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Exhibition designers Durfee Regn Sandhaus have become specialists in the
American West.
By Mimi Zeiger
The Metropolis Observed
March 2002
Without the surfboards or wagon wheels stereotypically used to symbolize
California and the American West, Durfee Regn Sandhaus (DRS) is designing
exhibitions that bring that vast landscape into the gallery. Last year the
firm completed three geographically themed exhibitions: Made in
California, an examination of the state's image through popular and
fine arts; The Great Wide Open (pictured), which explored the
relationship between our understanding of the American West and panoramic
photography; and most recently The World from Here, a presentation
of books and objects from the collections of Los Angeles libraries.
DRS's conceptual road trip across the West began at the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art with Made in California (October 22, 2000-March
18, 2001), which included artwork that spanned the whole twentieth century
and filled five gallery spaces. The designers' biggest challenge
was creating visual unity among such diverse subjects as car-culture paraphernalia
and psychedelic posters. It was here that DRS began experimenting with a
design language that references the landscape.
"DRS never builds discrete rooms or full enclosures," says Howard
Fox, one of the show's curators, of the firm's style. "They prefer
to work within large open volumes--often the permanent perimeter walls of
the galleries--in which they orchestrate a meandering arrangement of display
islands, plateaus, bays, screens, and transitional zones." For example,
a slick white kidney-shaped island slips through an existing gallery doorway
and serves as both an object display platform and a way of guiding traffic
through the space.
"The West is both a natural frontier and a high-tech frontier,"
Tim Durfee observes. That combination was particularly evident in The
Great Wide Open, at the Huntington Library (June 14-September 9,
2001), where viewfinders embedded in a glass partition at the entrance
mimicked the photographic act of framing the landscape into horizontal stills.
"We wanted the sections to talk to each other," says Jennifer
Watts, the library's photography curator. "You can stand on one side
of the gallery and see the other. The platforms are akin to landforms but
also guide people through the space."
However, DRS was careful not to let the installations nosedive into cliché.
Though they evoke the Western terrain, the main elements (display platforms
and partitions) were crisp orange laminate rather than loamy brown, and
the forms--although they pay homage to plateaus and mesas--were ultimately
intended to reinforce the horizontal format of the panoramic photographs.
"One of their great strengths as designers," says Cynthia Burlingham,
chief curator of The World from Here (October 17, 2001-January
13, 2002), at the UCLA Hammer Museum, "is that they very much want
the concepts of the show to be integral to the design." That link,
expressed through geographical allusions, was most pronounced in this last
installation, where three large maps of the Los Angeles River from 1897-98
were laid out in flat cases. Architects Durfee and Iris Regn, and communication
designer Louise Sandhaus--who work very closely with curators--ad-vised
that the maps appear at the beginning of the show to establish the context.
"Displayed according to the actual flow of the river," Durfee
explains, "the maps are so poetic. They give a sense of place--meandering
from one side of the [Los Angeles] basin to the other."
So that visitors wouldn't get too lost while navigating the show's complex
topography, red Xes painted on the floor signaled good "rest stops"
or "lookout points." Viewed while standing on an X, the internally
lit backs of the curving white display cases created an abstract vista that
recalled shifting dunes or cirrus clouds. If you squinted your eyes, you
were looking out over the high desert. "There is a feeling of openness,"
Regn acknowledges. "The design hints at horizons without specifically
calling them out."
By emphasizing large expanses and encouraging the viewer to observe the
spaces between the art, DRS is able to capture the feel of the West--Route
66 road movies filmed in Panavision; spaghetti Westerns; and high,
open, clear blue skies--in the confines of the gallery. "We are
resistant to putting up walls. This gives an understanding of the gallery
as a whole space. In a way it's as if we are designing outdoor spaces rather
than indoor spaces."
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