#ps2920

 A few of the mundane yet beautiful things encountered along Florence Avenue.

Eagle Nebula, janet e. dandridge: Ritual Portals at the Mezzanine ONE NIGHT ONLY - Saturday, February 6, 2016 | 8:30pm - 10:30pm Performance at 9:00pm 

A Conversation with Photographer Glen Wilson - Part 2

PS2920:   Tell me about the first gate you saw and how did you know you wanted this gate and what you were going to do with it.

GW: The idea came to me, a few years ago, talking across the fence with my neighbor Aron Dafney. Before he passed, we enjoyed many hours of conversation sitting up on his porch as he puffed his pipe, and listened to the blues radio station. He shared stories about his own past, leaving Texarkana with his wife in the early 1950's for California, and their eventual arrival to Venice Beach. His stories provided glimpses and context of our neighborhood in the years before I arrived with my own family. Aron and I also shared an affinity for collecting, and keeping objects and items, old tools, doors, lumber, etc.. He passed along his old chain link gate to me, which became the first gate I wove for this series. The other gates, I have salvaged from homes which were subsequently demolished, or in other cases condemned as in some gates from New Orleans. PS2920:   Are there any "gates" you'd like access to? Or would like to cross the threshold of? If so, which ones?

GW: Growing up in the midwest, gates and fences were seldom true barriers. Accessibility became more of an issue of navigation. Once one becomes aware of the obstacle, it then must be negotiated. For example, my friends and I knew that certain gates remained permanently locked, and thus they might need to be hopped. Others fenced in dogs, so we needed finesse, timing, and speed on our side in those situations, if we wanted to try a shortcut. Gates and fences were just fixed points useful in mapping the terrain of neighborhood. Clearly, gates function both literally and figuratively to divide spaces and keep some in and others out. There is a rich discussion to be had around this, particularly when it comes to the economic and social forces of gentrification.