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Collections

Michael C. McMillen
Central Meridian (The Garage)1981

On view:
Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3
Color photograph of a dented vintage American car with chrome grille and license plate 'EFR-794,' parked in a cluttered, dimly lit garage over a partially visible commercial sign
Color photograph of a weathered, rust-patinated vintage sedan mounted on a low white plinth with red neon underlighting, displayed in a cluttered indoor space with hand-lettered text reading "...CE to the FUTURE" along the base. Shelves of objects, signs, and hanging implements visible in the background.
Color photograph of a dimly lit interior installation featuring a vintage station wagon mounted on a low platform with red underlighting and painted text reading "...GE to the FUTURE." Walls and shelves densely packed with found objects, tools, hubcaps, signs, and mechanical parts receding toward a glowing workbench in the background.
Color photograph of a densely cluttered workshop interior, with a worn wooden workbench at center covered in tools and machinery, shelves and dark walls packed floor-to-ceiling with hanging chains, gears, fans, signage, and miscellaneous objects, lit by a single overhead pendant lamp.
Gelatin silver print of a cluttered workshop interior; a worn automobile rests on a low platform bearing the partial text "...the FUTURE" at left, with densely packed tools, hubcaps, and signage covering the walls and ceiling in the background.
Gelatin silver print of a deteriorated early 1960s sedan mounted on a low rectangular platform painted with the words "SELF ANTI-SELF" and "FUTURE," displayed in a cluttered garage interior lit by a single overhead lamp, with shelves of tools and a sign reading "COSMIC UNITED ATOMS REVEALED" visible in the background.
Gelatin silver print of a narrow, dimly lit storage corridor lined with shelves cluttered with tools, cookware, and signs, leading toward a stack of vintage trunks and a door emitting an oval of bright light onto the concrete floor.
Black and white photograph of a cluttered workshop interior, with wooden beams, tools, and salvaged objects leaning against a dark wall. A weathered painted sign reading 'Quality' is mounted in a gilt frame at center. Light enters from a window at left.
Artist or Maker
Michael C. McMillen
United States, born 1946
Title
Central Meridian (The Garage)
Place Made
United States
Date Made
1981
Medium
Mixed media; audio component
Dimensions
Dimensions variable; current configuration requires 20' x 40'
Credit Line
Art Museum Council Fund
Accession Number
M.2005.17
Classification
Sculpture
Collecting Area
Contemporary Art
Curatorial Notes

Michael McMillen has described Central Meridian (The Garage) as a “walk-in assemblage.” The artist originally created this highly theatrical simulation of a garage for the 1981 LACMA exhibition The Museum as Site: Sixteen Projects. As McMillen described, “Central Meridian evokes the experience of wandering into our neighbor’s garage on a summer evening. An old radio broadcast mixes with the distant sound of crickets. We are twelve years old and filled with curiosity and wonder at the fascinating collection of mid-twentieth- century objects and organized detritus. The owner of the garage is not present but the amalgam of objects conjures a portrait of someone we never see. Questions abound as our eyes scan the walls, cabinets, and every surface of this repository of history.” Like clues in a mystery, the contents of the garage hint at the nature of an imaginary individual whose belongings of a lifetime are stored within.


Wall label, 2021.

Selected Bibliography
  • Gamblin, Noriko, et. al. Flintridge Foundation Awards for Visual Artists, 1999/2000. Pasadena, CA: The Flintridge Foundation, 2000.

  • Barron, Stephanie. The Museum as Site: Sixteen Projects. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1981.

  • Barron, Stephanie, S. Bernstein and I. S. Fort, with essays by Stephanie Barron, Sherri Bernstein, M. Dear, Howard N. Fox and Richard Rodriguez. Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900-2000. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Berkeley: University of California Press, Berkeley, 2000.