LACMA Tuesday

LACMA has several new exhibits; here are highlights from my Tuesday day off outing.

Textile Alchemy: The Art of Reiko Sudo & Nuno featured large format textiles and several videos that showed the production process. To me the colors, textures, and patterns were so bland I'd banish them from my wardrobe and living spaces, but the descriptions and the environmental stewardship involved were good to know about.

These pics are from the on-site retail shop that was beautifully arranged and had a few offerings I might enjoy, after all.

Home of the Future, 1925-1985: Designing Domestic Utopias

brought together everything: design; engineering; culture; history; imagination, life. And it had a sub-show, The Kitchen and its Discontents. I don't know if that was disCONtents or disconTENTS. All of it was North American and Western European.

They had real examples of various home furnishings from the represented decades (more chairs than anyone could count), some small scale model houses, about a dozen short videos, and they admitted the kitchen hasn't become more automated but everything we do in the kitchen has become more complicated. You've likely seen or used some of the older kitchen appliances and phones, entertainment objects like record players, CRT televisions, and transistor radios. I had to add in the radio because I had a couple of cool ones I still miss.

I'll close with three posters. This one is from the USA's Rural Electrification Administration that I need to read more about.

General Electric Tomorrowland Carousel of Progress

Danish artist Aage Sikker-Hansen (1897-1955) declares the kitchen Denmark's biggest workplace, repositioniung domestic work as a professional pursuit. Circa 1950s