Steven L. Anderson is an artist and cultural organizer interested in the power of nature and the nature of power. Recent exhibitions include *Swadeshi* at Pets with Fez part of Intersection 2008, *Picnic Apparitions* at Park Projects, and *The Fairy Ring Happening for Peace* in Los Angeles. Steven is also a co-director of the online exhibition and forum Artists At War (http://www.artists-at-war.com).
Karl Erickson is an artist whose interests include psychedelia, language, transcendental experiences, and counter-cultures throughout the ages. He is an experienced psychonaut. His primary media are video, collages, and latch-hook. With Steve Anderson and Robby Herbst
he produces non-nostalgic light shows. With Andrew Falkowski he is a Maginificent Bastard. Erickson received his BFA from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, in 1996, and his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, in 2002.
Robby Herbst’s Visual art; writing, curation and publishing endeavors all explore counter-constitutive realities. He is an editor and collective member of the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest (along with Marc Herbst and Christina Ulke), who will be a part of this year's California Biennial. The Journal recently produced the three books- An Atlas of Radical Cartography, Failure! Experiments in Aesthetic and Social Practices plus In the Middle of a Whirlwind: 2008 Convention Protests, Movement, and Movements along with 5 issues of The Journal. Robby was awarded a 2007 Andy Warhol Arts Writer’s Grant. Curatorial efforts include “The October Surprise” which took over all of Highland Park, “Street Signs and Solar Ovens” at the Craft and Folk Art Museum, and “Between People” at David Patton Los Angeles. He just participated in MOCA’s Allan Kaprow retrospective by re-imagining Kaprow’s Household as utopian boot camp. A solo show awaits him at David Patton Los Angeles in 2009. He was on the Advisory Council of Fritz Haeg’s Sundown Schoolhouse where he led a course on psychedelic journalism- what ever that is. He holds a MFA graduate from Cal Arts and currently teaches New Genres at the University of Southern California. Today he lives in Los Angeles where eight years ago he helped to found the Los Angeles Independent Media Center.
As many as 15 people play with The Faraway Places (Modal Energy Music Configuration), creating rhythmic sheets of sound that evoke Alice Coltrane, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Sun Ra, and 60s psychedelic rock. With core members Chris Colthart and Donna Coppola, their performances involve improvisation, lightshows, and/or an omniphonic encircling of the audience.
The Faraway Places also play as a spacerock band, combining experimental techniques with pop songcraft from a bygone era. They are currently releasing their 2nd record, "Out of the Rain, the Thunder & the Lightning."
In addition to happenings and parties, The Faraway Places have performed at art spaces in Los Angeles including Machine Projects, Sea & Space Explorations, the Outpost for Contemporary Art, and Park Projects. In November they will perform at the LA County Museum of Art at an event curated by Machine Projects.