Overview
The Lux site incorporates a selection of installations originally commissioned as a “museum without walls” while the permanent facility was still being planned.
Home is a grouping of brick furniture completed in 2001 by Turkish artist Ali Acerol. The chairs, stools and ottomans of the piece confront us with the paradox of hardened construction materials shaped and worn down to a texture that resembles fine lace and soft padding.
Garden of Apple Delights, a triangular orchard on the Lux hillside, was designed by Los Angeles landscape painter Astrid Preston. Since being planted in 2003, the fifteen Anna Apple trees—the only apple trees that will grow in California’s coastal climate—have regularly borne fruit and now adorn the pathway to the Lux entrance.
Bird Hub, a series of three sculptures stationed in and around the San Elijo Lagoon, was created by Los Angeles artist Daniel Wheeler. In 2001, Lux commissioned Wheeler to create a site-specific sculptural installation at the lagoon, and after he experienced the area as an avian airport, Bird Hub was born. Tower is a 12-foot tall pole equipped with two pairs of binoculars—one placed 5 feet high for humans, and another poised at 12 feet for a bird’s eye view. Tower was originally installed along the nature trail at the lagoon, but was reinstalled at Lux Art Institute in 2008, at the northeast corner of the Artist Pavilion.
Mother Maple, a sculpture by New York artist Robert Lobe, is located near the top of Lux’s granite trail and depicts the trunk of a tree, a branch, and a large boulder. To sculpt it, Lobe used an adaptation of the ancient process of repoussé, a technique in which metal is hammered, usually from the inside, to create designs or forms. Made in 1988, Mother Maple measures an impressive 120” high by 123” wide by 108” deep, weighs 500 pounds, and is on loan to the Institute through October 17, 2010.
