WeHo Art Pop-Up Opens in West Hollywood
Author:Dara KerrWest Hollywood’s new public library is going to be the site of an extensive one-day art installation and performance showcase this weekend with the first annual “Queer Pop-Up Art Village.”
Overnight, a caravan of 11 U-Haul trucks is to appear and set up a diverse array of artwork in an event called “Install WeHo.” Each truck is dedicated to one individual, organization, gallery, or performance troupe from the LGBTQ community that was previously selected by a committee.
“We want to give emerging LGBT artists a platform to show their work,” says Install WeHo event founder Mark Cramer. “We have all mediums and all art forms represented.”
The interactive exhibition will include works like an installation piece that pays homage to the cruising scene on the West Side Highway in New York City in the 1970’s. Another piece is a sculpture that will serve as a meditation temple for people to heal from hate crimes. There will also be several performances, along with a video truck projecting videos all day.
Cramer’s goal is to make Install WeHo an annual event, which will help launch a nonprofit with the same objectives.
“Artists are historians,” he says. “Right now we have this social movement taking place with LGBT civil rights and my hope is that in creating this fund, we can take part [in other events] and use art as a medium.”
Install WeHo is sponsored by the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, Pasadena Arts Council, Green Public Art, and Frontiers Magazine. It will be popping up on Sunday, September 16 from 12 to 5 p.m. at El Tovar Lot 8752 El Tovar Place in West Hollywood. For more information go to Install, WeHo’s website.
