NOTYPE

What moves a spirit to inhabit a building?

Join us this Sunday as Bea Schlingelhoff opens a non-denominational, secular space of worship at Corner Door*. A dysfunctional storefront church without a congregation, the room has been prepared nonetheless as a space for reflection, awaiting visitation, the back wall cut away to reveal a double altar.

To one side, a short film from 1971 by Edit DeAk, founding editor of Art-Rite Magazine, grants redemption to the fictional Frankie Teardrop from the song of the same title by the band Suicide. Teardrop, a shimmering reflection in moving water, is a tragic metaphorical figure, everywoman, one of us. On the other side of the altar is a holy toilet, a common object, the source of inexhaustible waters, but still a working toilet. If an artwork can save Frankie Teardrop, Schlingelhoff asks us to think about the relation between art and redemption.

The building has been newly renovated and repainted, ready for service. Faith-based painting, if that’s an actual thing, is not an artwork at all but, I don’t know, color on a wall. Freed, redeemed, answering to a higher power. [Source: from the invitation.]

*Corner Door is a not-for-profit, independent exhibition space run by the artist Oscar Tuazon. Located in the neighborhood of Glassel Park in northeast Los Angeles, the space is open by appointment only. If you wish to schedule a visit please email to cornerdoor@oscartuazon.com