By Jane Hart, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood

The Art and Culture Center of Hollywood was extremely pleased to present internationally acclaimed artist Andrea Zittel as the third speaker in its 2013/14 Hot Topics lecture series, which has been partially funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. On Saturday, February 8th, Zittel’s talk and presentation provided an overview of her career to a full house of enthusiastic attendees. Since 2000, home furniture, clothing, and food have all been explored in Zittel’s ongoing endeavor to better understand human nature and the social construction of needs and desires. Her experimental projects include High Desert Test Sites, a 35-acre artist compound in Joshua Tree, California, which supports experimental art that engages the local environment and community.

Andrea Zittel presenting during her Hot Topics talk.

Her informative talk explained all of the myriad ways in which she has developed her own day-to-day practices of everything from food preparation and consumption, to the modification of habitats and spaces for living, and creating within unique environments. The power of her work has been to give pause to reflect on our current society and new models for co-existing.

The Center’s fourth and final speaker in the Hot Topics series will be Dan Fauci, the Los Angeles based executive producer and former head of comedy development at Paramount Studios. Fauci will discuss his current project, the acclaimed web-based comedy series, Whole Day Down, which follows two failed middle-aged actors, played by Patrick Breen and Willie Garson, as they pursue their passion to open an art gallery. Written by Tai Fauci and Breen as “a web series about art and the apocalypse,” Whole Day Down lampoons the contemporary art world. His talk will take place Saturday April 5, and will include excerpts from the show.