For Real
Twelve hundred cars zoom through a mini maze of freeways in LA-based artist Chris Burden's new work titled Metropolis II. The New York Timesrecently reported that LACMA director Michael Govan dubbed it "a portrait of LA," and the piece was purchased by the museum, and should be installed later this year. From the video documentation, the project looks delightful in the ways that many complex miniatures do, and falls in line with a recent spate of decidedly analog projects that tout the return of the real, celebrating the challenges of actually making something work in real life. I'm thinking of the OK Go video "This Too Shall Pass" and similar projects that are all about setting physical things in motion with enough acumen that they actually work. Take a look at the video, and look for the real thing at LACMA soon.