gorillas, wild dolphins, chimpanzees. I’ve had mon- Thater’s work since 2001, when he presented her bee- keys climbing all over me, I’ve petted a tiger. You have to themed installation knots + surfaces at DIA Art Center be really open in order to work with animals in that way,” in New York. After LACMA acquired several Thater she laughs. “I hope I am.” pieces, the museum’s Christine Y. Kim, associate curator For more than two decades, Thater has remained of contemporary art, began organizing The Sympathetic profoundly open to unexpected discoveries, trekking Imagination. Kim, who also curated light and space pio- 2 to remote locations to capture footage for her nature- neer James Turrell’s 2013–2014 LACMA retrospective, themed media art pieces. She says, “I’m always looking believes both artists design environments that transform for interesting subjects because I feel, in a way, it’s my the way viewers perceive the world. job to document the state of the natural world in art “With James Turrell, when you go into the Percep- before it all disappears. That’s really a mission for me.” tual Cell—the ‘God cell’—you feel the hair stand up on Thater’s ongoing investigations have earned rave your skin, your pupils dilate, you go into an alpha state, DIANA THATER’S reviews in New York, London and Europe but rarely in your eyes adjust and you start seeing something in what Los Angeles. “I’ve gotten nothing but trouble from the had appeared to be a completely black room,” says Kim. local critics and hardly ever show in L.A.,” she says. “In a totally different way, Diana’s arranged these shifts That changes this fall when the Los Angeles County and inversions to occur in real time, with scale, with Museum of Art presents Diana Thater: The Sympathetic palette, with movement, with animal behavior. Those SYMPATHETIC IMAGINAT ION Imagination. Opening November 22 and running strategies turn notions of beauty on their head. It’s not through February 21, 2016, the 20,000-square-foot like a Sunday painter’s landscape beauty or the beauty of retrospective takes up an entire floor of LACMA’s Art of nature or the beauty of abstraction. It’s about all of those the Americas building and the top west side of the Broad things. Diana’s work is very invested in the viewer seeing Contemporary Art Museum. It represents the largest how he or she sees.” 26 FALL 2015—artcenter.edu/dot DIANA THATER 27

DECONSTRUCTING DOLPHINS 3 & 4 Emboldened by Kelley’s example, Thater has produced Installation view of Diana Thater: Life is a Time-Based Medium a steady stream of architecturally sophisticated instal- Hauser & Wirth London (2015) lations that undercut the artifice of anthropomorphic Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth storytelling. Photo: Alex Delfanne “I want to deconstruct the animal as the object of 5 our observation, object of our affection, object onto Video still from Delphine (1999) © Diana Thater which we project all kinds of guilt and human feelings and human emotions,” she says. “And I want to reconstruct them, or allow them to reconstruct themselves, as complex subjects.” But like her favorite songwriter Bob Dylan, whom she’s seen in concert more than 50 times, Thater steers clear of overt messages. “I am interested in both art and activism but I am not interested in intermingling them because then it becomes too messy,” she says. “Art is like a knife: It needs to be pointed and incisive. I think activism has to be the same way. They shouldn’t be muddled up together.” Thater considers her work on behalf of the Dolphin Project as a clear-cut exercise in proselytizing. After filming a pod of wild dolphins in the Caribbean, she made Welcome to Taiji in 2004. Designed to trigger outrage, the 25-minute documentary garnered 200,000 views on YouTube and inspired director Louie Psihoyos to make 2010 Oscar winner The Cove about the same subject. “As an activist,” she says, “The whole point is to 3 spur people to do something. I worked on Taiji very spe- cifically to expose the Japanese dolphin slaughter.” By contrast, she configured dolphin imagery in her installa- aesthetics and technology by making these conceptually tion Delphine to serve a different purpose. “I’m bringing FROM SPECTATOR tough works about nature.” this rarified natural world into the art world in order that The late Mike Kelley also figured as a key influence people may contemplate it.” TO ARTIST in Thater’s creative evolution as mentor, role model and next-door neighbor. (She and Mason bought their Thater’s path to midcareer retrospection took a pivotal vintage 1904 building 10 years ago at Kelley’s urging.) turn 27 years ago when she arrived at ArtCenter to begin “Mike’s work was very deep, but it didn’t really influence MFA graduate studies. Thater had been working as an me as much as his way of living and being an artist,” architect’s assistant in New York after earning an art explains Thater. history degree at NYU. “In the East Village and SoHo, Mason worked as Kelley’s studio manager; Thater I’d go to shows by my heroes, all the great female artists learned by watching. “T. Kelley traveled with Mike to working in New York at that time like Barbara Kruger, install his exhibitions so I’d tag along. Mike had a very Jenny Holzer, Cindy Sherman,” Thater recalls. “I longed clear idea about how his work should be presented and to be an artist, but I was a spectator.” by following him around, I learned really vital things. When Thater moved west, she says, “It was a revela- How do you do a big exhibition? How do you work with tion. All of a sudden, I was among all these amazing a museum? How do you choreograph your work? You artists. And they were friends with Barbara Kruger and can’t be easygoing about it. You don’t walk in thinking, eventually I became friends with Barbara because I ‘We’ll do it when I get there.’ You figure it all out before- became friends with my teachers after I graduated. So hand so no one can change the meaning of the work by when I got out here, I became an artist. I was accepted altering the fit contextually.” 4 into this group who became the most important people in my life: my favorite artists, my teachers.” Those teachers included video art instructor Patti Podesta, who remembers Thater as a quick study. “Diana’s insanely smart,” says Podesta, now a production designer teaching part-time at ArtCenter. “From the get-go, she understood the relationship between 5 28 FALL 2015—artcenter.edu/dot DIANA THATER 29

