Liz Larner: Distorting Form with Color | Art21 "Extended Play"

["Art21 Extended Play"]

["Liz Larner: Distorting Form with Color"]

This leg seems lower,

but I think it's also the twisting
of the tetrahedron

that gives it that appearance.

This is my favorite sculptural intervention
in Los Angeles--

or maybe anywhere.

This is Tony Smith's "Smoke,"
and it was brought here in 2008.

You can see the hexagon
from all these different angles.

It's not on a grid.

It's a great example of flow,

and it takes it so far beyond the math,

although it's kind of all about math.
[LAUGHS]

The Ahmanson atrium,

this was almost kind of like a dead space
at LACMA.

It was just a space that you would pass through,

from here to there.

And so bringing this incredible sculpture
into the space

really changed it.

[SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS]

Even if you have to hurry through the space,

it's still a great experience every time
and from every angle.

Just to see what sculpture can do,

this I think is probably one of the greatest
examples of that ever.

And now that LACMA is going to be moving,

I'll come back many times before the building
comes down.

I read something else about Tony Smith,

that "You can have it in any color
as long as it's black."

[LAUGHS]

You know, he really limited himself to

not going crazy with the color

because form is just so important.

We're not really used to seeing
colors distort form by not following it.

Color, it's such a huge part of our perception,

so to be able to use it as a material,

and make it work volumetrically--
and not use it just graphically--

is something that's very interesting to me.

There's a lot of pleasure to be had,
looking at minimalism.

There doesn't have to be an equivalency
between volume, mass, and density,

and that seemed to be something
really exciting to try to work with.

Did I say hexagram or hexagon?

[INTERVIEWER, OFF SCREEN]
Hexagon.

[LARNER]
Okay!

[LAUGHS]