A photography show by Janna Ireland captures Frank Lloyd Wrights Hollyhock House at 100
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Frank Lloyd Wrights lauded Hollyhock House turned 100 years old last year. To celebrate the centennial affair, artist Janna Ireland was invited to display 21 photographs of the Los Angeles abode, the citys sole World Heritage Site. The photographs by Ireland now on view at Hollyhock House zoom in on some of its most intimate details, which took cues from a bevy of influences, Wright himself said, including the Prairie Style, but also Mayan, Aztec, Asian, and Egyptian architecture. Wright called Hollyhock House a California Romanza.Janna Ireland: Even by Proxy is very much rooted in the present: The artist focused on Hollyhock Houses subtle details, she said, in an attempt to make visible the care and conservation that sustains it over time. Its an intimate portrait of an renowned building at 100 years old, and all of its blemishes.The photographs detail cracks in the glass windows, the craftsmanship of the custom wood furnishings, and the aging (and repair) of the hollow clay and stucco used to the build the residence.The show coincides with Hollyhock Houses 100th birthday. (Janna Ireland/Courtesy City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs)Plants frame a statue positioned in the center of the pool at Hollyhock House (Janna Ireland/Courtesy City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs)Even by proxy is a phrase Wright often used to describe the fraught relationship between architect and client. I regard the story of Hollyhock House, and how it came to be in spite of the often contentious relationship between heiress Aline Barnsdall and architect Frank Lloyd Wright, as one of the great L.A. stories, Ireland said in an artist statement. It is a tale of ego and conflicting ambitions, as so many of the best stories are, Ireland continued. My photographs are about light and shadow, wood and concrete, and the labor involved in preserving Wright and Barnsdalls complicated project for future generations.A view out toward Hollyhock Houses courtyard is layered with reflections of the interior architecture. (Janna Ireland/Courtesy City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs)Oak furnishings inside were custom-designed by Wright. (Janna Ireland/Courtesy City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs)Abbey Chamberlain Brach, Hollyhock House director and curator, contextualized Irelands show with past photographers who shot the house.At the sites centennial, Janna Ireland beautifully documents the landmark structure, showing signs of life, scars, and activity along with striking interplay of light and shadow, Brach said. This commission builds a rich photographic legacy for Hollyhock House, including work by Margrethe Mather, Edmund Teske, and Julius Shulman, and here Ireland reframes the storied site, capturing its continued resonances into the 21st century.Janna Ireland: Even by Proxy was scheduled to open on January 16, but its debut was pushed back to January 26 because of the California wildfires. The house regularly plays host to art exhibitions, last spring floral arrangements from Ravi GuneWardena were installed throughout the home.The exhibition is open through September 27.
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