Red Earth by Lita Albuquerque

As part of its Centennial Celebration, The Huntington commissioned an art installation by Los Angeles–based artist Lita Albuquerque. Installed near the southern entrance to the Japanese Garden, Albuquerque’s Red Earth features an approximately 6-by-4-foot rock slab coated with bright red pigment and surrounded by bamboo stalks affixed with copper-colored bands. The work contrasts dramatically with the cool greens of the shady bamboo grove and is intended to mark its specific location in time and space. Red Earth incorporates color and light to convey motion and stillness “because only through stillness can we discover the motion of the cosmos,” Albuquerque said.