THE ODYSSEY OF A VELOCITY MUSEUM INSTALLATION

Before and After- Gregangelo imagining and designing the Aura and Odyssey installations for SMoCA Gallery 4

AURA & ODYSSEY

When our senses are set free, unexplainable phenomena occur…

After last year’s sold-out sensation “Night Circus,”  created by Velocity Circus, and cast by our Arizona collaborators, CSA, The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Arts invited Gregangelo & Velocity/CSA back again to create AURA for their annual high profile fund-raising gala.

Under the intense artistic direction of Gregangelo, the installation took a team of 13 skilled Velocity artists 6 months to complete and 3 days to install. Over 25 performers animated and performed within the installation, bringing the story-book setting to life…

The Aura & Odyssey Ensemble

 The AURA concept was inspired by SMoCA’s exhibition The Five Senses, with special focus on a seminal work included in the show by acclaimed Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson  which amplifies the experience of standing amidst water and a beautiful spectrum of fractured light. Gregangelo & Velocity crafted themes for AURA that channel weather, the alchemy of the ephemeral, and the kaleidoscopic wonder conjured by nature’s shifting, changing elements.

Guests were treated to ongoing performances of song, dance, and variety acts throughout the evening.

Winter Songstress

 In addition, this year we added a secondary experience, ODYSSEY, a family and youth day sponsored in part by Gregangelo & Velocity Entertainment and our partners Circus Scool of Arizona , which allowed the museum to be opened for free to a brand new public!

The children’s oracle of the Labyrinth

 
 Explore the Museum’s fantastic new enchanting realms where each of SMoCA’s galleries had a different colorful and imaginative environment inspired by weather and flora & fauna of the natural world.

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art invited families to take a magical journey to see the museum completely transformed into a kaleidoscopic wonderland. Prismatic light and special FX projections, animated installations and altered environs took the Museum by storm to create an unforgettable experience…

 Snow storm in the Winter Solstice Installation

Midnight in the Spring equinox garden

 Explore each dazzling room’s unique arts & crafts activities where you might help create glowing fireflies or chase after shifting rainbows!  A spectrum of lively characters, playful acrobats and aerialists, mysterious magicians and spritely creatures welcome you throughout your Odyssey experience.

 The afternoon also featured tasty treats which could be taken directly from the 3D living still life displays which taught the youth of good health and good eating:

Still life with cabbage

Still life with pineapple

Admiring a living statue in the Autumnal gallery

View full Aura and Odyssey gallery here:

http://gregangelo.com/entertainment/installations/aura-odyssey/ 

Gregangelo/Velocity Arts & Entertainment have proven to be leaders in aesthetic, ‘living installation’ productions, specializing in holistic, interactive experiences that lend themselves to the unique environment of museums.

Explore more of our Museum work samples here:

http://gregangelo.com/entertainment/characters/museums/

Please keep our youth enlightened and take action and contribute to keeping Arts in Schools alive in your community,

Gregangelo
Artistic Director
Velocity Arts & Entertainment
Velocity Circus
San Francisco
415 664-0095
www.gregangelo.com
velocitysf@prodigy.net

GREGANGELO’S STATEMENT

Gregangelo, in his youth, at the British Museum in London
 
As an artist, museums have been, and remain my personal favorite clients for accomplishing challenging commissions. As an entertainer, they have proven to be the perfect theatrical environment to bring fantastic shows to the public. However, I do not consider what guests have dubbed over the years:
“The Gregangelo Museum” (my home and studio), to be a museum at all…

 
There are no precious historical or monetarily valuable relics; there is no intentional or conventional décor, there is nothing that can be exhibited elsewhere, and, it stands far off the beaten path. Over time, the continuous, labyrinthine-structure has become an artifice and strangely its own entity. Essentially, the realm of the house is an artistic mirror which reflects the multi-facets of reality & consciousness, and you, the viewer, step through the looking glass and become the intrinsic character animating within this whimsical theatrical set in
“The wondrous story of life”.

There are 3 distinct levels in the house. Each playfully explores and entertains the profound mystery and reality of perception as well as the majesty of time continuum.
Here, the past, present, and future all concur as one.

