IS IT COLD IN HERE OR IS IT THE ARTWORK?Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer Tom McMillan was running tuna-fishing expeditions from his boat when he got the inspiration for ``Climatic Extremes,'' an interactive ice sculpture bay ice broken small by the wind or waves; sludge. See also: Ice that is now part of an exhibit of Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, water-themed artwork in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden . In his boat's engine room, where temperatures easily topped 100 degrees, icicles hung from pipes of cold, super-salty water for flash freezing Flash freezing refers to the application of supercooling in various kinds of industries whereby objects are quickly frozen by subjecting them to cryogenic temperatures. the fish. The steamy contrast intrigued McMillan, a recently retired teacher at California State University Enrollment  Northridge. With an idea in his head, creative partnership with fellow artist George Geyer and six months of daily labor, McMillan created a hanging 250-pound cone of ice crystals that slowly drips, drips, drips as spectators' collective body heat defrosts the ice. ``My concept wasn't that involved with global warming global warming, the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. or anything,'' McMillan said, chuckling. ``That's just nature's way of pulling freezing water out of the air, and it's beautiful.'' But the Metropolitan Water District saw meaning in McMillan's sculpture and selected it to be a centerpiece of ``Liquid Art,'' the district's art show depicting Southern California's quest to acquire, conserve and understand water. ``You can really get the message through a really intimate way and see how we affect the water cycle,'' Adan Ortega, MWD's vice president for external affairs, said of Climatic Extremes. ``Anybody that experiences this exhibit kind of gets it without having to read a big explanation.'' McMillan joins the exhibit as it opens at the SoMa Arts Center in San Francisco on Friday. There's already buzz that the Southern California water agency - which imports water from Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern and the Colorado River Colorado River River, south-central Argentina. Its major headstreams, the Grande and Barrancas rivers, flow southward from the Andes Mountains and meet to form the Colorado near the Chilean border. It flows southeastward across northern Patagonia and the southern Pampas. - is venturing north to open a dialogue on water usage and value, Ortega said. It's a discussion often drowned out by the old stereotypes that L.A. is just out to steal Northern California's water. ``People don't listen; they're too used to the 'Chinatown' mentality,'' Ortega said, referring to the Jack Nicholson drama that featured a subplot sub·plot n. 1. A plot subordinate to the main plot of a literary work or film. Also called counterplot, underplot. 2. A subdivision of a plot of land, especially a plot used for experimental purposes. about mismanagement mis·man·age tr.v. mis·man·aged, mis·man·ag·ing, mis·man·ag·es To manage badly or carelessly. mis·man  age·ment n. of L.A.'s water. ``By demonstrating these public art pieces, we hope they'll see the manner in which our thinking on water use has evolved.'' ``Liquid Art'' includes photographs of 20 public art works incorporating water in Southern California and examples of native plants. McMillan said he didn't intend to make any grand statements with ``Climatic Extremes,'' although, ironically, he was hoping to suggest the Southland import less water from the north. Water politics aside, he aimed to reflect the beauty inherent in nature and let viewers make up their own minds. The sculpture was created from nearly 300 feet of copper pipe, fused together and curved into a spiral cone. McMillan runs Freon through the pipes, although, in keeping with the spirit with the sculpture, it's a new and environmentally-friendly version of the refrigerant re·frig·er·ant adj. 1. Cooling or freezing; refrigerating. 2. Reducing fever. n. 1. A substance, such as air, ammonia, water, or carbon dioxide, used to provide cooling either as the working substance of . The gas can reach minus 20 degrees, and moisture in the air near the pipe freezes into a thick coat of ice. ``This is just a big air conditioner,'' McMillan explained. The sculpture is usually displayed in a small room. Approaching it feels like stepping into a refrigerator, complete with the background hum of the compressor constantly pumping Freon through the spiral of pipes. A heated steel disk - actually, a sandblasted wok - is positioned above a shallow pond of water and beneath the tip of the cone. That warmth, combined with that of the viewers, causes the ice cone to start to melt. Drops hit the heated disk and are transformed into a cloud of steam - showing water in all three states. When displayed in an art show, ``Climatic Extremes'' looks like a shrine to water. ``Water is the most important thing you have: there wouldn't be agriculture, there wouldn't be habitat; we wouldn't exist the way we exist,'' McMillan said. ``That's what makes the Southern California environment unique. If we didn't have water imported, we wouldn't be here.'' Kerry Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3746 kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Artist Tom McMillan displays his new installation, ``Climatic Extremes,'' at Studio Channel Islands on the California State University, Channel Islands California State University, Channel Islands (CSUCI) is a university located in Camarillo, California, in California's Ventura County. CSUCI opened in 2002 as the twenty-third campus in the California State University system, succeeding the Ventura County branch campus of campus. Evan Yee/Staff Photographer |
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