Lining the halls of Perloff Hall, home of UCLA’s Department of Architecture and Urban Design, the first iteration of Critical Mass represents the culmination of research and analyses conducted on the urban fringe. Charting specific statistics related to localized urban design, housing, and population, the UCLA installation is a response to the frenzied growth of population and development in major urban centers across the globe, which far outpaces the development of new architectural models to accommodate such expansion. At the Instituto de Cultura de Baja California (ICBC), the second iteration of the installation charts Tijuana’s projected and current populations as well as the growth of two primary, competing housing trends in Tijuana’s urban development. Different colored liquids represent the number of people who live in ad-hoc, illegal, so-called “irregular” settlements and the population which resides in “regularized,” planned Tijuana. For the Museum of Contemporary Art’s (MOCA) Fresh summer party and silent auction at the Geffen Contemporary in Los Angeles, JML collaborated with the museum on the installation of an outdoor environment. Taking the psychedelic hi-fi prints of outlandish light sculptures by Assume Vivid Astro Focus (who produced the invitation for the event) as a point of departure, JML designed two upside-down chandeliers to illuminate the exterior plaza beneath Frank Gehry’s iconic canopy.

Nov 10 - Nov 30, 2006 (Tijuana Cultural Center)

Critical Mass comprises a series of installations characterized by pixellated matrices of recycled bottles and liquid. Extending JML’s research interests, each iteration of this traveling exhibition explores issues of seriality and temporarility as key elements of representation and effect through material experimentation. With each successive venue, the design of bottle arrangements and liquid levels address their immediate surroundings and respond to site-specific spatial parameters. 

Johnston Marklee

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Tijuana Cultural Center, Mexico

Critical Mass

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Client

Location

Multiple Locations,

Years

2005-2007

Partners

Sharon Johnston, Mark Lee

Project Team

Amalia Gonzales

Eric Staudenmaier