Ed Ruscha and the Image of LA

Los Angeles in the 1960's was developing into a city similar to New York or Chicago, however, much more vehicular. Naturally, artists reacted to this idea by making work influenced or critiquing this culture. The car, and anything in direct association with it (gas stations, roads, motorcycles, etc.) was the icon of Los Angeles. Judy Chicago painted on car hoods, Vija Celmins painted the view from a car windshield, and Dennis Hopper made photographs while driving.

Because Los Angeles was so "spread-out" it was a failure in the sight of Kevin Lynch. The "mental map" that Lynch presents consisting of the path, edge, landmark, node, and district was far more challenging for the urban dweller to create because of the sprawl. The Los Angeles dweller experienced the city primarily through the windows of the moving car. In this way, the flaneur is much more prevalent. When separated by windows and speed of travel, the flaneur in the car is even more detached from the city and just as, if not more, observant of it. The flaneur in the car sees a building, but only for a second or two before it is gone. Driving around the city is similar to watching a film. Just sit back and enjoy watching.

Ed Ruscha's Every Building on the Sunset Strip is a great example of the flaneur in the car. In one regard, Ruscha has reenacted the flaneur experience while driving down the Sunset Strip. By having the camera automatically make the pictures as Ruscha was driving, this group of photographs is a documentation of observing the city through the car.

Ed Ruscha Every Building on the Sunset Strip. 1966, accordion-folded book. 

Every Building on the Sunset Strip is twenty-four feet long. The viewer has to move through it just as they would have to move through the city. While moving through it, one notices the consistency of the building facades. Most often two story and very similar visually. The viewer can refold the book to alter the city scape, but it will not look much different. This parallels the drivers experience of the city while driving down the street and seeing building after building.

In addition to the image of the city and the reaction to vehicular culture, the perceptual experience of the viewer was something that Ruscha was very interested in and was a large part of his work.

Ed Ruscha Standard Station with Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half. 1964, oil on canvas

In Standard Station with Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half, Ruscha has incorporated many of his interests into the single piece. The content is the Standard gasoline station - an icon in direct relation to the car culture of Los Angeles. The gasoline station appears to be massive and very powerful or dominating. The majority of the content is located on the left half of the canvas (wide like a windshield) which relates to the view of the driver. While Ruscha used paint to make the image, he is clearly interested in it as an object as well. The object is 5ft x 10ft and replicates the billboard. The emphasis on the viewers perceptual experience of the piece is found in the painted torn comic book in the upper right corner. Here, Ruscha disrupts the image and draws attention to the piece as an object. The realistic comic book is painted in a perspective that appears as though it is resting on top of the painting. The placement of it in relation to the massive gasoline station encourages the viewer to move from a far distance to a closer one and from side to side. 

This technique of conceptual imagery paired with the viewer's relationship to the object is very interesting. Ruscha's work appropriates ideas of objectivity from minimalist sculpture and compiles them with indirect, referential imagery. Here is a diagram of some of the pieces in the Ken D. Allan article and how they blur the lines of medium specific art:

How do we define the work of Ed Ruscha? Is it painting, sculpture, photography, or all of the above? While this work includes imagery referencing something else, it is all still dependent on the viewer's experience of the work. In relation to ideas of Michael Fried, the work is theatrical yet absorptive. Art that is referential to the vehicular culture of Los Angeles during the 1960's, while entirely dependent on the viewers physical participation in experiencing the art object is in a direct relationship to anyone experiencing the city of Los Angeles. The city is dependent on the participation of the individual driving through it (in order for the city to exist), while paradoxically the image of the city is a reflection of the car culture. The image of Los Angeles is roads, gas stations, similar two-story buildings sprawled across the land, and of course: cars.