Air de LA
R.U.in.ART Performance at Frieze Art Fair, Los Angeles 2020
14 February 2020 – 16 February 2020

Air de LA pays homage to Marcel Duchamp’s 1919 work 50 cc Air de Paris, in which the artist gifted a glass phial purchased from a pharmacist in Paris to his close friend and patron Walter C. Arensberg.

For Air de LA, Horvitz produced several glass phials, each purported to contain Los Angeles air and ashes from recent bushfires of the area. Over the course of the fair Horvitz handed out the phials to visitors in an act echoing the gifting of Duchamp’s souvenir. Each of the phials is handmade and hand-engraved in Los Angeles.

The work makes reference to current ecological conversations: Los Angeles’ high levels of emissions and poor air quality has been worsened by the recent wildfires. Though a natural part of California’s ecosystem, climate change has seen a dramatic increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires within the state.