As Above, So Below

Hard to believe, but the Jesus theme of last night’s Bless-ed Event art exhibition to benefit fashion designer Tara Subkoff, who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor, was conceived of completely independent of Subkoff and her line, Imitation of Christ. But that’s not to say that there wasn’t a little bit of divine intervention going on.

Artist Petecia Le Fawnhawk, who organized the show with jewelry designer Shahla Kareen, started painting images of Jesus when a voice in a dream asked her, ‘is 144 Jesuses better than one?’ Her fascination with the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene inspired a line of “religious lingerie” which includes a wine-dyed pair of rosy panties studded with a silver cross and matching pasties (pictured here, in a photo by Ryan Rickett).

Around the same time, her friend Mark Maggiori announced that he was ditching the script he’d been working on, and was starting a new film project called “Johnny Christ.” Maggiori’s large-scale Jesus paintings, “stills” from the film, show the savior looking very much like a couple of the bearded, long-haired surfer/artist types who were walking around the opening at Studio 724.

About this “blasphemistic pop art” Le Fawnhawk says, “I was a little nervous about whether I was gonna get struck by lightning or not, but I think if there is a holy spirit out there, they don’t mind.”

And in case they did, the angels from the L.A. Ladies Choir came down from heaven (or Silver Lake) in their white vintage dresses to bless the scene with tunes including Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” The choir was started by Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark and Aska Matsumiya, and has around 30 members today. Simone LeBlanc, a member since March, told me that the only rule is that one must “sing joyfully”; this is also the name of their EP, coming this fall.

I’m pretty sure I saw Shahla Kareen, who was wearing a stunning human heart locket of solid gold - one of her own pieces - wipe away a tear.

The Bless-ed Event will be up for one month at Studio 724, 724 S Park View St., near MacArthur Park.