'Station to Station' hits L.A. -- with Beck, Dan Deacon, others

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In 2013, The Times documented part of the “Station to Station” art show. Here, DJ Dan Deacon performs at the “Station to Station” downtown L.A. event.

(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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DJ Dan Deacon. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Outgoing MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch at “Station to Station” in Los Angeles. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Patrons inside Kenneth Anger’s yurt-like structure fit with video screens. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Professional whip-cracker Chris Camp performs at the art and music event. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Swiss artist Urs Fischer’s nomadic yurt-shaped sculpture features a white interior, a soft mattress and mist from dry ice. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Flamenco dancers perform at “Station to Station.” (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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No Age guitarist Randy Randall, left, and drummer-vocalist Dean Allen Spunt at “Station to Station.” (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Guests dance while DJ Dan Deacon spins. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Doug Aitken’s roving, cross-country art show, “Station to Station: A Nomadic Happening,” arrives in Barstow on Tuesday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Nate Cox hangs banners above the snack bar at Barstow’s Skyline Drive-In Theater. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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“Station to Station” stops in Barstow. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Crew members set up lights on at the Skyline Drive-In Theater in Barstow. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Artist Doug Aitken at his Venice, Calif., studio in June. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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“Station to Station” production coordinator Austin Meredith practices guitar in the media car of artist Doug Aitken’s traveling art project during a stop in Barstow. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Chapman and Maura Ambrose of Folk Fibers outside the makers’ yurt where artisans hand-make goods. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Laren Parker stands outside the “Station to Station” traveling art and music train in Barstow. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Olafur Eliasson creates artwork based on the train’s movement with his kinetic drawing machine. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Beck performs for a crowd of about 800, with train footage, shot by “Station to Station,” on a movie screen behind him. (Deborah Vankin / Los Angeles Times)

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Video artist Doug Aitken films Beck while he performs. (Deborah Vankin / Los Angeles Times)

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The choir, led by Fred Martin, prepares to go on stage and accompany Beck. (Deborah Vankin / Los Angeles Times)

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The Levi’s yurt at the Barstow happening. (Deborah Vankin / Los Angeles Times)

By Deborah Vankin

Sept. 27, 2013 8:50 AM PT

Doug Aitken’s roving, cross-country art show “Station to Station,” which is nearing the end of its three week journey, made a stop at Union Station Thursday night – and the event started with a snap.

Whip-cracker Chris Camp, who has performed with Aitken three times before in the past, led a procession of about 50 people from Track 13 into the central area of the station, cracking two long bullwhips at each of his sides the entire way.

The parade -- musicians banging drums, journalists with video equipment recording the event, other artists and performers as well as curious onlookers filming the scene with their iPhones -- wound its way past the restaurant Traxx and into the courtyard featuring multicolored art yurts with installations by Kenneth Anger, Urs Fischer, Liz Glynn, Carsten Holler and Ernesto.

The evening – which also included performances by Beck, No Age, Dan Deacon, Sun Araw and The Congos -- was something of a who’s who of the L.A. art world. Anger and Glynn were in attendance as were artists Piero Golia, Nicole Miller and former Hammer curator Douglas Fogle. LACMA’s Michael Govan, MOCA’s Jeffrey Deitch and the Hammer’s Ann Philbin all stopped by as well.

“Doug is an artist who loves to encourage the work of others,” Govan emailed us after the event. “He’s conducting a moving and unpredictable orchestra.”

Toward that end, Glynn gave an impromptu lecture/performance in her yurt, a maze of dark industrial felt intended to reflect the changing universe. As guests slipped through its narrow passageways wearing headlamps to illuminate their way, Glynn, wrapped in a gray felt sheath, wandered in circles while muttering about interstitial space in the universe.

Afterwards, Glynn commented on how different the Union Station crowd was from the previous Tuesday night happening in Barstow: “a lot bigger, more raucous.”

Indeed, not all happenings are alike – especially along Aitken’s art odyssey, which has stopped for shows in Pittsburgh; Kansas City, Mo.; and Santa Fe, N.M., among other cities, and will be wrapping up its journey in Oakland on Saturday.

Whereas the Barstow desert happening was airy and mellow with glowing art yurts set against silhouetted mountain ranges, the L.A. event was something of a social gathering for the local art world.

But that’s exactly the point – that each event take on the unique tempo of its surroundings and inhabitants, Aitken has said.

As Glynn put it: “It’s this series of fleeting encounters – whether a film or a band or me personally lecturing – it’s this intense level of experiential detail that changes depending on where it is,” she said. “The question is, what will the reverberations be?”

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Twitter.com/@debvankin