Last night at sundown, on an industrial street next to the Santa Monica Airport, a crowd watched as nearly 25 tons of dry ice stacked into ziggurats (tiered pyramids) was illuminated with the pink glow of emergency flairs. The artist and celebrated feminist, Judy Chicago, had successfully re-imagined her 1968 installation/performance, Disappearing Environments. The event was jointly presented by Pacific Standard Time’s Performance & Public Art Festival (January 19 - 29) and Art Los Angeles Contemporary, as part of the ALAC opening reception.
Stacking 25 tons of dry ice is no small undertaking. Dry ice isn't like normal ice, it’s made of frozen carbon dioxide so unlike water dry ice doesn’t melt, it sublimates, turning directly from solid to gas, never passing through the intermediate state of liquid, which explains how it makes that cool fog. It also explains why it’s so much colder than normal ice. Water freezes at 32º F but carbon dioxide freezes at –70º F ( –56º C), which explains why dry ice requires some hefty safety gear.
The original Disappearing Environments consisted of only 2.5 tons of dry ice and was performed at a newly completed shopping center in the Century City district of Los Angeles in 1968, acting as a temporary intervention for shoppers and releasing an ephemeral cloud, like a literal visualization of consumerism’s fog. The stacking of the dry ice into the ziggurats was a large part of the performance, exemplifying the rapid urban development occurring in Los Angeles at the time; it took an entire day for Judy Chicago and collaborating artists, Eric Orr and Lloyd Hamrol, to haul in the blocks of ice and assemble the pyramid forms. Once completed, they lit road flares and watched the pink glowing mist of carbon dioxide.
Increasing the installation to 25 tons of dry ice meant three artists wouldn’t be enough this time around, so Chicago enlisted some volunteer help from Materials & Applications – a Silverlake based non-profit that both builds installations and hosts public events, and whose work often confronts environmental concerns. Chicago, along with Materials & Applications, were keenly aware that re-contextualizing Disappearing Environmentsfor a 21st century audience, would effectively alter the word "environment". Rather than a direct dialogue with 1960s consumerism, now the work is more an implication of sustainability. Carbon Dioxide fading into the atmosphere (no matter how pretty) isn't exactly environmentally friendly. And combining it with the sulfur-burning wicks of the flairs produced a lot of coughing from last night's audience. It's easy to watch the fleeting fog and compare it to our current environment with it's fading resources and ecosystems.
It’s a powerful piece, visually and contextually, to launch the Getty’s eleven-day Performance & Public Art Festival, which will conduct one performance/installation daily to celebrate Pacific Standard Time, Art in L.A. 1945 - 1980. Visit the Pacific Standard Time calendar for a full list of exhibitions and events.
As for Disappearing Environments, the 25 tons of dry ice is scheduled to fully sublimate by the end of the art fair. It’s on view at the Barker Hangar, 3021 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica CA, and is free to the public between now and Sunday evening; check with the Art Los Angeles Contemporary website for information on art fair admission.
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