The City of West Hollywood debuted the latest Art on the Outside installation of Yolki Palki by artist Tanya Brodsky. The colorful collection of sculptural elements that interplay with one another are on display in front of the West Hollywood Community Center at Plummer Park, located at 7377 Santa Monica Boulevard. The exhibition was curated by Aurora Tang.
There will be a free artist and curator conversation event followed by an exhibition walkthrough on Saturday, May 18, 2019 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Rooms 5 and 6 of the Community Center. Attendance is free; please RSVP in advance at yolkipalki.eventbrite.com.
Yolki Palki consists of several large-scale sculptures that, in their playful form and bright color, evoke a children’s playground, of the kind ubiquitous during the Soviet era. The sculptures don’t quite work as playground equipment: each one is too tall, too short, missing key elements, or installed at an absurd relationship to the one next to it. The installation’s title, Yolki Palki, is a Russian nonsense phrase expressing frustration or alarm, commonly used in lieu of a curse word in the presence of children.
Photo provided courtesy of the City of West Hollywood. Some rights reserved.Photo credit: Tony Coelho
Yolki Palki is consistent with Brodsky’s previous work — colorful, minimalist, playful, using industrial materials and techniques, imbued with humor informed by her Soviet upbringing. Brodsky’s works often incorporate architectural elements, re-imagined in ways that expose and complicate their relationship to the human body, public space, and the social conventions that govern both.
Tanya Brodsky was born in Kiev, Ukraine, and earned her MFA from UC San Diego in 2016, and her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2005. She lives and works in Los Angeles. Brodsky’s work has been exhibited in Southern California at Ochi Projects, Materials & Applications, Over the Influence, CES Gallery, Commonwealth and Council, BBQLA, Elevator Mondays, Visitor Welcome Center, Vacancy, New Wight Gallery at UCLA, and at Vacation Gallery, New York; SPF15, San Diego; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Bizkaia Aretoa, Bilbao, Spain; and Galeria Alternativa Once, Monterrey, Mexico. Her work may be viewed at www.tanyabrodsky.com.
Aurora Tang is an independent curator and researcher based in Los Angeles. Since 2009 she has been a program manager at the Center for Land Use Interpretation. She has taught at Otis College of Art and Design, and is a founding board member of Common Field.
This installation is part of the City’s Art on the Outside program, managed by its Arts Division. Art on the Outside is a temporary art program that installs rotating artworks in spaces throughout the City, including on medians and in park spaces. These works include sculpture, murals, and other outdoor works, most of which remain on display from between six months and three years. This program is funded through the City’s Public Art and Beautification Fund.
For more information, please contact Rebecca Ehemann, the City of West Hollywood’s Public Art Coordinator, at (323) 848-6846 or at rehemann@weho.org.
