Here we are, entering the museum. Isn't this an intelligent way of letting people know which map to take?
The way to the galleries is up and up and up a ramp.
There is a river of words projected toward the ramp. The words are in many languages (but all in one alphabet/character set, as you see).
It was moderately interesting, especially the first times you saw the words on your hands, etc.
It was very dark in there. I know that some sorts of fragile materials will last longest in darkness, but the stone and metal objects, also, were displayed in very dark spaces.
I am not sure what the intent is for this museum.
Nothing here was the kind of thing that would have been found in an art museum, 200 years ago.
The objects would have been thought of as "curiosities," or "cultural artifacts," perhaps.
Nothing was here from Europe, regardless of time period (at least, we didn't see anything from Europe). Nothing was from Imperial China, nor from Japan.
Work from North America was uniformly old, yet at least one piece from Australia was less than 20 years old.
There was lots of very interesting work, but the overall feeling we left with was ... a sort of annoyed bafflement.
One display had a variety of objects (not all of the same age, not all of the same material, not all with the same function) from all over the western hemisphere, with a notation that these objects demonstrated the uniformity of art and of concepts of the region. !!! Somehow I suspect the people whose work was part of that display would have been even more baffled than we were, at the notion that they were all alike............
One of my daughter's art history classes dealt with the ways decisions about the way objects are displayed affects the way those objects are perceived. From the color on the walls to the lighting to the other objects nearby ... everything affects the way things are perceived.......
We were confused about the intent, here. Many of the groupings seemed odd, and some of the commentary was definitely odd. The whole western hemisphere shared one cultural/artistic sensibility? Really? I mean ... seriously?
Ok.
Let's try to ignore the choices made by the people who organize this work, and just look at the work.
I won't be able to show you much; nearly all of my pics came out dark, except when they were darker.
Pale textiles with dark decoration were easier to photograph than wood carvings that had much less value contrast. Love all of these.
This was large. At least two feet, from point to point, if I remember correctly. Love the shape.
Love this fan, too. (the white spots are reflections from the lights)
This guy is the personification of "beady little eyes"........... This is as the camera remembered him.
A bit lighter.........
A flat wooden carving.
On our way out. This bear was in the gift shop. Love the stick handle on the box..........
Oooh! Look!!!!!!!
Oooh! Must. Go. See!
"Um. Do you want to look at the front of the museum?"
"What? Do I want to.....?? Oh. Sure. Yes. Ok."
Dragging my attention away from The Tower............
The front of the museum is covered with plants!
Closeup of tiny plants in the above. We saw a several different people walk up and very gently touch these tiny plants, in the few minutes we were there.
Isn't this cool?
See my daughter's take on this excellent day here.
In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, here is a link to the post that comes after this one.
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4 comments:
Completely, totally cool. I wonder how they do maintain it? :)
It was damp (at the end of a dry day) when we were there, and there is a drain around the bottom of the building, so I think it is automatically watered.
But ... what happens when it's cold? It doesn't get that cold, there, relative to here, anyway, but I would think it gets cold enough that hostas, say, would be dead.............
Wondering if they replant the whole thing each spring? (chaCHING..........)
One of the back yard make over shows on HGTV put one in, after talking about the guy in France who started the "vertical garden" trend. I remember that they installed automatic drip irrigation behind it, and that stuff was planted in mats of coconut husk rather than dirt. I don't recall the plant selection or talk of how often they would need to be replaced. It was installed somewhere in southern California, so freezing temps wasn't an issue either.
I wonder about keeping the surface of the building wet all the time, too.
Putting it on a free-standing wall I could see, sooner than putting it on a building....
And, yeah, not having to cope with freezing temps would make things a lot easier.
I know, from watching the webcam all the time, that it hardly ever snows in Paris (at least, enough snow that I can see it on the webcam!). So I conclude it is much warmer there, in winter, than here. But still.......
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