Chris Burden's Metropolis II
One of my favorite exhibitions was MOCA's 1992 show Helter Skelter: LA Art in the 1990s. I was young(er) and impressionable, and it opened up my eyes to what contemporary art can be. The centerpiece of that show was Chris Burden's Medusa Head (referenced recently), a hanging sculpture, 14 feet in diameter, made of plywood, steel, cement, rock...and model railroad trains and tracks.
Burden's topped Medusa's Head with Metropolis II, a new kinetic sculpture that's on its way to LACMA. It features 1,200 custom-designed toy cars traveling through 18 lanes around a fabricated city. You have to see it to believe it...so here's the preview.
Metropolis II is a follow up to Metropolis I, which only had two single-lane highways and 80 Hot Wheels cars. It was purchased by a Japanese contemporary art museum.
Who's up for a trip to L.A.?