Today turned out to be quite a day for introspection, which was not an expectation I typically hold towards viewing minimalist and conceptual art. When I entered the space that housed Richard Serra’s Elliptical Torq installations, I knew I was about to have an experience. Walking a circular labyrinth, around and around till reaching the inner space was incredibly transcendent. I felt all alone, and when I got to the center, the walls seemed to unfold and open up and evoked a feeling of heady vastness…I felt alone, but I was okay with that. I felt at peace. 

   
  This experience was in striking contrast to how I felt when I encountered Serra’s other installation just before–Union of the Torus and the Sphere, 2001. 

  

Trying to navigate around this massive vessel-like object was nearly impossible to manage without pulling your arms close and squeezing around it. The large shape in the small space had the affect of compression– evoking a claustrophobic anxiety. 

I’m glad that DIA had arranged the installation in this way, guiding the viewer into the small space first and the large space last. It served to amplify the feeling of release. For myself , anyway.  

 

   

The evening before our DIA Beacon excursion, I was a bit anxious. I think I was subconsciously preparing for an encounter–I was having disturbing dreams… 

In my dreams I was wandering through exhibition space from exhibition space with my fellow classmates ( gee, wonder why I was dreaming about that? 😉 and it was getting strange and mazelike, I was turning corner after labyrinthine corner until I was alone wandering through some kind of twisted art museum funhouse. I entered a white room with a group of strangers ( evil museum staff? ) trying to guide me into a dark room that I was pretty sure I didn’t want to see. 

They tried to tempt me anyway: “Your mother is in there,” one of them said. I knew it was a lie. My mother has been dead for 8 months. It angered me that they said it…yet, the room was so dark and on some level I was worried… What if it was true? 

I tried to act tough. I stood up to them. “Have her come out here then!!” I yelled as loud as I could, so loudly I woke myself up, and one of my roommates (sorry JL)! 

When I encountered Louise Bourgois’ ode to her mother, Crouching Spider, (2003), at DIA, I knew what my dream meant. Bourgois said that she was exploring both the nurturing protector and predatory aspects of motherhood. 

I have stopped looking for my mother. Yet, as I was moved to tears in the presence of this larger than life arachnid, I realized I have not forgiven her–I’m still angry, so angry she was ill, angry she didn’t protect me, angry she abandoned me…time after time. I’m also relieved– that she’s gone, and I don’t have to mother her anymore. What kind of daughter does that make me? What kind of mother?  Now, that’s  a scary thought. 

     
I was so enamored with the amazing display of jewelry at the Museum of  Arts and Design. Shown here: Goose Feathered neck pieces with lamb suade and paint by K. Lee Mauel, c. 1988, and blown glass baubled neckpiece by Giorgio Vigna ( b. 1955) titled Gorgoglio, 2002. 

   

  

I also wouldn’t mind sporting some this superior craftsmanship with an LBD at an art reception some time…  This neckpiece and bracelet are made of delicate rolled PAPER!! 

But my favorite discovery was found in the many drawers beneath the displays:  

    
A gold and enamel necklace designed by German artist Hermann Junger c.1980, displayed with graphite conceptual drawings!! (Gifted to MAD in 2004. )

As a jewelry lover, wearer and maker myself ( as a hobby) this was all very exciting to see such unique pieces!!!

I’m dying to know what else is hiding in all those display drawers…! (There were too many to examine all at once!) 

 
Exhibitions on view: 

   

 Poor, poor Pinnochio. 

But seriously, let’s get serious. Real serious with Doris Salcedo. 

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 I was taken aback by the sense of gravity, both in the materials ( wood, cement, earth, etc) and the meaning infused in the work. But somehow, Salcedo’s pieces also invoke a sense of weightlessness and conveys a feeling of absence..I don’t think it was the just the light and airy space in the Guggenheim .. It was just pure genius. Also—incredible, meticulous, impossible details!  Facinating work.  

 
I think this one says it all…but Remember: It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity…

also these: 

   
 

      

The last is my favorite. 😉  

On our first night in the city, In the subway car I caught a glimpse of  this mural by Nancy Spero!! It’s located at the 66th street Lincoln center stop. She is an American artist who was married to Leon Golub. This mosaic mural is discussed in Art 21: 

“Spero is a pioneer of feminist art. Her work since the 1960s is an unapologetic statement against the pervasive abuse of power, Western privilege, and male dominance. Executed with a raw intensity on paper and in ephemeral installations, her work often draws its imagery and subject matter from current and historical events such as the torture of women in Nicaragua, the extermination of Jews in the Holocaust, and the atrocities of the Vietnam War. Spero samples from a rich range of visual sources of women as protagonists—from Egyptian hieroglyphics, seventeenth-century French history painting, and Frederick’s of Hollywood lingerie advertisements. Spero’s figures co-exist in nonhierarchical compositions on monumental scrolls, and visually reinforce principles of equality and tolerance. ”

Video clip here: 

http://www.art21.org/artists/nancy-spero

More about Spero’s mosaic here: 

http://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/Artwork:_Artemis,_Acrobats,_Divas_and_Dancers_(Nancy_Spero)

Photo credits: Max Singler. Thanks Max 😉