THE ARTIST’S PRACTICE 6 & 7 AS MENTORSHIP Installation views of Diana Thater: gorillagorillagorilla Kunsthaus Graz, Austria (2009) Thater maintains a vital presence at ArtCenter when Photo: Universalmuseum she’s not filming primates in Cameroon (gorillagorillago- Joanneum/N. Lackner rilla), tracking falcons in the Santa Monica Mountains (Here is a text about the world), documenting elephants in South Africa (RARE), studying dung beetles in Arizona (Science, Fiction), capturing images of migrant butterflies in Mexico (Untitled videowall [Butterflies]) or bearing witness to the wild horses that walk through abandoned Ukranian villages (Chernobyl). “People say to me, ‘Oh you have so many adventures!’ but I think I’m quite boring really,” Thater says dryly. An ArtCenter teacher since 1994 and Grad Art faculty chair since April 2014, Thater has influenced scores of young artists. They include Jennifer West (MFA 04), whose experiments in celluloid-based artworks include her Skate the Sky Film installation at London’s Tate Modern, in which skate boarders rolled over strips of 35 mm celluloid. “Diana taught me about this lens that I could look at art or film or ideas or philosophy through,” says West. “Diana taught me to think about how subject and form intersect and how you can influence the meaning of any given work through that kind of collision. I didn’t have that way of thinking before I studied with Diana and it became a very influential component of my work.” Grad Art Associate Chair Jason E. Smith notes, “Diana has a very strong sense of what it means to be an artist today and this colors her approach to the tasks of directing the program, and how she relates to students.” Thater adds, “Jason and I believe the Graduate Art Department is a community. It’s not about crushing 6 people and having them build themselves back up. I’ve seen that in action and don’t like it. I prefer the support- ive approach.” Thater embraces the notion that the practice of art, in itself, can serve as a powerful form of mentorship. “It’s important to recognize we are role models for our students because I know they’re looking at us the way I looked at Mike Kelley and Patti Podesta,” she says. “I’d just imitate them until I’d taken it all in, and I sus- pect that’s what students do with their teachers.” For studio visits and crit sessions, Thater coaxes fresh thinking from her charges in much the same way that she connects with cryptic creatures of the wild. “I think I must approach young artists like I approach gorillas,” Thater says, holding out her hands, palms up. “‘Show me who you are and let’s have some kind of back and forth about it.’ You don’t want to tell students what to think about. You want to help them figure out how to think.” Thater pauses, then laughs. “Anyone who knows me knows I’m not insulting anyone when I compare them to a gorilla, because there’s nobody I like better than a gorilla.” 7 30 FALL 2015—artcenter.edu/dot PEOPLE 31

