PERFORMANCE ART REVIEW : A History Lesson at the Beach

Like a poster painter or a muralist, any performance artist who brings a program to a sunny, crowded beach is wise to grab viewers’ attention with bright colors and simple outlines. Still, no one would confuse the folks whose designs brighten up city walls with the great masters of the mural.

Presented by the SMARTS Festival in collaboration with the Cactus Foundation, Linda J. Albertano offered a mini-history of California on Saturday afternoon at Ocean Park Beach in Santa Monica. Called “Calisaladia,” the event was big on multi-ethnic perspective and a homey sort of pageantry. Memorable movement, text or imagery were in shorter supply.

A man in American Indian garb (Harrison Lowe) who did some ritual business with a large feather was followed by flagellant monks in scary masks and red robes snaking across the sand. Then came more Indians in tall black masks whirling with black flags, a covey of children holding pinatas and doing a solemn one-step, a body builder (Johnny Pequingnot) flexing away next to a state flag, members of the East-West Youth Foundation in a Chinese lion dance, accompanied by the vigorous clashes of pots and pans.

A collage of voice-overs alluded to the Japanese-American internment during World War II, and a group of women smartly executed karate moves to the sound of bombers. Keith Antar Mason grandly declaimed a hard-to-follow poem that seemed to be about the black urban experience. And Albertano, a tall figure in black, sang in English and Spanish and presided benignly over the whole good-natured grab bag.