If you like your art to be explosive, you’re in luck

PASCUAL SISTO likes to blow things up -- on the big screen, that is. But don’t expect the Los Angeles-based artist to cordon off downtown streets and orchestrate spectacular explosions any time soon.

Sisto prefers to recycle. For his new video installation “Salamander,” he appropriated stock images of explosions from the movie industry and crafted them into a visual symphony of illuminated flashes and colorful smoke.

“The image appears to be sublime -- it draws you in -- but at the same time it is made out of explosions, which are obviously destructive,” Sisto says. “I kind of like the idea of the beauty in danger.”

“Salamander” is on view as part of “Everything Must Go,” an exhibit of Sisto’s recent video, photographs and sculpture opening Friday at De Soto Gallery in downtown L.A.

Of course, Sisto didn’t let the film crews have all the fun. He did head out to the desert to set off and photograph a few smoke grenades of his own. The resulting images, titled “Red” and “Yellow,” feature clouds seemingly suspended in time above the desert floor.

“I like the idea that from a little tiny can, you can have something massive,” Sisto says. “The moment you take the ring off and throw it on the ground, a big cloud of smoke comes up. I was interested in the transformation of an explosion, the potential energy.”

A big bang, indeed.

-- Lea.Lion@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

‘EVERYTHING MUST GO’

WHERE: De Soto Gallery, 108 W. 2nd St., No. 104, L.A.

WHEN: 6-9 p.m. Sat.; ends Dec. 15

PRICE: Free

INFO: (213) 617-0434, www.gallerydesoto.com