Rita McBride's Curve of Beauty

Rita McBride, Particulates, 2021

The most mysterious component of the Hammer's spring schedule is Rita McBride's Particulates (2021), a laser and mist installation that will inaugurate an new glass-enclosed gallery and will be visible at night to Wilshire traffic. The Hammer site has recently posted an image. 

The hyperboloid form of the laser display was used in McBride's 170-ft. public sculpture for Munich, Mae West (2011). There a wasp-waist hyperboloid evokes the curvaceous comic actor of the 1930s. In both Particulates and Mae West, the curve is an illusion created by laser-straight components.

"Rita McBride: Particulates" opens Mar. 26, 2023, and runs through Nov. 5.

Rita McBride, Mae West, 2011