 

Level 1
The Past- “Perception”
(Working area studios and archives)

 

Artists working in level 1 costume studio,
Costumer/media/makeup 

 

Level 2
The Present- “Awareness”
(Living and entertaining area)

 “Waters of the World” bathroom detail
(Don’t mean to be vulgar by showing a toilet, but it is our “earthy” functions which often tend to block our perceptions and awareness)

Level 3
The Future- “Realization”
(Wonder and contemplation area)

 The Eternity Room

This permanent installation in San Francisco began as an ordinary house and over 30 years (and still evolving) of work has transformed it to the artifice it is today. I extend an invitation to you, your family and friends to share the journey through it together, should you ever find yourself in this “City by the Bay”. The experience pushes the limited perception of our earthly eyes, ears and multiple senses to expand far beyond the horizons of ordinary reality to that far more wondrous, majestic, yet always present realm of eternity…

Encrypted with the overall message of Passion, Perseverance, Love and Awareness, my hope is that you may leave inspired (and inspire me), be thoroughly entertained, and continue to wonder beyond the veil of our everyday lives…

Here are three of my favorite quotes I have heard from people in the house:
 

“Working here is like preparing for a major holiday everyday”
– Full time staff artist in the house

 

“I will never be impressed again”
-World traveler and visitor to the house

“This place is better than Disneyland!”
-9 year old girl and years later again by a 45 year old man

More visitor quotes here:
http://gregangelo.com/entertainment/gregangelo-museum/quotes/

This one was not said here, but it is a favorite which I think of perpetually:

“One cannot but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.

It is enough if one tries to merely comprehend a little of this mystery everyday.
Never lose a holy curiosity.”
— Albert Einstein

Explore the multi-faceted “Gregangelo Museum” galleries and book a tour:
http://gregangelo.com/entertainment/category/gregangelo-museum/

 

 View of Solstice Room from the Eclipse Room

Gregangelo with “Mr. Flora Fauna” in front of house

Hope to meet you here…

 
Gregangelo
Artistic Director
Velocity Arts & Entertainment
Velocity Circus
San Francisco
415 664-0095
www.gregangelo.com
velocitysf@prodigy.net

Eulogy by Gregangelo

 

Georgette Marie Beainy “Mom” March 11, 1937 – July 13, 2014

 

Eulogy by Gregangelo

Delivered in Notre Dame des Victoires church

 In San Francisco on July 17 2014

 

I am Gregangelo, Georgette’s son, but growing up her son, I always thought my name was “bleep-bleep no good rotten son-of-a-bitchin bastard”…

It‘s true…I bleeped out the first 2 words so that I would not be breaking any commandments here today.

 

First off, I just want to acknowledge how truly extraordinary it is to see everyone here today. We have somehow all been absolutely inspiring, supporting and in some cases detrimental in each others lives.

But no matter what, Life and the diversity of all of our relations is beautiful.

Now most of you know my mom Georgette as the straight shooting, wickedly profane, but truly benevolent person she always was. I can’t even begin to tell you how many arguments, reprimands, assaults, and screaming matches we have had over the years, but they always resolved in “I love you” bye for now. I am sure many of you have had similar experiences.

But in the last several months of her life when she was confined both in the comfort of her home and her own deep thoughts, we started having more profound conversations about life and death, the fullness of her own life, her spirituality, her great desire and preparedness to die, yet her often extreme fear of dying…or of “Checking out” as she would say.

In the vain of these intense conversations, I had a very lucid dream which I am going to share with you all. Now keep in mind that my mom had not left her home for nearly 7 months at the time of this dream:

I dreamt she asked all of her kids to take her on a drive around the city. She wanted to see the homes that she and her extended family had lived in, buildings and neighborhoods where her family had businesses and many places in the city where she had experienced love and life. It was a trip down memory lane. We asked if there was anything else she wanted to see and she replied, “I want to go to the beach”. So we drove her out to Ocean Beach, parked, and opened the door as she wistfully gazed out at the expanse of the ocean for a while.

Finally she said, “You kids help me out and let’s walk towards the water”.

So we held her up and slowly walked together towards the shore.

When we got there she suddenly had a powerful burst of youthful energy, released herself from us and disappeared into the vast ocean.

 

I immediately woke up, a little shaken, and intuitively interpreted the dream to mean that she had confronted her fears of dying and was ready to “check out” ….or had possibly even already “checked out” at that moment.