“The hard part about that decision was leaving 1 Robert Kondo, co-director of ‘home,’” he says. “It was just like ArtCenter, where your Tonko House’s Oscar-nominated Robert Kondo friends become both your family and your peers.” But short The Dam Keeper. Kondo knows he made the right move. And today he 2 Saman Kesh will direct a feature feels propelled by both the terror of the unknown and for 21st Century Fox based on his and an excitement for the possibilities. short film Controller. “At the heart of things, Dice and I consider our- 3 & 4 Images from The Dam Keeper and selves storytellers,” he says, adding that making The Controller. Saman Kesh Dam Keeper gave them a broader perspective of film- Two big-screen storytellers prove making. “After we did that, we couldn’t go back.” fortune favors the prepared. Press “Start” to continue In late 2012, Film alumnus Saman Kesh (BFA 10) went writer Mike Winder to Taiwan on an assignment to write and direct a short photographer Jennie Warren to promote a forthcoming massively multiplayer game in the vein of World of Warcraft. What Kesh ended up making over the duration of a two-day shoot was Controller, an eight-minute science fiction short film about an imprisoned young woman with psychic powers who takes physical control of her boyfriend to facilitate her rescue. What does the former have to do with the latter? Opportunity knocks Other than two Chinese hanzi characters that appear In the 2015 Academy Award-nominated animated at the 7:45 mark—since the game was developed for short The Dam Keeper, a young pig selflessly operates the Chinese market—absolutely nothing. a windmill to keep a poisonous cloud from destroying “What the company asked for was essentially a his town. science fiction project that had no connection to the

1 Keeping imminent disaster at bay doesn’t seem game,” Kesh says, describing the assignment. “It’s to be an issue for Illustration alumnus Robert Kondo funny, because I tried to place hints of the actual game (BFA 02), who co-directed the film along with Dice into the film, but they kept telling me, ‘Take it out, take Tsutsumi, the first project to emerge from their it out.’” Berkeley-based animation studio Tonko House. That ended up working to his advantage when, Take, for example, the story of how Kondo landed in the middle of editing, for reasons still unknown to his first job. He recalls feeling sick one day during Kesh, the company put the brakes on the project. his final term at ArtCenter, walking out of class and “They were no longer interested,” says Kesh who, heading to the parking lot to recuperate in his car. along with Marco Wu and Tom Lee, the film’s con- Along the way he bumped into his mentor, the late tracted producers, set out to gain the rights to the Norm Schureman (BS 85 Product Design). Schureman intellectual property they had created for the short. told him he was about to meet with Harley Jessup, a “I had fallen in love with the story and wanted to con- production designer at Pixar Animation Studios, who tinue further with my vision, but on my own.” wanted to see recent student work. Schureman then Hollywood loved what it saw, too, and several asked Kondo if he could show his portfolio to Jessup. studios began bidding for the project. Ultimately, Kondo agreed, handed Schureman his book and con- Kesh signed a deal with 21st Century Fox in which he tinued on to his much-needed nap. would direct a full-length feature that would flesh out “When I caught up with Norm later in the day, I Controller’s narrative. asked him how his meeting went,” Kondo recalls. “Norm Kesh says he chose Fox primarily because the said, ‘It went really well. I think I got you a job.’” studio embraced the film’s setting of a futuristic homo- A series of interviews took place (“It was crazy, genized Taiwan. “The project feels like anime,” Kesh meeting all my heroes”), followed by months of waiting says. “It wouldn’t work if it was set in America.” to hear back. Then, on the very day Kondo planned to Kesh had no idea things would work out this way. sign a contract with a video game company, Jessup Before Controller took off, he had already mentally 3 called and offered him the job. Of course he accepted. mapped out his first feature film—a low-budget return “It makes me realize how much timing, opportunity to the world he created for his 2009 “Luv Delux” music and luck have to do with our paths,” says Kondo. video for Cinnamon Chasers. Fast-forward to 2014 and Kondo—having worked “Very rarely is a newb allowed to bring a concept 12 years as an art director on films including Ratatouille, into a studio space,” he says. “It’s been eye-opening Toy Story 3 and Monsters University—and his Pixar and now it’s a model I can follow in the future.” colleague Tsutsumi decide to trade the familiarity and 2 security of a major studio for the risky venture of start-

ing their own. 4

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