Gary Baseman’s “The Door Is Always Open”

Last weekend, we headed down to LA to celebrate JapanLA’s 7th Bday, the launch of JapanLA Clothing’s Kitty Party line, and also to take Manda to Disneyland for her graduation!

On our drive back home, we stopped by the Skirball Cultural Center to check out Gary Baseman‘s show “The Door is Always Open.” I’d seen a bunch of my LA friends post pics of the opening night on Instagram, plus when we had dinner with Onch and lunch with Amy on our trip, they both gave it a ringing endorsement!

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On the walk to the exhibition, there were big cut-outs of some of his characters.

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gb5gb6I always love when the outside is inside. Also I LOVE TOPIARY. Like crazystupidirrationally love topiary. At first I wanted Manda to take a pic of me gazing wistfully at the sky, then Hairy said, “How would Auntie Vivi pose?” and then this happened. I know. It’s bad. Oh well.

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Manda wanted a photo poking around the bushes. There was a guard right on the other side of that fake window, and I wasn’t sure if were allowed to be on the lawn…

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Inside was set up as if you were walking into Gary Baseman’s family home. The level of detail was really amazing, from the wallpaper, to the chandelier, to the pillows. Everything was Baseman’d-out. I can’t help but think of my 24-hr attempt to build Twinkie Chan’s house. No comparison, of course!!!

gb8 gb9 gb10 gb11 gb12 gb13I saw some other people taking photos on the couch in the “living room,” so I nudged Manda to do the same with me!

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GB24gb20In the “back yard” was a giant shrine, some crazy looking friends, and a bed sheet with a projector showing Baseman’s home movies from when he was a kid. My little brother and I definitely did that, too! Made home movies, that is. I would show you my masterpieces, but unfortunately, most of them have been lost to time. We had a sci fi series called “G-Force” or Galactic Force, and I made him and his friend Dan a spaceship cock pit out of cardboard. We also had a movie called “Alexander the Not So Great” inspired by Steve Urkel with lots of “DID I DO THAT?”  GB25 GB26 gb27 gb28If you get the chance to see the show, it runs until mid-August!

2 Comments on “Gary Baseman’s “The Door Is Always Open””

  • Danielle

    says:

    Whoaaa, that looks so cool! I really like the wine bottles. The yard is pretty neat too… it reminds me of the movie Blast from the Past, how they have the little fake yard inside their bomb shelter.

  • Fiona

    says:

    I love exhibitions you can actually sit on or interacts with stuff, well hopefully that’s what they wanted to happen! Art can be too boring otherwise, you know what I just click on your renegade fair link (cute house btw!) and then that lead me to your post on craft wars and I realised I had to stop there otherwise I would be stuck in your blog loop forever. On a side note I’ve only seen that one episode of craft wars and your re-cap was pretty spot on and made me laugh 🙂

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