Event 2: Band, Miracle Mile, and Metropolis II at Los Angeles County Museum Of Art (LACMA)

Event 2: Band, Miracle Mile, and Metropolis II at Los Angeles County Museum Of Art (LACMA) 

I went to Los Angeles County Museum Of Art (LACMA) on May 20^th Friday, and among many exhibitions, I specifically went to the building named “Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM)” to specifically focus on the works by Robert Irwin and Chris Burden. I am a huge fan of reading the New York Times articles, and I once read an article named “Robert Irwin’s Big visions, Barely Seen – Now, at 87, this artist has seen interest increase in his works, which find the evanescent in the everyday” written by Randy Kennedy. Then, when I looked at LACMA’s exhibit brochure and got to know that his work is at LACMA, I wanted to stop by to see his work. I felt very excited when I arrived at LACMA, in my hope of seeing Irwin’s work finally in person.

When I entered the building (Level 1) where Irwin’s work is displayed, I first encountered with a very huge steel sculpture, which was too huge to see it at once, making me turn around the steel sculpture. When I first saw this huge work, I just got amazed by this due to the size, feeling shocked by the fact that the person could come up with this and create this sculpture. Through talking with the staff there, I could learn that this work was produced by internationally acclaimed American sculptor Richard Serra, and this work’s name was “Band.” I also could learn that this “Band” was created in 2006 and is made of weatherproof steel, measuring 12’9”x 36’5”x 71’9 1⁄2” x 2”, and it was fabricated in Siegen, Germany. In addition, I could get to know that it took him two and a half years to develop this work. He also told me that this band sculpture shows two different characteristics which are bravado and elegance. He mentioned that even though this work is really huge, requiring tons of hot steel to produce, this work shows very detailed accuracy.

Richard Serra, Band, 2006, weatherproof steel, 12’9” x 36’5” x 71’9.5” x 2” 

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Eli and Edythe Broad

After talking with the staff, I walked around this sculpture once more, to feel more about his steel work. By doing this, I could really feel and understand what the staff meant, giving me a chance to follow very delicate contours of the steel ribbon. I felt amazed more after learning about this sculpture. Through this work, I could again see how art has been combined with technology. In this sculpture, definitely very complicated engineering sides need to be played a critical role to produce this work. Handling tons of very hot steel and shaping gigantic steel with very delicate accuracy are very challenging and require advanced technology.

This unexpected sculpture already made me feel extremely happy and excited, and then when I walked more deep into the building, I finally could meet the work named “Miracle Mile” by Robert Irwin. This Miracle Mile again made me feel amazed especially via. fluorescent light, which was emitting from the work. It was so amazing to see this work, which made me think about how light, material, and color characteristics could combine together. The fact that this consists of 66 fluorescent tubes, and also it is roughly 36 feet in length made me very amazed. Furthermore, I could even experience the light not only from inside but also from even beyond the walls.

By looking into the work really closely, I also could learn that this work has varying hue ranging from very bright color to the mutated one; especially, this work also reminded me of his saying, “As artists, the one true inquiry of art as a pure subject is an inquiry of our potential to know the world around us and our actively being in it, with a particular emphasis on the aesthetic. This world is not just somehow given to us whole. We perceive, we shape the world, and as artists we discover and give value to our human potential to "see" the infinite richness (beauty?) in everything, creating an extended aesthetic reality.” Definitely, I could see his work has been creating infinite beauty which has extended our reality.

Miracle Mile, 2013 by Robert Irwin

Lightwork (Gift of Hyundai Motor as part of The Hyundai Project: Art + Technology at LACMA in honor of the museum’s 50^th anniversary)

Then, right next to Irwin’s work, there were a lot of people, walking around another huge installation, named Metropolis II, which was really huge. By talking with the staff again, I could learn that this work, imitates a fast paced modern city in the future. To me, it was just striking by its very fast paced miniature cars. As Burden said, "The noise, the continuous flow of the trains, and the speeding toy cars produce in the viewer the stress of living in a dynamic, active and bustling 21st century city, " I could feel the stress of living in those too fast paced future city definitely in front of his sculpture. After I walked up to the second floor looking into the sculpture from the top, I tried to imagine future cities in my head. 

Chris Burden's Metropolis II

I really enjoyed these exhibits, learning about installation art. Because all these works were quite huge, I strongly recommend people to visit and feel the works in person to feel the works really. Especially, there works clearly showed how art, science, and technology could be combined because these works could not have been done without incorporating engineering technology. I strongly recommend these exhibitions because I really think that these sculptures really incorporated technology within their works, and these works could be good examples where art and technology are combined really closely.