'It's About Time' You Understood Time

We live in a world in which our family life and work life are often perceived as antithetical. Every extra hour at work is an hour spent away from our children, spouse or partner. And yet, many professionals, especially in creative fields such as the arts, architecture and design, manage to strike a balance between their careers and their home lives.

While enjoying the best of both those worlds is hardly a new trend—after all, millions of people observed Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day on Thursday—paying tribute to the phenomenon is only just catching on. And there are few artists in L.A. and beyond who do it as well as Mount Washington architect Iris Anna Regn and Eagle Rock artist Rebecca Niederlander, the creators of “BROODWORK: Creative Practice and Family Life,” a project that celebrates the multidisciplinary integration of creative practice and family life.

On Saturday, April 30, the latest show curated by Niederlander and Regn will open in the Ben Maltz Gallery at the Otis College of Art and Design. Titled “BROODWORK: It's About Time,” the exhibition features a wide range of works from the fields of visual art, architecture, design, creative writing and music within the ever-expanding boundaries of 21st century life.

Among the most recurring themes that characterize and connect these works as well as their creators is the idea of time, which works on a personal, communal and global level.

Because contemporary families spend significantly more time with their children than they did as recently as a decade ago, according to research from the independent Families and Work Institute, not only is creative work often produced in small increments of time but it is made collaboratively, say Niederlander and Regn, who co-founded BROODWORK about three years ago after they each began raising a daughter. (Read about how Niederlander found her artistic muse in Eagle Rock.)

And while we assume that creative people tend to find themselves at a crossroads pretty much all their lives, the role of one particular interstice—that of family and creativity—is not generally acknowledged for its true impact, add the curators.

“Who would have thought that writing for his son about a bear named Winnie-the-Pooh would catapult the political satirist A. A. Milne from Punch magazine into the stratosphere of literary history,” says Niederlander. “His era’s exception, however, is our rule—more and more, the convergence of family and practice is embraced by the current creative community as an indispensable influence to produce profound and unexpected work.”

The works featured at the BROODWORK show include:

Tim Hawkinson
Untitled, 2010
Inkjet prints and urethane foam on panel
36 x 45 inches
(Courtesy BLUM & POE, Los Angeles)

Rebecca Campbell
For Fragonard and My Mother, 2009
Oil on canvas
36 x 27 inches
(Courtesy of the Artist, LA Louver, Venice, CA, and Ameringer McEnery Yohe, New York, NY)

Michael Rotondi
Notebooks, 2011
100 notebooks, custom cradles by Roto Architects
Dimensions variable
(Courtesy of Michael Rotondi)

Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg
Common Ground, 2011
Foam, paper
(Courtesy SO-IL, New York, NY)
Corinne Van der Borch and Iwan Baan

Common Ground, 2011
Video
30 minutes over 10 pieces
(Courtesy SO-IL, New York, NY)

Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan
Ballet For Martha: Making Appalachian Spring, 2010
Illustrated by Brian Floca

Michael Worthington
Lyric Poster: Put The Book Back On The Shelf, 2011
Inkjet on paper
40 x 30 inches each

Participants:
Elizabeth Alexander, Jim Campbell, Joyce Campbell, Rebecca Campbell, Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, John Hall, Tim Hawkinson, Steven Hull, Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg (SO-IL), Greg Lynn, Dave Muller, Christoph Niemann, Eamon O’Kane, Danica Phelps, Michael Rotondi, Michelle Segre, Tony Tasset, Nina Tolstrup, Corinne Van der Borch and Iwan Baan, Michael Worthington.

BROODWORK: It's About Time, Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, 9045 Lincoln Blvd., 90045, April 30-June 11. Opening reception: Saturday, April 30, 4 p.m.-6 p.m., with sound performance by Health and Beauty, M.O.L.D. by Finishing School, and Project Food LA. The opening as well as the entire exhibit will offer plenty of stimulating activities for kids and adults of all ages.