Knockdown Dash

Pink Elephant, 2017. Fabric and stucco over wood structure, 96 x 102 x 120 in. Photo by Jeff McLane.

Installation view from Knockdown Dash at Angels Gate Cultural Center, 2017. Photo by Jeff McLane.

Pink Elephant, 2017. Fabric and stucco over wood structure, 96 x 102 x 120 in. Photo by Jeff McLane.

Pink Elephant, interior view, 2017. Fabric and stucco over wood structure, 96 x 102 x 120 in. Photo by Jeff McLane.

Heavy Lace, 2017. Acrylic and colored pencil on paper, 48 x 82 in. Photo by Jeff McLane.

Heavy Lace, detail, 2017. Acrylic and colored pencil on paper, 48 x 82 in. Photo by Jeff McLane.

Sand Float, 2017. Acrylic and colored pencil on paper, 48 x 82 in. Photo by Jeff McLane.

Sand Float, detail, 2017. Acrylic and colored pencil on paper, 48 x 82 in. Photo by Jeff McLane

Smooth Trowel, 2017. Acrylic and colored pencil on paper, 48 x 82 in. Photo by Jeff McLane.

Smooth Trowel, detail, 2017. Acrylic and colored pencil on paper, 48 x 82 in. Photo by Jeff McLane.

Nicole Capps and James McCarthy,

Knockdown Dash, Angels Gate Cultural Center, 2017

Knockdown Dash, a collaboration with James McCarthy, explores Los Angeles housing via large scale drawings and a small stucco and fabric structure. The three drawings depict sofas that appear to be covered in stucco, with each sofa presenting a particular stucco style and texture common in Los Angeles. The sofas are juxtaposed with exterior housing elements---up-lighting, built in mailboxes, and rusty iron fencing—inverting interior/exterior relationships and becoming stand-ins for buildings.

In relationship with the drawings, a structure stuccoed on the interior and wrapped in a pink textile exterior, again inverts interior/exterior relationships while playing with scale. The size of a very small bedroom, the structure is both cell and womb-like, inviting viewers inside to experience both its physical constraints and capacity to shelter.

Speaking to the current housing crisis in our city, and acknowledging the fragility our bodies and their need for shelter, this body of work calls attention to the structural components of a building, asking viewers to consider what it is that makes these parts into a livable home.