Roundabout, Windows on Wilshire, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA 1998

Housepaint on windows.

As part of LACMA’s “Windows on Wilshire” Program (which ran from 1997-2006), curator Howard Fox invited me to make a window installation. LACMA had acquired the May Company building (now LACMA West) in 1994. The building, on the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax Avenue, is an Art Deco architectural landmark, designed in the 1930’s as a department store. The prominent gold cylindrical ornamental relief, conceived as a representation of a perfume bottle, is an iconic sign of this building.

I love the rounded plan of the gracefully curving windows. I wanted to emphasize this shape by rendering the transparent glass opaque. I painted a composition of vertical bands of color on the interior of the glass, exposing the exterior. This method produces a reflective surface of pure color without the materiality of paint’s presence. Reflections of the neighborhood were always embedded in the piece – a busy corner with bus stops and a diner across the street, moving cars, buses, and pedestrians.