LACMA

Stairways Just Outside of Resnick Pavilion

Just before Mother’s Day, my mom flew to LA all the way from Boston for a surprise visit.  When she arrived I was giddy with excitement and eager to take her to LACMA because she loves to visit local art museums on all of her trips. We went in the morning at the beginning of May and had a wonderful time exploring all of the diverse exhibits.

I intended to attend James Turrell’s exhibit “Breathing Light” because of its relevance to the Southern California Light and Space movement, but unfortunately that exhibit only allows about 8 visitors at a time and the wait was a few hours! Despite not getting to see this popular show, I found two pieces that particularly struck me.

"The Jugglers" by David Hockrey

The first was a piece donated to the museum in honor of its 50^th anniversary called The Jugglers done by David Hockrey. It presents eighteen digital videos, synchronized and presented on 55-inch screens. It played vivid imagery of about 10 jugglers performing all different types of juggling related activities. I was so captivated by this piece because of its business and my own personal inability to focus on one juggler at a time. The art incorporates technology in a unique way; rather than aligning all the images perfectly, they were slightly offset. Not only does this piece use technology in its presentation, to me it felt as though it was commenting on technology in the current culture. So many people nowadays use technology as their soul source of entertainment and focus a lot of their perspective on screens, as represented by the long landscape of many screens in the piece.

Red Concave Circle

The other piece that was particularly striking was also donated in honor of the 50^th anniversary of LACMA and is called Red Concave Circle by De Wain Valentine. It is a cast polyester resin and about 7 feet tall. I saw it and immediately thought of our math and art unit, specifically about perspective. It is shaped in a way that refracts light going through it and makes objects look much further away that they actually are. The piece was especially eye-catching because of its enormous size.

I spent a fair time exploring exhibits that don't pertain to this class and my mom and I especially liked Larry Sultan’s photography. I would definitely recommend LACMA to another student because of its wide variety of artwork.

Me Behind "Red Concave Circle"

Me by the Very Famous LACMA Lampposts