One of my goal for this year is to visit a bunch of the California missions. I last made a go at visiting them all when I was a child, learning my local history. Being at mid-life, it seems appropriate to travel the Camino Real again, revisiting these old churches and getting back in touch with my Californian roots.
So, I traveled down to Oceanside to visit the King of the Mission, San Luis Rey de Francia. Founded in 1798, this mission is a lovely site, with rich religious imagery, historical antiquities, and beautiful gardens.
And it makes for nice photos. ;-)
"Convidando está la noche" by Juan García de Zéspedes
Although the sky was leaden, I went to visit a couple of the local lighthouses, Point Fermin in San Pedro and Point Vicente in Palos Verdes. From these locations the view of the Pacific Ocean is especially dramatic, seen from high upon the bluffs with Catalina Island in the distance.
At Point Fermin, I was able to enjoy a tour of the building, learning about the site's history. Walking among the antique furnishings and looking at the old photographs, it was interesting to think of life back in those days, before the Los Angeles region had been developed, when it was a rough frontier town. Without our modern irrigation bringing greenery to this prominence, the cliffs would have been a barren and forlorn place in which the keeper's family would have lived in near isolation.
A view over the Point Fermin bluffs down at the Pacific Ocean
On the other side of the peninsula, at Point Vicente, there was no tour of the lighthouse, which was built in 1926, an era with a larger population and much improved communication and transportation technologies, making life as a lighthouse keeper a little less lonely. However, the nearby Interpretive Center was very active with whale watchers, seeking to spy a few of these leviathans on their migration down the California coast.
I saw no whales during my visit, but the playful antics of some dolphins made for fun viewing.
The weather matched my mood, but keeping busy, appreciating tales of times long gone and enjoying the natural wonders, lightened my disposition. Now, the grey clouds of unhappiness are still weighing down upon me, but maintaining an active mind and seeking out activities to engage my imagination will lead me through the gloom.
I don't have much to talk about today, being distracted by various matters, both good and bad. However, I do have a few photos to share, images that illustrate my fascination with perspective and distance, specifically within architectural forms. I just love those lines converging in the distance.
I think that my photographic skills are improving, especially in having cultivated a mindset that keeps me alert to interesting subjects, the ability to mentally compose a picture from the chaotic forms that surround me. This is a long learning process, but I'm feeling good about my progress. When starting this blog, taking photos was just part of "content creation" and, to my way of thinking, a mere complement to the writing.
Although my prose is definitely stronger than my images, photography has grown into more than a side effort, meant to showcase my words. It is no longer a necessary chore, but an exciting pastime.
A blue dumpster at the end of the parking alley.
On a slow day like this, when my mind is too tired to engage in critical thought or witty reviews, it is nice having a reservoir of photographs to prop up my daily production while maintaining the distinct feel of this blog.
It is said that a picture is worth a hundred words. So, these images really inflate my word count. ;-P
I am fond of repetition and pattern. When looking at architectural designs, I love a good set of tightly packed parallel lines. ;-)
Perhaps, my favorite way of creating these driving, linear bands is through the use of shadow and sunlight. It's a beautiful technique that combines the geometric precision of the linear design with the ephemeral and dynamic qualities of light. As the day progresses, the experience of the stripes changes, from being loosely aligned with the casting structure to locking into a firm conjunction with the architectural design.
I love the way in which it draws my gaze into the distance or along a path.
Torrance Cultural Arts Center
This form of open architecture and the utilization of natural light and shadow are hallmarks of Californian design. It's another reason why I love living out here in Los Angeles.
Japanese Garden at the Huntington: Arbor of Pure Breeze
A while back, I promised you all some photos of the newly reopened Japanese Garden at the Huntington. Well, I figured we would celebrate Earth Day by looking at this beautiful place.
A crooked bridge leads to the Bonsai Courtyard
It's a bit late tonight. So I'll let the photos "speak" for themselves. ;-)
The view from the Hammer Museum gallery floor, looking past the Skylight Gardens dome towards the Fox Theater. The cupola of the Janss Dome is barely visible to the left.
