I’ve never felt much of a draw to Los Angeles, but here are some reasons to make the trip, or at least to experience it vicariously over the Web:
There is a show of new works by Tim Hawkinson on display through September 9 at the Getty Center. If you were lucky enough to see his mid-career retrospective at the Whitney in 2005, you might also have been inspired to make the trip to 590 Madison Avenue to view the Überorgan, a colossal barrel organ/intestine built from plastic detritus and dime-store electronics. The piece will be shown in the Getty’s main atrium, along with an exhibit of zoological forms “using common household and industrial items and reconfigured images of his own body.” You might consider checking out some clips in this PBS video feature, or ponder the similarities between his piece Signature, which signs the artist's name over and over on small slips of paper, and the famous 18th-century automaton The Writer, designed by Swiss inventor Pierre Jacquet-Droz, which writes Descartes' totemic statement "Cogito ergo sum."
I also stumbled across an unusual enterprise co-directed by Margaret Wertheim, perhaps better known as a science writer whose work appears regularly in major publications. The Institute for Figuring is (for the time being) a primarily Web-based museum exploring the interface between art and mathematics. Visit the site to view several online exhibitions, including a feature on Jeanne Mosely and her Business Card Menger Sponge, which also appeared in the most recent issue of the excellent Cabinet magazine.
My interest has also been piqued in the Museum of Jurassic Technology and the Center for Land Use Interpretation. It’s exciting to see that closer to home the CLUI has an outpost in Troy, New York, and will be reopening an exhibit on points of interest along the Hudson River. Their website also features lots of online content focusing on unusual land uses across the country. Fans of letterpress printing might also be interested in checking out the International Printing Museum.
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