14 Magnolia Double Lamps
Chris Burden
14 Magnolia Double Lamps
South London Gallery
15 September – 5 November 2006
Chris Burden, 14 Magnolia Double Lamps, 2006. Restored 1920s Los Angeles street lamps. Photo: Andy Stagg.
14 Magnolia Double Lamps stand proudly in two rows of seven, parading the main exhibition space of the South London Gallery. Each weighing down 1½ tonnes, they reach up in unison to clear the Victorian glass lantern ceiling by less than a metre. Chris Burden’s immaculately restored 1920s cast iron lamp posts were shipped into the South London Gallery from Los Angeles. In his installation Burden merges two phases of Victorian design, the gallery and the posts themselves, to create a wonderful sense of architectural disquiet.
Walking around the lamp posts that appear almost as decorative pillars, visitors to Burden’s installation are faced with a space seemingly in wait. The physical weight of the lamp posts, their perfect alignment and their colour uniform of battleship grey allow them to fit, aesthetically, within the Victorian building that has itself undergone a process of neutralisation through modernisation. The viewer is left to wander around what seem like ornate totems to industrialism. And just as elaborate, often secret, rituals form an important part of totemistic behaviour, there is a definite sense of movement and circulation begged of the viewer on this stage.
The design simplicity in Burden’s installation belies the significant technical feat of the piece, whose component parts, after meticulous restoration, made their heavy-duty journey from Burden’s studio in L.A to a secured grounding inside the main space of the South London Gallery.
Chris Burden’s re-fit in bringing Victorian lamps into a Victorian property, via a transatlantic journey, brings to light an historical irony. Burden’s lamp posts are rescued relics from a massive series once havened over Los Angeles’ megalopolis, as pawns in a civic ego. The majority were removed and destroyed in the 1960s and 1970s, the relics having become background noise on a broadly cultured stage. The original designs for these lamp posts was European, contributing to the pomp and pride harboured by L.A’s early century acquisitions. To return these posts to their design roots neatly though unsettlingly rejoins the Victorian municipal aim with it’s anti-matter.
This article was published in The Oxford Times on 13 October 2006
14 Magnolia Double Lamps
South London Gallery
15 September – 5 November 2006
Chris Burden, 14 Magnolia Double Lamps, 2006. Restored 1920s Los Angeles street lamps. Photo: Andy Stagg.
14 Magnolia Double Lamps stand proudly in two rows of seven, parading the main exhibition space of the South London Gallery. Each weighing down 1½ tonnes, they reach up in unison to clear the Victorian glass lantern ceiling by less than a metre. Chris Burden’s immaculately restored 1920s cast iron lamp posts were shipped into the South London Gallery from Los Angeles. In his installation Burden merges two phases of Victorian design, the gallery and the posts themselves, to create a wonderful sense of architectural disquiet.
Walking around the lamp posts that appear almost as decorative pillars, visitors to Burden’s installation are faced with a space seemingly in wait. The physical weight of the lamp posts, their perfect alignment and their colour uniform of battleship grey allow them to fit, aesthetically, within the Victorian building that has itself undergone a process of neutralisation through modernisation. The viewer is left to wander around what seem like ornate totems to industrialism. And just as elaborate, often secret, rituals form an important part of totemistic behaviour, there is a definite sense of movement and circulation begged of the viewer on this stage.
The design simplicity in Burden’s installation belies the significant technical feat of the piece, whose component parts, after meticulous restoration, made their heavy-duty journey from Burden’s studio in L.A to a secured grounding inside the main space of the South London Gallery.
Chris Burden’s re-fit in bringing Victorian lamps into a Victorian property, via a transatlantic journey, brings to light an historical irony. Burden’s lamp posts are rescued relics from a massive series once havened over Los Angeles’ megalopolis, as pawns in a civic ego. The majority were removed and destroyed in the 1960s and 1970s, the relics having become background noise on a broadly cultured stage. The original designs for these lamp posts was European, contributing to the pomp and pride harboured by L.A’s early century acquisitions. To return these posts to their design roots neatly though unsettlingly rejoins the Victorian municipal aim with it’s anti-matter.
This article was published in The Oxford Times on 13 October 2006
posted by Claire Nichols at 8:23 PM
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