Photo By Gail

In 1985, John Baldassari began using dots to obscure faces, which became one of his most recognizable devices. By removing the distinguishable features, Baldassari turns the figure into an archetype. In Buildings, Guns, People: Desire, Knowledge, and Hope (with Smog) includes dot-covered faces in generic photographs from political and social functions, turned on their sides.

They are organized in a pattern flanking a modern building. Like a noir film, the collage depicts a tale of love played in a harsh cityscape “with smog.“ Handguns complete the symmetrical center. The guns and images of people kissing, top left, suggest violence and desire. According to the artist, the rose at the right refers to the Legend of the Blue Rose, a Chinese folktale about perception and seemingly unattainable love.

The bitten apple, bottom left, signifies the story of Adam and Eve and the loss of innocence. The work is allegorical, at once containing specific references and also requiring the viewer to find their own meaning in the sum of its parts.

Photographed in The Broad Museum in Los Angeles