La Cienega Area

One of Los Angeles’ favorite social critics is back in town with more to say about the insidious presence of television and how polluted news filters into our brains. Ed Kienholz created mock TV sets from paint cans and vanity cases some years ago, as a gaggle of early works reminds us. But now he and Nancy Reddin Kienholz have updated the theme, focusing on the Iran-Contra hearings in a series of “portable TVs” called “Double Cross.”

The six variations currently on view are constructed of illuminated 5-gallon white plastic water containers equipped with real antennae and knobs. The screens are framed mylar sheets imprinted with typewritten text of radio broadcasts on the hearings or other news. It’s difficult to read the text because the words and the lines run together, so the overload of information and trivia becomes a blur. Another symbolic obstacle to getting the facts is that a piece of pseudo-religious statuary sits in the center of each screen, obscuring part of the text. Instead of Christ, the “figure” is a real bullet, framed or “haloed” by a cross-shaped cookie cutter that often sits on a pedestal.

For the energetic Kienholz team, this series is a modest piece of work, but it gets right to the point. The bulbous, translucent TVs wallow and glow like gluttonous monsters from outer space, while the tacky little crosses radiate an ominously righteous air. (Gemini G.E.L., 8365 Melrose Ave., to April 9.)