August 2010 / Xanadu: A Stately Pleasure Dome
Erin Shafkind
3 Views of the Pan Pacific
Digital collage
20 x 6 inches
Amanda Manitach
Glory, Utopia (the head of Samuel Taylor Coleridge on the body of Terpischore)
Charcoal and pastel
65 x 30 inches
Edie Bresler
We Sold a Winner 350 Food Mart, 2009
Archival inkjet print
15 x 22 inches
Gala Bent
EverythingAllatOnceForever, 2010
Graphite and gouache on paper
22 x 30 x 1 inches
Klara Glosova
Roller skates (worn by Olivia Newton-John), 2010
Porcelain, clay
15 x 15 x 6 inches
Troy Gua
Tuesday's Wednesday, 2010
Plexiglas, neon, digital transparency
10 x 10 x 10 inches
Warren Dykeman
Skate King, 2010
Acrylic and digital print on Okawara mounted on panel
8 x 10 inches
Cable Griffith
Pleasure Pan-Portal, 2010
Acrylic on paper
24 x 20 inches
Xanadu: A Stately Pleasure Dome
Julie Alpert, Andy Arkley, Gala Bent, Edie Bresler, Michelle de la Vega, Warren Dykeman, Reed Easley, Klara Glosova, Cable Griffith, Troy Gua, Robert Hardgrave, Jess Hilliard, Amanda Manitach, Erin Shafkind, Amanda Valdez, Joey Veltkamp
August 04 – 28, 2010
Reception / Thursday, August 05, 6–8pm
Artist Talk / Saturday, August 14, 2–3pm
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, A stately pleasure-dome decree
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In 1797 Coleridge wrote a poem, a fragment he called it. Kubla Khan or A Vision in a Dream, captured bits from a supposed opium induced vision where he describes a place full of beauty, so contrasting in its existence that it couldn't possibly exist.
In 1980 a film titled Xanadu was released. Starring Gene Kelly and Olivia Newton-John, with music from the 1940s and the 1980s (big band sounds, ELO, and The Tubes), style choices that range from Art Deco to Neon Pop, generations are breached.
August 2010 marks the 30th anniversary of the film, and this show at SOIL, curated by Erin Shafkind, is in honor of that work.
The cult film Xanadu can be seen on many levels. One is to view it as a trans-generational epic whose deep irony of place is about to hit its 30th anniversary (the film was released on August 8th, 1980). Touching upon notions of inspiration, loneliness, grief, magic, love and the idea that an outside force can greatly influence one's well being, Xanadu is Hollywood Utopia. A roller skating muse emerges from a mural on a wall in Venice California to inspire a young frustrated artist to live his dream and create a club where anything can happen. The club is XANADU (and the old Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles is the fictionalized setting for the club. The real building burned down in 1989.) Consisting of 2-D works, video, and sculpture from artists locally and around the country, this group show explores themes related to Utopia, transcendence, illusion, irony, reality, identity, the sparkly neon of the 1980's and perhaps false promises of what Xanadu meant to Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his self-proclaimed opium induced writing of this romantic piece.
At Club Xanadu they have their magical place and each other. The closing film credit reads, "The End, Made in Hollywood, USA."
A million lights are dancing and there you are a shooting star an everlasting world and you're here with me
Eternally…
— ELO
Press for Xanadu: A Stately Pleasure Dome:
Xanadu: A Stately Pleasure Dome
Article by Brian Miller. Seattle Weekly, August 2010.
Xanadu: Kissed by a Muse (A Fragment)
Article by Erin Shafkind. CityArts, July 2010.
Joey Veltkamp’s Guide to First Thursday Art Walk: August
CityArts, December 2010.