Stream of views on L.A. River

IN the video “River Madness,” Dana Plays creates a mash-up of Hollywood films such as “Chinatown,” “Grease” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” that feature the Los Angeles River as a nesting ground for violence, car chases and underworld activity.

The video montage, one of the works in the Skirball Cultural Center’s summer exhibition “L.A. River Reborn,” looks at how the river has been portrayed in the popular media as a desolate cultural wasteland. But the exhibition itself -- composed primarily of photographic works -- moves beyond Hollywood’s negative view and engages in issues that the river raises about the city’s relationship with nature.

“I wanted to have the video partly because many people will recognize those clips,” says curator Sarah Vure. “It’s a counterpoint to the still photographs and to the river’s transformative power to become something more beautiful and natural.”

The L.A. River stretches a little more than 50 miles from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach. Over the years it has meant different things to different people, including local politicians, environmental activists and the people who live by it.

For many artists, the river has been a creative playground -- and a focal point of activism.

“The very first public acts along the river were basically involved with artists,” says Lewis MacAdams, who founded the nonprofit Friends of the L.A. River about 20 years ago and played an advisory role to the Skirball exhibition.

One of those acts was the 1985 installation “Arroyo Seco Release” by Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison. The installation included a mixed-media photograph and handwritten poem about revitalizing Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco, a watershed that feeds the L.A. River. Both works are included in the Skirball show.

Whether it’s a sense of activism or creative possibility that draws artists, the river would seem to have an undeniable allure. One of the photographers featured in the Skirball exhibition is Lane Barden, who describes himself as an “L.A. River artist.” He says part of the attraction was based on its unique history in relation to the surrounding land.

“It’s the only place in L.A. that’s not governed tightly by the institutional authority or private property rules,” says Barden, whose aerial landscapes engage in the river’s geography in relation to the Southland.

“It’s kind of a wild place,” he says. Barden describes how the river can be isolated for miles and that “there’s something about it that’s extremely intense and unusual for a city like L.A.”

Photographer John Humble, another artist in the show, sees the irony in a river that once played a vital role to the city. His pictorial photographs -- idealized pictures of what some people consider a blight on L.A. -- represent an interesting paradox.

“It inspires because so many contradictions exist,” Humble says. “Some people are surprised to see this beauty of the land.”

Ever since the Army Corps of Engineers paved the river in concrete, transforming it into a flood control channel in 1938, the Los Angeles River has been seen by some as an industrial eyesore coursing through various residential neighborhoods.

Vure hopes to dispel those views through art and by reflecting upon the recent movement toward a sustainable environmental and community plan involving the watershed.

“I was drawn to these seven artists by the strength of their work and their unique artistic visions,” Vure says. “But I think photography shows a kind of beauty that really only the camera can see.”

One of these perspectives is by street photographer Anthony Hernandez, who grew up only blocks from the river. Photographing the L.A. River was something he wanted to approach for a long time because of his personal history with it. “It had nothing to do with the social aspect of revitalizing the river,” he says.

BARDEN, however, hopes to see the river’s potential as a more accessible place for the surrounding communities come into effect.

“I’m more interested in the cultural aspects of the river because it has attracted artists for so long,” Barden says. “I’m not as interested in trying to restore the river in its natural state, because after researching and finding out what that means, I don’t really think that’s possible.”

Besides highlighting the works by these artists, one of the Skirball’s goals was to bring about greater awareness of this element of the city, particularly to those who have had little exposure to the river.

One of the programs the Skirball offered was a Los Angeles River bus trip in June that revealed some of its most scenic parts. MacAdams says many of the people on the excursion were visiting the river for the first time.

Those involved in the show hope that the exhibition and programming have undone some of the attitudes about the river that Hollywood has helped reinforce. MacAdams notes how the river is rarely, if ever, represented positively in the movies.

However, Hernandez thinks that this cinematic portrayal, at its core, may be more about what is defining and appealing about the city rather than attitudes toward the river itself.

“Los Angeles is really about space and not about place,” he says. “In that sense, film people are really capturing that space, but they may not know it. It’s really hard to put your finger on it, and people are drawn to that in different ways.”

*

‘L.A. River Reborn’

Where: Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A.

When: Noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, except noon to 9 p.m. Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Ends Sept. 3.

Price: Free

Info: (310) 440-4500, www.skirball.org