Finishing School Takes on the Other Venice Beach Biennial

07 Jul Finishing School Takes on the Other Venice Beach Biennial

One year ago almost to the day, we published an interview with Finishing School that was conducted
by Joanna Grasso during the opening week of the 2011 Venice Biennale. FS was there
in Italy working on their film, 54. Now, here we are talking with them about the same
project but different Venice Biennial.

I recently caught up with Finishing School members Brian Boyer, Ed Giardina, Jason
Plapp, and their newest collaborator Devon Tsuno.

They are currently collaborating on a three-panel mural for the Hammer Museum’s
Venice Beach Biennial, a project within the inaugural Made In LA Biennial. The
Venice Beach Biennial is made possible by the Teiger Foundation and FS also received
additional funding from the Hoff Foundation.

The Hammer describes the Venice Beach Biennial (VBB) as a weekend event (July
13-15, 2012) that makes tongue-in-cheek reference to the “real” Venice Biennale in
Italy, will treat the famed Venice Beach boardwalk, Ocean Front Walk, as an outdoor
exhibition venue. Over the course of the weekend over 50 fine artists will set up vending
stands alongside veteran boardwalk artists, exhibiting new bodies of work, collaborating
with the veterans on new projects, displaying site-specific sculptures or installations, and
presenting live performances. Directed by Hammer curator Ali Subotnick.

Jason Plapp explains the project, “The mural relates to 54, our ongoing multi-biennial
film project. 54 began production at the 2010 California Biennial and later traveled to the
2011 Venice Biennale as a cinematic intervention. We are in post production and will be
ultimately presented as multi-channel immersive video installation.”

“We designed the mural to both reference the multiple channels of the film and the many
iterations of the project as a whole. Panel #1 (left) is a production still of the protagonist
character from the film. Panel #2 (middle) is the 54-path hypercube, an important symbol
within the narrative of the film and also a diagram describing the nature of the project as
a whole (see this blog post for more info). Panel #3 (right) will be a painting by Devon,”
said Ed Giardina.

“Initially, we wanted to use a painting from my ongoing water series. They were based
on some of my favorite bodies of water throughout Los Angeles including Venice Beach,
said Devon Tsuno.

“We thought the work was a good fit for the mural. VBB curator Ali Subotnick was very
interested in us working with an artist and/or artwork having a Venice-connection. After
some discussion between FS and Devon we all agreed that Devon would create a new
painting in the same style but based on our 54 production photography from Venice,

Italy. I worked with Devon in selecting the images. Devon has long-standing ties to
Venice including the Venice Chill Ride, a weekly bike ride through Venice,” said Brian
Boyer .

“Conceptually, we felt this was the best solution,” piped in Tsuno.

Finishing School is an interdisciplinary artist collective that explores contemporary
social, political, and environmental issues. Their projects conflate praxis, play, and
activism and seek to engage audiences through various participatory models. Finishing
School was established in 2001.

Recently, FS has produced projects for the 2010 California Biennial, Engagement Party:
a three-month residency program at MOCA, Living as Form: a 20-year survey of social
practice for Creative Time in New York and MIT Press, The Contemporary Museum
in Baltimore, and a site-specific commission for DFLUX in Detroit, MI. FS has also
presented projects internationally in The Netherlands, Switzerland, Thailand, England,
Spain, Mexico, Brazil, and Italy.

Finishing School’s collaborator Devon Tsuno paints with spray paint and acrylic. His
recent body of abstract paintings on handmade papers focuses on the LA landscape’s
non-native vegetation and bodies of water. Tsuno currently lives and works in Midcity,
Los Angeles and has exhibited internationally in Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and New
Zealand. Recent solo exhibitions include Roppongi 605 (Tokyo) and PØST (Los
Angeles). Notable US exhibitions include the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary
Art, Torrance Art Museum, Sam Lee Gallery, Carl Berg Gallery, Raid Projects,
and Summercamp’s ProjectProject. He received an MFA from Claremont Graduate
University in 2005 and a BFA from California State University, Long Beach in 2002.

You can visit Finishing School’s 54 website at www.54thefilm.com
And Devon Tsuno’s site at www.devontsuno.com