Reflecting on Possibilities of Art, Music and More

Unbeknownst to most Angelenos, a sculpture by artist-musician Terry Allen was commissioned by Sony Studios and installed on the exterior of the Fred Astaire building on Culver Boulevard in February.

Titled “Golden Time,” the crouching, suited man hoisting a large clock onto his shoulders is part of an ongoing series of cast-bronze suited men Allen began in 1990 with “Corporate Head,” a figure installed at Citicorp Plaza depicting a businessman leaning against a building that has devoured his head.

Yet another work from the series is the centerpiece of an exhibition of new work by Allen opening today at L.A. Louver gallery in Venice. This one’s called “Liquid Assets,” and it’s a reflecting pool, at the center of which stands a bronze suited man clutching a briefcase as water gently oozes from around his collar, his belt and his pockets. “I wanted him to look as if he’s leaking,” Allen says with a laugh during an interview at Louver. The gallery is also showing a series of Allen’s drawings.

“I’ve been interested in fountains lately--maybe because water’s a big deal to people in my part of the country,” says the 53-year-old West Texas-born artist, who maintains a second career as a musician and has released nine albums combining country instrumentation with wry lyrics reflecting on the human condition. He’ll appear tonight at the Ash Grove with his Panhandle Mystery Band.

“In a funny way, I think the bronzes were a natural follow-up to ‘Youth in Asia,’ too,” Allen says, referring to his body of work exploring the aftermath of the Vietnam War; the series occupied him for a decade beginning in 1983. “So much of that work was about the idea of deception, and these pieces are as well--they just address it in a totally generic way.

“I also like the idea of working with ‘heroic material’ in a pedestrian way,” adds the artist, who lives in Santa Fe with his wife of 34 years, actress Jo Harvey Allen. “Traditionally, bronze has been used for public memorials to generals and politicians, and I like trying to get this lofty material down on the ground with the rest of us.”

It’s hard to figure where Allen finds time to make visual art, as he’s been on the performing trail for most of the last four years. He just returned from a tour of Britain and Ireland; last fall he toured Italy, and before that he was busy with “Chippy,” a musical set in the late ‘30s that Allen based on diaries kept by a prostitute. Like many of Allen’s theater projects, “Chippy” was a collaborative effort that also involved Jo Harvey Allen and several of his friends. It was staged in New York and Philadelphia in 1994.

“That was two years of solid work,” Allen says. “It was too expensive to take on the road, but we did manage to put out the ‘Chippy’ soundtrack.”

The soundtrack album was Allen’s seventh recording; his most recent effort, “Human Remains,” was released last month on the Sugar Hill label. Featuring vocal and instrumental contributions from David Byrne, Lucinda Williams, Joe Ely, Charlie Sexton and Jo Harvey Allen, among others, the album includes material from “Chippy,” songs from Allen’s 1975 album, “Juarez,” and a cover of Byrne’s “Buck Naked.”

Explaining its genesis, Allen says, “Once I was in the Austin airport and I saw a piece of freight with a sticker on it that said ‘human remains/handle with extreme care/destination . . . .’ I realized it was a sticker they put on caskets for transport.

“The blank after the word ‘destination’ really got to me, and I started thinking about the various meanings suggested by the phrase ‘human remains’; it indicates death, but could also mean something of a human remains after they’re gone, and that other humans remain on the planet,” says Allen, whose work often pivots on visual and verbal puns. “These 13 songs reflect on those possibilities in various ways and are all grounded in some idea of affirmation.”

After tonight’s L.A. date, Allen will take his act to Dallas, where he performs Dec. 18 at the Red Jacket, a nightclub he designed last year in just 10 weeks. “I’d never done a club before, but I discovered it’s not much different from dealing with a gallery,” Allen says. “It’s kind of a flashy, gangster honky-tonk--and more people probably see it in a month than have seen my work in 30 years of exhibiting,” he says and laughs.

Once back in Santa Fe, Allen will prepare to record an album next spring and work on a new project titled “Dugout.”

“I don’t know how it’s gonna manifest itself, but it’s loosely based on my parents,” he says. “My mother was born in Oklahoma in a dugout, which is a kind of dwelling built into the side of a hill that lots of people lived in during the first westward migration. My grandfather fought in the Civil War and my father . . . was born in 1886. I remember him telling me stories about the first time he saw a lightbulb, a car, an airplane. This history is still incredibly close to us, and that’s what I hope to explore in ‘Dugout.’ ”

* Terry Allen & the Panhandle Mystery Band at the Ash Grove, on the Santa Monica Pier, tonight at 9. $18. Information: (310) 656-8500.

* “Liquid Assets,” through Feb. 15 at L.A. Louver Gallery, 45 N. Venice Blvd., Venice. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Information: (310) 822-4955.