The 24 hours from Saturday to Sunday surrounding Christian Marclays "The Clock" screening at the LACMA had much more to offer than just cinema. ForYourArt launched Around the Clock: 24 Hour Donut City, a temporary, 24-hour donut shop across the street at 6020 Wilshire Blvd to coincide with the screening, offering selections of the best donuts from LA for free.

“For our first event at our new space, we wanted to celebrate LACMA, and Marclay’s The Clock was the perfect event to represent our love for the museum and for LA,” said FYA founder Bettina Korek. “A friend of mine used to comment that LA is a donut city, so that is where we got the idea to use donuts to celebrate LA. Donuts are a part of its car culture, with iconic signs of these shops and drive-ins standing as a testament to this ever-moving and donut-loving city.”

Korek also talked about the likeness of the city of Los Angeles to a donut in a spatial sense – a series of interconnected suburbs without a centre. She called this the “sprinkling of centres”, that allows the city to boast multiple hubs of energy and culture, each with its own distinctive energy and flavour.

It was fitting that the selection included donuts from 12 celebrated donut shops in LA to represent this diversity. Krista Simmons, LA based food and travel writer, chose her 12 favourite donuts for the show. Because these were available on a first-come, first-serve basis, Krispy Kreme donuts were available throughout the 24 hours. 

Outside the gallery was parked Kenny Scharf’s Carzy Roy Al with a stock of his favourite donuts. Inside, the space featured different areas of activity. In the front window were a giant clock and chocolate-sprinkled donut. Scharf’s prints hung on the wall, and donut pins were available. The middle of the space featured a children’s drawing table, with drawing sheets and crayons, on which kids would draw donuts and hang on the wall. There was always someone parading around in a donut costume, and always with a donut in hand.

The back of the space was where donut chefs from UMAMIcatessen made their Tres Leches Donuts from scratch. Some of the other donuts available were the Donut Man’s Strawberry Donut, Sprinkle’s Donut from Blinkie’s Donut Emporium, the Apple Fritter from Randy’s Donuts and the Nickel Diner’s Bacon Maple Donut.

It was amusing seeing parades of people every two hours migrating from the LACMA to the little gallery across the street to get a taste of these special donuts. Sometimes the line in the gallery would extend onto the street. The space was always full of joy and laughter.

ForYourArt could not have created a better first event at their new space on the Miracle Mile.

Hopefully LA forever runs on donuts!

 

Reach reporter Raunak Khosla here.