First off, let me apologize for not having posted since late February. It got to be a busy time, especially with my Color Theory course, where the work pace picked up in tremendous fashion as the projects got more complicated. My Primitive Photography and Critical Theory classes both also took a lot of time as I started noticing transformations in my thinking and work. I’ll talk more about in later posts. The good (bad?) news is that now I’m free for the summer and can now concentrate on my own work that develops in my mind.
On Friday I went down to the front offices for the Houston Dynamo and picked up my credentials for the season. This also gave me the chance to head over to Rothko Chapel and finish out a roll of 120 color film that has been sitting in my 645 camera for a little over a year. Don’t ask why, just know that it is. I’m currently waiting to be able to pick it up from processing, which should be in about 8 hours. On Friday I also learned of the new displays at the Menil Collection, so on Saturday I headed down there to check them out.
The first new exhibit was “The World is not My Home” by Danny Lyon. This exhibit of photographs was meant to trace Lyon’s career as a photographer. While all of the photographs demonstrated great composition and beautiful printing, I have a hard time recalling any of the photographs that stuck out to me. The one that stuck out the most was “Crossing the Ohio.” This photograph shows a motorcycle rider looking backward as he moves forward into the frame. Why is he looking back? Is he riding to freedom? Is he fleeing something? The frame leaves out these details, which makes me want to know them more as I study the image in front me. I would provide a link, but unfortunately the Menil is only showing a thumbnail version on its website. The link to the Menil Collection website is below.
The other exhibit was the one that really captured my attention. This was a retrospective on the drawings of Richard Serra, an American sculptor who is probably best known for his controversial work in New York City known as “Tilted Arc.” The exhibit consisted of 2 discreet units inside the museum itself. The second unit is the one that captured my attention. These “drawings” are large in scale and consist mainly of black paint stick on paper. The drawings themselves are, for the most part, binary in tone (black or white), with only a few pieces in the exhbit demonstrating any sort of grayscale.
The large squares at the beginning of the exhibit seemingly transform the space around you. When entering I felt that I was in a void (because of the black) with the white causing the walls to close in around me. As you move through the exhibit, the shapes change in a subtle way, slowly easing off the claustrophobic effects of the white. The shapes also seem to grow more complicated as you pass through. It’s not so much the shape itself, but its placement and spatial harmony grow more complicated. At the center of the exhibit one encounters a deviation from the squares in the form of circles. The circles themselves are black but are surrounded by a field of gray. Then, as the exhibit progresses, the shapes start to become simple once again, culminating into a piece that is haunting. The piece itself is entitled “Two Corner Cut: High, Low 2012.” It consists of a long room with a black square on each side. Each square is set at an angle moving down from the front of the room to the back. The back wall is white. Here one has reached the end. This is a new visualization of the “light at the end of the tunnel” theme. The downard angle creates the illusion that when you are walking forward, you are ascending a ramp, even though the floor is itself even.
I spent 5 minutes in this room contemplating the journey I just completed through this exhibit to that very room. I wanted to go back, but then realized that going back was not going to help anything. I needed to deal with what I felt at that moment and move forward. Where we go from here is anyone’s guess.
Of course now I had to buy the book at the Menil Bookstore ($50) but as I started reading it, I felt that this expenditure was well worth the money.
That’s it for this edition of the blog. There are going to be a lot of updates coming as I attempt to play catchup with the posts and share my art and photography with everyone. So to all my faithful and not-so-faithful readers – I bid you a goodnight (or good morning… I can’t tell at this point).
Click here to visit The Menil Collection Website