Project Description

The layered cyan, magenta and yellow transparencies in Matthew Brandt’s photographic series L.A. Flow (2016) were processed through a waterfall system that pumps Los Angeles tap water over the surface of each monochrome print. It took weeks for the water to erode the pathways that form the images. Alluding to the necessity of interdependence, the artworks are a reminder that the city’s municipal water system, like Metro, connects us all through an infinitely shifting network of relations that are essential to everyday life.

These artworks are part of the Metro Art Photo Lightbox Series and will be displayed in select stations between 2017 and 2020.

Artist Statement

“Recent events throughout the United States have shown us the fragility of municipal water systems and the power of civic stewardship. Though the populace of Los Angeles is economically and culturally diverse, we all drink from the same tap. Our daily decisions impact those around us.”

About the Artist

MATTHEW BRANDT (b. 1982, Los Angeles) earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is an experimental photographer who has been known to develop his photographs using everything from bodily fluids to food. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and in Europe and Australia, and it is in the collections of a number of museums, including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Hammer Museum, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art and National Gallery of Art, among others.