You are invited to...
The MindCamp Exhibition theme draws
inspiration from a body of beliefs , conversion,
thought reform and deprogramming.
{Here are some photos of the show!}
Work by Christina Owen
' Hubbardite Crafts , Pasadena CA'
Above work by Christina Owen
'Hubbardite Crafts - Hemet, CA'
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Sight and sound performance by
Elevator to the Gallows
Sight ans sound performance by
Elevator to the Gallows
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Above photographs by Nicole Panter
'The Missionary Project'
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Noelle Maline
Above works by
Noelle Maline
'Evening Skies'
... About the Artists in MindCamp ~
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Noëlle Maline - California
Noëlle grew up down by the sea in an old look-out tower. As a teenager, she lived up in the mountains near Canada. She studied photography and mountaineering in the Colorado Rockies and attended CalArts for a short while, she then took a few years off for traveling and research. During this time she won the Art of California Gold Award, had many
exhibits and collaborated with many artists.. Thereupon, she went back to complete her degree at CalArts for installation, visual art and
experimental sound.
~note on the side by the artist:
These pieces... along with the exhibit.. draw inspiration from behavior modification, cults and reprogramming, which I have a little first hand experience with- Not by my choice, but my parent’s. It seemed to be a thing to send your children off to the mountains, into the dark woods with
complete strangers...
When I was 13, I was taken to such a place 1332 miles away, by two men that my father had hired. I spent two and a half years in the dark woods where these people practiced thought reform... Identities were stripped away and there was no outside contact. Communcation, television and music were also not permitted. Escaping was almost impossible.
(When I've been asked about it.. I would often compare scenes from that time of my life to Orwell's 1984, Kafka's stories and The Prisoner.)
The Dark woods - collage, paint and ink on paper
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Christina Owen - Oregon
Christina spent the earlier half of her life in Pasadena and living around Los Angeles.
Christina got her BFA from Cal Arts while
specializing in experimental animation and playing the saw.
She now lives in an attic in Portland, Oregon,
where she toils away on projects of varying levels of secrecy.
Things we can leak are projects like background painting and miniature set designs.
She thinks about orange blossoms from time to time.
Hubbardite Crafts by Christina Owen
Pasadena, California
Hemet, California
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Nicole Panter ~ California
Ran away from her childhood home in Palm Springs at 14 with the intention of joining the circus, but she took a detour to the big city where she and 49 other misfits spontaneously combusted into what would become known as the Los Angeles punk rock scene. She managed the notorious band The Germs, a moment in time that was immortalized in the documentary film, The Decline of Western Civilization. After her 1980 retirement from punk rock, she became an actor & writer (The Pee Wee Herman Show), script editor, the author of a couple of books of fiction, a culture & film critic, essayist, a photographer, human rights activist, a Mojave desert conservationist, an educator and a jeweler. She teaches screenwriting at the California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts).
The Missionary Position
On a 2007 trip to Central America, I was surprised to see pairs of clean-cut young Mormon missionaries in every backwater and village I traveled to, no matter how remote or primitive. They were always bright, shiny and cheerful and I began to wonder about the lives of these young men. I am fascinated by Mormons and the LDS religion (and yes, polygamy) and I am also fascinated by the idea that these ostensibly naïve and sheltered young men are cast out into the farthest corners of the world on their own to spread the word of their unorthodox faith and to gather converts. I got the idea to photograph Mormon missionaries after my return to the United States from that trip.
These photographs are part of an ongoing series/game of chance called The Missionary Position.
The rules are simple: I must take a portrait of each pair of Mormon missionaries who cross my path. I get one shot and that's it. I started the series with the first portrait in Truth or Consequences, NM in Spring 2008. The series is an ongoing project. There will only be 5 of each photograph printed.
