Lauren Bon at Honor Fraser

Lauren Bon, Meandros (installation view) (2024). Image courtesy of the artist and Honor Fraser. Photo: Jeff McLane.

In Lauren Bon’s exhibition Concrete is Fluid, the planet’s natural resources take center stage. Sculptures made of soil, cement, copper, and herbs are displayed alongside photographs and artifacts documenting Bon’s restoration efforts with the community platform Metabolic Studio. By transporting salvaged remnants from the Los Angeles River and Metabolic’s construction sites into Honor Fraser’s galleries, Bon grants them a renewed purpose. These objects gesture toward the environmental impact of human intervention, even as they evoke the potential to restore California’s ecosystems. 

At the heart of the exhibition is Meandros (2024), a large installation featuring terrestrial elements that vary in scale. Arranged in clusters across the brightly lit room, humanoid clay figures, rose-colored crystal quartz, white sage, and lava rocks rest atop dirt mounds. Two concrete blocks cut from the L.A. River have been repurposed as benches. In the center of the installation, two tall wire mesh columns hold fertile soil from recent Topanga Canyon landslides. The work evokes an enigmatic gray atmosphere from which new life has emerged: Two mirrors mounted on the ceiling reflect stubbornly determined seedlings sprouting from the columns’ peaks. In this industrial, drought-stricken landscape, nature pushes against the odds.

A direct reference to the L.A. River appears in a separate room, where two colossal cylinders titled Venus (2024) hang from the ceiling. Bon created these pieces by lining manholes with copper sheets and allowing the water’s current to produce alchemical reactions on their surfaces for six weeks. Streaks of oxidized turquoise mix with weathered, chalky textures and faint fingerprints, preserving the marks of the cylinders’ outdoor origins. These monolithic, metallic works are complemented by the more sensorial Ofrenda, a fragrant floor-to-ceiling bouquet of California-native plants; and Sonic Division Soundtrack (both 2024), which emits the sounds of flowing water from Ballona Creek. Scent, sight, and sound reproduce the distinct clash between the L.A. River’s verdant and industrial landscapes.  

The imposing presence of Venus parallels that of Triangles (2019–23), a human-sized concrete slab salvaged from the riverbed that now obstructs the gallery’s entrance. Before it, our bodies are halted, forced to move around its exposed aggregate surface and adjust our usual pathway into the exhibition. Triangles looms large at Honor Fraser, though it is only a small fragment of the vast L.A. River. Fortunately for us, Bon disassembles these infrastructures, lays them bare, and offers a path toward ecological restoration. While the destruction of California’s lakes, rivers, and plant life may seem irreversible, Concrete is Fluid reminds viewers of nature’s ability to adapt.

Lauren Bon: Concrete is Fluid runs from September 14–December 14, 2024 at Honor Fraser (2622 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90034).

Nahui Garcia is an art historian and curator currently living in Los Angeles. She is an MA candidate in the Curatorial Practices and the Public Sphere Program at USC Roski School of Art and Design. 

More by Nahui Garcia