ART CATALOGUES AT LACMA On Sunday, November 25th, 2012, there was an unlikely book event with artists Bettina Hubby and Joe Sola.

GET HUBBIED The 184 page document of the “Get Hubbied” project of 2011 in an edition of 100. $55

Bettina Hubby is a visual artist who consistently branches off of the role of artist-creator, into curator and project coordinator, utilizing and promoting a diverse community for topical explorations. She prefers not to have things over-explained, overexposed, over-illustrated. Joe Sola, often using humor, wrestles with the absurdity and elusiveness of meaning and identity in 21st-century American life, with a particular focus on how artistic meaning is communicated in the art world.

Conversation, performance, reception and book signing Art Catalogues at LACMA | 5905 Wilshire Blvd , Los Angeles, CA 90036 | Please call (323) 857-6587 or email artcatalogues@lacma.org to order signed copies of the books.

JOE SOLA 2006-2011 The 96pp catalogue published in conjunction with Joe Sola’s exhibition ‘The Senior Discount’ at Blackston, New York, 2011 in an edition of 500. $40

~ To personally report and reflect after the fact, the event was a smashing bloody success! Dagny gave us a dignified enthusiastic and graceful introduction explaining how she became familiar with our work, our resumes in brief and a bit about why she appreciated our respective practices. I explained the Get Hubbied project and Joe interjected intelligent queries and remarks in that direction. He then, as was promised, introduced his performance that he was devoting to people who read books, since this was most likely a book-reading crowd - he asked the audience to think about the 'page turn' as he did this performance. He then proceeded to turn a page of my book so slowly, like a meditation to book page turning. It was excruciatingly impressive (and to me it was so funny I could not stop shaking with laughter) how slowly he turned that page. The last little inch was wildly slow and then bam, he closed the book, and sighed - people clapped with fervor.

He then grabbed at the pitcher of water and poured water into a glass exclaiming how thirsty that made him. The pitcher and glass were set atop a plexiglas display case full of my books. He leaned on the case starting to talk about his other work, and then it began to fall: crash! smash! A splintering of glass and spilt water all over the books, him and the floor. What a ruckus! He was muttering apologies to me about the books, grabbing them and putting the case back, and books back in the case whilst picking up the glass with his hands to put it in the garbage. Blood spurted out all over the books as he did so, and as he put more books back in the case, and then another huge spurt of blood. The books were covered in blood and glass so the cases became perfect gory display, a mess of watery bloody glassy books. I was losing it, laughing. Not such a dead-pan reaction as may have been better for the effect, but I was lost. Joe's fake blood and sugar glass hit the mark! So many people were not sure if it was real or not, and there's even a moment on the video that my mom is heard saying, "Bettina, why don't you go help him!" I did get on my hands and knees to help mop up the blood and glass. I have been told to my delight that there may be a less than dignified video close-up of my bum in the air as I mopped up the mess. Of course this was a part of the plan. I got up wiping blood off of a book and compared this to the mishaps that happen within marriages, that can be overcome of course... The books were mock books with the same cover, by the way, and were a coveted item surprisingly enough, so they were sold blank, wet, stained, and signed alongside the 'real' ones.

If you read the Get Hubbied book under Joe's sermon section, you'll understand the connection between this event and the performance he did for the wedding. We then signed books, had snacks and all reveled in the unique nature of this book launch. I thank Dagny for her brave and slightly shocking support for the nature of our event, and for her enthusiasm for the work! And to Joe, whose work inspires me to forge ahead with outside-the-box-thinking in our shared world that is art, but that is often quite predictable; he will never be that, and I strive not to be.