beauty salon presents ‘Cecile Bouchier & Yuan Gao: Bird Works’. Meant to be viewed at night, this show is comprised of works which stem from a deep connection with the Castaic region of Southern California. Bouchier has for decades made diorama boxes which depict dream-like scenes involving anthropomorphized birds, dried plant material, bee hives, ash, and found objects from around her home in the Mojave desert. Gao goes out into the mountains at night and exposes film to moonlight in uncanny ways; his recent film 12 birds and a frame presents short fragments which correspond to the hours on an ornithological novelty clock in the darkroom where the film was developed. It is presented alongside various mixed-media works, photographs, and drawings by Bouchier.
