Conversation with Laurene Hartman and Curt Le Mieux from Crazy Space, Santa Monica, 2002

In this conversation, Crazy Space members Laurene Hartman and Curt Le Mieux talk about their work running an art space at the 18th Street Arts Complex, organizing exhibitions, performances, and its annual festival, Flop House, which showcases solo and collaborative performances. They emphasize that its core purpose is to create a platform for experimental art and highlight the challenges performance art faces.

Crazy Space invites artists to take risks, to fail, to create without having to be “safe” or “successful” by conventional standards, and “to try to provide a home for work that isn’t necessarily going to fall into the commercial system, that isn’t really appealing to the art market, and also to provide artists with a place to work freely.” They see this “in-between” position as a strength, offering freedom from rigid rules and commercial pressures. Crazy Space intentionally avoids heavy curatorial control, focusing instead on letting artists push boundaries and seek new directions.

The collective critiques the “art star system” and its tension with feminist values, noting how capitalist structures shape artistic ambitions and desires, because, as Hartman notes: “it creates a feeling of lack […]. In order to be a good artist, you have to be within this very particular capitalist market. That quandary in which artists find themselves in is very similar to what we as US citizens find ourselves in on a daily basis.”

Hartman argues that artists must engage with and give input to pressing contemporary issues, from genetic engineering and technological innovation to mental health crises. “Art is extremely powerful as a force in culture, and a force for change or a force for dialogue.”

Crazy Space views feminism not just as a women’s issue, but as a broader solidaric framework, because what feminists are concerned with is the same things that we’re all concerned with: care and concern. They advocate rethinking capitalist goals, both in art and daily life, to reclaim space for ethical engagement and meaningful human connection, in response to the dominance of status, possessions, and self-interest in American life, which leaves little room for empathy, solidarity, or global concern.

Drawing on feminist thought, they challenge binary categories, pushing for a more mixed understanding of identity. As Hartman explains: “Why can’t I grow sideburns? I think sideburns are happening. Does that mean I have to be a butch lesbian?”