Super Tuesday

4 years ago today, I became embarrassed to be an American. At a ripe 17, I worked as a election poll-worker because I was so eager to be part of the democratic process and I just missed being a voter by a few months. I worked from 5:30 am till 9pm, one hour after polls closed in California. When I got home and saw the results pouring in, I actually cried I was so upset and embarrassed to be an American. My motto with regards to the Bush Administration has always been "well, I did all I could, and I wasn't even voting age".

4 years later, here I am, halfway across the world, and for the first time in ages, I'm feel a sense of pride in being American. Anxiously waiting for the results, I keep reading stories of record turn outs. Lines of people excited for change, finally getting off their ass and voting. I feel like I am missing a monumental moment! When my absentee ballot came, my flat-mates all took turns leafing through the sample ballot. To think that so many take the ability to vote for granted! Not to mention the power that those we elect hold on a global level!

I'm sure we will do something soon that will renew my embarrassment by association. Perhaps another war and/or another stab at the global economy? But today, I'm proud to be a part of the big day.

Cold War Modern

I had yet to go to the V&A, so I decided to head over there today. I only got there in time to see one show, so I decided I'd see one called Cold War Modern.
So, I didn't really know much about the exhibit before I went to go see it. I knew the time range it was focusing on, and that was enough to interest me. So, walking up to the first chat wall, I was shocked to read that the exhibit explored the role of art and design in the "Battle of Images" between the Soviet Union and the USA. Yes, these ideas make total sense to me, but for some reason, I was caught completely off-guard as I entered an exhibit that looked at the advancements in art and design which arose from both the US and Soviet side. It was an interesting show, but badly laid-out. I got an audio guide, which I abandoned after I couldn't figure out the order it was set up in. I also just felt so uncomfortable, because I have clearly been taught a very bias account of the Cold War. However, the exhibit got better towards the end, as there were many cool posters, some of which were clearly used in Shepherd Fairey's stuff. Also, they had a few outfits, but two of them were Pierre Cardin, which is not so relevant to US or SU. I had to leave earlier than I would have liked, because the museum was closing. It seems that I spent too much of my time standing around confused in the first two rooms to really enjoy that last one. There were interesting questions raised, but I just didn't really have time to digest them nor did I see how the pieces chosen really helped to support the ideas.

Halloween

Stumped at school regarding work, I decided to try again for the Annie Lebowitz show at the National Portrait Gallery. Well, at least now I can check it off my must do list. The show was sort of disappointing. The show was attempting to show run the timelines for Lebowitz's professional and personal life next to one another distinguishing one from the other by photograph size. Al picture of the personal life were the normal 5x7 size and generally black and white. Her professional shots were at least 24x36, many bigger. The simply looked blurry! I was confused. Also, the flow of the exhibition was totally incoherent. If attempting to display the work in a timeline, why would they pick a non-linear way to display the work? It just seemed like there was not enough space. Also, there just generally was not enough information. With five rooms, there were only 4 chat boards ie, the little blurbs you see on the wall, and they were at most 5 sentences. MY favorite part of the exhibit was a room that had nothing but the pin-boards with all of her work organized chronologically, apparently something she did when first deciding to publish a retrospective book. One side of the room for personal life, the other for professional work. It was so much easier to follow that the actual exhibit and at least the professional work looked better because it had the luminosity that I love about her work. The enlarged versions in the main rooms were too blurry.
When traveling back to the Halls, I started to plan out a halloween costume using only things I already owned. I am going as a Rag Doll, mostly because I want to wear as many layers as possible because it is already freezing here. We will see how this goes.

Day at the Tate

Today, our classes were cancelled because the teacher was sick. So Saera and I got out to the Tate Modern. We both wanted to see this Rothko show that just came up. When buying tickets, we realized that a combination ticket that would also get us into the Cildo Meireles only cost 3 more pounds (Rothko alone was 10 lbs, so 3 seemed like nothing) so we ended up going to both shows.
Rothko was different than I thought it would be. Once we walked inside the gallery, the show was billed as "Rothko: The Late Years" which explained the lack of typical Rothkos in the show. Saera and I split an audio guide, as in we swapped out the cheap headset for a pair of iPod earbuds and each had one ear listening to the recording. We also carried around folding chairs, and just looked very studious in general. In general, I really enjoyed the show. It was well laid out and the audio guide gave helpful information. Apparently, Rothko was one of those painters who was very moved by music, so the audio guide had selections from certain music that you could listen to with different pieces. Lots of Mozart! Among the pieces in the exhibit, the ones that I found to be a new concept to me were a series he did of Black on Black that focused on very slight hue changes, ie. red-black vs. blue-black and also thinking about the quality of matte vs. glossy paint in terms of reflection and absorption of light. It was just something that you cannot grasp from a picture of one of the paintings from a book. It made me really happy that I was able to see them in person.
I really had no idea what to expect of Cildo Meireles. A few weeks ago, a one room gallery was built in the plaza at out school (due to it's proximity to another Tate building) with one of his "pieces", and I thought it was just confusing and didn't know what to make of it. Saera and I stopped for a coffee before going in and on the wall advertising the show, I saw a picture of this:

