Dan Graham: Looking Glass
To stand and observe Dan Graham's pavilion, a large curved metal and glass structure in the center of the Regen Projects II space, is to relinquish a fixed sense of space and identity, and to float between planes of representation. The glass is both reflective and transparent, and the world captured in the play of surfaces can't be fixed or situated. It moves, becoming a dynamic flow of spaces, and the viewer enters and is redistributed as multiple distorted images. The show includes two videos, one of which, Death by Chocolate: West Edmonton Shopping Mall (1986-2005), details an array of amusements at a gigantic Canadian shopping center, many of which are captured and contained by glass enclosures that similarly reflect and refract the leisurely activities of passersby. The video is appropriately pedestrian with regard to its production, and nicely complements the pavilion and models in the gallery to offer a visceral and conceptual commentary on architectural spaces and corporate structures as halls of mirrors designed simultaneously to contain and distract. The overall pavilion project, part of a larger 30-year study undertaken by Graham exploring the spaces around us, perfectly embodies the pleasures and confusions of contemporary disorientation. The show is up until December 8, 2010 at Regen Projects II, located at 9016 Santa Monica Boulevard (at Almont Drive).