My View, 1994
Love in the Ruins, Art and the Inspiration of L.A.
Long Beach Museum of Art, Curator Noriko Gamblin
Max Almy & Teri Yarbrow, Nicola R Atkinson. Griffith, (later Atkinson.Davidson) John Baldessari, Uta Barth, Nancy Barton, Karen Carson, Vija Celmins, Eileen Cowin, Steven Criqui, Russell Crotty, John Divola, Judy Fiskin, Anthony Hernandez, Linda Hudson, Larry John son, Edward Kienholz, Catherine Opie, Jorge Pardo, Lari Pittman, George Porcari, Edward Ruscha and Robert Yarber.
Medium :- Sound System, Velvet Curtains, Wooden Bench, Photographs, Postcards, Cassettes, Wooden Frame and Perspex Holders.
Dimensions :- Various
The studio” of Nicola Atkinson. Griffith , changes location with each project, but it is generally an urban area with which she is initially unfamiliar. Her conviction that art is useful in making connections between places and people is evident in her process: she identifies a ‘site’ through her subjective impression of a place, then penetrates that site through her involvement with its inhabitants. The memories and aspirations of the people she interviews form a collective history that maps the “underside” of imagination – aspects of a place that do not yield to casual observation. In her varied investigation of places as disparate as Los Angeles and Glasgow, Atkinson. Griffith has aimed to “reframe the view” – a purpose suggestive of a landscape, which, in a sense, she is. - excerpt from essay from the Curator Noriko Gamblin
Atkinson.Davidson challenges her audience to leave the gallery and engage with reality. Through framing a sequence of seven views across Long Beach, the artist creates a route across nine miles of the city, each viewpoint looking out to the next. Of the seven locations only two are acknowledge points of interest, the others are important nodes for people who live and work in each area. Each view can be contemplated in the gallery through formal, sparse photographs, but the artist attempts to force people out of the gallery to experience the intensity of the locations identified. The views are distributed on postcards, showing a detail from each location and including a map on the back. An audiotape of sounds and interviews, recorded at each site, captures the chaos of the city to give each some reality and transcribes the artist’s account of the process her view. Atkinson.Davidson contrasts the beautiful, rarefied, protected art environment with these extreme urban spaces. The artist also raises the notion of being a tourist in your own city and that points of interest are often narrowly defined. We all look out and say this is my view, but do we really understand, or want to take the responsibility for, that thought.
Sponsors :- Dr Guttler, California Arts Council and City of Long Beach.
