Marbled Haze

For her installation, the artist, a long-time admirer and student of the architecture of Lina Bo Bardi, chose to exhibit a large vertical photographic canvas print of the awning that protects parts of the Burle Marx garden from the sun. Set vertically like that, it’s hard to identify what exactly the photograph depicts—it could be a fishing net, for example. The undulations of the black and white image evoke the famous marble promenade Burle Marx designed for Rio de Janeiro. Completing the installation, two intersecting glass panes reveal elements of the architecture Bo Bardi produced for so-called Glass House in São Paulo. In her recent works, Kellndorfer has photographed landmark modernist mansions in Los Angeles, including Strick House (1963) in Santa Monica, Oscar Niemeyer’s only design on US soil; Lovell Beach House (1926) on Newport Beach, by the architect Rudolph Schindler; John Lautner’s Silvertop House (1956), in Silver Lake; and Freeman House (1923), by Frank Lloyd Wright, in the Hollywood Hills. However, instead of taking wide-angle shots of these iconic houses, the photographer opted to register intimate details of their windows and reflections, and how they unveil the landscape and subjectivity of the space.