Fume
February 23 – May 18, 2025
On view at various locations, see schedule below for details
About the Project
2024 Mohn LAND grantee Carlos Agredano’s Fume is a nomadic sculpture that monitors and collects ambient air quality data as it roams, creating hyper-local information about environmental impact to freeway-adjacent communities in Los Angeles.
The sculpture, mounted to a trailer and attached to the artist’s truck, will visit thirteen freeway-adjacent public sites throughout a three-month period to collect air quality samples. The sculpture will be open to the public during one-day long installations at public parks and open areas that border these freeways, during which Agredano will organize conversations and activations with other artists who have a personal relationship to the nearby communities.
Fume furthers Agredano’s ongoing interest in air quality relative to the communities it affects the most, and in the ramifications of urban planning that has unequally distributed environmental pollution across the region. The artist offers a blueprint in imagining a future that centers scientific methods, and environmentally focused creating and thinking. His investigations point out the irony of urban planning initiatives, which are often steeped in utopian ideals yet ultimately destructive in their results. Loosely inspired by Senga Nengudi’s 1978 performance Ceremony for Freeway Fets, Agredano’s project similarly adopts Nengudi’s community-building ethos and desire to draw attention to the ubiquitous but under-considered aspects of the urban landscape.
The sculpture’s form draws from the motifs of Googie architecture, as well as the industrial design of the freeways themselves. Specifically, Agredano’s sculpture references the Theme Building at LAX, designed by Pereira & Luckman in 1959. Three air quality monitors will reside within an aluminum enclosure that mimics the design of the breeze blocks that circle the Theme Building. Agredano has also invited the artists participating in the project to contribute to the sculpture throughout its run by adding their own work to the bed of the truck and atop the trailer platform.
In addition to the air sensing equipment powered by solar array, the sculpture will incorporate an EPA air quality flag, the color of which will correspond to the air quality of each site (Agredano installs these flags at every site where his work is exhibited as part of an ongoing project).
Schedule
On Mondays during the run of the project, Fume will be collecting air samples in neighborhoods that border freeways. At these sites, Agredano will organize informal conversations and activations with other artists who have a personal relationship to the nearby communities.
In addition, every Tuesday through Saturday from 11am-6pm, Fume will be located in the parking lot of gallery François Ghebaly, located at 2276 E. 16th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90021.
Monday, March 3, 2025
12-3pm
Joined by Hunter Baoengstru
2 Freeway
Map coordinates: 34.0791925, -118.2918924
Monday, March 10, 2025
12-3pm
Joined by Daid Roy
10 Freeway
Map coordinates: 34.037725, -118.277073
Monday, March 17, 2025
12-3pm
Joined by Angela Nguyen
91 Freeway
Map coordinates: 33.875804, -118.081303
Monday, March 31, 2025
12-3pm
Joined by Chris Suarez
710 Freeway
Map coordinates: 33.768081, -118.210297
Additional dates forthcoming.
Events
Join us on Sunday, February 23 from 12-2PM at the LAND HQ for an opening event celebrating Fume. RSVP here.
The artist will give a presentation focusing on modernism, urban planning, and the highway system in Los Angeles and how these systems have been represented by the city’s artists. The event will coincide with Ciclavia—West Adams meets University Park. (If you are driving, please note that Jefferson Blvd. will be closed to cars).
About the Artist
Carlos Agredano (b. 1998, Los Angeles, CA) is an artist who utilizes readymade and process-based sculptures to materialize issues of race and inequity, particularly within the context of American urban planning systems. Employing toxic, ephemeral, and site- specific material, Agredano’s work exposes how the design and organization of city space perpetuate disparity across Los Angeles.
Fume is organized by Bryan Barcena and Irina Gusin, LAND curators-at-large.
This project is funded through the Mohn LAND Grants established by Pamela and Jarl Mohn. The initiative provides Los Angeles-based artists resources and support to present site-responsive, transdisciplinary work across Los Angeles County.
LAND’s 2025 projects are made possible with lead support from the Offield Family Foundation, the Jerry and Terri Kohl Family Foundation, and The Perenchio Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Fran and Ray Stark Foundation, Patrick and Aimee Butler Family Foundation, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture, the LA Arts Recovery Fund, Brenda Potter, and LAND’s Nomadic Council. Special thanks to Artist Sponsors: Karen Hillenburg, Liana Krupp, and Ben Weyerhaeuser.
LAND is a member of and supported by the Los Angeles Visual Arts (LAVA) Coalition.
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