LIKE WATER THROUGH A PEBBLED PYRAMID . . . : . . . So Are the Days at Fullerton Museum Center, Where Mineko Grimmer’s Zen-Like Installation Is Marking Time

Like a sped-up film in which rosebuds unfold to full bloom in seconds, Mineko Grimmer’s art makes visible the passage of time, though there’s nothing fast-forward about it.

Time transpires in its own, immutable pace in Grimmer’s work, which employs observable natural phenomenon like other artworks make use of paint, clay or video.

For a new installation at Fullerton Museum Center, Grimmer has once again fashioned one of her “kinetic audible sculptures,” graceful, Zen-like structures that combine movement and sound, call attention to physical properties, deal with time and life’s impermanent essence, and create an aura of meditative tranquillity.

Standing alone in a dimly lit gallery, the minimalistic piece consists of an inverted pyramid of pebbles frozen in ice suspended above the center of a dark, shallow pool of water. As the ice thaws, the pebbles drop into the water, contained within a bamboo-colored, finely crafted rectangular wooden box, sending ripples out across the water’s surface, its gentle oscillations reflected on a nearby wall. (Once a frozen pyramid melts completely--it takes about five hours--museum personnel will replace it with a backup. Several are stored in a freezer.)

Viewers may become aware of time passing as ambient heat slowly melts the frigid block and pebbles melodically go “plop,” or “ka-thunk!” as they hit the drink, or “twang!” as they strike two shiny piano strings stretched just above the water. Gravity quietly makes a statement as it pulls the delicate tan and mocha stones downward.

The installation is on display in conjunction with “At Mono Lake,” a photographic exhibit designed to highlight the lake’s rare and delicate ecosystem. Until last year, the city of Los Angeles had for some 50 years been diverting water from the lake’s tributary streams. The diversions had dramatically lowered the lake’s water level and threatened its wildlife, according to a Superior Court judge who has barred diversion by the city of Los Angeles until the level rises two feet.

The juxtaposition of the photographs with Grimmer’s work seemed natural, said museum curator Lynn La Bate, long familiar with the Los Angeles artist’s style. “After seeing all these (Mono Lake) pictures, I figured people would want to see some real water,” La Bate said.

But Grimmer was initially unsure about the combination. Photography has in the past been an “underrated” art form, she said during a recent interview at the museum center. Once she learned the aim and content of the Mono Lake display, however, she changed her mind.

“They both deal with the ephemeral, with water and life,” she said. Her installation, she explained, is “like life,” in its use of natural materials--water, wood and stones--and in that it represents chance and the uncontrollable “elements of nature that take their own force.”

The pebbles fall to form random designs at the bottom of the 3-inch deep pool that changes with the drop of each small rock, just as the shape of the ice block alters as it melts, she pointed out. Similarly, reverberating waves choose their own direction and speed, and plopping pebbles make music that seems to write itself.

“I believe in truth in beauty, and I believe the sort of natural material I use. . . depicts this idea better than other media,” Grimmer said.

As before, uncluttered minimalism is also key to the artist’s latest work, which she believes encourages inner reflection and lures viewers to linger, as they typically do.

“It’s a quiet piece and you can just concentrate on what you see. I think it can reach people on a deeper level,” she said.

Grimmer, 42, whose work has been shown and collected extensively in Southern California, took part in a 1987 exhibit at New York’s Whitney Museum, a major traveling show of American female artists and has collaborated on multimedia pieces with such contemporary composers as John Cage. She studied painting in her native Japan, then graduated from Los Angeles’ Otis/Parsons school, where she left behind her early figurative style and embraced a more conceptual approach.

Her architectonic constructions often resemble the Shinto shires and pagodas she grew up with. Philosophically, she may have been influenced by Zen Buddhism, she concedes. “But I’m not (consciously) trying to present that in my work,” she asserted, and hopes that people of

all ages and cultures will enjoy what they see.

“I hope the work speaks to everyone in the audience,” she said.

What: A “kinetic sound installation” by Los Angeles artist Mineko Grimmer. Held in conjunction with “At Mono Lake,” a 110-piece photographic group show.

When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday; till 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Through Feb. 23.

Where: Fullerton Museum Center, 301 N. Pomona Ave., Fullerton.

Whereabouts: Take the Orange (57) Freeway to Chapman Avenue exit. Drive west to Pomona Avenue (one block past Lemon Street) and turn left.

Wherewithal: Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for students and seniors.

Where to call: (714) 738-6545.