RECAP 2014

For those of you who desire a bit of consolidation of last year’s news:  The Lala World Recap 2014.

The city of lights has not been kind to Lala.  Arrested for spray painting the city walls and landing in urgent care are just a few of Lala Drona’s mishaps since her arrival.

Lala Drona in urgent care.

Lady Paris seems to have made Lala Drona harder, and the struggle has awakened her darker tendencies.  The year 2014 marks the year of transition, when Lala assumes her title of “art villain.”

On various occasions, Lala has compared her artistic process to theft.  “I steal others ideas because I don’t have my own” (2014 Art Prison Interview, L.D. Times Magazine). However, Lala pushed her artistic process an inch too far at an annual Paris “Perve Grandma Convention,” where she attempted to steal a Fred Le Chevalier piece from his oldest fan.

And Lala did not stop there.  Later on that year, she allegedly stole thousands of dollars from desperate YouTube insomniacs who had fallen victim to her fake sleep hypnosis video.  Although the media seemed to focus on Lala’s dark side, BOAF attempted to show the human behind the artist as well.

On April 24th, Lala traveled back to her home town Denver, Colorado in order to finalize preparations for a long-awaited hand transplant.  Comments filled message boards questioning the authenticity (and humanity) behind the art pieces created since Lala’s mechanical hand acquisition.

Lala caught on the streets of Paris wearing a splint.

How would the prosthetic affect her paintings and would it cramp her hand dancing style?  Before leaving Denver, Lala put on a spontaneous showing of her “Pre-Lala” work in an exclusive at-home art garage sale.

Along with the art garage sale last year, Lala committed other acts that were difficult to understand.  In 2014, Lala’s face appeared twice in the subway station.  The first was in Paris.  She appeared holding an apple in a

Translation: The #1 extramarital dating site made by women./ Dare. Bite. Taste.

Geeden advertisement for adulterous online-dating (Lala later  painted this experience). Next the artist appeared in a Berlin subway station, pants down in public.  While the Geeden advertisement left fans wondering if Lala had sold out, the no-pants Berlin display just left them confused.

Other stunts this year were much easier to understand.  To prove she isn’t all bad, Lala showed her support in adopting mutant bees in Paris.  Her videos went viral in France when she took to the streets and battled against censorship with her “Don’t Retouch This” campaign.  The artist “pulled a Banksy” when she sold originals of her artwork cheaply on the streets of Paris at the same time as galleries sold her work for thousands at the FIAC.  She even had a little fun as she was seen shopping and drinking champagne at Paris’ 2014 Vogue Fashion Night Out.

    However, it wasn’t all fun and games last year.  In 2014, Lala launched the construction of her Warholian dream:  The Lala Laboratory.  During the construction, tensions in art politics were at a high.  Muses were on strike and Lala’s unorthodox muse practices were thrown into the light.  

Journalists infiltrated what is thought to be the Lala Laboratory and discovered a Muse Sweatshop.   In an attempt to evade the Art Guild (the authorities), Lala invited journalists to a fake Lala Laboratory tour.  The police were called, and Lala Drona was arrested on the spot for trespassing.

The board members of the Art Guild found Lala guilty of Muse Abuse and Torture in the first degree and she was sentenced to spend one month in Paris Art Prison.  In prison, Lala Drona gave an interview, revealing for the first time ever, the method behind her madness.
Upon her release, a masked man broke into the prison mail room and stole Lala’s prison letters written to Shutupi.  The unknown man published the letters, revealing perhaps more than Lala would have liked regarding her feelings towards the Art Guild.

Out of jail and straight to work, the artist began preparations for her anticipated exhibition.  After one small exhibition in May 2013 on arrival in Paris, one year later, Lala landed a place on the walls of Düo Gallery.  The exhibition titled From the Bed to the Lab presented a retrospective look on her paintings created in Paris, all connected by the theme of the bed.

Photography and text by Richard Beban from Paris Play.

The three series exhibited were the Breast Series: a confrontation with a difficult past/ the bed a place of healing.  The Sexe Sans Sex Series: a series of wanderings, and an analysis of her outside world/ the bed a place of experimentation.  The Lala World Series: Lala’s new series, where she commits to painting the Lala World (the fictionalized articles found on Based on a Fact) in order to move freely between the virtual and the real, and create her own world/ the bed a place of dreams–and her dream: The Lala Lab.

