Urban Light, Art installation at LACMA entrance, Los Angeles, US
Urban Light is an assemblage of 202 restored street lamps arranged in a near grid on the forecourt between Wilshire Boulevard and LACMA's entry pavilion. The lamps represent 16 models from the 1920s and 1930s, mostly from Southern California streets, with fluted shafts, ornate brackets and glass globes in round, acorn and cone shapes. The largest model, the Broadway Rose, appears six times.
Burden bought his first two lamps at the Rose Bowl Flea Market for $800 each in December 2000, after curator Paul Schimmel's son Max pointed them out; the vendor, Jeff Levine, had been restoring them. He collected for seven years, also buying from contractor Anna Justice, who sandblasted, recast missing parts, rewired and painted the lamps uniform grey. LACMA's new director Michael Govan saw the lit lamps at Burden's Topanga Canyon studio at twilight in mid-2006, and the purchase was approved through Andrew M. Gordon's family foundation. The work was installed in 2008 on the Wilshire Boulevard forecourt.
The lamps came from Hollywood, Glendale, Anaheim and Portland, and 16 different models are represented; the Broadway Rose, the largest, appears six times. Visitors pose for selfies in front of the grid, and the piece has appeared in films such as Valentine's Day and No Strings Attached. In November 2022 protesters were tied to the posts in a performance honouring Khodanur Lojei.
The lamps illuminate automatically from sunset to sunrise, with the best photography during blue hour just after dark. Visitors can walk freely between the posts, though the grid extends over the sidewalk and can be crowded in the evening.
The entire collection weighs roughly 136 tons (272,000 pounds), with each lamp disassembled, sandblasted, and repainted in a uniform neutral color before installation. Some posts still carry foundry marks and production stamps from the 1920s and 1930s.
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