"Moonlight Towers"

Olivia Flores Alvarez November 26, 2009 4:00AM

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(Editor's note: In the following preview of "Moonlight Towers," we mistakenly identified the artist as Austin Kleon. In fact, the artist is Andy Mattern. The Houston Press regrets the error.)

Artist Austin Kleon calls himself "a writer who draws." Well, for "Moonlight Towers," his new exhibit at Lawndale Art Center, he's a writer who draws and takes photographs. Based in Austin, Kleon is perhaps best known for his Newspaper Blackout Poems - a series of poems he made by redacting newspaper articles - and his cartoons. But visitors to "Moonlight Towers" will see the work of Kleon the photographer. The show focuses on an antiquated network of street-light towers in Austin. Standing 165 feet tall, they were installed in the late 1890s. More than half of the original 31 towers are gone now, victims to new construction and decay; Kleon photographed 15 monstrous towers that still stand (the supporting guy wires can span an entire city block). Since they're exactly alike in design, the challenge for Kleon was capturing their modern-day context. Working at dusk, when the towers and their lights are most visible, he found angles and site-specific scenery to differentiate each structure, making each "Moonlight Towers" image singular instead of repetitive. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays. Through January 9. 4912 Main. For information, call 713-528-5858 or visit www.lawndaleartcenter.org. Free.
Mondays-Saturdays. Starts: Nov. 20. Continues through Jan. 9, 2009