Snap a picture with infinite twinkly lights
I visited the Broad Museum in LA this Friday! We booked the free tickets a month ahead of time because the museum was so popular and busy. As if to balance out the free tickets, parking was super expensive, around $14 for the first 3 hours and then you pay per 15 minutes after that.
The first thing we did – and everyone else in line – when we first got in was to line up (another line!?) for the iPad sign ups for the Infinity Room. This exhibition lets each person go into a mirrored room for 45 seconds. Tons of little lights are reflected in the water on the ground as well as the fully mirrored walls and ceiling. Our wait time was about 3 hours, at which we received a text message telling us to make our way to the room.
Re-entry into the museum on the same day is free and you don’t need to re-line up, so we left and walked a few minutes to the Marketplace for some gourmet sandwiches.
Returning to the museum, we first visited the temporary exhibition, Oracle, which sought to make visual what is normally unsee-able. Some of the works included paintings that are influenced by random, probability-based strokes or a movie of a ball game during which pentagonal lights are randomly flashed. Another piece was inspired by circuits and geometry to represent social interactions.
The second floor offered a view of the storage rooms and some administrative rooms.
The exhibitions continue on the third floor, where we were greeted by bright Japanese pop art and a giant shiny balloon-like sculpture that was supposed to be “tulips”. We also saw some local art, such as a geometricized image of the Santa Monica board walk.
We also saw some perspective changing art. For example, the Benday dots area showcased pieces drawn in the comic book style of artistically placed and colored dots. Up close, the pieces looked like a mess of dots, but stepping back, an image is revealed.
There was a 3D sculpture in the corner that looked 2D in photos, as well a a painting that made sense both upside down and right side up. At first glance, it looks like the reflection of some riders somewhere above the water, but upside down, it looks as if the riders were on solid ground with a vase suspended in midair.
We also saw a giant table with giant chairs that viewers can walk around under.
On our way out, we also saw some of Basquiat’s works, which I recognized right away from Urban Decay’s collaboration with Basquiat for their new eye shadow palette series.
