Pasadena Museum Of California Art always does a fantastic job with their programming. They’re always doing things very contemporary and somewhat obscure, which is something we very much like. They currently have two exhibits open, Edgar Payne’s The Scenic Journey and Layer’s A Loose Horizon. While the first is great, the second is very, very fantastic and really engages museum goers in addition to the Pasadena area.

The piece is an installation placed on the façade of the museum. It’s a spiraling, alien like sculpture that bursts from the museum’s face branching into the lobby: it’s like a metallic fire bird caught in an art museum. Layer, who are architecture artists Emily White and Lisa Little, literally engineered the piece with the help of digital technology to construct it. It’s not surprising it’s so innovative, engaging, and tied to space because both White and Little got their architecture masters from SCI-Arc, where White is currently still on the faculty.

We wish there were more interactive pieces like this around town which is why, again, you have to go visit PMCA. A Loose Horizon will be up through October 14 and will feature Layer in conversation on August 11. Be sure to swing by and see if–it’s totally Metro accessible, too.

Photo by Art Gray.