The Artists Critique the Media

Many of the artists in Calendar’s random survey aren’t exactly happy with the media and its coverage of artists on the cutting edge.

A number of artists stressed the need for a locally published arts journal to foster a critical discourse and felt that the level of critical writing in the city’s newspapers doesn’t pack punch in art circles and doesn’t measure up to other cities. When it comes to TV, well, they’ve written it off entirely.

The Times, widely regarded as the most important mainstream media outlet in Los Angeles, was perceived as far too attuned to showcasing blue-chip galleries and pursuing art developments around the world. Most of those interviewed felt the work of local artists was shortchanged but, again, the response varied according to the discipline. Some artists pulled their punches when discussing The Times’ coverage . . . and some didn’t.

“The Times is pathetic when it comes to literature,” charged poet Dennis Phillips. “The stage is covered every day, music is covered almost every day and LACE is covered very frequently, but literature somehow doesn’t count. And so follows all the other media in town, including the L.A. Weekly and L.A. Reader, which one would think to be a little more literary.”

Many artists stated they weren’t equating good criticism with positive reviews, but with writing which seriously comes to grips with issues they were dealing with. There were recurring charges of snide attitudes which belittled new or exploratory work.

“Everyone is excited to see the Wooster Group come in from New York City, but if some sort of incipient Wooster Group sprang up in L.A., it might get stepped on pretty heavily . . . in the media, anyway,” contended John Malpede of the theater troupe L.A. Poverty Department. “There’s more opportunity for people to get reviewed in the L.A. Times as opposed to the New York Times but I don’t think there’s a large degree of understanding and sympathy (by the paper’s critics towards exploratory work).”

Another theme was that critics often failed to “get” the thrust of the multi-disciplinary work that has evolved over the past 15 years. “The media needs to take a cue from the audience because I find the audience a lot more willing to experiment,” said performance/video artist Alan Pulner. “The media largely don’t know how to handle interdisciplinary forms because it’s not a single vocabulary talking to a narrow audience.”

Black and Latino artists focused more on a perceived tendency to view their work as emotionally rather than intellectually or conceptually based and the reluctance of critics to step outside the cozy confines of the gallery/museum circuit.

“The music, visual art and poetry of this (the South Central Los Angeles) community is basically not taken seriously by critics,” charged Kamau Daaood. “How many people would come down to ArtWorks 4 (a now defunct Crenshaw District space) or to the Watts Towers when you have a poetry series, not on a major festival day? It’s unheard of.”

Many artists feel The Times fails to recognize the importance of advance media coverage to encourage an audience for experimental work and artists.

“There’s a vicious cycle--I’ve talked to editors who seem to have the idea that we have to give people what they’re interested in,” said Phillips. “That negates the fact that papers and other media are capable of fostering interest if they think something is valuable.”

Several commented that media attention helps legitimize artists or musicians and overcome the, “I never heard of it so it can’t be any good” attitude that affects both audiences and presenters.

Several artists indicated that The Times was improving in some of its problem areas and actually covers more local, exploratory work than the city’s other newspapers.

But the East Coast concentration of national art journals translates into much less coverage for West Coast artists.

“The day I can do a performance in Los Angeles and have it resonate (have a long-term impact) in terms of importance on an international scale will be the day that I consider L.A. an international arts center,” declared choreographer Sara Elgart. “That is not happening yet in the performing arts.”

While most of the artists interviewed feel the L.A. Weekly is more sympathetic and committed towards covering local exploratory artists, few feel that the critical writing there fills the need. “The L.A. Weekly does a fairly good job but it seems to have a target audience and whether someone considers you hip becomes a major factor,” claimed musician Alex Cline. “The stuff that falls into cracks becomes a problem because if that isn’t hip this year, you’re not going to succeed in reaching an audience.”

But the print media was considered exemplary compared to television--most artists didn’t even think of the tube when considering the media role.

“In other cities, it seems the local PBS affiliate has been much more supportive of the video art activity going on,” said video/performance artist Nancy Buchanan. “Where is the support here? We’ve got a couple of world-renowned video centers, the Long Beach Museum of Art and AFI, and people feel like they’re lucky if they get something snuck in on Channel 28 at midnight on Saturday night.”