Alum’s exhibit paints symbols in new light to challenge viewers’ expectations
School of the Arts and Architecture alumna Math Bass received an M.F.A. from the UCLA Department of Art in 2011. Bass currently lives in Los Angeles and her work spans across painting, performance, sound, video and sculpture. Bass was an artist in the 2012 Made in LA Biennial at the Hammer Museum and now presents a site-specific Hammer Projects mural for the Hammer’s lobby wall.
"Ordinary stairs serve as alligator teeth in the Hammer Museum’s new mural “Pink Dots.”
Alum Math Bass’ mural is now on display at the lobby of the Hammer Museum. Bass has been building up a repertoire of symbols as a part of their artistic language for the past six years, with the mural featuring a number of the images. (Niveda Tennety/Daily Bruin) The piece, created by alum Math Bass, was first unveiled Saturday and will be on display until Feb. 10. Featured on the lobby walls, “Pink Dots” is one of the Hammer Projects, a series that provides museum space to different artists. The mural features the symbols Bass has built up over their career, culminating in abstract images that exist within a 2D plane. Though Bass was confined to the space provided, they said they focused on highlighting their specific style of art within the space.
“I was just considering the location and the architecture and really trying to make an image that was engaging directly with the architecture,” Bass said.
Before beginning the project, Bass visited the Hammer to observe the space they would be working within. The location served as a new challenge for Bass – the artist is more familiar with working within the confines of a frame or a canvas, they said. To cater to the architecture of the Hammer, Bass said they approached the two walls perpendicular to the museum’s lobby as if they were two canvases, as each wall was fairly square-shaped.
The main wall of the museum is where Bass broke away from the structured canvases they were more accustomed to. In order to move with the angles of the space, Bass said they wanted the art to flow with the area. The mural now follows the path of the stairs, leading visitors to the main exhibits.
For the last six years, Bass has been building up a repertoire of symbols as a part of their artistic language; they began with five symbols and now have around 30 used throughout their work. While some are easy to identify – a silhouette of a Scottish terrier, for instance – other shapes are more ambiguous. Bass said the symbols are a significant aspect of their work, and it felt appropriate for the mural to match their personal art style."— Kristin Snyder, Oct. 4, 2018
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Daily Bruin website.
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