LA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
LACMA
Metropolis II This sculpture was built by a team of eight people working out of Burden’s Topanga Canyon studio. The work began in 2006 and was reviled in 2011, it was later reinstalled at LACMA in 2012. The art work is owned by Nicolas Berggruen who as loaned in until 2022. The sculpture is built from building blocks, Lego and Lincoln logs, it consists of 1080 custom cast cars as well. Burden said the piece was no to create a scale city but to invoke the energy of a city.
Urban Light
The art installation was created by Chris Burden and was installed in 2008. The project has 202 restored street lamps from the 1920s and 1930s. Chris Burden first started collecting street lamps in 2000 with no final idea, he collected for the next seven years. He went on to by sixty from a collector Anna Justice who would later play a big part in the overall restoration of the lamp posts. His lamp post mainly came from South California, and places in LA its self. The insulation was put in amongst changes to the LACMA campus and now resides in one of the two main open spaces. Burden said the lamps are designed to last a thousand years. Sadly, Burden died in may 2014, but his art work still remains a cultural icon.
Miracle Mile
This project was created by artist Robert Irwin. The work consists of 66 florescent tubes, each tube is wrapped with coloured gels varying in hue. The artwork spans almost 36 feet and can been seen from out side. The outside view was also created by Irwin in 2008. Two palm trees sit out side the window, playing with the subtle architecture of the building. Irwin states; “Irwin has stated, “As artists, the one true inquiry of art as a pure subject is an inquiry of our potential to know the world around us and our actively being in it, with a particular emphasis on the aesthetic. This world is not just somehow given to us whole. We perceive, we shape the world, and as artists we discover and give value to our human potential to “see” the infinite richness (beauty?) in everything, creating an extended aesthetic reality”.
LACMA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Melrose & La Brea
We were located in west Hollywood for stay in LA which put us in prime location to explore the shops Melrose and La Brea had to offer. This was a shopping area with out and large retail chains and only dealt in small independent street wear and vintage clothing. Melrose area had shops raging for the ever popular Supreme to American Apparel and Babe. The area was also very good for sneaker heads due to places like Shoepalace, Flight Club and Undefeated. La Brea offered the more retro and vintage styled shops. The Buffalo Exchange and LA Vintage offered amazing amounts of well styled vintage clothing. In one of the vintage shops I had
a rather funny walk in with Kelly Osborn, when I accidently hit her with my bag in American Rags. I quickly apologised with out fully realising it was her until my mate pointed it out to me a few moments later. I’m very clumsy by the way. American Rags was one of my favourite stores due to it blending high end street wear brands with Vintage clothing as well as bosting a CafÊ and restaurant area as well. I would highly recommend that area to anyone remotely intrusted in street wear fashion or looking for a cool area to hangout I highly recommend it.
Venice Beach My first impression of Venice Beach was one of complete comfort, as this was a place filled with people of different backgrounds just enjoying a beautiful vibrant place.
I then met Lueree an interesting man collecting money for a local charity. He had no front teeth and look to be in his late 50s but despite this seemed like a very likable guy. He started to take interest in my tattoos and where I got them from, so I told him I got them back in the UK. He then asked if I wanted to see his tattoo. At which point I was to far in to back out so I said yes. He started to pull up his shirt in a oddly seductive manner revealing a strangely worded tattoo “This is lueree’s dick on his stomach. This pretty much summed up LA for me a city not know for landmarks but the people that occupy them. The American Dream.
The skater culture is also very apparent in Venice Beach. The famous Venice beach skate park takes centre stage. This area always draws a crowd, I stood there for at least an hour watching people try and jump the rails, ride the bowls and just have fun. I was shock to see people as young as seven ripping it up in the skate park like they had been doing it for years. As the stereo-type goes the guy not wearing a shirt was the best there doing shit I hadn’t seen since Tony Hawk pro skater on the ps2. As we left the skate park I notice another crowed had formed a little further ahead. So my inner Sherlock made me investigate. It turned out to bee an outdoor roller skating dance group just having fun. I swear I saw a 50-year-old do a flip it was mad and wonderful but we couldn’t stay long as we need to walk towards Santa Monica.
Cannabis
So we booked an uber to take us from West Hollywood to Venice beach. The uber app allows you to pool in the LA area, this means you can share a ride with another customer going in the same direction as you. So me and my mate get in first and we travel about three miles and pick up the next guy. This guy gets in and he has a very particular smell. The guy smelled of marijuana, not judging as I smoke sometimes. So he starts a conversation with me and the taxi driver. We compared weed in the UK to LA and our stance on the legality of it, both agreeing it should be legalized fully in both countries. To clarify weed is legal in California for medical use but, from January 2018 it will become fully legal. To grow and to sell, for personal use and medical use. What we moved on to was the fact that weed is still illegal on a federal level meaning a lot of tax exceptions that business can use are not available to weed dispensaries. This was a problem as it made the idea of starting a company in that field very stressful and hard. This is where this guy comes in, he’s a marijuana consultant. This means he has accesses to lawyers, growers and accounts that specialize in the weed industry. So as we get closer to his drop off point he offers us some free samples, which is unheard of in the UK due to the illegal nature of the product, but as its run as a legitimist business free samples are a common practise out there. So us being polite brits we took him up on his offer. So when we stop he pulls out this massive jar of buds, more weed then I have ever seen in person about 2- 3 ounces which is a lot. Its UK value would be about £500£700. I guess this is my funny holiday story, everyone has them and at times they can seem a little unbelievable. But me and my mate enjoyed that Sour OG Kush for the next couple of days. He gave us about 4 grams each which was very nice of him, American hospitality.
Santa Monica This was a beautiful end to our holiday, seeing the sunset over Santa Monica. While taking photos something happened that showed me the difference in American and English culture. Me and my mate just made the sunset and all we did was nod in approval, but these American lads show up about two minutes later cheering and high fiving, just being loud. Americans. We ended the night drinking some good beers in a small bar just of Santa Monica, a greet end to a fantastic holiday. I highly recommend going to LA it was something else. Iv never fallen in love with a place before but Los Angeles was different it captivated me, like it does most people. If I had to sum up the city of angles it would be with this. Its not beautiful, but it is cool its unlike any where else.