Paper forest

WHEN he isn’t designing downtown greenbelts or public gardens, Calvin Abe considers his place in the paper shuffle. The result is the art installation “Shreddings 2: So What,” a forest of tree-like forms made from shredded drawings and documents from the urban landscape architecture firm Ah’be in Culver City. “We normally recycle paper in the blue bin,” says Abe, right. “The premise is to intervene in that process and create something that questions how we use things.” Last year, the firm created a 1,600-square-foot, 18-inch-high carpet made from six weeks’ worth of office paper. “People said they were saddened by it,” he says. “The amount of waste that we generate caused a surprising and powerful emotion.” This year, Abe hopes that turning three months’ worth of office waste into 20 trees will be educational and uplifting, the result a garden of Earth-friendly delight. “Shreddings 2” opens Tuesday, after this weekend’s Earth Day celebrations, and runs through May 18 at the MODAA Gallery, Museum of Design Art + Architecture, 8609 Washington Blvd., Culver City; (310) 558-0902; www.ahbe.com.

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MADE IN CALIFORNIA

Double dose of local ceramics

This weekend, two shows provide a chance to view and purchase ceramics by local artists. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, members of the Clayhouse communal art studio present a spring sale of pottery and sculpture at 2909 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 828-7071. In Pomona, the American Museum of Ceramic Art’s “kilnopening.edu” show features work by accomplished college students and their art teachers, including Cal State Fullerton’s Nobuhito Nishigawara, who produced the intriguing stoneware piece “Which Way” ($4,500, shown here).

The show runs through April 28 at the museum, 340 S. Garey Ave.; (909) 865-3146; www.ceramicmuseum.org.

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INNOVATIONS

Intoxicated with sound

Pioneer Electronics’ Pure Malt speakers are a potent cocktail of green design and acoustic ingenuity. Sized to fit a bookshelf, the speakers are made from 50-year-old wood barrels used to age the Japanese whiskey Suntory. Boards are flattened and dried, with each barrel yielding one pair of speakers. Reviewers have credited the solid oak construction for producing a warm and mellow sound with a significant kick, considering the speakers are just 6 inches wide, 9.7 inches tall and 8.4 inches deep. Once limited to the Japanese market, Pure Malt speakers ($598 per pair) are now available at Pioneer’s South Coast Plaza store, 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa; (714) 540-8000. They also can be ordered online: www.pioneerelectronics.com (click on “shop,” “home speakers,” then “S-A4SPT-PM”).

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HAPPENING

Schindler’s spirit lives

Historian Alison Rose Jefferson will speak Saturday about R.M. Schindler’s 1944 Bethlehem Baptist Church, the only house of worship and the last standing public work by the esteemed Austrian-born architect. Jefferson’s lecture, “Continuity and Revolution: A South Los Angeles Neighborhood and the Architecture of R.M. Schindler,” will run from 1 to 3 p.m. in conjunction with the California African American Museum’s photography exhibition, “Intersections of South Central: People and Places in Historic and Contemporary Photographs.” The show, which runs until April 28, documents the neglected church, at the corner of Compton Avenue and 49th Street. To hear the talk or see the exhibit, head to 600 State Park Drive in Exposition Park; (213) 744-7432; www.caamuseum.org.