Yesterday was Wednesday and during lunch I went to go see the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which is a museum that focuses exclusively on art made by women. It is near my workplace, and on Wednesdays they have free "gallery talks." Their current exhibit is called Revival, and while I still don't really understand the title, the exhibit features lots of surreal sculpture, which is one of my favorite kinds of art. The talk focused on pieces about animals, or "other creatures" as the docent put it. The docent was very good. She made a point of asking the group what our impressions were and asking us to ask questions. Plus, she had lots of information about the artists and the making of the art which definitely adds to the experience (at least for me). I didn't take pictures in the exhibit, but
thanks to the magic of the internet, here are some pictures, and some thoughts. The pictures are in links. I have tried to link to the artists' websites, when I can find them.
The first piece we looked at was called Receiver by Polly Morgan. It features baby chicks in the earpiece of a telephone handset. As the docent put it, there are no wrong answers to what you see in art. One person in the group said she saw a metaphor between birds cheeping and women's voices chatting on the phone. But chicks are also very needy and the artist apparently doesn't like phones.
The next pieces we saw were Tsarina (don't click if you don't want to see an insect), Senator, and Viriato by Joana Vasconcelos. They are all ceramic garden sculptures of animals covered with colorful lace. My favorite is Senator, the snail. I like it's roundness, and I like the way the flowers in the crochet follow the spiral of the shell. The most intriguing one to me was the wasp, Tsarina. I was captured by the contrast between the giant, dangerous wasp and the delicate soft lace cozy it is wrapped in. The docent said the artist is trying to present contrasts,(e.g. between durable ceramic and delicate lace), and I think the wasp captures that best. Looking through her website to find links to photos, I see that she has a whole set of wasps (and a whole series of dogs, and a handful of snails, and some other stuff), and that delights me.
We then looked at a piece by Petah Coyne called Untitled #1287 (Tati) that is a black and purple velvet wall hanging with a goose flying into it. It looks like the bird is flying into a storm or a portal to another dimension. It is very beautiful and to me it represents the unknownness (darn you, spell check, I say it's a word) of the future. I don't recall what the docent said about the art, I was too busy looking at it. She did say that the artist has had several kinds of wax custom formulated for her to use in different kinds of sculpture. Also, Coyne apparently likes to be very involved with her art, even after it leaves her hands to go to a museum, and will sometimes change things later on.
The final piece we saw was somewhat unsettling. Don't click the link if you don't want to be unsettled. It is called The Young Family by Patricia Piccinini. It is meant to inspire people to think about what the implications of genetic engineering could be, and I think it does that. It reminds me of the pigoons from Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, which are transgenic pigs that are raised to grow organs for humans who need transplants. The sculpture is downright eerie in how lifelike it is, even though these beings are not actually known to us in real life (yet?).
There's more going on. I went to an Independence Day party where we watched fireworks from a roof. I made a cake for the party:
There's a forest two blocks away from my apartment building, right smack in the middle of the city:
And here's a picture of some public art I pass every day on my way to work. I don't know what it is, but it's pretty. The building behind it is the NMWA, which I talked about above. (Maybe the statue is related to the museum? Don't know)
So enjoying sharing this adventure with you!
ReplyDelete