Lloyd Wright’s Sowden House, possible Black Dahlia murder site, becomes a performance stage
Led by artist and dancer Rebecca Bruno, “homeLA: Passages at the Sowden House” will stage two public events at the 1920s Sowden House over the weekend, featuring a mix of dance, live music, performance art, sculpture and film. Participating in the project are choreographer and UCLA Department of World Arts & Cultures/Dance professor Cheng-Chieh Yu and choreographer and dancer, alumna Flora Wiegmann.
"On a crisp Sunday evening, as the Los Angeles sky shifts from bright azure to sapphire blue, the lights come on at the Sowden House in Los Feliz revealing the building’s Mayan temple silhouette. In the pool, an artist is installing a kinetic sculpture that rotates in the breeze. In the living room, three dancers in flapper dresses go through a sequence of slow, undulating moves. And in the courtyard, a man in a cape cruises through, his head crowned with a bright, feathered headdress.
The historic Sowden House, designed by Lloyd Wright in 1926, will serve as a site of performances organized by homeLA. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) This unusual gathering isn’t a dream, but a rehearsal for the immersive installation “Passages at the Sowden House,” organized by homeLA, which is a project that creates site-specific performances in private homes around Los Angeles. Led by artist and dancer Rebecca Bruno, the project will stage two public events at the 1920s Sowden House over the weekend, featuring a mix of dance, live music, performance art, sculpture and film.
This will include a performance by experimental vocalist Odeya Nini, a movement piece choreographed by Cheng-Chieh Yu and a performance by Tyler Matthew Oyer (he of the cape), who will channel the spirit of the late artist and underground filmmaker Jack Smith. Visitors will be invited to move at their leisure through the performances in the home, designed by architect Lloyd Wright (son of Frank Lloyd Wright) for photographer and painter John Sowden and his wife, Ruth, in 1926.
“The event is a culmination,” says Bruno, of the months-long process of putting together the happening. “We are invited into someone’s home. I have a conversation with the host. Then I consider the artists who will participate and we make work in response to the home. Each of the artists stretch a little bit and relate to the home space and we create a performance out of that. We spend a lot of time in the home.”
As part of the process, Bruno collaborated with filmmaker Delaram Pourábdi to create a meditative five-minute film inspired by the house that will be incorporated into the show. “Passages,” as the film is also titled, follows Bruno as she improvises movements inspired by the home’s theatrical architecture: the courtyard flanked by Mayan Revival columns, the pyramidal facade, the rich, interior spaces.
“I have been working with dancers for years on video,” says Pourábdi, as she observes Bruno and another dancer practicing steps in the courtyard. “I’m interested in female dancers and female musicians and I’m interested in the way this intersects with architecture.”
The project got rolling about a year ago when the home’s owner, Jenny Landers — she and her husband, Dan Goldfarb, have owned the house since 2017 — reached out to Bruno about using the Sowden House as a site for a homeLA project."— Carolina Miranda, Jan. 09, 2019
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Los Angeles Times website.
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