ART INSTALLATIONS FEATURE LOS ANGELES’ DIVERSE PLACES AND POPULATIONS, AT LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
(Los Angeles, California – December 29, 2014) Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs announces two new art installations at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) of mixed-media works and video inspired by the geographic and cultural fabric of Los Angeles. Street Wise, a collaborative photography and painting installation by artists Robbie Conal and Deborah Ross and guest curated by Elizabeta Betinski, is on view for the public in Terminal 6, Ticketing Level, through April 2015. Somewhere in Between: Los Angeles, a solo video exhibition by Bia Gayotto is on view for the public in Terminal 3, Ticketing Level, through April 2015. Works of art in both exhibitions enliven and excite one’s connection with the vast surroundings of Los Angeles.
Street Wise is an installation of seven large-scale, mixed-media paintings by Los Angeles painter and street artist Robbie Conal in collaboration with his wife, photographer Deborah Ross. Inspired by Ross’ prolific photography collection of Los Angeles sunsets, Conal began to paint owls within these scenes, as if to guard the moment. The result is a bold and lively cast of ten hand-painted owls that soar, hover, and perch over neighborhoods across L.A., and in one instance over an image of a galaxy 28 million light years from Earth. Six aerial photographs taken with the aid of a GoPro drone camera offer a bird’s-eye view of L.A.’s Downtown, Sunset Boulevard, Dodger Stadium, Venice canals and coastal neighborhoods, on top of which are painted diverse species of larger-than-life owls with their features highlighted in glitter to capture the L.A. spotlight. Each owl’s feathers is brightly painted and highlighted with careful regard for their distinctive patterns, species, and area of origin. Some owls’ identities have evolved to adapt to their urban personae, such as “Bob the Smog Owl,” and “Layla,” the expressive owl who soars watchfully above the north jetty in Marina del Rey. At the entry to security from the Alaska Airlines ticket counters, passengers are greeted with an image of the super-massive Sombrero Galaxy taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, and at the center hovers “El Jefe,” the space explorer and spotted owl. Street Wise invites viewers to imagine wildly, think inquisitively, and see different vantage points into the nature of and around our city.
In Terminal 3 Ticketing, Los Angeles artist Bia Gayotto’s solo video installation features unhurried video portraits and landscapes that offer an introspective viewpoint into the lives of fourteen Los Angeles residents living along a portion of the famous Route 66 connecting Pasadena to Santa Monica. After conducting a city-wide call and a series of one-on-one interviews with residents who identify as belonging to two or more places or cultures, Gayotto engaged in a process of observing and documenting the surroundings of her subjects, their activities, and wider glimpses of the city, which she then compiled and knitted together in Somewhere In Between: Los Angeles. The resulting video provides an intimate perspective on the inseparable and omnipresent forces of culture, identity, and place by revealing aspects of a person through food, dress, and habits. Using video montage and editing, segments from Gayotto’s video documentation are carefully juxtaposed between ordinary events such as folding laundry, or a family gathered together at a favorite restaurant, to glimpses of the soothing power of nature, or more thought-provoking abstract compositions. Mounted at a slight angle toward each other, the video monitors appear bound like two pages in a book.
This configuration reinforces the theme of a live-action narrative or tableau, and strengthens the contrast between colors, textures, and sounds: a crowded crossing along a fast-paced street plays against a quietly ticking clock in an art deco diner, or a woman folding a red sock and a table with a ripe tomato resemble two versions of a still life. Whether viewers self-identify as multi-cultural or not, the pervasive reality is that we can identify with more than one place or moment in time, uniting us in our journey through life.
About Los Angeles World Airports Art Program
Initiated in 1990, the purpose of the LAWA Art Program is to provide opportunities for educational, entertaining, and enriching cultural experiences for the traveling public at LAX and LA/Ontario International Airports and the LAX FlyAway® bus terminal.
The program showcases local and regional artists through temporary exhibitions and permanent public art installations, which enhance and humanize the overall travel experience for millions every year. For additional information, please visitwww.lawa.org.
About Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
LAX is the sixth busiest airport in the world and third in the United States. LAX offers 680 daily flights to 96 cities in the U.S. and 933 weekly nonstop flights to 57 cities in 34 countries on 59 commercial air carriers. LAX ranks 14th in the world and fifth in the U.S. in air cargo tonnage processed, with over 1.9 million tons of air cargo valued at over $86.9 billion. An economic study in 2011 reported that operations at LAX generated 294,400 jobs in Los Angeles County with labor income of $13.6 billion and economic output of more than $39.7 billion. This activity added $2.5 billion to local and state revenues. LAX is part of a system of three Southern California airports – along with LA/Ontario International and Van Nuys general aviation – that are owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports, a proprietary department of the City of Los Angeles that receives no funding from the City’s general fund.
As a covered entity under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City of Los Angeles does not discriminate on the basis of disability and, upon request, will provide reasonable accommodation to ensure equal access to its programs, services, and activities. Alternative formats in large print, braille, audio, and other forms (if possible) will be provided upon request.
