The 5 Senses/East 107th Street Project was created for a group show “Not Los Angeles” curated by Aandrea Stang and Zachary Kaplan:
As written on the show’s website: “Most simply put, Alexandra Grant maps words. Backwards, forwards, in a variety of language, her letters form architectures, archipelagos, interiors, and expanses (the works physically tend to bound from floor to ceiling, too, mirroring the dimensions of her studio). By reversing and restructuring language she forces her viewer to exert effort in comprehension and maintain patience in understanding. You see this aesthetic in her schema for 5 Senses/East 107th Street located in the gallery, but also this larger methodology in her project as a whole. To Grant, the block at 107th street on which she focuses is a whole mess of signs, symbols, experiences, and histories that can only be made sense of through careful observation and respectful depiction.
The project also speaks to a second theme in Grant’s most recent pursuits and a driving strategy for Not Los Angeles. When we conceived of the exhibition, we thought of a program model more closely hewed to the strategies of education programing rather than that of a traditional curatorial project, particularly in its sincere dedication to collaboration. Both 5 Senses and her ongoing work with the Watts House Project share this interest in collaboration and collectivizing opportunity to produce better work. Grant poses her invitations to Douglas Kearney, Andrew Berardini, Alison Carter, Salvador Plasencia and Gabriela Jauregui to thoroughly record and thoughtfully interpret East 107th Street as the most effective means to producing a more substantive map and also a chance to extend opportunity engaging a group of writers she greatly respects. Her public project, a collaboration with a resident of the block to host a home-made dinner ensures an event deeply connected to 5 Senses’ origins and provides a direct investment in the neighborhood. Her Love House, developed as part of the Watts House Project, is an ongoing investigation of how artwork and artists can be a conduit for social and material change through community-based partnerships. In all, 5 Senses/East 107th Street doesn’t just map a block in Watts, it also manages to present the opportunities inherent in intertwining communities throughout Los Angeles to a common end and trace an updated model of socially-oriented artistic production.”
In practice, 5 Senses/East 107th Street was an extraordinary night that took place at Watts House Project’s “Platform” on October 24th, 2009. With Jessica’s help Rosario cooked a three-course dinner for 50 and 65 people arrived, the tables and chairs were set up by Genaro, and four out of five of the poets read (with an intrepid read by an audience member). For photos of the event, please see below:
Half-way through the reading, a neighborhood haunted house erupted with sounds of a chainsaw. Some audience members ended up there (doing tequila shots, it is rumored) after Katie lead everyone on a “sensory tour” of 107th Street and the Towers.
