OPEN STUDIO IV
Noor Ahmed, Andrés Cortes, Robin Donaldson, Anne Dovali, Wes Jones, Hunter Knight, Thomas Linder, Mabel Moore, Nick McPhail, Mike Nesbit, Alyssa Angelle Newsham, Jonathan Orozco, Jerry Peña, Max Rippon, Thomas Prinz, Tom Stempel, Daniel Schubert, and Matthew Sweesy, 2023
Los Angeles, CA
"I've been lucky to work with people that I admire and I've also become friends with people I admire in the surf world, and they all share the same thing, which is curiosity and always questioning their own judgment. In my professional life I've tried to steer away from people who are more about the trappings of something versus the nuts-and-bolts machinery of making something. Because people that make stuff, I find, are generally just great people. You can be some guy who makes a house, you can be a guy who makes a surfboard, you can be a guy who makes a chair, you can be a guy who makes a movie. I build a script with my hands; it's like hammer and nails, and it becomes a structure in three dimensions in my mind. And then I go try to put actors in it, and then I go to crew it up, and then we go and make it. I spend years and years of my life working on something, and I never feel like I get it right—really down on the stuff I do. With surfing there's also a gigantic learning curve. It's not dissimilar to what I went through to try to learn how to make movies. I wasn't like Wes Anderson, where I knew from the time, I was 6 years old I was going to make movies. I just kept bumbling into stuff. And I bumbled into surfing. It was, like, a thing to fill time when I wasn't out in downtown LA and East LA getting into hijinks. I would give anything, anything, if I could go back in time and convince my parents to move to Southern California or Hawaii when I was 9."
- Stephen Gaghan. Between Takes: An Interview with filmmaker Stephen Gaghan. Interview by Jamie Brisick. The Surfer’s Journal, vol. 31, no. 1, Feb/Mar 2022, p. 20.
It Just Happened
Ok, it’s time for you to show up
Let’s say Saturday around Noon
Should finish up around 3pm
What’s the site?
What’s the context?
It’s a property under construction
Most the framing is in and it has a roof
The basement might still be dirt
But the main floor slab has been poured
No windows and no doors
The breeze from PCH fills the site
Also, there’s a view of the Getty Villa
But don’t worry none of this is precious
Place your work wherever you like
Nail into anything
And no need to bring a level
All the framing is plum
16 on center with an array of chalk lines
Come one, come all
Install at noon
Photograph around 1:30
Take it down at 3:00
None of its precious
Except for the atmosphere
Except for the people
Expect for the conversations
Expect for the mound of earth that holds a cactus
Except for the spilled drink
Except for the poured cobalt
Except for the natural light
Reflections off the Pacific
It’s a vibe
It all matters
It’s all precious
It just happened
Noor Ahmed, Andrés Cortes, Robin Donaldson, Anne Dovali, Wes Jones, Hunter Knight, Thomas Linder, Mabel Moore, Nick McPhail, Mike Nesbit, Alyssa Angelle Newsham, Jonathan Orozco, Jerry Peña, Max Rippon, Thomas Prinz, Tom Stempel, Daniel Schubert, and Matthew Sweesy, 2023
Los Angeles, CA
"I've been lucky to work with people that I admire and I've also become friends with people I admire in the surf world, and they all share the same thing, which is curiosity and always questioning their own judgment. In my professional life I've tried to steer away from people who are more about the trappings of something versus the nuts-and-bolts machinery of making something. Because people that make stuff, I find, are generally just great people. You can be some guy who makes a house, you can be a guy who makes a surfboard, you can be a guy who makes a chair, you can be a guy who makes a movie. I build a script with my hands; it's like hammer and nails, and it becomes a structure in three dimensions in my mind. And then I go try to put actors in it, and then I go to crew it up, and then we go and make it. I spend years and years of my life working on something, and I never feel like I get it right—really down on the stuff I do. With surfing there's also a gigantic learning curve. It's not dissimilar to what I went through to try to learn how to make movies. I wasn't like Wes Anderson, where I knew from the time, I was 6 years old I was going to make movies. I just kept bumbling into stuff. And I bumbled into surfing. It was, like, a thing to fill time when I wasn't out in downtown LA and East LA getting into hijinks. I would give anything, anything, if I could go back in time and convince my parents to move to Southern California or Hawaii when I was 9."
- Stephen Gaghan. Between Takes: An Interview with filmmaker Stephen Gaghan. Interview by Jamie Brisick. The Surfer’s Journal, vol. 31, no. 1, Feb/Mar 2022, p. 20.
It Just Happened
Ok, it’s time for you to show up
Let’s say Saturday around Noon
Should finish up around 3pm
What’s the site?
What’s the context?
It’s a property under construction
Most the framing is in and it has a roof
The basement might still be dirt
But the main floor slab has been poured
No windows and no doors
The breeze from PCH fills the site
Also, there’s a view of the Getty Villa
But don’t worry none of this is precious
Place your work wherever you like
Nail into anything
And no need to bring a level
All the framing is plum
16 on center with an array of chalk lines
Come one, come all
Install at noon
Photograph around 1:30
Take it down at 3:00
None of its precious
Except for the atmosphere
Except for the people
Expect for the conversations
Expect for the mound of earth that holds a cactus
Except for the spilled drink
Except for the poured cobalt
Except for the natural light
Reflections off the Pacific
It’s a vibe
It all matters
It’s all precious
It just happened
Photos Courtesy of Taiyo Watanabe