Where to take children when visiting Los Angeles, including the child in you
Our grandson was coming to visit. First time by himself, seven days, what to do? Yes, miniature golf, yes the Santa Monica Pier, yes swimming morning, noon and night, yes making chocolate chip cookies, yes, yes, and yes. But more...aha! I’d been wanting to visit the Metropolis II exhibit at LACMA since it was installed. Never took the time for just myself, but when you have a grandson, that’s different. Metropolis, ten years in the making, is a Chris Burden installation that is part Lego Land and part the movie Cars. A visual treat for the child in all of us.
Metropolis II by Chris Burden
So off we went to LACMA, the installation is only active on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. So be forewarned.
Now the fascinating statistics. This kinetic sculpture was ten years in the making. The cars are handmade and magnetized so that they stay on the magnetic HO scale train track. There are 18 roadways, a 6 lane freeway and the cars speed around "the city at 240 scale miles an hour, the equivalent of approximately 100,000 cars." How about that?
I could stare in wonder for hours. We did. Well, actually I did. All of the incredible details that went into making this piece just mesmerized me. Details? I'll show you details. Have you seen my artwork? Here's a small one from one of my early paintings, "Alor Star."
Now look at the details in Metropolis II. You see why I would love the intricacy of this piece of art.
That's alot of details.
Didn't want to miss anything, so upstairs we went to the Robert Therrien "Plates" exhibit. Not realizing what fun was to be had. One of the guards showed us how we could take some fun photos with grandson as the model. You stand at a certain spot, aim the camera, take a look, you’re holding a huge ton of plates in your hands, move to another sculpture, aim the camera, and your holding up a twisting bed.
We also played hide and seek in the Richard Serra sculpture. He creates these HUGE , wave like pieces of steel that are shaped, molded, and undulating so you can hide in the folds. To be honest I think that’s the best part of the piece. Lots of places to run, hide and seek. The kids were disappointed that there was no echo. We tried to send a message to each other from one end of the sculpture to the other. Didn’t work. Would have been so much better if we could send a message. Darn.
Oh my, a spider in the house!
We walked up those steps to the courtyard and were immediately confronted by this sculpture installation. I call it "Yellow Spaghetti", our grandson calls it "cool." He jumped right in with all of the other kids, grabbing long strands, twirlling, pulling, running back and forth. Wrapping himself in the thick strands. Just as if he were eating and slurping spaghetti.
Best use for yellow spaghetti!
