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.
Copyright: © Michael C. McMillen

Related Unframed

Michael C. McMillen
Central Meridian (The Garage)1981

On view:

Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

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.
Copyright: © Michael C. McMillen