Terminal 6, Departures Level (Through January 2019)
Xing LA: From Altadena to Long Beach
By Bia Gayotto

Bia Gayotto’s Xing LA video installation investigates the mobile space of the commute, exploring three parallel routes the artist travelled by foot, by train, and by car, from Altadena to Long Beach. Using a video camera and a monopod, which is a single pole used to help support a camera, Gayotto documented her disparate journeys. The resulting videos, installed on monitors placed side-by-side, recall the style of early travelogues, featuring establishing shots with formal compositions and minimal camera movement. The duration of each video screen is proportional to the time that it took the artist to traverse the landscape. 

While the car route took 20 minutes, and the train took two hours, Gayotto spent five days walking along the Los Angeles River. “I found interesting parallels among these routes. The riverbed provided early train track construction, which later became freeway construction,” states Gayotto. “So when we are traveling the freeway, we are also traveling the river. By traversing a familiar route in different ways, I was able to experience the city in a new way.” Gayotto’s installation also includes a large-scale map annotated with observations, anecdotes, and reflections from the three journeys. From footslogging to modern modes of transportation, Gayotto’s challenging undertaking provides a portrait of the physical and social landscape of Los Angeles, presenting imagery often unnoticed and magnifying transitory moments.

Note: Bia Gayotto’s Xing LA: From Altadena to Long Beach video installation will also be on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) on the screens at Stark Bar.
The video installation will be on view from August 2, 2018 to January 29, 2019.

Tom Bradley International Terminal, Customs Hallway, Arrivals Level 
(Through January 2019)
Lost in Los Angeles 
By Paige Smith

Paige Smith’s site-specific installation is an extension of her international street art project, Urban Geode, in which she places handmade, geode-like formations inside overlooked nooks and crannies of a city’s landscape, transforming the cracks between bricks or a derelict phone booth into a space for mysterious beauty. “I’m inspired by tucked-away spaces where one can find surprising beauty,” says Smith. The artist’s hand-sculpted crystalline forms imitate the organic character of real geodes, but are created with manmade materials, highlighting the tension between nature and industry. Smith filled a 43-foot long display case with the gold-painted paper geodes, infusing a sense of magical realism into the urban environment of LAX. Composed as a shimmering, imaginary landscape, Smith’s work encourages us to pause, discover, and find magnificence in the mundane.