IT'S generally understood that encyclopedic museums are conservative by nature, demanding hands-to-yourself politeness from visitors. Like an unmanageable grandparent shuffled off to a nursing home, once-shocking works of art are cloistered away in these institutions, protected by well-meaning but overly cautious curatorial wards.

The LA nonprofit art gallery Machine Project, under the direction of the fearless Mark Allen, attempted to alleviate this malady, if only temporarily, last November with its "Field Guide" to the LACMA. Like an L-DOPA freebase trip, Machine Project's day-long takeover of the largest museum west of the Mississippi effectively awakened LACMA's predictably dry galleries from their catatonic slumber.

We were a little wary of this ambitious project when we picked up the printed program for the day. This guide, intended to help viewers find each project, was an object lesson in frustrating design. After standing where four projects were supposed to be, without successfully finding any of them, we threw a foot-stomping tantrum and abandoned the confounding field guide, choosing unassisted perambulation instead.

Once inside the museum, boredom was impossible. After arbitrarily choosing the third floor of the Ahmanson building, we found ourselves in front of Holly Vesecky and Josh Beckman's immense reproduction of Sam Francis' painting Towards Disappearance, remade entirely of fresh flowers, which perfumed four galleries like some sort of Cleopatrean dream.

To view the rest of this article, pick up a copy of Artillery Magazine your local art gallery or subscribe now for home delivery.