Hammer displays fresh art

Entering the mind of another human may seem impossibly
sci-fi.

But the UCLA Hammer Museum and its three new exhibits make the
process fun and easy.

From now until Jan. 5, UCLA’s Hammer Museum presents Dave
Muller’s “Collections,” Catherine
Sullivan’s “Five Economies (big hunt/little
hunt),” and Tomoko Takahashi’s “Auditorium
Piece.”

While all three exhibits play with the concept of viewing art,
each take on a unique perspective.

Muller’s work is inspired by flyers for indie rock shows
and art exhibition announcements. At first glance his pieces seem
like mere photocopies, but Muller actually extrapolates profound
meaning, satire and humor in his pieces.

For example, in one corner of the exhibit, Muller has posted the
transcript of a message left on an answering machine. Riddled with
“uums” and “uuhs,” the transcript shows
message-leaver Matthew Higgs asking the message receiver to
“make my name bigger” on an event flyer. Muller
complies by painting a medium size replication of the announcement
and “Matthew Higgs” in letters so large that they
extend far beyond the edges of the announcement and even appear in
reverse on the back of the wall.

The creative use of space and scale in this piece is consistent
with the exhibit as a whole. Muller’s work does not dryly and
uniformly hang from the Hammer’s white walls. Instead, some
pieces are posted with colored thumbtacks on edges and in wall
creases.

A painting of maple leaves surrounding the words “Visit
Kyoto” is hung on the wall above a smaller version of the
same painting, which is encased in plastic and fastened to the
ground.

Many of Muller’s pieces consist of multiple sheets of
paper placed in patterns or figures. One of these types of pieces
replicates a movie reel by hanging paintings, each with one moment
of action, in a line from the ceiling to the floor.

Located next to “Collections” is Sullivan’s
“Five Economies,” a less accessible exhibit.

Sullivan has designed a space which has five screens, two sets
of two that are side-to-side and one which stands alone, showing
multiple recreations of a scene from the 1962 film, “The
Miracle Worker” which tells the true story of Helen Keller
and her teacher Annie Sullivan.

Taking all this in after walking into the exhibit can be
confusing. The films have no captions and no sound, so exhibit
viewers have a harder time figuring out what they are seeing than
with “Collections.” But Sullivan makes a poignant
commentary about the creative process, showing that live
performances are always unique because of their inherent
variation.

Below these two exhibits, in the unfinished concrete shell of
the museum’s theater, is Takahashi’s piece. Known for
her site-specific, rubble-like work, Takahashi specializes in
filling spaces with scavenged materials in the name of art.

For “Auditorium Piece,” Takahashi uses various
scraps from L.A. streets, electronics junkyards and Hollywood
studio prop houses, among others. All of this “junk” is
then placed inside the unfinished auditorium to create a
“map” of the city. Walking into the auditorium to see
trash piled high and being blown around by a fan placed in the
middle of what will be the auditorium stage invokes a sharp feeling
of chaos ““ but the chaos is fascinating. Binoculars are
placed around the viewing platform so that exhibit goers can take a
closer look at what exactly is going on.

All three exhibits capitalize on using art to enter the
artist’s world. With Muller, his work gives audiences a clue
as to how arts advertising looks from behind his eyes. Sullivan
helps the viewer get behind the scenes of a live-action production
and Takahashi presents what L.A. could like from an
outsider’s point of view. Anyone interested in seeing through
the artist’s eye should visit this exhibit. They might like
what they see.

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