by Ert O'Hara

In May 2006, I went to visit Edith Abeyta (sister of Rob Abeyta) and Porous Walker at Walled City Gallery in San Pedro. Porous was preparing a solo show/installation, and Juxtapoz photo friend, Isaac McKay-Randozzi, was documenting the set up. After hanging out at the gallery for awhile, we headed out to South Central LA to check out the Watts Towers.

From Wikipedia: "Nuestro Pueblo, commonly called the Watts Towers, in the Watts district of Los Angeles, California, is a collection of 17 interconnected structures, two of which reach heights of over 99 feet (30 m). The Towers were built by Italian immigrant construction worker Sabato ('Sam' or 'Simon') Rodia in his spare time over a period of 33 years, from 1921 to 1954."

This morning, Juxtapoz curator Greg Escalante sent us a link to a mini-documentary on the towers that was shot in the 50s. It's online here: www.archive.org/details/TowersTh1957.

Here are a few pics from my visit with Edith, Isaac, Porous and the Towers. Keep your eyes open for Porous Walker in the June 2007 issue of Juxtapoz.

Porous begins the window installation

Inside Walled City Gallery

Ew, Isaac glued his thumb and finger together

Porous' idea of "Happiness"

Window installation coming right along, note the Diet Coke machine on the ark

All the things we'll need to save when the earth is covered in a flood of garbage

Close-up of the ark... you can just barely see the little people hot tubbin' on the right side of the boat

Detail of what makes up the Watts Towers

Porous Walker (left) and other visitors

Isaac taking pics

View from inside

They're real tall...

Edith and Porous


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