Pacific Standard Time: Women and Art in Los Angeles

This fall the art world buzz is centered on Los Angeles, California. The city is the focus of Pacific Standard Time, a collaboration between more than 60 cultural institutions across Southern California telling the story of the birth of L.A.'s art scene. West Coast art and artists broadened the landscape of contemporary art. New York had a more established modern art scene, and set the pace for much of what went on in the art world.For many years, Los Angeles was considered an artistic underdog (the area was more known for its sunny weather and movie stars than for fine art), and the contributions of its artists weren't taken seriously. But L.A. artists rebelled against the arts establishment, introducing new materials and work methods, and truly enriched American art. There were many women artists at the forefront of art making in the "wild west," and they made important contributions.

Betye Saar's The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972. Photo via Netropolitan.org

One woman who played a prominent role in the postwar Los Angeles art scene was Betye Saar, an artist who is best known for her assemblage pieces depicting themes of racial pride, spirituality, and ancestral history. Saar created her works with objects she collected in her travels to places such as Mexico, Europe, and Haiti as well as flea markets around Los Angeles. The artist is one of several featured in Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980, an exhibition currently on view at UCLA's Hammer Museum as part of Pacific Standard Time.  Saar seamlessly wove found objects with those of significance to her own family, thus placing her personal legacy within a larger historical context. She also collected racist memorabilia, giving figures and images trapped in stereotypical roles new and more empowering meaning, thus "liberating" the characters, and in turn the hearts and minds of African Americans. Her repurpose of this memorabilia reflected a new consciousness that was beginning to take hold in Black America, which was in a state of great change from the Civil Rights and Black Power movements.

Laerke Lauta's Floating Female

[Editor's Note: Please welcome new contributor Marissa Arterberry! To learn more about Marissa, check out our Contributors page.]

Laerke Lauta, Floating Female 2009, HD, 5 Channels, 30 sec.-5 min. loops

The Art Museum at Mills College in Oakland, California is currently exhibiting a five-channel video installation by Danish artist Laerke Lauta entitled Floating Female. The installation, a commission by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), is beautifully ethereal and heavy with suspense. The videos, which are projected in larger-than-life size on the museum walls, “map internal and external states of consciousness.”

Laerke Lauta, Floating Female 2009, HD, 5 Channels, 30 sec.-5 min. loops

One part of the installation representing a more external state of consciousness sets the scene in an intimate lounge. People seated in the softly lit room are engaged in conversation, and several empty beer bottles sit on a nearby tabletop. At the center of it all, a woman in a short red dress dances to softly pulsating house music with wild abandon. As she dances like no one was watching, someone clearly is: a man reclines on a nearby loveseat, taking in her performance with a bemused expression on his face. As the woman dances, seemingly without a care in the world, the suspense builds: Does she know this man? Is she intoxicated? What if she gets too carried away? Is the man an admirer, or could he pose a threat to her safety? I suddenly become very aware of all the things women must take notice of when they go out. I began to see this dancer as someone engaged in an audacious moment of pure freedom.

Laerke Lauta, Floating Female 2009, HD, 5 Channels, 30 sec.-5 min. loops

Laerke Lauta, Floating Female 2009, HD, 5 Channels, 30 sec.-5 min. loops

The exhibition, which was curated by Dr. Robin Clark at MCASD, “draw[s] from a northern European tradition that ascribes romantic, spiritual, and enigmatic qualities to the natural landscape. Lauta’s works are characterized by an undertone of unresolved suspense, the latent fear of a fatal event that is not directly revealed.”

One of the most arresting features in the exhibition is a diptych piece projected on two opposing walls. In one projection, a woman with white feathered wings floats on the surface of a body of water. We can see the wind blowing her feathers; she literally embodies the Floating Female. The camera is at close range, and with her wings spread wide, the woman appears to almost be flying on top of the water. The atmosphere this image creates is peaceful and dreamlike. But on the opposite wall, a simple shift in perspective changes everything: the camera angle shifts to the side, and the same figure that looked so free now appears to be a corpse floating face down in the water.

Laerke Lauta, Floating Female 2009, HD, 5 Channels, 30 sec.-5 min. loops

With freedom comes great risk, and an element of danger. Laerke Lauta’s work brings together feelings of exhilaration, suspense, and danger. She takes her audience to the edge and lets us gaze over the cliff through her eyes.

Floating Female is on display at the Mills College Art Museum until March 13th, 2011, with a lecture by Lauta on February 22nd. For more information on Laerke Lauta and her work, please visit her web site.