Time Travel in Emeryville: The Factory Party
on March 9, 2009
by Carlos Davalos / Oakland North
Photos by Howard Hsu / Oakland North
A congregation of look-alike Andy Warhols is not something that happens often. But on Friday March 6, in an Emeryville warehouse that reproduced the 1960s’ dark, industrial-driven art scene fathered by Warhol, the Third Annual Amoeba Art Show took place.
The Factory Party.
More than 60 artists showed their paintings, sculptures, installations, films, photographs and other mediums/works. And yes, there were also the Velvet Underground look-alikes, playing classic songs like Venus in Furs, Heroin, and Pale Blue Eyes in a huge, cold-concrete wing of the place, evoking the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, Warhol’s multimedia road show.
It was still early; the labyrinthian depot was staring to get packed, seven or eight rooms transformed into galleries, food and beverage flowing and Christa Päffgen’s (Nico) voice in the background; like a sonorous fog covering everyone. The atmosphere conjured an artistic scene known for exploding in a promiscuous, heroin-nourished creative feast. And it was all very similar, except there were no needles passing around.
Later on, when the Nihilist Outlook & Grace (one of the two Velvet Underground cover bands that performed) was playing, the art show became a secondary thing; the Velvet Underground’s covers were flooding the main room, a bunch of eyes were closed and everyone singing.
“I guess that I’ll be the closest I’ll get to Andy Warhol’s idea of a party and his 1960s New York City Factory,” said one of the attendees, who had Fando & Lis’ (the first feature-length film by Alejandro Jodorowsky) spider woman tattooed in his chest. Very impressive.
One of the installations, the proliferation of fungal mycelia, created by Bruce Anderson, Dale Sophiea and Curtis Tamm, was a small tunnel made out of plastic garbage bags that finished in a warmed little room with natural grass and small tree stumps to sit on. The front wall had two screens just spitting nature images, 10 or more per second, very experimental. Grass disco balls hung from the ceiling — a fixture of intertwined ideas about nature and technology through art.
Amoeba Music, the East Bay Express, OFFSpace and contributing sponsor the de Young Museum teamed up to create a Peel Slowly and See session of art, music, and the artistic spirit of a character that defined a good part of today’s pop culture.
15 Comments
Oakland North welcomes comments from our readers, but we ask users to keep all discussion civil and on-topic. Comments post automatically without review from our staff, but we reserve the right to delete material that is libelous, a personal attack, or spam. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. Oakland North assumes no liability for comments posted to the site and no endorsement is implied; commenters are solely responsible for their own content.
Oakland North
Oakland North is an online news service produced by students at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and covering Oakland, California. Our goals are to improve local coverage, innovate with digital media, and listen to you–about the issues that concern you and the reporting you’d like to see in your community. Please send news tips to: oaklandnorthstaff@gmail.com.
[…] Oakland North Time Travel in Emeryville The Factory Party Posted by root 3 hours ago (http://oaklandnorth.net) Submitted by howurd on march 9 2009 5 48 pmno comment industrial driven art scene fathered by warhol the third annual amoeba art show took place grass disco balls hung from the ceiling a fixture of intertwined ideas about nature and powered by wordpress l Discuss | Bury | News | Oakland North Time Travel in Emeryville The Factory Party […]
[…] Oakland North Time Travel in Emeryville The Factory Party Posted by root 4 hours ago (http://oaklandnorth.net) Submitted by howurd on march 9 2009 5 48 pmno comment industrial driven art scene fathered by warhol the third annual amoeba art show took place grass disco balls hung from the ceiling a fixture of intertwined ideas about nature and powered by wordpress l Discuss | Bury | News | Oakland North Time Travel in Emeryville The Factory Party […]
[…] Oakland North Time Travel in Emeryville The Factory Party Posted by root 11 minutes ago (http://oaklandnorth.net) More than 60 artists showed their paintings sculptures installations oakland north time travel in emeryville the factory party outdoor ceiling fans says 48 pmno comment industrial driven art scene fathered by warhol the third intertwined ideas about natur Discuss | Bury | News | Oakland North Time Travel in Emeryville The Factory Party […]
[…] Oakland North Time Travel in Emeryville The Factory Party Posted by root 18 minutes ago (http://oaklandnorth.net) Grass disco balls hung from the ceiling a fixture of intertwined ideas about 5 48 pmno comment industrial driven art scene fathered by warhol the third a fixture of intertwined ideas about nature and powered by wordpress l Discuss | Bury | News | Oakland North Time Travel in Emeryville The Factory Party […]
Hi, Your blog very helpful, more information about Thailand you might want to find this out http://www.holidaytothailand.comThanks.
Thanks guys, good info.
Great post i really like it
why i cant subscribe to your feed ? i keep getting an error?
thanks
Emeryville may have good parties, but that’s not the only thing going on in town. You can get more information on the region by visiting SmarterTravel.com’s free travel guide, http://www.smartertravel.com/travel-guides/
awesome stuff mate, made my day
Congrats on the great turn out again this year. I didn’t even know you guys had a website until I was trying to find a few pics from the show.
Really interesting topic going on here…Thanks alot for this usefull information really learnt alot from it and a good contribution by you on the web. Keep it up with good blogs like this.
Great articles and very interesting. This site has a tremendous amount of services and specials.
http://docketdirectories.com/Travel_airlinereservations.html
interesting – i am not sure that is for me facktory party
Thank you for this posting, you’ve got a few solid points but will you be posting a follow up to this?
Thanks for the post. If you don’t mind my asking, what WP theme are you using? Is it available Free or is it a custom design? Thanks.