Thursday, December 09, 2010

Holiday MiXXXes


In the spirit of December, I'll be uploading a bunch of holiday-themed and other mixes and audio tracks periodically.  Call me the Kanye West of the holidays.

Here are direct download links for the first few:
XMAS RAPPING 2010 - Christmas rap songs mixed into thirty minutes of holiday madness.
Christmas Mix (recorded in 2009) - Christmas favorites and not so favorites mixed up.  Perfect for Holiday parties!
Days 'Til Christmas (Soundtrack) - This is the audio portion of a recent performance of the same name.
Hippo - My cover version of the obnoxious Christmas classic "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas."  Spruced up for the 21st century.
hanuKKah Mix 2010 - My first delving into the world of Jewish music, traditional and not so  traditional.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

White Arrows (To the People of Los Angeles) 11/13


KEITH ROCKA KNITTEL PRESENTS: WHITE ARROWS (TO THE PEOPLE OF LOS ANGELES)

November 13, 2010 – LOS ANGELES, CA - “White Arrows (To the People of Los Angeles)” is a site-specific artwork to be staged on November 13, 2010, from 5:30 – 7:30 PM across the street from the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) at 250 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90012.

Rocka Knittel hired five professional sign-spinners to activate, consecutively for two hours, five white arrow-shaped paintings made by the artist.  Viewers will be presented with a constantly moving blank advertisement, arrows pointing in all directions and at nothing in particular.  The method of sign spinning, used primarily as a curbside marketing tool, is blurred in this instance as no product is being advertised, thus emphasizing the actions of each individual sign-spinner and the object with which they are interacting.  The sign-spinners act as stand-ins for the artist, both as commentator on institutional and social paradigms and as creator completing the paintings through the action of the performance.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

A Letter to Lindsay



I recently wrote and sent a letter to Lindsay Lohan as a performative utterance.
You can read the entire letter here.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

REDCAT video screening 7/15/10

"In conjunction with Box Scheme, the CalArts 2010 MFA Exhibition in Chinatown, a screening of video works by 13 CalArts MFAs will be held at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) in downtown LA. The event takes place July 15th at 8 PM and has a running time of 2 1/2 hours including intermission. The screening promises to further showcase the breadth of experimental forms and critically reflexive expression in the CalArts graduate Art and Photo/Media programs."

Below are some stills from the new video I'll be premiering, titled "1:08 We Got Mario on the Scene."  Video will be posted after the event.

Redcat is located at 631 West 2nd St. in downtown Los Angeles, at the base of Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall. Admission to the screening is free. For directions and parking information, please visit www.redcat.org.

 

Sunday, July 04, 2010

We're All Haunted By Michael Asher's Ghosts

“We’re All Haunted By Michael Asher’s Ghosts,” part of the Box Scheme 2010 CalArts MFA Graduate Exhibition, transforms a former projection room located on the second floor of Cottage Home gallery into an experiential three-room environment investigating institutional critique through discombobulating physical spaces, camouflage, isolation and voyeurism. 

Viewers enter the space through a site-specific construction – a skewed, white hallway evocative of a trough or an industrial chute.  This transitory space is a disconcerting and problematical passageway. 

A second room showcases a sculpture that resembles both a bench, the classic seat of Socratic dialectic, and a utility pole textured by thousands of staples from notices and posters past. The bench offers respite only after one navigates its treacherous landscape of obsessively applied staples, alluding to the artist’s studio practice, manic hours spent working over ideas and engaging in repetitive labor.  The piece expands beyond the gallery with an edition of letterpress posters hung around Los Angeles in conjunction with the installation.   

In a third room, paintings on canvas, constructed scenic flats and existing walls form a hidden observation area or duck blind that overlooks the bulk of the exhibition.  The paintings combine camouflage worn while hunting and observing waterfowl with dazzle camouflage, a type of camouflage used on World War I battleships to “dazzle” the enemy into a state of confusion.










Monday, June 28, 2010

We're All Haunted By Michael Asher's Ghosts (a preview)

My new installation "We're All Haunted By Michael Asher's Ghosts" arrives this week at Cottage Home Gallery, 410 Cottage Home Street, LA, CA, 90012, upstairs in the former projection room.

Part of the exhibit Box Scheme (see post below), July 2 - 10, 2010.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Box Scheme: CalArts 2010 MFA Exhibit

BOX SCHEME
California Institute of the Arts
Master of Fine Arts Exhibition 2010
July 2nd - July 9th, 2010
Opening July 2nd, 6 - 10 PM

Participating galleries:
Actual Size, 741 New High Street, LA, CA, 90012
POVevolving, 939 Chung King Road, LA, CA, 90012
Charlie James Gallery, 975 Chung King Road, LA, CA, 90012
The Company, 946 Yale Street, LA, CA, 90012
Dan Graham, 506 Bernard Street, LA, CA, 90012
Cottage Home, 410 Cottage Home Street, LA, CA, 90012

Monday, February 08, 2010

Coming soon...

 
Keith Rocka Knittel : "Way of Sorrows"
March 7-13, 2010
With performances on Thursday March 11
Opening reception on Thursday March 11 
6PM - 11PM
(rsvp: kk@keithrocka.com)

D301 Gallery
CalArts
24700 McBean Pkwy
Valencia, CA 91355
(661) 255-1050

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Keith Rocka Knittel presents: Rocco Gaccione's "Suspiria"




Keith Rocka Knittel: "Keith Rocka Knittel Presents: Rocco Gaccione's Suspiria," 2009 (installation views)
Wood planks, speakers, video, monitor, scenic flat
Handle Like Eggs Studio, Valencia, CA

"For Immediate Release:
Keith Rocka Knittel presents:
Rocco Gaccione’s “Suspiria”

Valencia, CA – Keith Rocka Knittel is pleased to present a new site-specific work by Italian artist Rocco Gaccione as the first installment of the Handle Like Eggs Studio Exchange Program. Rocco Gaccione’s piece “Suspiria” will be on display in Broad Studio 20 at CalArts in Valencia, California on Tuesday, December 15, 2009, from 7-10PM.
“Suspiria,” 2009, uses appropriated footage from the 1977 film “Suspiria,” directed by Dario Argento, to create an environment that is at once inviting and repulsive. The soundtrack (by the Italian progressive-psych rock band Goblin) is amplified and looped into an endless crescendo. The tropes of Italian horror movies, or Giallo, are expanded beyond the constraints of the video frame into the viewer’s personal space, creating a tense expanse where voyeur and victim become one and the same.
Rocco Gaccione (b. 1984) is a graduate of The Mediterranean Center for Arts and Sciences Studio Art Program, in Sicily, Italy. He received the Enzio Fabriccone Award of Excellence from the Centro per Arte Contemporanea Italiana a Milano (CACIM) in 2007, the youngest recipient of the award. Gaccione has exhibited his work in Europe and Asia, and has an upcoming solo show in 2010 in New York City. He currently resides in Cosenza, Italy.
The Handle Like Eggs Studio Exchange Program invites artists from outside of North America to create site-specific installations in Keith Rocka Knittel’s graduate art studio at CalArts. The goal is to create a dialogue between artists from around the world, and present new, unseen works to the students of CalArts."