Out of Order: Franklin D. Israel was the esteemed LA designer’s final exhibition before his tragic death at fifty from AIDS-related complications. The exhibition, remembered as a retrospective, though not originally conceived as one, centered on a site-specific installation presenting selected images of Israel’s work, with photos and models of his projects staged in an adjacent gallery he called the “Blue Room.” The installation assembled a constellation of tilting, “folded” white plaster planes that appeared to emerge organically from the existing architecture, blurring the lines between ceilings and walls and generating dynamic new spaces. Partially inspired by a crumpled piece of Xerox paper, Out of Order referred to Israel’s derivation of forms from the “order” of nature, an emotive approach to architecture that emphasized disequilibrium and flux.
Out of Order: Franklin D. Israel was organized by Elizabeth T. Smith, Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.