‘PAVILION OF RAIN’ AT CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE

Michael McMillen, whose room-size installations have re-created a musty garage, a chunk of the inner city and a desert rat’s retreat, says he doesn’t want to talk too much about what his latest work looks like. “I like to create surprises for the audience, so I generally don’t say too much, descriptive-wise.”

He did, however, toss out a few revealing details about “The Pavilion of Rain,” a shrine-like work that will fill the entire Cal State Northridge art gallery beginning Tuesday. He also suggested that “people wear non-precious clothing and flat shoes” to enter the installation.

The work, on view to March 20, is made of the “cast-off materials of our culture,” McMillen said, “such as corrugated metal, timbers from destroyed buildings, and objects discovered in the desert and alleys of Los Angeles.

“The pavilion is a work that explores our sense of solitude and isolation in the world,” he continued, reading from a statement he wrote about the work. “Surrounded by the devices of our invention and the forces of nature, we ultimately must come to terms with the paradox of our own simultaneous separateness from and inescapable connection to the living Earth.

“The pavilion is a symbolic depiction of the mind, a refuge where one may retreat to regain peace by relocating the center. Perhaps it is a shrine.”

It also contains “curious and strange objects” the artist constructed himself, as well as pieces made by his father, a veteran television scenic designer who died last year. “I’m dedicating this work to his memory,” McMillen noted, “showing some of his work, and some of my work, and how one grows out of the other in a continuum.”

The spring speakers list for a new local lecture series reads like the “Who’s Who” of art world intellectuals.

“On the Artist in Society,” co-sponsored by the Museum of Contemporary Art and UCLA’s College of Fine Arts, features a yearlong series of lectures exploring the role of the individual artist in contemporary society.

Hilton Kramer, editor of New Criterion and a former art critic of the New York Times, will address “The Role of Criticism Today” Wednesday night (see lectures under today’s Times’ art openings). Upcoming speakers include:

--Clement Greenberg (March 19), known as the father of modern American art criticism, who has written for the Nation, Art International, Art News and Arts magazine.

--T. J. Clark (April 2), professor of art history at Harvard University, who in his writings has explored the relationship of the artist to the specifics of history and moment.

--Susan Sontag (April 21), renowned writer, intellectual and film maker.

--Robert Hughes (May 14), art critic and senior writer for Time magazine since 1970.

The $5 lectures ($3 for seniors, students and MOCA members) will be held either at UCLA, the Wadsworth Theater in Brentwood or MOCA. Ticket information: (213) 825-9261. Lecture information: (213) 621-2766.

Never have so many helped so few to create artworks so unusual.

Kazuo Kadonaga’s latest sculptures are made of thousands of silkworm cocoons. And yes, the artist used the hairy animals to spin their egg-shaped homes into his works--coaxing more than 100,000 creatures to produce about 90 pieces.

Kadonaga, a Japanese artist, has brought the artworks here for “Silk,” an exhibit running Saturday to March 28 at Space Gallery (6015 Santa Monica Blvd.).

Space director Ed Lau, who has exhibited Kadonaga’s works twice before, said Kadonaga has constructed wooden frames, some square, some rounded, with myriad cubbyholes or “niches” within which he lets the worms form their delicate domiciles. Seen in photographs, the overall effect is geometric yet gentle; the rigid frames, ranging from six inches to six feet tall, seem softened by the white cotton ball-like cocoons that fill them.

Kadonaga likes to let the force of nature, not just his own human power, shape his art--an idea common to the Japanese aesthetic.

“The idea behind the silk works is that the caterpillars choose their location; Kadonaga does not take the worms and place them, because they won’t stay. But he must stay up for about two days and nights and turn the frames. Otherwise the caterpillars will all end up at the top. They have a tendency to crawl to the top and look for niches there.”

And what happens to the silkworms when they are ready to emerge with wings?

“Kadonaga heats them and kills them,” Lau said, in an apologetic tone. “Otherwise we would have butterflies all over the gallery!”

Everything you always wanted to know about “The Art of Photography” will be addressed during a two-day symposium on the subject at Scripps College in Claremont Saturday and Sunday.

Seminars will include “How to Look at a Photograph,” led by UC Santa Barbara faculty member Richard Ross, and an “Artists Panel: Creative Expansions of the Art of Photography,” with Paul Darrow, Scripps College art professor, and Sheila Pinkel, chairman of the Pomona College photography department.

“The Art of Collecting Photographs” will be explored by four leading West Coast collectors, and “The Challenge of Photojournalism” will be addressed by award-winning photographer George Rose.

Symposium participants will also tour an exhibit with works by artist Laurie Brown at Scripps, and photographic collections at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, Wesleyan College professor, will discuss the Getty’s holdings.

The symposium costs $51, including meals and receptions, or $18 for lectures only. Deadline for registration is Wednesday. Information: (714) 621-8054.