Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear: How Many Billboards? Art in Stead Writes Los Angeles

Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear: How Many Billboards? Art in Stead Writes Los Angeles Public Deposited

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Creator

Okrand, Megan
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Art and Art History, Art History

Abstract

Often described as seventy-two suburbs in search of a city, the urban topography of Los Angeles has become synonymous with its automobile-based infrastructure. When Los Angeles's MAK Center for Art and Architecture commissioned a public project, the city's notorious urban terrain was an integral component, one that invited artists to find and "produce" the city by navigating its streets. Titled How Many Billboards? Art In Stead, the exhibition consisted of twenty-one billboards displayed on major public roadways throughout the city, thereby implicating commuters as exhibition's audience. Focusing on four billboards by Christina Fernandez, Kira Lynn Harris, Brandon Lattu and Allen Ruppersberg, this thesis argues that the exhibition invites a consideration of the rich cultural tapestry of the city. This thesis, moreover, will examine both the imagery and the placement of billboards to see how they produced Los Angeles as a new space, one that defied boundaries through residents' movements.

Date of publication