August 2010

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 4–28, 2010

• Opening reception Thursday, August 5, 6–8pm

• Artist talk August 14th 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