In the summer of '05, Los Angeles was deluged with a perfect storm of art: LACMA had King Tut, MOCA Basquiat and the Getty Rembrandt. While many may recall standing in obscenely long lines for Tut as their moment from the Summer of Art, it was Tim Hawkinson's tumescent corpse floating in LACMA that signifies it for me.

This year, it is the seemingly bloated corpse of an octopus that will define the spring Los Angeles art scene.

A California native, Hawkinson's obsession with the entropy of the body, and the malleability of it, results in pieces like the aforementioned bloated corpse – Hawkinson covers his body in latex, carefully peels it away, then inflates it and hangs it from museum ceilings.  

Other work examines the imperishably of life by morphing his toenail clippings into a picayune bird skeleton and his hair into a cracked egg or intricate spider web. At the Getty, Hawkinson takes his found art (previous pieces have included discarded skin, Coke cans, rags and duct tape) to the zoo.

In Zoopsia , the “visual hallucination of animals,” the artist explores how animals can be misread or misinterpreted just as easily as, or with, hominids. In Octopus , the creature's hundred suction cups – look closely – are human lips in various stages of kissing.

Überorgan , which changes within every space it is installed, currently floats above the entrance rotunda of the Getty and performs, from a 250-foot-long scroll, for five minutes each hour, playing traditional hymns, pop songs and improvisational tunes. For, like music, life is nothing but an unending ad lib for Hawkinson.

The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive in Los Angeles. Admission is free; Parking is $8. Hours: Tues-Thurs, Sun: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Fri & Sat: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. For more information, visit www.getty.edu.

In the summer of '05, Los Angeles was deluged with a perfect storm of art: LACMA had King Tut, MOCA Basquiat and the Getty Rembrandt. While many may recall standing in obscenely long lines for Tut as their moment from the Summer of Art, it was Tim Hawkinson's tumescent corpse floating in LACMA that signifies it for me.

This year, it is the seemingly bloated corpse of an octopus that will define the spring Los Angeles art scene.

A California native, Hawkinson's obsession with the entropy of the body, and the malleability of it, results in pieces like the aforementioned bloated corpse – Hawkinson covers his body in latex, carefully peels it away, then inflates it and hangs it from museum ceilings.  

Other work examines the imperishably of life by morphing his toenail clippings into a picayune bird skeleton and his hair into a cracked egg or intricate spider web. At the Getty, Hawkinson takes his found art (previous pieces have included discarded skin, Coke cans, rags and duct tape) to the zoo.

In Zoopsia , the “visual hallucination of animals,” the artist explores how animals can be misread or misinterpreted just as easily as, or with, hominids. In Octopus , the creature's hundred suction cups – look closely – are human lips in various stages of kissing.

Überorgan , which changes within every space it is installed, currently floats above the entrance rotunda of the Getty and performs, from a 250-foot-long scroll, for five minutes each hour, playing traditional hymns, pop songs and improvisational tunes. For, like music, life is nothing but an unending ad lib for Hawkinson.

The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive in Los Angeles. Admission is free; Parking is $8. Hours: Tues-Thurs, Sun: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Fri & Sat: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. For more information, visit www.getty.edu.