Is it a sin for me, an employee of a lofty High Art institution such as LACMA, to admit to loving (gasp!) pop culture? Reality TV, no less? Dance competitions? It’s true: I consider shows like So You Think You Can Dance and America’s Best Dance Crew destination television.
A love of pop culture is all well and good but does feel a little funny here—this is an office, after all, where a co-worker once uttered the phrase “who’s Snoop Dogg?” in all earnestness.
Maybe it’s not so odd. I’ll find out this Saturday at our next Late Night Art event, Korea: Future/Past, which is a celebration of Korean art and culture happening from 8 to 11 pm (or later if you hit up the After Party). In celebration of our new Korean art galleries—opening tomorrow!—and Your Bright Future, the night will feature plenty of entertainment. Traditional Korean music and dance, readings by author Leonard Chang and Sue Kim, a performance by artist Haegue Yang inside the Your Bright Future galleries, and the thing I’m most excited about—a performance by Korean hip hop crew Last For One. These guys are nuts. For instance, here’s their incredible performance, “Canon in D,” in which they break dance to a traditional Korean music/hip hop mash-up.
Last For One will be performing in the BP Grand Entrance during the Late Night Art event; then, as if to make real my TV fantasies, they’ll be judging a b-boy competition later the same night in the LACMA West Penthouse as part of the Muse ‘til Midnight After Party. These guys know competitions. Here’s the performance that won them the 2005 Battle of the Year championship: