I’ve been flying in and out of LA a lot lately and I find myself missing it more and more when I’m gone. I think what I miss the most is wandering around LA and being delighted by all the wonderful weirdness that I keep discovering every single day.
The fact that there are still places like this.
But I can be walking down a street and find something like this.
Or in a random yard in Historic Filipinotown, this.
Or just the other day, on a Silver Lake hillside, this. (Seriously, what is this?)
And every night I still get floored by this.
I don’t think anyone has captured this sense of LA discovery better than the folks at Poketo and Kitsune Noir. They took a blank space at Space 15 Twenty in Hollywood and turned it into a show called Los Angeles, I’m Yours where they tapped over 20 artists to reclaim objects found in local thrift stores and flea markets.
Which they supplemented with other oddities they found in the same kinds of places. And everything is for sale.
Here are some old lamps brought back to life by Tim Biskup.
I really liked this skateboarding overnight kit.
And I got some really good ideas for new places to put my succulents.
To me, these little vignettes around the store captured everything I love about LA: Sun-bleached colors, hand-crafted goods, ever-present succulents, a touch of Wild West, and the prerequisite helping of cheese (or in this case, a picture of sausages).
On the opening night, the space had an energy that was altogether different from the typical gallery. The usually reserved art crowd had given in to the jostle-and-haggle of a really good flea market. Now add that treasure-hunting mode you go into every time you enter a thrift store—the feeling that it’s your duty to dig through a dusty crate of old glass bottles to find The Perfect Piece. It was like rediscovering LA all over again.
The show has been extended until May 22 so I highly suggest going to check it out. Luckily, Space 15 Twenty has great events almost every night: Tonight is movie musical night sponsored by the suddenly-ubiquitous Umami Burger.