I was visiting the Hammer Museum today to see the current exhibition, "Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955-1972". The show was excellent, a comprehensive and educational survey of this undeservedly obscure Polish artist.
It was a surrealistic display of biomorphic constructs, legs and breasts and lips emerging from black foam or sprouting like flowers from a plastic stem. Creepy but compelling.
Anyways, after viewing the show, I stood overlooking Westwood Village and was struck by the interesting shapes and patterns that are on view. So I took a picture to share with you. ;-)
Detail of Crouching Tiger Monastery I (2011) by Kenny Harris
Each place has a presence, a spirit built up over the ages, formed by the experiences and events that have occurred therein. It is a goal of architectural painters to discern the soul of the structure and express it with clarity, using only the setting and space.
This is the approach taken by Kenny Harris in his exhibition "China" at Koplin Del Rio Gallery, which runs until February 18. Inspired during a recent trip, this show attempts to capture the unique nature of the various locales visited, from the posh colonial "Peace Hotel Shanghai" to the tranquil spirituality of the "Crouching Tiger Monastery" series. Through the nuances of light and space, along the lines of perspective, the enduring character of each place is revealed.
Although there are no people within these works, leaving the places to speak for themselves, without the clutter and bustle of habitation, the imprint of humanity is visible in each piece.
Detail of Zhouzhuang (2011) by Kenny Harris
Like classic images from the Dutch Golden Age of art, Harris explores the conceptual dichotomy between indoors and outdoors, where the delineations contrast and where they overlap. These images make one consider the emotional significances existing within such spaces, as well as the liminal or transgressive aspects of going from one type to the other, especially as it pertains to sacred or elite grounds, such as a monastery or the Forbidden City.
This weekend, I was able to pay a visit to the Banning Museum in Wilmington, near the Port of Los Angeles. The museum was throwing a "Victorian Christmas" event, with a horse-drawn trolley, period dancing, hot cider and snacks, and general holiday cheer.
Phineas Banning was a 19th-century Los Angeles businessman, specifically involved in transportation, freighting, and the stage coach industry. His drive to establish a world-class port in Los Angeles was instrumental in laying the groundwork from which the city would grow into a major center of global commerce.
The Banning House is now a museum, showcasing California Victorian style and culture. It's an interesting place to visit. And the hot cider was a nice touch. ;-)
Entry to Riverside's Mission Inn, flanked by giant Nutcrackers
This weekend, I had the opportunity to visit the historic Mission Inn in Riverside, a vast and sprawling structure of eclectic architectural designs, made even more eye-catching by the pervasive holiday ornamentation.
It's a rare event for me to travel so far to the East, well beyond the borders of Los Angeles County. But there are many cool things to see in Riverside, most especially the Mission Inn, founded in 1876. That may not seem like an "antique" date in most of the world, but, in this part of California, that's mighty venerable!
I wasn't able to stay into the evening, when the Festival of Lights dazzles the night. I'm hoping that I'll have the opportunity to take another trip inland.
Ho Ho Ho!!! Santa visits the Mission Inn
There are plenty interesting things about Riverside, but this post is all about images from the holiday look of the Mission Inn. ;-)
Pacific Life Building (1972) in Newport Beach, designed by William Pereira
Last week, we looked at some paintings of the Theme Building at LAX. This brought to my mind other buildings that the architect, William Pereira, has created across the Southland.
Over the course of the last month, I've come across a few of Pereira's works. None are as awesome as the Theme Building, but they are classics of mid-century modernism, embodying a futuristic aesthetic, stretching up into the sky like science fiction ziggurats. The Pacific Life Building, which is across the street from the Orange County Museum of Art, is one of my favorites, as its inverted pyramidal form seems to defy gravity.
Of course, buildings rarely remain unaltered in Los Angeles. This is the situation with two of the structures in today's post.
When the LACMA campus was originally designed by William Pereira, the buildings were intended to loom over a series of reflecting pools, like rising islands of art. Although decades of renovation and expansion have built over the pools, the upward, vertical sense of emergence is still perceptible in the lines of the Ahmanson Building.
