Forest Sounds
This summer Angeleno's get a rare chance to view a seminal installation unviewed since it's original unveiling 37 years ago. Known for his investigations of "narrative structure through installation, theatre, sound, and painting," William Leavitt's focus has teetered between surreal depictions of modern gadgetry in obviously landscaped landscapes and moodily disjointed stage plays, such as The Radio (2002), which was performed at LACE. During the early '70s he collaborated with Bas Jan Ader on the "critical" journal Landslide. This summer he revisits his 1970 installation, "Forest Sounds," an artificial “natural” environment in the gallery space. According to gallery literature, "this project was originally a contrary reaction to the minimalist sculpture being made at the time, an 'installation of the absurd,' an ambiguous and falsely dramatic environment." Leavitt, as some of you might remember, discussed this topic at length in a piece I did for ArtUS a while back called Minimalism's Rubble."
Also on view is colleague Allen Ruppersberg's "Wondrous Remains," which features ephemera from the artist's past and current projects "placed on shelves to model possible arrangements in the collector’s home, a prospective modern day 'Kunstkammer.'"
Margo Leavin Gallery is located at 812 North Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.