Lots
The Lots is an ongoing series exploring the leftover, the neglected, the unnoticed and forgotten landscapes that persist, survive, or collect within the city. Undeveloped or soon-to-be-developed lots around Santa Monica, my hometown and backyard, are the focus of this first folio of photo-reliefs, photo-series and videos documenting the untended natural landscapes behind the chain link fences (in almost every case) of undeveloped city parcels.
Apart from the beaches, there is little evidence remaining of the city’s original ecology after 125 years of development. The few remaining undeveloped parcels are now the target of schemes to densify the city, which as a result is rapidly losing not only its natural ecology, but also its local, cultural character. A few ‘empty’ lots remain and in them we glimpse the scrub and sands of this coastal desert, hear the wind mix with the passing traffic, as in Pico (video below), or may observe the seasonal rhythms of weeds and wildflowers pushing up through cracks in concrete, as in Main St. (above). Although interrupted and nearly eradicated, nature persists as gaps in the urban fabric, neglected and forgotten, though not for long.
Referents: Robert Smithson, Robert Long, derives, Situationist --re nature chasing the city (illustration)
Main St, 2012. Photo-relief. Archival digital prints, 37 x 75 inches
Sears, 2012. Triptych. Archival digital print, 8 1/2 x 33 1/4 inches
4th St, 2012. Photo-relief. Archival digital prints. Maquette, 9 3/4 x 13 1/2 inches
Pico, 2012. Video. 0:28
Bay St, 2012. Photo-relief. Archival digital prints, 24 x 58 inches
Etants donnes, 2012. Archival digital print, 22 x 20 inches