LAX Theme Building from Parking Lot (2011) by Danny Heller
With brilliant hues and broad design, the exploration of light and space is a principle feature to Los Angeles art, capturing the fleeting instant of time in a flash of opulent color. Likewise, a fascination with novelty and "futurism" is integral to the city's ever-changing appearance.
Danny Heller's "LAX Series" solo show at the George Billis Gallery explores both of these elements. In a series of ten paintings, he examines the iconic Theme Building under widely different lighting conditions and from a variety of perspectives, bringing out the geometric nuances with subtle gradations of flowing illumination. A masterpiece of Googie architecture, the Theme Building has a unique structure that lends itself to such a study.
Heller is an accomplished regionalist painter who is well practiced at capturing the look and feel of the Southern Californian environment, be it busy cityscapes or quiet scenes of suburbia, evoking an authentic sense of place. The "LAX Series" is an ambitious project in that each work needs to express significant differences of character and mood, conveying distinct experiences in perceiving the subject, but it also needs to maintain a cohesive commonality through which comparative assessments of the individual paintings may be formed.
Theme Building and Road (2011) by Danny Heller
It's tough to accomplish, but I think Heller scores the goal with these paintings. If the premise of such a series is to impart the painter's experience of a structure through both sight and physical presence, then these works accomplish the job, allowing the viewer to share in the aesthetic insights signified by the overall composition.
"Punch card" windows along the northern face of Ahmanson Hall at Otis College
How will buildings of the future look? How can an architect in the present discern the shape of an aesthetic yet to come? Is futurism accomplished by an emphatic rejection of the Past? Or is it the extrapolation of modern cutting edge imagery projected into structural design?
We discussed the concept of futurist architecture when visiting the Space Park campus in Redondo Beach. Today, we are visiting the old IBM Aerospace Building in the Westchester neighborhood of Los Angeles. It is now part of Otis College of Art and Design, but was originally built for IBM by Eliot Noyes in 1963. Renamed Ahmanson Hall, this structure is a fine example of futurist architecture.
It is a seven story cube with each face segmented into "punch card" patterns. Clearly, Noyes took the look of the computer technology of his day and projected it conceptually as a design scheme for a "futuristic" building. Nearly fifty years later, it doesn't look anything like how the future of architecture actually turned out, but it does eloquently express a "futuristic" forward-looking aesthetic.
Otis' Ahmanson Hall, the "Punch Card" Building, was built in 1963.
In this regard, futurist architecture shares certain qualities with science fiction. The goal of a good SF story isn't to "predict" the future, but to consider a contemporary issue in the light of future potentialities. In the Punch Card Building, Noyes foresees the importance of computation in the future. So, the symbolism of his era's computer technology is utilized as a design principle to enclose the workspace. The residents of the Punch Card are literally surrounded by the presence of computation.
One interesting aspect to life in Los Angeles is that the city has been in the background to countless movies and television shows. So, you can go driving by buildings that you have seen in the movies numerous times a day. I'm not talking about "landmark" structures that even tourists can identify, but about structures that are relatively unknown even by locals.
In this post, we'll be looking at some buildings from the Space Park campus. It used to be owned by TRW, but in 2007 the company was bought by Northrop Grumman. This location was the setting to a Star Trek episode "Operation: Annihilate!" It was selected because the architecture had a "futuristic" design by the standards of the 1960s.
The TRW Tower of Space Park
Sadly, I couldn't get really detailed photos because the site is a secure facility. But it is adjacent to Redondo Beach public space. Therefore, I was able to stroll along the boundary and take some photos from afar. ;-)
The Torrance Art Museum is currently showing Cities: Visionary Places, curated by Camilla Boemio and featuring a wide variety of artist. The premise is based upon the exploration of the Urban Streetscape as a source of aesthetic inspiration, be it from the Beautiful, the Banal, or the Sublime. The works range in style and form including video works alongside paintings and photography. I found it to be an interesting collection.
My favorite piece on exhibit is Jeremy Kidd'sRuby City 1, which offers upon a dream-like image of nocturnal downtown Los Angeles. The photo seems to portray a twisting space, imbued by a subtle crimson light. Without the presence of people within the weird urban scene, it has a haunting presence.
