What if Walls Vanished from the Freeway, Would it Make a Sound?, 2007
- Medium
- Lenticular print mounted on Diebond (4 panels)
- Dimensions
- Installed approx.: 47 13/16 × 97 in. (121.44 × 246.38 cm) Each: 47 13/16 x 23 13/16 in. (121.44 x 60.48 cm)
- Accession Number
- 2008.14A-D
- Credit
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Purchase with funds provided by the Photography Committee
Emphasizing the discord between the natural landscape and LA’s urban sprawl, Ochoa’s multi-paneled What if Walls Vanished from the Freeway, Would it Make a Sound? presents a retaining wall along a stretch of road, shielding the sloped terrain of a nondescript neighborhood. No vehicles or
people are to be seen, yet their presence feels palpable, or implied. As one moves across the lenticular panels, chunks of the wall disappear, revealing the hillside behind it and hinting at a kind of futility in the architectural intervention. In this seemingly simple gesture of erasure, Ochoa invites viewers to imagine the specific geography of LA, with its automotive and concrete soundscapes, and perhaps to consider what it means that some Angelenos live enfolded in the sounds of traffic while others dwell in quiet.