size variable | watercolor, glitter, and iridescent medium on cut paper, magic string, fluorescent lighting fixtures with colored gel overlays, LED light panels, reflective Mylar | 2012 | Site-Specific Commission | Los Angeles International Airport, Terminal 1 | Los Angeles
I was commissioned by the Los Angeles International Airport to create a temporary, site-specific installation within the permanent glass vitrine of Terminal 1. Little River Mashup intermixed two previous installations, Glitterati Swamp Thing and Great River Mashup, while also adding new pieces including a ten-foot wall relief.
My focal point is the Los Angeles River. Urban encroachment has long overtaken the river’s original character as a natural waterway, but it still holds pockets of thriving wetlands within the confines of a concrete aqueduct. Island wetlands form from mounding silt, urban detritus, and vegetative outgrowths amassed through years of seasonal flood cycles. When the rains come, water torrents bring floating refuse that becomes ensnared in throngs of bushes, trees, and towering river grasses. When the water subsides, a tangled mixture of snarled branches and mashed-up bushes is left. To me, these formations become living monuments to the persistent battle between nature and urban growth.
I work on enormous sheets of Lenox 100 drawing paper stretched vertically against my studio wall, wielding a standard utility knife to spontaneously cut away at the paper — a hybrid of abstracted landscape imagery. The free-form process of “knife drawing” reveals negative space by removing the emptiness in between forms.