On my way to the press preview of the Helen Molesworth’s organized California Light and Space (The 21st Century Version ) at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, I was listening to Jeff Parker’s new Happy Today album. The live recording was done here in LA, so I was creating a coherence in my head between sound and vision. Ironically, Molesworth told us she was listen to Jay Z on her way to the opening, which for a New Yorker in LA (which she has been on the left coast now for over a decade), I didn’t miss the irony.
This city in a basin in the desert on the ocean is harnessing a lot these days, a lot of sound, a lot of visions, a lot of anger, a lot of blissed out dreams. You see a lot of undulations here. There isn’t anything flat. The sky is big and kind of yellow, the light in the evening is magic, the hills go on fire sometimes, the ocean can be blue or green, the traffic is relentless, the space feels untenable. Molesworth said something about the city is constantly in ruins, which is why you always see so many construction sites and things being tinkered with. It’s just always in a state of rupture and repair. I remember Patrick Martinez telling me this when I first moved here, and I have never forgot it, and happy Molesworth didn’t let that spirit be missed.
The show itself: it is rare for me to like everything, but I did. I think this was a chance to really single-out material, a vantage point, some sort of motion of LA right now, and of course Lauren Halsey, Mr. Wash, Lari Pittman, Jason Rhoades, Noah Davis and Thomas Houseago are what you think about when you think LA from a national perspective, but the likes of Hilary Pecis, rafa esparza, Manuel López, are all coloring the aesthetic. A lot of what we think of when we think of Light + Space is about spaces being constructed to show you the power of light, but in this show, the city comes equipped with the space and the sun bring the light. It’s a simple switch; let the artists be the light and the city be enough of a space.
The show has some connecting dots, from Pecis and Lopez’s views of neighborhoods on the sky, to EJ Hill’s modern memories and even Noah Davis’ urban scene. Molesworth joked that we have all seen enough paintings of sunset over the sea in our lifetime, and probably had enough selfies on our phone of the same scene, but there is something about Lily Stockman, Catherine Opie, Houseago or Jennifer Guidi’s version of it that feels vital and urgently beautiful in the same show. Houseago’s three works in particular, as well as the trio from Lopez, were standouts for me, both artists using the rawness of the land to capture something vulnerable.
I go back to Happy Today, because it unfurls new directions over the course of two long tracks, but it’s still Jazz. Like, it’s there, it’s that vernacular. This is the same for the works in this show. It’s about new directions, but it’s still right there. It’s Light and Space. —Evan Pricco
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