Doug Aitken has work recently on view at Regen Projects and the Marciano Art Foundation in Los Angeles. At Regen Projects, his solo show “Psychic Debris Fields” is immersive, full of light, sound, sculpture, and materials. Towering animals are created from an astounding array of found material—broken windshield glass, freeway tire rubber, wild grass seeds, grains, oats, and cat litter.
This work was done while making another epic project, “Lightscape,” what’s been described as a sight and sound fever dream. The kaleidoscopic film debuted in November at the Walt Disney Concert Hall where the LA Philharmonic played the score. Shots of actors known and unknown in the surrounding California landscape — manmade and natural — are set to a rich soundscape composed by Aitken and his team in collaboration with musicians like Philip Glass and Beck. “Lightscape” is being shown now at the Maricano Art Foundation alongside a series of ongoing performances and interventions.
Aitken’s art-making has never existed in a silo. There are no boundaries for him, be it between art making and life, land, sea, or sky. He sees his practice as an ongoing dialogue, a continuous metamorphosis. We spoke recently about his West Coast roots, open-door policy, and how art is simply an extension of living.
Listen to the Doug Aitken Podcast
Listen on Spotify Here
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Doug Aitken Notable Insights
“I think for me, really the practice of art making is just this kind of ongoing dialogue. It doesn’t have starts and stops, but it’s this kind of continuous metamorphosis.”
“I wanted the landscape and locations to come first. I never really had a formal script, it was a series of napkin sketches and images that I would draw. But they were really just enough to set a scene. And then from there, it was mostly improvisation.”
“We all have these periods of time where you kind of challenge yourself or you see how hard you can push yourself to do something or what are your limitations.”
“I think about that quite a bit, how the viewer will navigate a work, how can the viewer be empowered in a way where they feel confident to give something of themselves to it, to have a rapport, a dialogue. I am probably less attracted to things that are monolithic and fixed.”
“What happens if an artwork is living? What happens if it starts growing? What happens if it transforms continuously over time, if it melts down into the landscape around us or builds up out of it?”
“The thoughts that are on my mind are impermanence and the idea that art has backed itself into a corner where everything is made to never change. If we embrace change and evolution, then we’re taking on a journey where the artwork might be something that gives us a passport to see things differently.”
Doug Aitken Resources
To learn more about the Regen Projects exhibition, visit HERE.
To learn more about Doug Aitken, visit HERE.
To learn more about “Lightscape” at Marciano Art Foundation, visit HERE.
To read more about Doug Aitken in Forbes, written by Tom Teicholz, visit HERE.
To read more about Doug Aitken in Wallpaper, written by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, visit HERE.
