The Big Picture

Annie Leibovitz’s celebrity photographs are almost as familiar as her subjects are famous. Among the carefully orchestrated shots, you might recall an impish Whoopi in a tub of milk, a sullen Woody in a public restroom and a very pregnant Demi in the buff. The portraits have illustrated magazine articles, anchored ad campaigns, appeared in books and filled museums and galleries.

So why bother catching the Leibovitz show at the Pacific Design Center? Because it will make you see the photographer’s work in a whole new light--literally. Instead of displaying the photos in conventional frames on a wall (that’s so 20th century), the organizers floated the 60 or so photos of accomplished actors, musicians, dancers, writers, athletes and politicians inside see-through boxes mounted on individual pedestals in an outdoor installation that is, in many respects, as arresting as the art it was intended to showcase.

The exhibit, sponsored by American Express and titled “Rewarding Lives,” is a mix of art appreciation, corporate image-building and provocative environmental design. The installation is housed in a 200-foot-long white tent that seems to cling like a giant cocoon to the terrace of architect Cesar Pelli’s boxy blue building in West Hollywood. This custom big top shelters five illuminated mesh pods that intensify in color throughout the day. “The extruded synthetic fiber fills up with light,” exhibit designer Janine James says, “so these skins look like they’re made from light and allow for a subtle rendering of color all day.”

James is founder and creative director of the Moderns, a multidisciplinary think tank in New York City that has worked with Aveda, Armani Exchange and other companies on strengthening brand recognition through marketing and advertising as well as graphic, Web, exhibit and interior design. The firm won a competition to design “Rewarding Lives,” which was conceived to welcome American Express employees back to their New York City headquarters a year after the World Trade Center attack.

The pictures of some of the world’s most gifted individuals were chosen for the optimism they inspired in uncertain times. “Basically, we were trying to create an experience, to offer up a sense of discovery and a place of hope,” James says.

Following its run in the cavernous lobby of the World Financial Center near ground zero, the show embarked on a three-year tour that began in San Francisco and, after Los Angeles, will continue in Toronto. Stops in Europe and Asia also are planned.

In designing the project, James merged art (Leibovitz’s distinctive portraiture) and commerce (the history of the American Express credit card) in a unique destination marked by glowing organic shapes. She enlisted graphic and industrial designers, an architect, a biologist, a physicist and an anthropologist. But perhaps most important was the influence of British artist Andy Goldsworthy, who incorporates leaves, feathers, icicles and other ephemera in his sculptures.

Initially, the pods were modeled without computer assistance. “I really felt strongly we needed to work with our hands as part of the healing process,” James says. “We pulled out rocks, seashells and things from nature. Then we started sculpting forms in wood, grouping the ones that felt sympathetic to one another.” Gauze dipped in wax was wrapped around the solid wood, left to dry and unmolded, producing lighter, more transparent forms. Wire models covered with dyed pantyhose came next.

For the full-scale pod frames, James and her staff calculated final curvatures with a boat-design computer program. The resulting 35-foot-tall skeletons of aluminum tubing are held together with elastic cables in much the same way as pop-up camping tents. They then stretched a sheer mesh fabric manufactured for athletic clothing tautly across the tubes.

Electric light that simulates the full range of sunlight--also known as full-spectrum lighting--enhances the feeling of intimate enclosure. When projected through colored lenses, the light transforms each of the diaphanous pods from pristine white during the day to increasingly vivid hues of green, chartreuse, blue, gold or violet at night.

In this airy salon, Leibovitz’s photos are presented without matting in clear acrylic boxes fixed to simple aluminum stands that are tucked into polypropylene sleeves. The effect is one of people frozen in time and suspended in midair. “I wanted everything to feel ethereal,” James says.

“Green” materials, which are reused, recycled or donated to local charities after each venue closes, complete the temporary space. Beds of smooth white stones and a huge wall of living ivy surround the bamboo floor’s “liquid and water-like edges,” which James says suggest “breaking away from the past and creating a new world where we feel inspired.”

In short, “Rewarding Lives” is a welcome oasis of light and feel-good design even for jaded Leibovitz fans. If you’re in a rut and need a lift, then head for the tent that, like the indomitable human spirit, glows from within.

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“Rewarding Lives,” Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood; (310) 657-0800. Open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. through July 1; free admission.