The Cacti art sculptures, located at the Santa Monica Boulevard median at the Beverly Hills West Hollywood Gateway, received some badly needed repairs today. Two assistants to artist James Peterson were seen at the median taking apart two sculptures. The Yucca and the Saguaro Cacti sculptures had some some wear and tear.
The City of West Hollywood debuted the Cacti art sculpture installation by artist James Peterson, on November 3, 2018. The Cacti is located within the City’s Ocean-Friendly Demonstration Garden in the traffic median on Santa Monica Boulevard, east of N. Doheny Drive.
Photo by Mike Pingel for WEHO TIMES
Photo by Mike Pingel for WEHO TIMES
Photos by Mike Pingel for WEHO TIMESWith Cacti, the artist mimics and honors these resilient, native Californian models of self-sustainability, taking visual cues from the Barrel, Yucca, Agave, Nopal, Organ Pipe, and Saguaro cacti. During the day, transparent materials that include dichroic film and tinted resin will combine with sunlight to create twinkling reflective light.
Cacti is part of Art on the Outside project organized by the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division, part of the City’s Economic Development Department. The Art on the Outside program installs rotating temporary artworks on the City’s medians and in parks.
The Cacti art sculptures were supposed to run through March 2019, however the coronavirus pandemic is keeping them around for much longer, according to one of the artists seen at work today.
James Peterson is a Michigan native with a BFA from Kendall College of Art & Design. He has always been curious about the relationship between organic matter and man-made objects. A fearless explorer of new materials and experimental processes, Peterson has fully embraced computer-aided fabrication, a tool that has expanded, informed and reinvigorated his practice. His work has been featured at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood; at Burning Man; at the Coachella Valley Art & Music Festival; at Art Basel both in Switzerland and Miami; at Kunst Raum in Switzerland, and many other public art installations around the world. In addition to his own design and fabrication company, Art & Contraptions, Peterson is an educator at SCI-ARC (Southern California School of Architecture) specializing in materials and applications. Peterson lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
Cacti is curated by Peter Mays, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Art Association (LAAA). He has curated exhibitions throughout Southern California for various arts, educational and civic agencies.
For more information about City of West Hollywood arts programming, please visit www.weho.org/arts.
