Doug Aitken brings his grand art inside at MOCA

Southern California native Doug Aitken is known for art on a grand scale.

He installed a video installation on a huge barge floating in the ocean off the coast of Greece. He wrapped the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC in video projections. He turned a 4,000 mile train trip across the US into a series of performances and art happenings.

But back home in LA, the Museum of Contemporary Art asked Aitken to squeeze some of his monumental work into a gallery space. His new show “Electric Earth” consists of a number of video installations that he’s reworked for the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Little Tokyo.

Press Play toured the new show with the artist:

The center piece is a video projected on a circular screen called “Song 1.”

There are also a number of his “word” pieces and kinetic sculptures, like “Twilight” and “Sonic Fountain II” (note that the MOCA version of this installation doesn’t have the mirrors).

Aitken is also working on a series of mirrored sculptures that will float below the ocean’s surface off the coast of Catalina Island. That project should open some time next month.

Doug Aitken “Electric Earth” is open now through January.