About 4 years ago, my Grandma was a docent for a show at LACMA called Beyond Geometry, which included this piece. With this slight bit of knowledge of the guy, we went into the show.
So Cildo Meireles is a Conceptual/ Installation Artist. Being a fairly traditional Museum patron, I was confused at first at the fact that people were touching, kicking, even breaking stuff and the guards were not the least bit concerned. But once I got over my initial reaction to not touch, it was amazing. One installation "Through" was a sort of maze, but all the walls were somewhat transparent, including several made of aquariums filled with translucent fish! The floor was several thicknesses of broken panes of glass. So just imagine walking through a maze while continually stepping in broken glass, even sometimes breaking the glass further. It sounds crazy, but it was really cool. There were 8 large installations along with a room of his earlier work. It was totally worth 3 pounds. When we were leaving, there was a que to get out the door, which was confusing until we were told there was a special last piece everyone was waiting for. The line halved in size as everyone was told the would have to take off their shoes and socks and dusk masks were handed out to those of us still remaining. Occasionally, we could see someone coming back out of the installation room and they were covered head to toe in dust. We considered not going because it seemed really messy, and no one would tell us what the dust was (the dust makes brought me back to the days of the dye lab) but then we figured it was a one in a lifetime experience, so we went for it. At this point, most other people had dropped out of the line. We headed into a holding cell, where we saw people leaving the installation brushing off excess dust. And then we went in. So imagine a room 30ft by 40ft filled to right below you knee with white powder. Once we fully stepped in, the door was shut behind us and the room nearly went pitch black except we could tell there was a light source off to one side, so we started walking towards it. Turning a corner, we realize it is a fake candle placed in the powder. The whole thing was so weird, and hard to fully describe the feeling, but it was so strange and wonderful. We later figured out he powder was talcum powder, which made my feet feel awesome for the rest of the day.

It was a really fun day, especially since we weren't expecting to have the time free. We later found out that the teacher had sent an e-mail out telling us all that our assignment for the week was to go out to a new show that challenges you to think about the modern approach to viewing art. Well, look at that, we did the homework before we even knew we HAD homework.

Chefs at Heart

Today was pretty boring, until Saera and I decided to prepare this fabulous meal:


Salmon, Asparagus, and Salad with homemade Orange Dressing

I Wanna See the Gold Kate Moss!

So, I have been telling people around here "I Wanna See the Gold Kate Moss" and today I finally did.
The British Museum has an exhibit up called Statuephilia that consists of five different "statues" created by contemporary British artists and installed throughout the museum. Of the 5, one is a full-size solid gold statue of Kate Moss. Why do I know this? Well, it's only been in every newspaper for the past week or so. So, of the 5 statues, there was only one that I had not seen a picture of, either online or in a newspaper, or read a good description of. Strangely enough, I found it the most fascinating. Of all of them, I found the Kate Moss one to be the least interesting. I had never seen a Damien Hirst piece, so I was excited he was one of the contributing artists. His piece intrigued me because it reacted well to the strange context it was given. Imagine 200 brightly splatter-painted skulls. Now imagine them all in a giant antique display cabinet (somewhat like those in the Nature Lab). I don't know how to explain it, but the context just seemed so important and wonderful.The piece that I found the most fascinating was this one. I've always been a sucker for an artist who uses a strange a material to strengthen their message. I also like the ploy of a slightly concealed meaning (in this case, the shadow) as it is something I tend to do in my own work. I don't know, it was just very different from the others, and seemed very humble in comparison.

So, the was another reason I went to the Museum. Today was the last day of the Conservation in Focus exhibition. Since I first got here, I've become increasingly interested in the realms of Curation and Conservation. Seeing as this exhibition was an easy way to ask conservationists questions, I figured I'd give it a shot. Too bad it was a Sunday, so the floor was constantly packed full of people. Well, I did get to ask one woman why she went into conservation and her answer was fairly encouraging. She said she liked problem solving, working with all kinds of modern materials to preserve the past. She was an Art History undergrad and went on to do a postgrad degree in conservation. I couldn't really ask much else as I knew that wasn't entirely the point of the exhibit, but the answers I did get all fall in the realm of my own interests.

Wishful Thinking - Part 2

Well, so our brilliant plan didn't quite pan-out the way we expected. I went to studio to work today to discover the studio power locked in the "off" position. So, apparently, our studio is open, but we are not allowed to use the machinery because the technicians are not around. Now if only I knew this before I dragged myself out of bed early this morning!
After pitter-pattering around for a few hours, I found myself in Trafalgar Square and I sought out the National Portrait Gallery, which actually does exist. However, tickets were sold out for today, so I left.
Maybe something more productive tomorrow?