Skip to main content

Art & The Unknown at LAX's SEE CHANGE

Support Provided By

In partnership with Freewaves: Freewaves is dedicated to the creative exhibition of the most innovative and culturally relevant independent new media art from around the world.

Every year five million people arrive at LAX and five million leave from there. What is passing through those 10 million minds as they transition to and from Los Angeles? The unknown is part of their journey, maybe even its purpose. LAX international arrival area contains four hours of video art, enough for a serious plane delay, a span of time to contemplate life or to feel the anxieties of travel. Which way will you go?

There is a long list of concerns around a flight: time pressures, unheard announcements, delays, weather, finding people, maintaining possessions, security clearance, navigation, plus the emotional upheavals: reunions, break ups, and new encounters. For some, they travel so frequently unease has dissolved into habits and their minds are free to meditate during their passage. Art may be the antidote for both groups: the anxious and the bored.

For everyone, art is the opportunity to broach the unknown, that scary future, the ultimate ending, fear itself, or merely our penultimate priorities. Some of us need prodding, stimulus, or direct questions, while others prefer comfort. Both approaches converge at art. Art rebalances us among our oppositions. It reminds us of misplaced priorities. It helps maintain perspective among those priorities. It reconnects us with fellow alienated inhabitants at the same time as it examines our selves. Together we create collective meaning which art circulates among our human network.

Are these questions what you want to be thinking about at an airport?

Watch this clip from the LAX exhibit to see how some of the 17 artists all ask these questions and the final one: can you distinguish reality from illusion?

The following is a rundown of clips in the See Change exhibit in order of their appearance along with videos more specific questions:

Paul Rowley and David Phillips: "Local Time"
As we switch from analog to digital, what were we gaining and losing?

Kurt Hentschläger: "View"
Is technology the opposite of nature?

hentschlager_VIEW-LAX-

Caspar Stracke: "Cities Out of Cities"
Does it matter which city you are in?

stracke-LON01-sm

Seoungho Cho: "City of Light"
What is this new landscape of sunlight and artificial light?

Felipe Dulzaides: "Taking Chances"
What if we allow chance to rule?

Louis Hock: "Homeland"
What does "home" make you think of?

hock-Panorama-4

Todd Gray and Joseph Santarromana: "Intersect"
How do others greet you?

Intersect

Chip Lord: "To & From LAX"
Do all airports form one city?

Hilja Keading: "Splash"
What are L.A.'s subconscious images?

Pascual Sisto: "Cumulous"
Is this trash or treasure?

sisto_lax_frame-sm

Patty Chang and Noah Klersfeld: "Current"
What happens to our possessions once they head down the conveyor belt?

Current

Ryan Lamb: "Five-Dimensional Parade"
What is the 5th dimension?

lamb-5DParade007-sm

Dig this story? Sign up for our newsletter to get unique arts & culture stories and videos from across Southern California in your inbox. Also, follow Artbound on FacebookTwitter, and Youtube.

Support Provided By
Read More
An 8mm film still "The Kitchen" (1975) by Alile Sharon Larkin. The still features an image of a young Black woman being escorted by two individuals in white coats. The image is a purple monochrome.

8 Essential Project One Films From the L.A. Rebellion Film Movement

For years, Project One films have been a rite of passage for aspiring filmmakers at UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television. Here are eight Project One pieces born out of the L.A. Rebellion film movement from notable filmmakers like Ben Caldwell, Jacqueline Frazier and Haile Gerima.
A 2-by-3 grid of Razorcake zine front covers.

Last Punks in Print: Razorcake Has Been the Platform for Punks of Color For Over Two Decades

While many quintessential L.A. punk zines like "Flipside," "HeartattaCk," and "Profane Existence" have folded or only exist in the digital space, "Razorcake" stands as one of the lone print survivors and a decades-long beacon for people — and punks — of color.
Estevan Escobedo is wearing a navy blue long sleeve button up shirt, a silk blue tie around his neck, a large wide-brim hat on his head, and brown cowboy pants as he twirls a lasso around his body. Various musicians playing string instruments and trumpets stand behind him, performing.

The Art of the Rope: How This Charro Completo is Preserving Trick Roping in the United States

Esteban Escobedo is one of only a handful of professional floreadores — Mexican trick ropers — in the United States, and one of a few instructors of the technical expression performing floreo de reata (also known as floreo de soga "making flowers with a rope"), an art form in itself and one of Mexico's longest standing traditions.