The Last Days?

Museum of Art exhibit connects the dots between Pompeii and La Jolla

Artist Eleanor Antin is the most casually dressed out of anyone at her reception at the San Diego Museum of Art. With jeans, a baggy brown shirt and no makeup, she looks conspicuously out-of-place among the high heels, strappy dresses and suits. But hey, it’s her show and she can do what she pleases — except have a drink inside the exhibition room. “What am I going to do, throw a scotch on my own work?” she quips.

The crowd around the bar appears to commiserate as they jockey for position in line for one last drink before Antin finishes her introduction speech. Comfortable at the podium (Antin admits that she likes to talk), she begins to tell the story of where the inspiration for her latest series, The Last Days of Pompeii, came from.

As a child, Antin had a passion for ancient Greek and Roman history. In 2000 that passion, which had lain dormant for so many years, was rekindled by an unlikely source of inspiration — the La Jolla Bay. Antin, a San Diego resident, was driving to the cove when it struck her how similar La Jolla is to Pompeii. This brings a few snickers from the attendees, but she is dead serious. Continuing, Antin explains her theory: La Jolla is slowly sliding into the water. Global warming is rampant. One earthquake could throw everything over the edge, “Beautiful people living the good life on the brink of annihilation,” she says. Almost prophetically, 9/11 happened one year later. “Good luck to all of us,” Antin wraps up.

The exhibit, “Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes,” comprises photographs that are enactments of historical and mythological events with a modern and satirical twist. They were shot around San Diego, making the message of the dangers of overindulgence and materialism relatable to the viewers at hand.

The pieces are vibrant and painstakingly staged — two men with rippled muscles wrestling, women lounging on each other’s bodies — and layered with landscape and intricate details such as fruit and pillows on the grass or a skull on the top shelf, all manifestations of allegories. A repeated model, an eerie pale woman with cascading blonde hair in a wheelchair, makes a cameo in nearly every picture in the exhibit and is slightly reminiscent of Where’s Waldo? or a scary movie.

On one wall, a flat-screen television shows video clips of behind-the-camera action. The models, bloodied or painted to look like statues, wait for Antin to put them in position. The footage is a reminder that the models are contemporary people, and makes the pieces come alive.

"Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes" is on display through November 2 at the San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park, 619-232-7931, sdmart.org.

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