Following a successful exhibition of her world, Lala plans to continue following her dark path.  She’s back to her old methods of abuse and torture in order to extract inspiration from her muses and has marked the beginning of 2015 with the banishment of her beloved Drone #1.  Only time will tell what’s to come of Lala and her Drones, Muses and Laboratory…

See news updates on The Lala World here.

Based on a Fact RECAP 2014

Notorious Art Thief Lala Drona Alleges New Works Are Hers.

Photography © 2014 Richard Beban and Paris Play

The enigmatic cult figure Lala Drona emerged from Paris Art Prison last night, head shaved and clad in a simple blue smock, blinking owlishly through round sunglasses at what may have been unaccustomed light. Whether her detention was in total darkness, or featured any other CIA-inspired activity, no one is saying. She was surrounded by black-clad, mostly male followers she calls drones, but whether for her protection, or for ours, was unclear.

According to an online fanzine, https://basedonafact.wordpress.com, which purports to tell some version of truth, Ms. Drona was sent to prison for art theft (la ladrona means “the art thief” in Spanish) because she had no original ideas, thus stole those of others.

Her performance last night (which continues through Saturday and Sunday) features new paintings that stem from her prison reeducation experience; they are, she claims, based on her own ideas, as they came to her in her bed, a large photograph of which decorated the gallery floor.

The new paintings deal with the theme of “Sex Without Sex,” a sort of artus interruptus, in which the climactic moments have been obscured, even redacted, or from which a partner has disappeared. The latter images may stem psychologically from the difficulty she claims to have with muses, which she goes through the way a sex worker goes through Kleenex. She is purportedly under investigation for Muse Abuse.

Lala Drona’s world remains visible only through Sunday, each evening at the Duo Gallerie, 24 rue du Marché Popincourt, 75011 Paris. She is recruiting more drones and muses at each performance. You have been warned.

Based on a Fact.

Text by Paris Play 

To see the Paris Play Album of Lala Drona, click here.

Below, a sneak peek of the exhibition From the Bed to the Lab.  Camera work by Drone #1.

From Paris to Denver

          Sources at Air France have confirmed that Lala Drona will be returning home to the mile-high city in one week’s time.  To the disappointment of Drones everywhere, Lala does not plan to participate in gallery showings nor plans to make appearances at any high-society events.  An interview with the L.D. Times states that the artist is in fact returning to the US for medical reasons.

“Dr. Royal,” by Lala Drona. Self-portrait named after Lala’s reconstructive surgeon.

As Drones everywhere know, Lala’s medical past has been a source of inspiration for her art.  In the L.D. Times article, she speaks about plans for a future series called Cyborgs Have More Fun which like her ongoing Breast Series is inspired by bodily alterations.  “The reconstruction of her breast at such an early age called for a reformation of her entire world view,” states Valerie Cutter, head child psychologist at the University of Minnesota.  “She finds comfort in modification, in change.  It’s no wonder she’s attracted to the idea of cyborg.”

Possible hand design mock-up. Thanks to Chinese artist/designer Yu Lang.

 

With her breast reconstruction trauma far behind her, Lala has big plans for her next bodily modification. Friedrich Strasse, Events Coordinator for the Drones Research Program-Berlin states that Lala has been having hand and wrist issues for years, often interfering with her work.

Lala caught on the streets of Paris wearing a splint.

“We used to joke about her being the first artist with a mechanical hand.  I never thought she’d actually do it!” Sources say Lala plans to meet with an American team of medical specialists and designers to create a prosthetic for Lala’s hand.

Possible hand design mock-up. Thanks to Chinese artist/designer Yu Lang.

In online forums, Drones discuss Lala’s future plans for hand modification, wary of the effects it may have on her art.  Will the art still be hers, or will her style change?  When will the project be underway, and is the project in connection to the Lala Laboratory?  Drones everywhere are on the lookout for Lala in Colorado, trying to catch a glimpse of the artist in her natural habitat.

Based on a Fact.

Teddy DeFranko, 35 freelance journalist.

Sexe sans Sex series update: “Michigan’s 7-hour Window”

Current project “Michigan’s 7-hour Window” by Lala Drona. Part of series “Sexe sans Sex.”

“Sexe sans Sex” series update

A sneak peek at Lala’s  new addition to series Sexe sans Sex.  Title: “Cover your webcam when not in use” (work in progress).

“Cover your webcam when not in use” by Lala Drona, 2014. 50cm x 50cm, Acrylic on canvas.

