August 29, 2002
On The Wall
Cannibal Flower Takes A Bite
by Anthony McBride
Cannibal Flower is an ever-changing kaleidoscope of art thanks to its site specific setups and the sites that are chosen to host these events. A real traveling cirque de art, with a little freak show thrown in for some underground measure.
September 22nd was the most recent stop on this attempted take over of the hostile art world. This evening was 11 days after the New War began and the first time I had attended Cannibal. Getting in was no problem, as the words "NoHo>LA" fell off my lips, Michele Waterman, lead organizer at Cannibal made sure I was getting in and was my escort up the elevator into the world of the Cannibal Flower.
As the doors opened and Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" lifted me out of the lift and into the semi-darkness, I immediately was transcended into a pseudo LSD trip and the artwork was suitably stroking my mind. Almost every corner you turned there was a costumed artist such as the one dressed in Bio/chem warfare garb, mask and all, slinking around the walls, almost as if a painting had come to life and slivered down off of the wall, of which was a flurry of mediums and styles that were all making the evenings tone very even, and quite surreal.
But this was only the beginning, over 60 artist were showing and there was the featured artist Nathan Spoor. With glimpses of Magritte and Salvador Dali, his work was very well received by the crowd and worth future attention. Acrylic on canvas, very animated, but sophisticated, not cartoonish. The featured artist changes at every location and there is usually always a slide show - and/or a film going on in another area, it is useless to describe this location, for next time it will be somewhere else! They tell me last months event was at an old nunnery in downtown L.A. This evening had fine paintings by NoHo locals Daniel Wooster, Dover Abrahms and Kenny McCullough, but the topper of this evening, with all the rumors of more terrorism on that weekend in L.A., was the "Girlie Freak Show", a live show ( or distraction, depending on your mood), celebrating the true spirit of the Middle East, Cannibal Flower unleashed a bellydancer to the gasp of some, but the Arabic music took over and the intense crowd couldn't get enough of the dance. I was impressed and surprised to see such an outpouring of love to a culture that is allegedly behind such terrible acts as we have recently been exposed too, but rather than be pissed off most people were able to appreciate the Arabic dancing and did not succumb to prejudice. This seemed to bring everyone together. At this point all the artwork was left to my eyes and my eyes only, I took closer inspections.
The "Girlie Freaky Show" had a light bulb eating mermaid, a whip-momma whipping, and whipping it good, a record release party followed for "ILL:OGICAL SRL" a "trip Hopera.” Truly great stuff- an amazing mix of, well, trip hop and opera. I recommend any talented and or gifted artist to contact the powers that be at Cannibal if you are ambitious. This is truly a scene. I would love to mention all the artists but my editor would strangle me. Some work does get drowned out by the atmosphere, but if you take your time and show up early and leave late you can soak it all up. Other artists mentionable are Liz McGrath, Doug Murphy, Eban Lehrer and again featured artist, Nathan Spoor. Cannibal Flower is surely becoming a staple of the art scene in L.A., which in fact is taking the international art world by storm. Don't miss out on these events, the event on the 22nd had a portion of it's proceeds going to a Guatemala Aids Project. Co-curated by Leonard Croskey, collage artist ( A.K.A. L.C.), and Cannibal partner + plus fellow artist Jean-Paul Garnier.
