20 Years Hidden in Plain Site

Sara Velas, Ruby Carlson, Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles, USA

Abstract: In the year 2000, the Velaslavasay Panorama was founded on Hollywood Boulevard using the Tswuun-Tswuun rotunda structure originally built in 1968 as a Chinese food take out restaurant. 20 Years Hidden in Plain Site will examine how the Velaslavasay Panorama project has inverted the paradigm of spectacular purpose-built structures for visitors of an immersive 360-degree panorama (in the 19th through 21st Centuries) by putting re-purposed vernacular architecture to use. A comparison will be given on the use of the Tswuun-Tswuun rotunda as the site of the Velaslavasay Panorama in 2000-2004 and the use of the Union Theatre on 24th Street from 2004 to the present. Historical information on both building sites, their architects and their cultural uses will be included.

This presentation will also connect the panoramic impulse to the linear cinematic landscapes of Los Angeles as portrayed and imagined in films such as Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood (2019), Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003), and Boogie Nights (1997). A review of conceptual indexes will demonstrate how visitors are guided through levels of displacement in time, space and mind as we travel from street exteriors to building interiors and finally to the imagined realm of urban representation in film and the painted panorama.

Keywords: Panoramas, Vernacular Architecture, Scripted Environments, Cinematic Landscape, Velaslavasay Panorama

Excerpted Films in Presentation Include:

Panorama du Grand Canal pris d'un Bateau (1896) - Directed by Alexandre Promio

West Shore Local (1906)  - Biograph film

A Trip Down Market Street (1906) -  Directed by the Miles Brothers

Night and Fog (1956) - Directed by Alain Resnais

Morvern Callar (2002) - Directed by Lynne Ramsay

Mauvais Sang (1986) - Directed by Leos Carax

Weekend (1967) - Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) - Directed by George Miller

The Darjeeling Limited (2007) - Directed by Wes Anderson

Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003) - Directed by Thom Andersen including City of Industry (1997), Rising Sun (1993) Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood (2019) -  Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Boogie Nights (1997) - Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Biographies

Ruby Carlson is a writer and award-winning cinematographer for film and fine art productions. Ms. Carlson is the Head of Enrichment & Engineering and Co-Curator at the Velaslavasay Panorama, a non-profit arts organization in Downtown LA. She has worked in the professional field of painted panoramas since 2008 to elucidate, present and gather funding for panoramas and related mediums. From 2015-2018 she served as the elected Secretary of the International Panorama Council. She is a Los Angeles native and studied Linguistics at The George Washington University and Lacanian psychoanalysis at the Psychoanalysis Los Angeles California in Extension (PLACE). Website: www.rubycarlsonstudio.com Email: ruby@panoramaonview.org 

Sara Velas is an artist, graphic designer, gardener, curator and native Los Angeleno. She is the Artistic Director and Co-Curator of the Velaslavasay Panorama, a nonprofit museum and garden she established in the year 2000 to present variations on art forms and entertainments popular before the invention of cinema along with experimental immersive experiences. Focused on the contemporary creation of panoramas, her work has been supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, California Community Foundation, and the LA County Arts Commission, among others. From 2014-2017 she served as the President of the International Panorama Council and has been an active member since 2004. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Center for Land Use Interpretation and is involved with architectural preservation work throughout Los Angeles. Born in Panorama City, California, she received her BFA in Painting from Washington University School of Art in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1999 and resides in downtown Los Angeles. Website: www.panoramaonview.org and https://www.sssvelas.net/ Email: sv@panoramaonview.org