I spoke to her on the phone later that day, relieved she was still with us

But opted not to tell her the dream as her response would have just been:

“What the hell is all of that psycho babble?!”

A few weeks later on a rare occasion when all of us were together in her home, I told her the dream which had vividly persisted in my mind.

She was engaged, and when I got to the end of the vision where she disappears into the ocean, she looked me in the eyes, lit up a cigarette,

And said: “You bleeping asshole, why the hell didn’t you jump in and try to save me?”

She lived a full life exactly how she wanted to, did everything she ever wanted to do, loved …or sometimes in her case disliked everyone she ever wanted to.

On the last day of her life, she knew her time had come and she prepared every detail herself, her way, so that she could lie down with dignity and breathe her last breath in the peace and perfect order of her own home.

You all have no idea how much she loved each and every one of you. 

“At dawn I was born, baptized with dew.
I bloomed happy and in love in the rays of the sun.
I slept for the night and woke up old…
You were admiring me yesterday, and I will be dust forever tomorrow.”
-Cecile Caultier & Jacques Lacombe
An excerpt from the song “Mon Amie la Rose”
Translated by Emmanuel Noel from French to English

San Francisco PRIDE 2014

San Francisco PRIDE 2014

 

Gregangelo & Velocity Circus was honored to be invited as both a sponsor and featured performers at this years PRIDE 2014 VIP celebration beneath the majestic Beaux Arts rotunda of 

San Francisco City Hall.

We took the opportunity to observe the profound progress of the acceptance of gender fluidity and recent same sex civil-freedoms by bringing the rainbow, the LGBTQ (Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans/Queer or Questioning) symbol of diversity to life… 

Velocity’s “Ms GG Bridges” welcomes with a rainbow

 Velocity “Fog-City” greeters Portal frames the spot where Gavin Newsom introduced gay marriage to San Francisco

Red, Orange, Yellow, and Green emerge from the rainbow to welcome all

Green sneaking a peak

Whirling dervish representing the truth of nature and equality

The balance of power

The violet/purple/pink spectrum takes the stage with beautiful femininity

Blue sings the Joys

The enthusiastic “Audience” storms the stage and performs a flash mob to the song
“Happy”, a word once interchangeable with “gay”

SEE SOME BEHIND THE SCENES PHOTOS HERE FROM ATELIER EMMANUEL:

http://atelieremmanuel.com/emmanuel-styles-for-pride-2014-vip-party/

Gender bending Ruben and Deb filming the festivities

And other Beaux Arts performances in our new gallery here:

http://gregangelo.com/entertainment/characters/beauxarts/

Equality to All,

 Gregangelo
Artistic Director
Velocity Arts & Entertainment
Velocity Circus
San Francisco
415 664-0095
www.gregangelo.com
velocitysf@prodigy.net

The idea of an individual changing society

“The idea of an individual changing society is so abstract and mythological it borders on the imaginary, and I work closer to the imaginary than you’re supposed to, I think, as an artist, and it’s really almost a childlike idea to think you have agency, and it’s embarrassing to express that notion of agency, but I feel like I am this illustration of a person who has no role in society, who was trained to be a manager of managers but has no prospects aside from a vaguely defined massive social arena, where I’m occupied but not employed, and I’m concerned with meta structures but I can’t understand the most basic societal structures (employment again), where I emerge from a lifetime of school and, not knowing what to do, continue to behave as if I’m in school. ”

-Blaise Larmee (via http://davidhockney.tumblr.com/)

 

Velocity Harvest -CREATING A NEW CUSTOM SHOW-

Velocity Ensemble Photo from Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin Festival
http://gregangelo.com/entertainment/shows/pumpkin-festival/

 http://www.yourcsd.com/pumpkinfestival/

California is in full bloom, spring fever is in the air and summer is just on the horizon.
That means here at Velocity Circus, we are preparing for festival season which in this “golden state” are not always your typical midway carnivals, but rather celebrations of the nearly eternal California harvest where fruits, nuts, and vegetables take center stage!

