[Note: This was originally published in Feb. 2014]
Before David’s Hockney’s new video(s) of the wilds of Yorkshire left town I decided to visit LACMA armed with my trusty old Canon camera. Well, I hit the jackpot. Not only were there many things for me to photograph, there were many exhibitions of photography and videos.
Agnes Varda’s photos
I started with Agnes Varda’s never-before-seen still photos from her years in California in the late 1960s. Seeing them I said to myself: Yes, that’s how we looked, that’s how the world looked, that’s how we thought. And that time has passed. I feel the sense of time passing particularly keenly because of the death of Phil Everly who I had a crush on when I was in high school.
Metropolis II an imaginary city
After the Agnes Varda exhibit I descended to the first floor and the moment the elevator door opened I could hear it: Metropolis II was operating!! I had seen this amazing sculpture when the little cars, trains and trollies were not moving, but seeing it when they are whirring around the winding tracks of Chris Burden’s imaginary city–well, it goes beyond amazing. I noticed people taking photos with their smart phones so I took a few sneaky photos from a viewing balcony that surrounds the Metropolis II installation. It occurred to me that my vantage gave me a drone’s eye view of this make-believe city/sculpture. Then a guard told me “No flash. No flash.” So I left. There was so much more to see.
Chris Burden also created Urban Light, an installation in front of LACMA, made up of a couple of hundred old city street lights that turn on at sunset. As I was taking photos of it, I realized that it is like a forest, an urban forest. There were some other ‘foresty’ places at the museum, but I’ll show them in a future post.
Hockney’s video of Yorkshire Landscapes
One more comment: Hockney’s Seven Yorkshire Landscapes videos is a remarkable installation. He mounted 18 cameras on his car and drove slowly through the Yorkshire countryside. The result echoes his Polaroid collages from decades ago. Instead of one large still image from various angles, however, the views from all cameras are displayed simultaneously on one wall in a darkened room. If you have a chance to see it, do!
