Through Artists’ Lenses: “Twelve Bagatelles for Janis Crystal Lipzin” by Rick Bahto from The Huntington on Vimeo.

The Huntington asked three Los Angeles–area artists (Rick Bahto, Charlotte Pryce, and Steve Roden) to make short, silent films for the walls of the entryway of the Mapel Orientation Gallery. Each film is a poetic visual exploration of objects from our collections and spaces you can venture to during your visit. The orientation of the films is vertical because of the shape of the walls onto which they are projected in the gallery. See the other two artist films at https://vimeo.com/channels/945484.

“Twelve Bagatelles for Janis Crystal Lipzin” by Rick Bahto, 2015 (super 8 transferred to digital, color & black-and-white, silent)

Artist statement:
Since moving to Southern California, I have returned again and again to The Huntington’s Desert Garden, endlessly fascinated by the variety of plants housed in this collection. For my film, I have placed the colors and textures of plants found in the Desert Garden Conservatory in conversation with other artists’ representations of plants, found in works ranging from medieval Books of Hours to Severin Roesen’s “Still Life with Flowers and Bird’s Nest.” This film is dedicated to Janis Crystal Lipzin—dear friend, mentor, artist, and gardener.

© 2015 Rick Bahto