Maíz/Maze, 1994

With his two-part environmental installation, artist David Jurist’s impulse was to create a project that took architecture and its impact on cultural history and development as its central issue. Maíz/Maze was located at the Children’s Museum/Museo de los Niños of San Diego and in the Regents Park office complex in La Jolla’s Golden Triangle area. Using corn as his primary structural element, Jurist chose a large open area of land in the Golden Triangle and “grew” the floor plan of a typical Southern California condominium. As the corn grew, the floor plan transformed slowly into a maze. At the Children’s Museum/Museo de los Niños, Jurist built a pyramid using concrete blocks in the hollow of which he planted corn. A video monitor was installed at the center of the pyramid that continuously showed a static overhead image of the La Jolla corn maze. The artist noted that he wanted to reference the assimilation of cultures, and the flux that occurs between north and south in the region.

Curator: Robert Sain
Organizer: Children’s Museum/Museo de los Niños
Venue: Regents Park Office Complex, La Jolla, and the Children’s Museum/Museo de los Niños, San Diego