ART
Doug Aitken's Migration of Light
/ Zoey Mondt
09.28.09
A horse’s dry, variegated hoof steps warily in place as it shifts next to an anonymous motel room’s floor length drapes, stirring up a dusting of Carpet Fresh powder and leaving horse shoe shaped imprints behind in the pile. A guitar thrums slowly, builds in the Regen Projects exhibit by multimedia artist Doug Aitken. The show of eight pieces by the Redondo Beach-born artist combines text-based light boxes with a large-scale cinematic installation projected onto the Regen Projects courtyard at night and projected inside the gallery on a billboard by day.
“Horse’s eyes are pretty,” a little kid whispers from his dad’s lap on the floor, where they, among other viewers, are watching Doug Aitken’s installation of migration, (2008) a 24-minute single channel video projection on a billboard in the darkened gallery. The kid’s blasé; he’s used to watching animals living comfortably in human digs in movies and on TV. Fringed with light brown eyelashes, the horse’s eyes are lustrous as candied chestnuts and aglow with the reflection of a herd of wild mustangs stampeding across the TV set. A cacophony of chirps and calls make it unclear whether it’s snowy static that overtakes the televised image or a massive, migrating flock of birds. Taking the universal experience of dislocation, a sense of continuous change, as its point of departure, Aitken’s migration is the first installment in a three-part trilogy, “empire,” which debuted at the 2008 Carnegie International in Pittsburgh.
In addition to its presentation on the indoor billboard at Regen Projects’ space on North Almont Drive, from sunset to sunrise, migration is exhibited to the general public on Santa Monica Boulevard projected onto the exterior walls of Regen Projects II. Driving past the gallery on the night of the show’s opening, we glimpse through the crowded courtyard a huge projection of a cougar ripping the covers off a bed. Continuing an ongoing investigation of architecture and the installation of his work in public spaces, including his 2007 piece, Sleepwalkers, which was projected on the exterior walls of the Museum of Modern Art, Aitken lights up the outside of the Regen Projects II building like a sign, like the LCD billboards illuminating Sunset Boulevard at night. Draping a building in light and image, Aitken appropriates the architecture, transforms it into art, his art, and demands greater responsibility and participation from the viewer who in turn navigates their own perspective and experience.
“Horse’s eyes are pretty,” a little kid whispers from his dad’s lap on the floor, where they, among other viewers, are watching Doug Aitken’s installation of migration, (2008) a 24-minute single channel video projection on a billboard in the darkened gallery. The kid’s blasé; he’s used to watching animals living comfortably in human digs in movies and on TV. Fringed with light brown eyelashes, the horse’s eyes are lustrous as candied chestnuts and aglow with the reflection of a herd of wild mustangs stampeding across the TV set. A cacophony of chirps and calls make it unclear whether it’s snowy static that overtakes the televised image or a massive, migrating flock of birds. Taking the universal experience of dislocation, a sense of continuous change, as its point of departure, Aitken’s migration is the first installment in a three-part trilogy, “empire,” which debuted at the 2008 Carnegie International in Pittsburgh.
In addition to its presentation on the indoor billboard at Regen Projects’ space on North Almont Drive, from sunset to sunrise, migration is exhibited to the general public on Santa Monica Boulevard projected onto the exterior walls of Regen Projects II. Driving past the gallery on the night of the show’s opening, we glimpse through the crowded courtyard a huge projection of a cougar ripping the covers off a bed. Continuing an ongoing investigation of architecture and the installation of his work in public spaces, including his 2007 piece, Sleepwalkers, which was projected on the exterior walls of the Museum of Modern Art, Aitken lights up the outside of the Regen Projects II building like a sign, like the LCD billboards illuminating Sunset Boulevard at night. Draping a building in light and image, Aitken appropriates the architecture, transforms it into art, his art, and demands greater responsibility and participation from the viewer who in turn navigates their own perspective and experience.