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Martin Kersels @ Santa Monica Museum of Art

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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

My camera is broken, so please excuse the cellphone picture at the left. I’m just back from the Santa Monica Museum of Art, where final touches are being put on ‘Heavyweight Champion,’ the 13-year survey of Martin Kersels’ sculpture, photographs and videos. The show opens to the public Saturday, and I’ll have a review next week. But the survey does include a couple of monumental pieces by the L.A. artist I haven’t seen before --including this gigantic bird’s nest, made from willow twigs woven with cast-off household goods. (The entangled baby’s crib and grandmother’s clock are not the least of it.) Part of the reason my photo is blurred: ‘Dionysian Stage’ (2004-2005) is motorized, and it is spinning atop an enormous tractor tire.

--Christopher Knight

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