Hirsch Perlman’s “ergo despero”at Blum & Poe

Attention, kitty people: Hirsch Perlman shows two sets of images, the first being black-and-white surreal photos of the beach and waves using a long exposure. These images play with scale and disorient the viewer, creating a dreamlike or sci-fi lunar landscape. Placed in between are colorful, computer-generated line drawings of cats grooming themselves or sleeping. Far more than mere feline enthusiasm, Perlman’s juxtaposition sparks a completely captivating and bizarre dialogue and tension. The artist is also selling an independently published limited edition of counterinsurgency manuals, which have been approved by the U.S. Army. Proceeds from the sales will go to National Popular Vote and The Center for Constitutional Rights.

2754 S. La Cienega Blvd., L.A. | www.blumandpoe.com | (310) 836-2062 | Through June 23

Vincent Johnson’s “Civil Air Defense Project #1” at LAXART

In his first solo show, recent Art Center grad Vincent Johnson shows two sculptures based on historical models of an air-raid siren and a steel shelter. They are surprisingly eerie in person. The main site-specific sculpture is an exact replica of a bright red Cold War Chrysler Air Raid Siren. The second piece is made from the Department of Justice’s original plans for a “Belowground Corrugated Steel Culvert Shelter,” which is basically a claustrophobic metal tube with a spout for air. Johnson brings these 1950s symbols of fear and attack back into the present-day landscape of urban Los Angeles, and the feeling a visitor leaves with is: These two contraptions don’t seem quite archaic enough.

2640 S. La Cienega Blvd., L.A. | www.laxart.org | (310) 559-0166

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Vincent Johnson, Civil Air Defense Project #1 (2007)

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