Up Close in Distance (bars, flags, pools), Hammer Projects, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA 2019

Printed floor vinyl and paint

Approximately 95' x 30'

The lobby of the Hammer Museum is an exhibition space that connects the lower street-level entrance of the museum to the upper-level gallery and courtyard space with a U-shaped staircase. I was interested in the literal function of an exhibition space through which bodies must move. Throughout the history of exhibitions for this space, the three large walls surrounding the stairs have become the “art” walls. I used the floor as the primary plane for the artwork so the viewer’s gaze would be directed down. One would have to step on and be “in” the work – albeit momentarily and fleetingly – to get to the other parts of the museum. Walking across the floor, the viewer’s body relates literally and directly to the artwork.

For the imagery, I made paintings that were scaled at 1% of the floor plan. In my studio, I poured and dripped all the colors of Ronan’s Aquacote line of enamel sign paint onto glass. As a substrate for painting, glass is both transparent and reflective. Color appears more liquified on one side, heightening the effect of reflectivity. In that space of reflectivity, things are momentarily disordered. In curing, some colors hold their own while others merge into neighboring areas.

Once finished, I had the work photographed at a high enough resolution to be enlarged one hundred times. This retained subtle information such as the reflection of studio lights on the surface. The imagery was then printed onto 3M vinyl flooring material and installed on site.

The colors together created a wild effect as the painted forms do not conform to the lines of architecture, blurring the boundaries of the space (for example, confusing the order of riser and tread on the staircase).

I painted the three large “art” walls a very light pink. This barely perceptible gesture rendered a sense of volume in the space and marked what had formerly been the primary site of artwork.

Yunhee Min

Yunhee Min