We have fallen into the niche of celebrating this healthy bounty of foods and are currently creating a show for the Sacramento Banana festival which, though not a locally grown fruit; the donation by the truckload of this favored fruit contributes to raising both $ and awareness for keeping arts in schools programs alive in the community http://www.sacbananafestival.com/


Check out this wonderful short film by a film class from Berkeley City College which documents the process of the making of our show:
 “The Age of Asparagus”
For the Stockton, California Asparagus festival http://asparagusfest.com/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpSF9kA7YRw

Here is a photo link from the show:
http://gregangelo.com/entertainment/shows/festivals/age-of-asparagus/

http://gregangelo.com/entertainment/shows/festivals/age-of-asparagus/

Gregangelo
Artistic Director
Velocity Arts & Entertainment
Velocity Circus
San Francisco
415 664-0095
www.gregangelo.com
velocitysf@prodigy.net

MUSEUMS An Artist’s Dream BRINGING ART TO LIFE…

My favorite work is to develop and create for museum public programs and bringing attention to the exhibits.

Sketch for new 2 person costume bringing to life the above garden arch
(Cover of exhibit catalogue)

*****2 clips of mov

Two clips of artists constructing project

We are currently in full production building an installation, characters and acts for the
https://www.nevadaart.org/

“Doris Duke’s Shangri-la, A House in Paradise” Exhibit

http://www.shangrilahawaii.org/Programs/Exhibitions/

Presented by
http://ddcf.org/

Though I have built a trusting relation with the museum, they must propose our concept to the exhibit presenter.
The below portfolio is the customized tool and proof of experience I gave them specifically to secure this job, and gain their confidence:

1)    “Museums” This link is a description and sampling of our various works at fine arts museums.
The top half of the page lists the exhibits and shows samples of our commissioned works in tandem with each exhibit.
 The lower half of the page links to details of each exhibit:
 
http://gregangelo.com/entertainment/characters/museums/

Jean Paul Gaultier “from the Sidewalk To The Catwalk”
http://deyoung.famsf.org/deyoung/exhibitions/fashion-world-jean-paul-gaultier-sidewalk-catwalk

2)    “To Live Forever” exhibit at Nevada Museum of Art
This is a comprehensive portfolio of 3 distinct events/installations/shows surrounding this exhibit. None of the elements will be repeated for the
“Doris Duke’s Shangri-la, A House In Paradise” exhibit donor and public programs.
 
http://gregangelo.com/entertainment/installations/nevada-museum/

Velocity greeters at “To Live Forever” exhibit

3)”Art-come-to-life” This gallery is a sampling of a variety of past commissions which reverently brought art and artists to life in a new light to entertain and educate the guests.
At the moment, and for the next 2 months, we are making all new work for the Shangri-la exhibit donor and public events.
(Currently in thousands of pieces in our studio)

http://gregangelo.com/entertainment/characters/art-comes-to-life/

Vincent Van Gough painting with light

4)”Installations” This link lists detailed portfolios of some memorable installations for various Museum, Corporate,
 Public Arts, and Private clients:

http://gregangelo.com/entertainment/category/installations/

Velocity walk-thru kaleidoscope

5) Artistic director Gregangelo Herrera- this brief Tedx talk by Gregangelo is geared towards youth and summarizes the director’s work ethics and philosophy:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=737HdHJYzOQ

Gregangelo at
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/hawaii-volcanoes-national-park/

6): Gregangelo’s studio, headquarters, home, San Francisco attraction, “Museum”
This is a short video journey through his “Shangri-la”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H91iaxsiGNI

Gregangelo museum brochure

Additional Islamic Arts related info:
Gregangelo, http://gregangelo.com/entertainment/gregangelo-bio/
The artistic director is a whirling dervish (El Tanoura) and has done extensive life long studies in Islamic Arts & Entertainment as well as professional commissions in the following locations:

Mumbai and Hyderabad, India
Cairo, Tel ar-amana, Luxor, Aswan (more), Egypt
Damascus, Aleppo, Syria
Marrakech, Morocco
Amman, Petra, Jordan

*Portfolios available upon request

Affiliation through discussions with his two sisters’ work in Islam:

Dr Linda Bayat Herrera- Islamic Youth studies
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/2856/new-texts-out-now_linda-herrera-and-asef-bayat-bei

Cathy Kelly Herrera- Documentary film maker
 Currently resides in Cairo and is filming the revolution and Islamic transformation
 
Gregangelo
Artistic Director
Velocity Arts & Entertainment
Velocity Circus
San Francisco
415 664-0095
www.gregangelo.com
velocitysf@prodigy.net