LORD, BENJAMIN

2010

Prints, photographs, stereoscopic viewer with wooden stand

15 X 11 X 14" OVERALL

Beginning in 1988, the Norton Family sent a limited edition Christmas gift to a wide list of friends in the art community including art institutions. Commissioned by an artist, the gift encompassed a variety of multi-media artworks including a porcelain ashtray, a printed fan, a woven blanket, a lifesaver, a dollhouse and a crazy coffee cup all of which later became part of the Norton Family Art Projets. Humaliwo Chambers' offset lithographs are organized into portfolios (a-c) the images are designed to be viewed through a freestanding stereoscope located atop a wooden stand (d;e) and depict a series of interconnected underground spaces, entered through a portal on a hillside in Malibu, California. The various rooms, passageways, and the objects found evoke conflicting themes from European, Latin American and Indigenous forms and histories. (Humaliwo is the Chumash word from which Malibu is derived, and can be translated as "where the waves crash loudly.") While drawing from the traditions of archeological photography, the images are handcrafted in the artist's studio and reflect meditation of 10,000 years of California history. A Pez dispenser was included in honor of Pez Founder Curtis Allina's passing.

2010

LORD, BENJAMIN

b. United States, 1974

Gift of Bruce Robertson and Thomas Kren

2020.006.008a-e