Installation view of “Depression” at Francois Ghebaly Gallery. All images by the author for Hyperallergic.
LOS ANGELES — It was 4:20pm when I walked into Depression and encountered Andrea Ursuta’s piece “Stoner” (2013). A batting-cage ball-throwing machine creaked on, spun once, and died before it could eject anything from its quarantined-off belly. It is located inside a larger batting cage. There is no entrance. There is no bat to play with. Stones are scattered across the floor. A tiled wall is positioned across from the machine, ready to receive pummels. It did at one point get hit hard with something — either the stones on the ground, or the artist’s hammer. Either way, it got stoned. It’s in a Depression, but it may not be depressed. There’s a difference, you know.
Depression is the name of a group exhibition on view at François Ghebaly Gallery, which recently relocated from Culver City to a warehouse-heavy section just southwest of the Fashion District, Arts District, and Skid Row. Cars zoomed up the 101, edging into a freeway crisscross where they would have to make a decision to take the 5, 10, or 60, or attempt to stay on the 101 only to realize that it has turned into the 60. I scuttled past the highway entrance, and noticed a fried, dead cockroach — one of many that I keep seeing scattered along sidewalks in Los Angeles — and walked in the shadow of one-story buildings. This is not the gallery-lined Culver City district I originally thought I would be visiting.
read the full story here: http://hyperallergic.com/117418/when-depression-strikes/
