On Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile
Urban Light is a public art exhibit, and sculpture created in 2008 by late great eclectic contemporary artist, Chris Burden. The sculpture is located on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art campus, on the North side of Wilshire Boulevard directly across 5900 Wilshire, current home to Miracle Mile‘s most welcomed addition to the community, SBE Entertainment Group.
The sculpture features 202 fully restored antique streetlamps, carefully positioned together in rows of art, which represents street lighting in the days of old, within the city of Los Angeles, California throughout many decades. The art exhibit is a very popular attraction among tourists and locals as well.
Many that visit LA, and go on a museum tour at LACMA, whether coming off a tour bus or an Uber ride, find time to wonder around the many light poles, taking photos, posting on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. You can visit the exhibit day or night, and you don’t even need to purchase a ticket or enter the museum itself, for you see, this exhibit is on the street, just where the artist Chris Burden intended it to be. With Urban Light, it reminds us all of the simple things, such as streetlights in the streets in the heart of an Urban city. This tends to bring an unexpected joy to our hearts and minds, which binds us together with one common thread. We look at the artist’s wonderful creative imagination through his work, and if you work or live in or near the Miracle Mile, the carefully placed rows of lights never seems to get too old. This Urban Lights exhibit will always remain a staple of the city of Los Angeles, just like the Watts Towers created by Italian-American artist Simon Rodia many years ago. These artists constantly remind us all as a community, that anything within our imagination is defiantly possible. With Urban Light, a thought comes to mind about growing up as a youth within the city of Los Angles. It was great to play outside with friends, prior to the information age kids had to be creative to have fun without getting into trouble. But when the streetlights came on, it was time go home, quickly.
“The streetlights just came on, and my momma’s in the streets, tellin’ me to come home. I hit the gate and I hops on my Schwinn, and I tell the homies, a’ight then, yeah”. – Warren G – from the single This DJ.
via GIPHY Along with LACMA’s other famous outdoor art exhibit Levitated Mass, Urban Light is also great for filming motion pictures and cultivating television programming. This is also a fine way to localize filmmaking within the city of Los Angeles, and also take advantage of state & local tax incentives by filming in California. FiLM iNDEPENDENT at LACMA is also a great resource for independent production companies and individuals (above and below the line) seeking more knowledge of their craft. FiLM iNDEPENDENT offers courses for its members and no-members, however its recommended to become a member of their non-profit organization, if you’re serious about your career in the entertainment business.
On a plaque placed on side of the exhibit, reads:
Chris Burden
United States, 1946-2015
Urban Light, 2008
202 restored cast iron streetlamps
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, made possible by the Gordon Family Foundation’s gift to Transformation: The LACMA Campaign M.2007.147
Streetlamps are one of the essential features of the urban landscape and in the early twentieth century were more than utilitarian objects that provided street lighting. In describing the work the artist stated “Urban Light is an artwork that I have created by amassing and restoring a huge collection of 1920’s cast-iron streetlamps from Los Angeles and its many adjacent cities. Streetlamps are one of the fundamental building blocks of an urban metropolis. The richly detailed fluted lamps are an ornate totem to industrialism and represent a form of public art. My artwork, Urban Light, is ultimately a statement about what constitutes a civilized and sophisticated city, safe after dark and beautiful to behold.
“By placing the 202 human-scale lamps very close together and in long colonnades, I have usurped the lamp’s function as a streetlamp. Together they form a sculpture which I call Urban Light. The viewer’s experience of traversing through these tightly spaced fluted columns is an exalted one that recalls the marvel of seeing and walking through classic Greek and Roman architecture or a European cathedral. The feelings of recollection and wonder transform the streetlamps, day or night, into the sculpture Urban Light.”
“Chris’ work combines the raw truth of our reality and an optimism of what humans can make and do,” said LACMA director Michael Govan. With “Urban Light,” he said, Burden told him that he “wanted to put the miracle back in the Miracle Mile.” Read More.
And what a Miracle it is… Socialbilitty.