You solve one problem, you create another. Take the LA river for example; back in the 1930’s, it was prone to erratic, city-wide flash-floods — most notoriously the deluge of 1938, a catastrophe that killed 115 people, caused $40 million in damage, and caused mayor Frank L. Shaw to resign in embarrassment after running his campaign on the slogan “Get Tough On Floods.” Anyway, in an effort to curb the floods’ infinitely-more-successful campaign of “Get Tough On LA”, the US Army Corps of Engineers undertook the ambitious task of paving the entire river in cement, so as to better control its flow. Which was a brilliant idea that made everyone happy, at least until everyone realized that a cement river is about as aesthetically pleasing as Rush Limbaugh in a tanning bed, and that it would soon become a crime-infested, vagrant-attracting, graffiti-covered, trash-strewn HPV-wart on the ass of the city.

Like I said: you solve one problem, you create another. But sometimes, out of that new problem, you get art.

Which brings us to the Ulysses Guide To The LA River, an exhibition happening now through July 3rd at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. It’s inspired by the book of the same name by urban explorer Christopher D. Brand, who spent years traversing all 51 miles of the concrete tributary, discovering its hidden pockets of loveliness and horror. Every piece in the show — from graffiti murals, to oil paintings, to algae-covered beer bottles stashed throughout the museum, to live plants and a prerecorded soundscape of river noises, to a full-scale recreation of an under-the-bridge canal — depicts the beautiful/blighted aesthetic of LA’s native waterway. It offers a glimpse of a place most Angelenos never experience up close — a district of overgrown greenery, 50-year-old street art, wildlife both animal and human, enshrouded in a palpable sense of gutter-dwelling danger and subterranean mystery.

It’s the next best thing to simply jumping the fence and checking the river out for real. (Not that I would ever suggest such a thing…)

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WHAT: down-and-dirty LA river art exhibit
WHEN: Wednesday-Sunday, 12 PM – 5 pm
WHERE: Pasadena Museum of California Art
$$$: $7 admission, $5 with student ID

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 2:17 pm and is filed under adventure, art, weekend, weird. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.