S,M,L,XLA

A Time-Lapsed Circumnavigation of Los Angeles

As the title says, this is a time-lapsed circumnavigation of Los Angeles: from downtown to the Eastside; down along the Alameda corridor to Long Beach and the Port; up to LAX, through the Sepulveda Pass and into the San Fernando Valley; along the Verdugo Mountains and down the Glendale Freeway and past Dodger Stadium; down and around and back again to downtown. 120 miles in 2 hours – compressed into 7 minutes.

An iteration of this video was commissioned by the A+D Museum, Los Angeles, as part of the “Come In! S,M,L,XLA” group installation (19 June – 14 September 2014) – an exhibition of spatial interventions reflecting on the inquiry of scale.

The audio commentary and q/a is from the world premiere screening of “From Sea To Shining Sea” and is courtesy the National Building Museum who hosted the event on 6 April 2014.

There’s a seven minute long video projected on the back wall of the A+D Architecture and Design Museum’s recently opened exhibit, ‘S, M, L, XL, L.A.,’ in which, from a driver’s point of view, the viewer is catapulted along a series of freeways from the Port of L.A. out to both valleys. Every few seconds along the way the trip freezes on one frame just long enough for text to pop up and call out passing geographical highlights just beyond the freeway’s walls. The very general hit list includes ‘Glendale,’ ‘Vincent Thomas Bridge,’ ‘118 Freeway,’ ‘downtown.’ We rarely see any of the landmarks or context … Evan Mather’s video is a playful and polished drive-by, quick and audience-friendly — a fitting analogy for the exhibit and its featured group of young designers.
LA Weekly

2014
Short
U.S.A.
English
7-1/4 minutes
Evan Mather