High Art

Sometimes it sucks living 3000 miles away from the West Coast. This is one of those times.

"Ecstasy: In and About Altered States." An exhibition named for the psychedelic drug favored by ravers. Lots of mind-bending artworks, including a room with giant mushrooms spinning upside down on the ceiling, a gallery furnished with benches that slide across the floor and a strobe-lighted curtain of falling water that looks like a screen of static crystals.

Paul Schimmel is at it again, and he thinks he's onto something.

"People are going to love this show," he said. "There's great art in it, and it's going to blow their minds."

Schimmel is the curator of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, whose page announcing this exhibit is here. The rest of the LATimes article is a very interesting read, so get to it. I'll leave you with this picture, which makes me insanely jealous of the kids on the floor, and note that the mushrooms rotate four times a minute. Duuuude.