The Lala Laboratory

Since the muse crisis, quality undocumented muses have been hard to come by.  Lala continues to refuse documented muse services and is rumored to have had bad luck with recent undocumented musework.  In a drought of inspiration, what is an artist to do?

Lala has kicked off the construction of her new Laboratory called The Lala Lab.  Here, she hopes to create a workshop for visiting artists which includes lodging for both muses and artists in residence.  The laboratory will be sectioned into two parts: one side for the muses, and the other for artists.  Selected Drones will be invited for residency in the Drone Location Research Program.

Lala on phone complaining about the misspelling of her “Drone Location” sign.

“The Laboratory will be a space of research and creation, as well as experimentation,” states Pauline Sager, Lala’s new publicist.  Lala’s team has been wheeling and dealing donors left and right to get the project off the ground (its estimated cost to be well into the hundreds of thousands of euros).  So why is Lala pouring every last penny into a dangerously fruitless endeavor?

Liza Laurence, a journalist for the L.D. Times ran into Lala in the Paris subway last week.  “When I asked (Lala) what her next move would be, she said, ‘I’ve completely drained myself of my own ideas.  That’s why I have always stolen them from others.’  She wrote something down in a notebook and looked up. ‘My muse is gone, and he took my right brain with him.  Time to use the ideas stored on the left side.’”

The strange thing is, Lala seems to be denying muses and adopting artists.  In the past few months, she has been scouted by ZP Productions, and asked to do a series of collaboration pieces with another artist under the pseudonym Midnight 30.  ZP Productions (who is also helping finance the Lala Laboratory) is a company that links artists together in order to create unique series of art.  Hard at work, Lala is also co-writing a performance theater piece titled Art Show with friend Dean James Lovett who commented briefly on the collaboration.  “Lala and I are pretty much on the same track. We’ve just had a meeting, and there is serious potential.”

Is Lala teaming up with other artists in an attempt to overcome muse dependency?  If this is the case, she may be committing an age-old artistic faux pas.  Never use an artist as a muse.  There is an understanding in the community that one is either a muse or an artist, but never both.  Is Lala challenging this conception?  Or is she simply flailing, desperate to feed herself with stolen inspiration wherever she can find it?  Keep checking back to see what else this artist has got hiding up her sleeve.

Based on a Fact

Collin Gerald, 20 Student 

ART UPDATE: the show must go on.

Despite muse difficulties, Lala continues to work on series “Sexe sans Sex.”  

“Femalebox” acrylic on canvas.

“Malebox” acrylic paint on canvas.

Acrylic paint on canvas. Inspired by short story by Lala Drona https://basedonafact.wordpress.com/words/

Exposed!: Lala’s maltreatment of muses

A plague of uninspired and unproductive artists has spread among the art community since the muse strike some weeks ago.  The strike successful on the side of the muses, as now according to the law, muses must be financially compensated for their work.  Large cities everywhere have given birth to new muse service companies, as the new market skyrockets the economy.

One of the many muse service companies emerging in cities everywhere.

The strike has given voice to this once (and still in many ways) oppressed group, resulting in a new Muse awareness that is sweeping the globe.  Many muses are now surfacing with stories of exploitation under the tyranny of their artists.  One of the most foul examples of muse abuse to count was by our very own, Lala Drona.  Based on a Fact interviewed her ex-muse who decided to let it all go:

BOAF: So tell us about your experience in the “retreat” Lala brought you to.

M:  The first few days were fine.  Lala was very welcoming, and we mostly just talked.  I ran some errands for her, and mused her whenever she asked.  But after a while, things started becoming strange.

BOAF:  Please, go on.

M: Well, she started working me really hard, liking my ideas and needing more all the time.  She asked me for massages and other favors frequently. I was sleep-deprived for days and she didn’t let me eat unless I gave her the “right” ideas.  I kept up the work because I knew this job opens a lot of doors.  I could have been set for life if I inspired the right piece for her.

BOAF:  And did you inspire the right piece?

M: Yes, I did.  I inspired all of her most recognized pieces, but was not given credit or compensation for any of them.  I should have had a big pay-out, especially according to the type of practices I succumbed to.

BOAF:  Please, tell us about the practices Lala subjected you to.

M: I remember the interrogation room.   I was interrogated to see if I would give up any Lala secrets.  I was tortured using Chinese military brainwashing techniques.  They drugged me during these cycles of psychological torment.

