by: Ellen C. Caldwell
for Riot Material
The space of The Underground Museum might be what you expect, but it might not be. It is housed in an unassuming storefront on a busy street in Arlington Heights, Los Angeles.
As visitors enter, they appear in a small museum gift store, with the usual items expected there: books about featured and past artists, some trinkets, and a sign-in registry for the museum’s mailing list. Just past the entry door and counter is another door. This is a carved wooden door, more like an ornate front door, if memory serves correctly, and here is the true entrance to the museum space and to Deana Lawson’s exhibit, Planes.
Upon entry, viewers are greeted with an introductory wall text that both situates Lawson’s practice and photographs, and places her work at the center of the Museum’s objectives and baseline theology. First, it describes how Lawson stages her work, while still maintaining (and creating even) a deep sense of intimacy…