REMEMBERING RUDY

"Aspiration" a statue of silent movie actor Rudolph Valentino was sculpted by Roger Noble Burnham and erected in DeLongpre Park in Hollywood on May 5, 1930

The inscription on the base of "Aspiration" 

In 1979, another statue dedicated to Rudolph Valentino was erected in the park,
this time a bust sculptured by Richard Ellis

For an interesting (if not downright bizarre) history of the park and these statues, visit Hollywoodland

OH, WHAT A TANGLED WEB

 The Jeremy Hotel in West Hollywood on Sunset Blvd. at La Cienega is joined by a web-like, netting art installation by Janet Echelman titled "Dream Weaver."  At night the 10-story fiber structure is lit by multicolored LED lights.

WINGING IT

Giant paper airplanes in Downtown Los Angeles' Grand Park 

Mesh-fabric paper airplanes serve as a shade structure in the Olive Court area overlooking City Hall

The winning choice in a design competition, the 11 enormous paper airplanes are the work of 

Elenita Torres and Dean Sheriff, and were unveiled in the park in September of 2016

RAINBOW CONNECTION

In October 2015,  Sony Pictures  in Culver City, CA (formerly MGM studios) erected this 94-high, steel rainbow. The $1.6 million installation by artist Tony Tasset graces the studio where "The Wizard of Oz" (source of the song, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow") was made in 1930, and overlooks a billboard announcing the return of Judy Garland's 60s TV show (titled The Judy Garland Show, appropriately enough) to Get-TV, a Sony Pictures Entertainment network.subsidiary.

To get the whole view, here's a photo Sony Pictures posted on Twitter

GENERIC GENTRIFICATION

April, 2015

In a temporary art installation titled: "Projection," French artist Vincent Lamouroux has taken the creepy, long-abandoned Sunset Pacific Motel in Silverlake, Ca. (nicknamed "Bates Motel" by locals due to its Sunset Blvd/Bates Street location as well its crime-filled history) and painted it totally white.

Not painted, exactly, but covered every inch of the property - including nearby palm trees and billboard - with white, lime powder paint (environmentally friendly lime-wash which wear off over time and doesn't harm the trees).

The notorious Sunset Pacific Motel at 4301 West Sunset Blvd

"Bates Motel" given a temporary facelift

The Sunset Pacific Motel has been a neighborhood eyesore and public nuisance crime-magnet since it was shuttered in 2002. Currently slated for demolition, its new, temporary status as living art installation has been heralded in official press as a site which, "...induces both an appearance and disappearance. It revisits our existing landscape with new eyes and envisions the building's new surfaces as screens for the projection of our desires."  

Pre-Art

Post-Art

However, savvy longtime Silverlake residents, aware of the area's recent gentrification and the gradual influx of middle-class hipsters into the area, wonder if perhaps the artist is actually making a vivid statement about a neighborhood literally being whitewashed. 

WHILE LENIN READ A BOOK ON MARX

Sculpture by the Gao Brothers - "Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself  at the Top of Lenin's Head" on display on LaBrea Avenue at 4th at the Ace Museum.

GREAT BIG STUFF

18-ft. tal, wooden "Fork in the Road" at the literal fork in the road of  St. John's Place & Pasadena Avenue in Pasadena, Ca. 

A trio of giant-sized jellybeans are sprinkled on the lawn of West Hollywood Park at San Vincente. The art installation titled, "Love Your Bean," is a work by artist Cosimo Cavallaro.

"Giant Fake Leica" is an art sculpture situated in the Leica LA store in Beverly Hills, Ca. Sculpture is by Liao Yibai.

IN THE SWIM

 Vintage swimsuits (and one inspired by that Million Dollar Mermaid herself, Esther Williams) for the "Pacific Standard Time" exhibit at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2012

Motor City

Artist Chris Burden's "Metropolis II" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art .

An enormous kinetic sculpture of 1,100 miniature cars racing through a stylized cityscape. 

Had I seen this as a little kid I probably would have passed out from frustration at not being able to play in it.

IT'S ALL IN HOW YOU LOOK AT IT

Neon sculpture by Glenn Ligon

Valley of the Barbie Dolls: To the Mathmos Edition

Number 2 in a series of original Barbie Doll art pieces by Los Angeles artist, Bruce Zwinge, paying tribute to Hollywood sex symbols.

Barbie as Barbarella (Jane Fonda)

Based on the sexy French comic book by Jean-Claude Forrest, the 1968 film "Barbarella" starred Jane Fonda as the space-age heroine. In this recreation of the iconic Jacques Fonteray costume Fonda wears during her trip to the Labyrinth, artist Bruce Zwinge captures all of the futuristic pop/60s details: gartered thigh boots, fringed-rear skirt, and provocatively placed energy box.

Zwinge reconfigured Barbie's hair into a mammoth 60s mane, and her makeup was redone (darker eyes, paler lips) to reflect Fonda's look in the film.

Artist Bruce Zwinge recreated Barbarella's space-age weaponry and wrist-bracelet tongue box

 Jane Fonda as Barbarella

Valley of the Barbie Dolls: Even Cowgirls Get The Blues Edition

One in a series of original Barbie Doll art pieces by Los Angeles artist, Bruce Zwinge, paying tribute to Hollywood sex symbols.

Barbie as Myra Breckinridge (Raquel Welch)

To capture that particular 70s allure of Raquel Welch as Myra Breckinridge, artist Bruce Zwinge not only had to break and reassemble the limbs of the original Barbie doll (allowing for the bent knee, elbow joints, and graceful wrist and finger articulation), but seriously had to amplify the hair and bosom. Barbie's original makeup was removed chemically to recreate Welch's very 70s dark-eyed, naturalistic lips, look. The miniature star-spangled, strapless bathing suit, a structural impossibility in real-life for a woman of Welch's dimensions (her hair covers the straps in the photo below) was manufactured by Zwinge as well.

Barbie as "Myra Breckinridge" is not only a tribute to the transsexual heroine of Gore Vidal's satirical 1968 novel, but to Raquel Welch, the actress who portrayed Myra in the 1970 film. The iconic star-spangled cowgirl used as the novel's cover art, and later recreated by Welch on the movie poster, is based on a famous 60s Sunset Boulevard billboard advertising the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas. More info on that sign available here.

A recreation of the original billboard as it appears in the 1970 film "Myra Breckinridge"

The original Sahara Hotel billboard featured the showgirl cowgirl spinning on a silver dollar.
Located on the Sunset Blvd. Photo courtesy of Classic Las Vegas History Blog

Raquel Welch as Myra Breckinridge

...Of course, "Myra Breckinridge" co-star Mae West was not about to be upstaged.