I had recently seen some of Jeremy Kidd's work at the Leslie Sacks Contemporary show, Perception, in late June. His work really challenges the viewer's conceptions of spatial arrangement. They seem to lose their stability; the cityscape becomes "ungrounded."
But there are many other interesting pieces in this show.
At Bergamot Station, dnj Gallery is holding a group show featuring a number of artists that they represent, including Michael Eastman, Cynthia Grieg, Annie Seaton, and Bill Sosin. I can write at length about these excellent photographers, but today I feel like writing about David Trautrimas' futuristic architectural structures from his Spyfrost Project (2010), a few of which are on display in this show.
Trautrimas' works are based around household appliances imagined as architecture, specifically inspired by a techno-thriller Cold War militaristic aesthetic. Photographing numerous images of these vintage consumer goods and their component parts, Trautrimas reassembles them into fantastic military structures. They look like something out of a wild '50s era espionage comic book. Is the structure above a secret Soviet "Weather Control" facility or a mishmash of refrigerator parts? And how about this image?
Terra Thermal Inducer (2009) by David Trautrimas
Yeah, through the magic of a creative imagination and expert photomanipulation, Trautrimas has created a retro-futuristic Cold War environment out of the detritus of consumerist culture. The metal and chrome from the "House of the Future" has been reworked into military structures that never were. Yet, they feel so authentic. I can imagine a "Thermal Inducer" hidden in the Siberian wilderness.
On this date in 1893, the first Ferris Wheel was opened at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It was 264 ft. tall and took 20 minutes to complete two rotations. Currently, the world's tallest is the Singapore Flyer at 541 ft. tall. The London Eye, which was the world's tallest from 2000 to 2006, is the tallest European wheel at 443 ft. In America, we've got a dinky little wheel, the Texas Star at 212 ft. That's even smaller than the original Chicago wheel. :-(
Personally, I'm not big on Ferris Wheels. I'm slightly phobic towards heights. I can enjoy the thrill when it's brief, like when I'm riding a roller coaster, but, if I'm given time to think about it, realizing how high up I am freaks me out. It's the whole looking down thing. If I just contemplate the horizon, I can't easily put things into scale. When I look down, I can see ant-sized little people and toy cars. That's when I start getting tensed up.
Ferris Wheel at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago
But I can appreciate the attraction of Ferris Wheels.
For Good Friday, I decided that I wasn't in the mood for meditations upon the bodily sufferings of Jesus, as is the focus of a traditional Catholic "Stations of the Cross" service. I wanted to think on transcendence. So I took a trip down to the Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes. It's a beautiful location, situated overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Designed by Lloyd Wright, son of the famous Frank Lloyd Wright, the building is an architectural masterpiece. The Chapel is affiliated with the Swedenborgian church and is designed in harmony with its beliefs. For instance, the harmonization of the Spirit with Nature is represented by the contextual design of material and form, such that the boundary between the Chapel's Sacred Space and the surrounding Natural Space is effectively eliminated. Here are a couple photos to illustrate:
A view of Wayfarers Chapel from the outside
A view of Wayfarers Chapel from the inside.
Another interesting element of Swedenborgian theology is the view of the Trinity, in with the traditional concept of distinct "Persons" is rejected in favor of distinct "Aspects." This is best represented by the Triangular form. So, there are plenty of triangles and implied triangles to be seen. Here are a couple photos:
Trinity represented by a triangular fountain
Implied triangles of the entry lead to the expressed triangle of the alter.
Finally, the location on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific allows for wonderful pointers to the Infinite. Creating structures that draw the eye either up into the sky or out across the ocean, the Infinite is easily contemplated here. For example:
A view from the entry steps
Looking up at the Bell Tower
Anyways, I was very happy that I spent Good Friday at such a fine place of contemplation. My photos don't do justice to the full extent of the location's beauty. So, if you are in the Los Angeles region, I highly recommend a visit to the Chapel. Here's a vid of the interior:
