500 people walking slowly down a hill: Pacific Standard Time takes on public art

Public art had its slow-moving moment in the late-morning sun with a large-scale reinterpretation last weekend of a 1980 Lita Albuquerque earthwork called "Spine of the Earth." 

As part of the Pacific Standard Time multi-institutional, multi-discipline art collaboration across Southern California, the Mojave Desert earthwork was recontexualized as a performance piece for an urban park space in Los Angeles.

Translation: Last weekend, 500 people dressed in red creeped down the stairs from the top of the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook like the slowest Lord of the Rings attack ever. 

Looking like a cross between a PG-rated Human Centipede and a Caltrans conga line, the lava-eqsue art drones chanted and counted as they inched back to earth.

The piece, which should have been visible from the 10 and 405 freeways, began with a parachuter trailing red smoke.

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