iInstitute of Contemporary Art, Los AngelesArts District
Zoe Walsh: Gathering
Commissioned mural on ICA LA's 7th Street facade: silhouetted bodies in nature drawn from queer archives, topographic maps and community photography.
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The silhouettes on ICA LA's 7th Street wall have no names, but they come from two places. Some are lifted from photographs by Pat Rocco, the gay filmmaker and activist who staged and shot public intimacy in 1960s and 1970s Los Angeles. The rest are Zoe Walsh's friends, photographed resting in the artist's own garden.
Gathering is Walsh's largest work to date, a mural that covers the museum's 7th Street facade. Walsh builds images with digital modeling, hand-weeded stencils and screen printing, and here sets the bodies among topographic maps of L.A., the past and present ecology of the LA River's northeast bank, and computer-generated plants and animals. You stand back on the sidewalk and planes of color cut across the scene like windows, so the figures keep slipping in and out of view.
No review has appeared yet. It's one work on the outside of the building, so pair it with the shows inside. Entry is free, Wednesday to Sunday 11am to 6pm, with free parking on site.
Look for
Pat Rocco's figures
Look for anonymous silhouettes taken from Rocco's photographs of public intimacy in 1960s and 1970s Los Angeles.
Friends in Walsh's garden
Other silhouettes come from photoshoots of the artist's friends at rest, staged in Walsh's own garden.
The LA River layer
Behind the bodies run topographic maps of L.A., ecologies of the LA River's northeast bank and computer-generated flora and fauna.
Planes of color
Translucent planes of color and texture cut across the composition, acting as mirrors and windows that break up the scene.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Cheap Culture
- Locals Who've Seen It All
Skip if
You'd make the trip for this alone: it's a single mural on the building's outside wall.
Also at Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
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Image credits
5
- Zoe Walsh: GatheringCourtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles. Photo: Jeff McLane
- Sculpted Portraits from Ancient Egypt© The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights reserved
- Charles Ross: Spectrum 14Courtesy of Getty Center
- Stories from the Library: The Mirror of the MoonCourtesy of The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
- Institute of Contemporary Art, Los AngelesDocFreeman24 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0