In its first international exhibition, LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) links a gilded Paris mansion on the Seine occupied by the Mona Bismarck American Center and Thaddeus Ropac’s industrial gallery space on the city outskirts with works from 14 L.A. artists.Taking its name from T.S. Eliot’s 1922 poem, curator Shamim M. Momin said the exhibition explores the “disillusionment” with politics, socioeconomic division and urban dislocation.Many of the pieces are lost in the distraction of their contrast to the ornate interior of the manse, like Brenna Youngblood’s “Bladerunner.” The works feel much more at home at Ropac.Notable works include Amanda Ross-Ho’s three large abstract representations of a world map. The accompanying piece at Ropac, a world atlas that was her drop cloth, is also a sort of map to her work process.Lisa Anne Auerbach’s “American Megazine #3” explores the wasteland of religion in a deluxe-sized index of the U.S. phenomenon of mega-churches.Analia Saban’s couch swallowed by a canvas spooling off its frame is a clever commentary on the bourgeois display of art in homes.Edgar Arceneaux’s “Library of Black Lies” occupies an actual library. Inside the wooden structure, a blurry mirrored labyrinth contains books that appear to be carbonized or sealed with sugar crystals.What better place for that theme of disillusionment than Paris with the history of its disenfranchised populations of the suburbs, right? Unfortunately, the works fail to push outside of themselves far enough to connect to a strand of the city’s own context or even each other. The exhibition, however, easily speaks of the American wasteland of isolation and individuality.“Wasteland: ART FROM LOS ANGELES, curated by Shamim Momin” is on show until July 17 at the Mona Bismarck American Center and Galerie Thaddeus Ropac in Pantin.
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