Santa Ana Arrows
Roger Kuntz
Musings | Monthly Muse May 2022
When I moved to California in 2016, I was shocked by the car culture. The speed, intensity, and congestion were like nothing I had experienced. Santa Ana Arrows by Roger Kuntz captures a glimpse of the vast automotive infrastructure that suffuses and shapes our everyday lives in the Orange County-Los Angeles megalopolis. The seemingly flat surface on which Kuntz marks linguistic symbols and icons (the stuff of so much Pop art) is all about space, depth, and tactility. What I notice here is the way a streak of daylight cuts across the center of the composition, leaving the corners in shadow. As opposed to the signage that I normally pass which is bathed in bright white light, Kuntz’s selective focus suggests surrounding architecture—nearby structures block out part of the daylight, exposing only a portion of the sign to its rays. How will this streak of light change as the sun moves through the sky? Where will I be when that happens? Long gone. Or maybe stuck in traffic.
Scott Volz, ’22, PhD (Visual Studies)
Graduate Curatorial and Research Assistant, Langson IMCA