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It’s 1 a.m. on a Saturday night, and a group of friends are wandering the gallery rooms of the Pomona College Museum of Art. And no, they didn’t break into the museum. It’s_x000D_
currently open 24/7.
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“It Happened at Pomona: Art at the Edge of Los Angeles_x000D_
1969-1973” is an exhibit on display in three parts from Aug. 30 to May_x000D_
13 of next year. Part one, “Hal Glicksman at_x000D_
Pomona,” is now on display at the Pomona College Museum of Art. During the 1969-70 academic year, Hal_x000D_
Glicksman was the Museum’s curator and director. He_x000D_
started an artist-in-residency program, a new concept at the time, so that_x000D_
artists could camp out and work in parts of the museum like a workshop. As his son David Glicksman put it, “… a lot of_x000D_
his colleagues and friends of the time just had these weird-ass ideas, and no_x000D_
one else was doing it, and he didn’t see any reason not to.”
Rather than bring pieces of art to the museum space, artists_x000D_
were able to experiment in the museum gallery._x000D_
The result of those radical art projects by local artists associated_x000D_
with Pomona College is now known as Light and Space art. This movement, originating in Southern_x000D_
California in the 1960s, used unheard-of materials to make art and dematerialize_x000D_
it. The Light and Space movement was_x000D_
typified by an emphasis on how perception and sensation could be influenced_x000D_
through different uses of light, size, and volume.
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Why is the museum now open 24/7? This undertaking is part of artist Michael_x000D_
Asher’s contribution to the exhibit._x000D_
David Glicksman elaborated on how opening the museum 24/7 is a_x000D_
contribution, remarking, “So that itself is an art piece. The art piece is that he is making it_x000D_
available for anyone to see at 3 o’clock in the morning… stumble in drunk, and_x000D_
have a time of it.” Asher wanted anyone_x000D_
to be able to enter the gallery, transforming it into an unrestricted area open_x000D_
to the public at all times—a quality almost no other museum can claim.
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As I explored the different rooms of the exhibition, I found_x000D_
myself constantly surprised by what I saw, from “Ball drop, 1969” by Ron_x000D_
Cooper, a project created with video media, to Judy Chicago’s “Snow Atmosphere,” a series of photos and a video of a canyon with smoky flares to soften the_x000D_
viewer’s perception. Also featured were pieces by artists Lewis Baltz, Lloyd Hamrol, and Robert Irwin.
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One of the pieces that stood out was “Rise” by_x000D_
Tom Eatherton. In creating “Rise,” Eatherton meant to create an immersive environment that would affect the_x000D_
perception of viewers differently. I_x000D_
entered the space through a dark, rectangular opening in the wall. As I turned the corner, an intense, vivid blue_x000D_
light exploded before my eyes, encompassing me and the circular room I was now_x000D_
in. On my way out, I felt so disoriented_x000D_
that I almost collided with the side of the wall. As David Glicksman described it, “If you really buy_x000D_
into the piece, you just sort of go outside yourself.”
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David then told me a story Eatherton had told him about how when_x000D_
the piece first opened, years ago, “… he was there one day and a family came in_x000D_
with a little girl. She was standing_x000D_
there completely quietly and she reached down and patted around on the ground,_x000D_
just to make sure it was there.” By the_x000D_
end of the exhibit, I felt the same way as the little girl had—unsure of my_x000D_
surroundings, and of what was actually reality. Check out the exhibit—it’s waiting for you, at_x000D_
every hour.
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