Brett Cody Rogers interprets Le Corbusier

Allow us some shameless self-promotion for a moment while we tell you about an installation at this weekend's Art Los Angeles Contemporary art fair that innovative art website Paddle8 and Phaidon have collaborated on. Los Angeles-based artist Brett Cody Rogers has created a booth which draws inspiration from the entryway to Le Corbusier’s Maison Blanche, Villa Jeanneret-Perret in Switzerland – in which dramatic shadows are cast against a jute backdrop.

Brett Cody Rogers' mobile which is inspired by the reflections on the wall of the entrance of Le Corbusier’s Maison Blanche

The exhibition is a departure for the artist, who traditionally utilises painting and photography in his practice. “It gave me the opportunity to work with ideas that I’ve been researching for my painting practice. It was an interesting thing to design the furniture and the space within my aesthetic as a painter, but not call it an artwork,” he tells Phaidon. 

Jute wallpaper (left) and an initial sketch on jute by Cody Rogers for the mobile

While being distinct from the artist’s body of work, the exhibition design does incorporate many of the concepts present in Rogers' paintings. For ALAC, the artist has created a mobile that will be suspended above the booth, casting shadows down against the brown burlap-covered walls to create a “real-time photoshoot.” As members of the public walk through the installation, they will interrupt the light, casting new shadows into the space and creating layers of optical patterns.

Brett Cody Rogers' sketch for the Paddle8 and Phaidon booth

The artist has been similarly inspired by the city of Los Angeles itself. In an homage to the history of cinema in LA, Cody Rogers has incorporated the ubiquitous and multipurpose apple boxes - the “milkcrate of the film industry” - into the installation as reimagined modular furniture. Coupled with chrome stage lights commonly used in photo shoots, the installation will be an expression of not only the modernist principles of Le Corbusier, but also the thoroughly contemporary practices of Los Angeles art. 

ALAC runs from today until January 22 at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.

Brett Cody Rogers' apple boxes reimagined as modular furniture