You helped us select three artists from our LA Feminist Idol competition, who won $1,000 to complete a project that they pitched to us on this extremely riveting program.
The winning artists, Leo Alas, Tempe Hale, and Davia Spain will be showing off their projects in March on The Music Center’s digital program For The Love of L.A. This program supports and celebrates L.A.-based artists showing newly created work in many different disciplines, and WCCW is really excited about the opportunity we had to curate part of this series with our community.
Tuesday, March 16 — Leo Alas’s “BATH” is a digital zine with stories and strategies by and for Queer BIPOC around developing community care rituals in times of mourning, loss, and political disenfranchisement.
Tuesday, March 23 — Tempe Hale’s Night Hike is a short, experimental self-help thriller, constructed almost entirely from still photographs. A woman grappling with a recent loss goes for an evening walk. Coyotes howl and shadows play tricks on the eyes as she wanders deeper into the wilderness of Echo Mountain after dark. With touches of hard-boiled crime and dreamlike imagery the woman uncovers her authentic self in a most unexpected way. Music by Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum.
Tuesday, March 30 — Davia Spain’s original music and video is a personal investigation into healing her inner child, giving herself a second chance to engage in activities she was banned from because of the “gender” she was assigned at birth.
Check out the culmination of their work on the For The Love of L.A. site.
Learn more about these artists:
Davia Spain is a musician, filmmaker, and performing artist whose constant goal has been to break the boundaries between genre and discipline. She uses a mixture of electronic music, jazz, and chamber music to immerse her audiences in a world of her own creation. She recently performed at The Broad Museum, Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theatre (REDCAT), and The Regent LA and released her debut album ‘Dawning’ in March 2020.
Leo Alas is a contemporary artist from the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, CA. Through photography, painting, performance, and writing, Leo captures serenity in solitude and strength in community. Their work journeys into world building and Queer political imagination, exploring what is possible, what is potent, and what is beautiful, in an effort to find healing and joy in late-stage capitalism. Leo studied Fine Arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2017, Leo was a featured artist on the Sociological Research Project, “Working for Dignity” where their Working Women series was showcased in the Santa Cruz, Museum of Art and History as the local exhibition paired alongside Hung Liu’s “We Who Work.” In 2016, they were awarded the Porter Fellowship Grant. Currently, Leo is attending Otis School of Art and Design in pursuit of an MFA with a Concentration in Art + Social Practice.
Tempe Hale is a Los Angeles native, filmmaker, visual artist and Sundance Film Institute filmmaker fellow. Her work collages hand-drawn animations and archival footage, exploring mental illness as family heirloom. Hale graduated from California Institute of the Arts in 2014 with an MFA in Experimental Animation. She has worked closely with Emmy and Grammy-winning composer Laura Karpman on projects which premiered at Pacific Symphony, Grand Performances and The Industry LA. Additional screenings include: Bay Area Rainbow Symphony San Francisco, New York City Gay Men’s Choir, the LAPL Aloud Lecture Series, REDCAT and internationally at festivals in India, Argentina and Cuba.