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.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Michael Heizer "Levitated Mass" @ LACMA















Since LACMA announced and broke ground for Heizer's "Levitated Mass," I would occasionally peek through the screened fence of the construction site to check on progress (see other posts, as follows:


Then, after the official unveiling, I returned at some point and was largely underwhelmed and disappointed, mainly because I found the steel mounts such a distraction to appreciating what I assumed was Heizer's intent, at least where sublimity would be concerned. From what I know of the artist's precision for every detail and nothing before its time, I'm surprise that he went with these mounts. I guess I need to look into this more... See the following link, though there's not much to really see here:


Then, upon arriving to view the Pierre Huyghe exhibition recently, something about my approach to the museum and catching "Levitated Mass" at this particular time of day drew me in a little, and it struck me as time to take a more considered look.  However, I didn't take a closer view actually, because as mentioned, I was less enthused about the style of mounts (presumably an institutional concession and I'm guessing not the only solution especially where aesthetics are concerned).  I wanted to take a look free of such annoyances.  So, I decided to take a longer view with the photos that I share above.

In addition to enjoying how the sunlight reveals the nuances of the multifaceted stone, I also liked the scale complications between decomposed granite pebbles below in the foreground and the tall buildings beyond, all a function of distance and camera angle with some notion of connected materiality. As I was removing myself to go "inside" the Huyghe exhibition I noted the "mass'" isolated reflection amongst the palm trees (second to the last image above). Then, once during the "exterior" portion of the Hughye exhibition, I glanced the eclipsed stone from the above the museum wall (the final photo).  Not quite sure what I liked, something compelled me to conclude by including this one.

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