Windshield Perspective: Commute as Driveby Art

As part of our ongoing coverage of Pacific Standard Time Presents:Modern Architecture in L.A., we’ve talked about a show that looks not at individual buildings but a boulevard. It is called Windshield Perspective and it opens tonight with a party at A+D museum.

From Griffith Park, to Mulholland Drive, to its many miles of sunny beaches– Los Angeles is a place that attracts those in search of a view. Windshield Perspective, an exhibit opening at the A+D museum, honors a view that is not mentioned in LA guidebooks, but is ubiquitous for Angelenos–the view through one’s windshield along a major boulevard.

Greg Goldin and designed by Andrew Byrom (who created the image above) narrows in on the stretch of Beverly Boulevard in Central LA from Normandie to Virgil, a distance that in no traffic (an imaginary concept), is a three minute ride. It documents all that lines this vital piece of the LA arteries, from oft-changing storefronts to street vendors to billboards. By removing the commute from its purely functional context, it allows us to focus on the elements of a typical piece of LA cityscape that are seen and obscured through the blurry “lens” of a windshield.

The exhibit will combine the visual re-creation of this drive with what the museum describes as an “immersive sound environment” in order to illuminate the chaotic and dynamic nature of the LA boulevard. For tickets and information, click here. For more on this exhibit, listen to an interview with Greg Goldin on this DnA.