BOAF:  And were you drugged at any other moment during your time at the retreat?

M: There were experiments where I, and I believe, other muses were drugged.  In these memories, I just remember flashes of images, a round white rooms, paint, a cake, and other bodies.  The artists watched from windows above.  I prefer to keep these secrets buried in the subconscious.

BOAF:  Anything else you’d like to say about Lala?

M:  Yes.  Many ex-muses of hers defend her unconventional artistic practices, claiming to be her vessel, at all costs.  But I will stand and say no to modern day slavery of my brothers and sisters.

 

Based on a Fact hits have plummeted as Drones everywhere have been giving up on Lala since recent accusations.  Her recent visits to Berlin and Milan have turned out to be a desperate attempt to find a new muse.  Allegedly, like many other artists, she refuses to use a muse service and continues to search for muse-work off the books.  Perhaps to protect her privacy, or perhaps to get a tax break.  Maybe she just strives to conserve the non-institutionalized practice of the Muse, to keep her process more organic.  Whatever the case, she must find someone soon before her tarnished image catches up to the rest of the world.

December Cocoon

Lala confirms that the rumors of her “December Cocoon” are true.  The December Cocoon is a concept Lala Drona learned in art rehab.  During the time she spent at the Tableau Vierge her guides taught her that in order to create art, there must be periods of silence, periods when one must deny his/herself the pleasure of creation.  This period is thought to bring the artist inspiration, and motivation, but also much frustration and anxiety.  After the process, the artist emerges transformed, clean-headed and swimming in creative imagery (hence the name “Cocoon.”)

Lala recently decided to apply this theory to her life, outside of the center and unguided by Tableau Vierge personnel.  She calls it the “December Cocoon.”  Unfortunately, Lala only made it to day 26 before relapsing and indulging herself in an all day art-binge.  When asked why she prematurely broke through the cocoon, Lala responded, “It was just time.  I was really frustrated, and I needed my fix.  I don’t feel guilty about it either.  On the contrary, I’m pretty proud of myself.”  She explains that the process is much more intense and unstable without the guidance of a sponsor, and does not recommend anyone to experiment with the cocoon theory without proper guidance and preparation.

Lala documented the project process for all you Drones, and has been kind enough to upload the photos to us here at Based on a Fact.  The art piece is still unfinished, but here are some images of the progress she has made during her all day art-binge.

Lala: “The first thing I do is surf the web for images that I can steal. Then I digitally edit them to create a reference for the painting. I create several examples with different types of shoes and different dogs. These (above) are just the ones I chose.”

Lala: “The next step is to draw the image directly onto the canvas with pencil. There, I outline shadows etc. to prepare for the painting. Next, I choose color, mix color and paint.

EXHIBITIONS: From the Streets to the FIAC

Paris has been buzzing with its annual FIAC art fair, gathering high-profile groups of contemporary art collectors, museum curators and international dealers, and even winning international recognition through its rigorous selection process.  Lala Drona followers were proud to have seen prints of the artist’s work exhibited this year by renowned galleries from around the world.  The artist herself visited the fair on Sunday, and although she seemed slightly unamused, she agreed to pose for some photographs in front of her work.

Even stranger, the artist was spotted on the streets with originals of the same work exhibited at the FIAC.  She was first spotted setting up canvases in a busy metro station in the center of Paris, but quickly moved shop to appear in another metro station with fellow artist Dean James Lovett.  The two put on a metro exhibition, laughing over beers and presenting their work.  When beers were finished, they closed up shop and moved outside.

Lala and Dean set up their operation outside the Centre Pompidou where they shared champagne with passerbys and invited them to attend their “art opening.”  Marie Formi a witness to the scene commented on the show, “C’est le veritable art. (It’s real art)” she said. Many others commented on the artists’ show saying the artists would go far.

Although many enjoyed Lala’s street vernissage, critics were not amused with the stunt.  “It’s actually quite tasteless to have her prints selling at the FIAC for thousands, while she stands in the street and sells the originals for next to nothing,” says critic William Stockman from the British Contemporary Art Guild.  “It’s quite the slap in the face for the galleries that have supported her over the years.”

So what exactly is Lala trying to say with this stunt?  Is she pulling a Banksy to make a statement or is she aimlessly continuing her art and rock and roll lifestyle?  Perhaps we will just have to wait and see what else this young artist has got up her sleeve.

Samantha Craig, Faux Pas Magazine