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"SPANNING HISTORY" PARTNERSHIP WITH FRANK PICTURES GALLERY
Summer 2008

David Eddington, Water Levels, 70" x 84"

In 2008, the Conservancy partnered with Frank Pictures Gallery to showcase the historic bridges spanning the Los Angeles River. With this partnership, the gallery joined the Conservancy’s effort to preserve these bridges as integral monuments to the city’s history.

David Eddington: Endangered Bridges Over the L.A. River
July 13 - September 10, 2008

An exhibition featured large-scale paintings in metallic acrylic by artist David Eddington, as well as vintage photographs of the iconic Sixth Street Viaduct by legendary photojournalist Horace Bristol. The Conservancy will receive a portion of the proceeds from the sale of these works to help in our efforts to save these iconic structures from demolition or unnecessary alteration.

Photos from the Artist's Reception
Images of Exhibition Paintings
Horace Bristol Photographs
Artist's Statement (below)

Bridge-Building Family Workshop
August 17, 2008

We also held a family workshop at the gallery, where kids and parents built their own mini-bridges and learned more about the historic bridges spanning the L.A. River.

Photos from Family Workshop

4th Street Bridge, 40" x 50"

Artist's Statement

Better to build bridges than walls, or battleships, my attention turned to the LA river downtown, for most of the year a green ribbon of recycled water.

One bridge in particular, the Macy Street Bridge, became my model. The grandiose aspirations and sadly displaced persons of LA, random metaphors for dominance and progress, are here on my doorstep.

In these bridges, alongside industrial engineering and steel spans, there are glimpses of Versailles and ancient Rome - an illusion, enhanced by the destitute. It is easy to imagine oneself partaking in the middle-distance adventures of a Piranesi etching.

Macy Bridge, 45" x 50"

I love LA moments like these. Allowing the neo-baroque bridges to play upon my mind, haunted by the dark underbelly of their structures, their curves within curves reminding me of Leibniz's "folds in the soul." My obsessions continue in this baroque world, which I gravitate to drawing, photographing, just viewing.

Although ultimately, painting itself is the subject: the interwoven trellises, striations, a matrix in uneven translucencies; from within, there is no need for a window since I am still outside.

-- David Eddington

Horace Bristol, 6th Street Bridge, Los Angeles 1933

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