PRESS RELEASE

 

CONTACT: Julie McKim, juliemckim@gmail.com

Swept Away: Love Letter to A Surrogate
April 22-23, 2023, 9 am-12 pm and 4-10 pm each day
Santa Monica State Beach in front of Annenberg Community Beach House

Presented by 18th Street Arts Center and Guild Hall in East Hampton, and made possible with support from Art of Recovery, a City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs initiative, and Annenberg Community Beach House.

Swept Away: Love Letter to a Surrogate attendees interacting with Philippe Cheng (paired with LA artist David Horvitz) at Main Beach, East Hampton, September 10, 2022. Photo by Rossa Cole. © Guild Hall, 2022.

Swept Away: Love Letter to a Surrogate is a community-oriented artistic project that aims to create a transcontinental heartbeat across America. 60 Los Angeles County artists will present live performances over Earth Day Weekend: April 22 and 23, 2023 at the Santa Monica State Beach near the Annenberg Community Beach House on the Pacific Ocean. Swept Away began in September 2022, when 65 Los Angeles County artists sent “love letters” to 65 artists on the East End of Long Island who responded with live performances on East Hampton’s Main Beach in September and October. In April 2023, the reverse will take place with 60 West Coast artists creating performances inspired by and in response to their East Coast counterparts’ letters.

On April 22 and 23, 2023, we are pleased to present up to five simultaneous performances taking place during the hours of 9 am-12 pm and 4-10 pm on Santa Monica State Beach in front of Annenberg Community Beach House.

Swept Away in Santa Monica is curated by artists Warren Neidich and Renée Petropoulos and independent curator Anuradha Vikram with Christina Strassfield (formerly Guild Hall curator, now Executive Director at Southampton Arts Center) and administrative coordination by Julie McKim. This project is presented by 18th Street Arts Center with support from Art of Recovery, a City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs initiative, and the Annenberg Community Beach House, and Guild Hall in East Hampton. The project is the brainchild of Warren Neidich and brings together again Renée Petropoulos and Anuradha Vikram who along with Neidich created the successful Drive-by-Art (Public Art in This Moment of Social Distancing) event in Los Angeles in 2020 when art galleries and museums were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Swept Away presents temporary installations and performances that take place at the water’s edge. The project is concerned with the global ramifications of climate change as considered through the oceans that connect our continents. We hope to promote public awareness of climate conditions expressed through a focus on the health and well-being of the oceans. This is a Love Letter to the Earth and future generations! This poetic project harkens back to the “Art Happenings” created by artist Allan Kaprow, in the 1950s and 60s. The syncopated surf will provide the acousmatic background for
the project.

Warren Neidich notes “It is hoped that through its combined gestures and performances, a sense of solidarity, so desperately missing today, will emerge with which to confront the ecological catastrophe at our doorstep.”

Letters collected, photo and video documentation will be archived and presented in a pop-up exhibition in New York and Los Angeles after the completion of the project.

 

EAST END ARTISTS  >>  LOS ANGELES ARTISTS

Suzanne Anker ↔ Margarethe Drexel (not performing) ↔ Peter Tomka
Elena Bajo ↔ Jasmine Orpilla
Lillian Ball ↔ Dana Berman Duff
Monica Banks ↔ Jamie Ross with Caballo
Dianne Blell ↔ Lisa Anne Auerbach (not performing)
Scott Bluedorn ↔ Robby Herbst
Megan Chaskey ↔ Lionel Popkin
Scott Chaskey ↔ Kathryn Andrews
Philippe Cheng ↔ David Horvitz
Andrea Cote ↔ Nina Waisman
Ivana Dama ↔ Rodrigo Arruda
Peter Dayton ↔ Anita Pace (not performing) ↔ Carolyn Castano
Katrina Del Mar + Kris Jonz ↔ Taisha Paggett + Meital Yaniv (not performing)
Jeremy Dennis + Beau Bree Rhee ↔ Debra Disman
Sabra Moon Elliot ↔ Rochelle Fabb (not performing)
Carol Edwards ↔ Pamela Smith Hudson
Eva Faye ↔ Patty Chang + David Kelley (David Kelley performing with Simon Leung)
Saskia Friedrich ↔ Fran Siegel
Margaret Garrett ↔ Susan Kleinberg
Veronica Gonzalez Peña ↔ Cassandra Marketo (not performing)
Kimberly Goff ↔ Cheri Gaulke + Xochi Maberry-Gaulke
Jeremy Grosvenor ↔ Vincent Johnson
Jerelyn Hanrahan + Laura Ross White ↔ Andrew Berardini (not performing)
Candace Hill Montgomery ↔ Anna Joy Springer
Virva Hinnemo ↔ Sam Shoemaker
Alice Hope ↔ Krysten Cunningham
Erica-Lynn Huberty ↔ Sandeep Mukherjee
Terri Hyland ↔ Joseph Mosconi ↔ nicola lee
Ruby Jackson ↔ Alice Köniz
Nishan Kazazian ↔ Beatriz Cortez (not performing)
Carlos Lama ↔ No Partner
No Partner ↔ Badly Licked Bear (not performing)
Christine Lidrbauch ↔ Sterling Wells
Donald Lipski ↔ Raul Baltazar
Sutton Lynch ↔ Yrneh Gabon Brown
Josephine Meckseper ↔ Jiayun Chen
Tanya Minhas ↔ Allison Wyper
Richard Mothes ↔ Kristin Calabrese
Michelle Murphy ↔ Sarah Beadle (not performing)
Jill Musnicki ↔ Victoria Vesna
Lois Nesbitt ↔ Lucia Santini Ribisi (not performing)
Eileen O’Kane Kornreich ↔ Iman Person
Jaanika Peerna ↔ Marcus Kuiland-Nazario
Dalton Portella ↔ Ryat Yezbick (remote performance)
Toni Ross ↔ Sharon Barnes
David Rothenberg ↔ May Sun
Will Ryan ↔ Jody Zellen (not performing) ↔ Alejandra Herrera Silva
Sara Salaway ↔ Melinda Smith Altshuler
Matthew Satz ↔ Katie Grinnan (not performing) ↔ Laura Stinger
Bastienne Schmidt ↔ Jisoo Chung
Barry Schwabsky ↔ David Schafer
Christine Sciulli ↔ Karen Lofgren
Arlene Slavin ↔ Jenny Yurshansky
Janice Stanton ↔ Kearra Gopee (not performing)
Christina Sun ↔ Catherine ‘Scoti’ Scott
Carol Szymanski with David Adewomi ↔ Xiouping
Sara VanDerBeek ↔ Alicia Serling
Ryan Wallace ↔ Joshua Aster
Ross Watts ↔ Justine Harari (not performing) ↔ Joan Olden ↔ Kuniharu Yoshida
Allan Wexler ↔ Dan Kwong with Chie Saito
Nina Yankowitz ↔ Francesca Gabbiani
Darius Yektai ↔ Barbara McCarren + Jud Fine
Almond Zigmund ↔ Marisa Mandler

 

Swept Away: Love Letter to A Surrogate
● Live performances by 60 Los Angeles County artists
● Curated by Warren Neidich, Renée Petropoulos, and Anuradha Vikram with Christina Strassfield and Julie McKim
● Santa Monica State Beach near the Annenberg Community Beach House
● Saturday and Sunday, April 22 and 23, 2023, 9 am-12 pm and 4-10 pm
● Presented by 18th Street Arts Center with support from the City of Santa Monica Art of Recovery Program, and the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica, and Guild Hall in East Hampton