dayoutlast is a record of my direct engagement with mostly contemporary art, mostly Los Angelean.

As this blog has evolved since its 2010 inception, so has my perspective. What I once perceived as central within the investigation was what was central, literally, within the photographic frame that I shared here. While still an important consideration, such thinking has also given way to more peripheral considerations, ones also accompanied occasionally by text (written manifestation of thought) and the oscillations between them. What's missing here are larger unknowns surrounding issues of presentation and representation; the amount of time and space it actually takes to accomplish such first-hand observations; and the quandaries between documentation and interpretation.

Despite my attempt to communicate here with image and text what is essential in some respect about the artwork, neither representation should ever be considered a substitution for the primary viewing experience. Of course, occasionally there are exceptions.

Most of the time, these posts are merely remnants---residual fragments---from my last day out.

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Peter Fischli "Cans, Bags, and Boxes" @ House of Gaga / Reena Spaulings Fine Art | Los Angeles






































































By the sheer volume and congestion of works in this show, it took a while to sort and also to isolate from the immediate environment (including other works), as views of one work were windows onto other works, and so on. While likely not any intent of the works themselves to be constellated so strategically as I suggest, it was difficult not to ignore just the qualities of the work (potentially discards all with respect to the shows title) but also a building with its own patina, its own lived-in qualities.

Whatever the conditions of the viewing, the works on their own terms were fun to unpack.  There is a kind of simple pleasure in simple interventions of simple objects (readymades or their cast) for more complex ends.  Not unlike the works of Lucia Koch that take everyday shipping boxes, alter them slightly, then photograph them, these works work the same way, except they occupy real space to the extent that one can walk around such forms and appreciate minor transformations and also consider the whole lot of them as already mentioned.

It's also worth enjoying the interplay of color and form as well as how each object occupies its pedestal. There may be some notions about parts and wholes, wholeness without loss, multiplicity, heterogeneity, treasure and trash, but mostly they seems to just stand on their own terms, intrinsically, despite what the exhibition title suggests.

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