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Returning to Old Haunts

Today--my first true day off--I spent back at the 21st Century Art Museum. Some of you may be tired of hearing about it by now, but there were such fascinating new exhibits that I couldn't resist a return visit. Accompanied by Nick (well, I sort of highly encouraged his attendance because this museum is awesome) I went through the whole museum again. It's truly a bummer that so many of the exhibits prohibit photography, because there's really no way to describe all the crazy new things.

There was one exhibit that was a space rover with high-heeled shoes behind it to make imprints on a fake moon surface. It was accompanied by a pop video and song about partying where no man has partied before and taking charge of your life. Think wacky costumes and autotune.



There was an exhibit that turned the radio frequency of a dying star into music boxes, that played tinkling, cacophonous songs. There was an exhibit of discarded fast food toys sorted by type and color that spread in a riotous pattern over the ground, some of them glued together in large 3D dinosaurs. There was another exhibit that was an animated film of the ocean, with a shark lazily swimming over the screen while a single note pulsed rhythmically and long.

My favorite exhibit also technically had a photography ban, but I broke that rule to sneak some photos because it was just really cool. The artist had dressed up 100 people in tree costumes and had them stand perfectly still in a room. Other people, dressed as Spock, Superman, a guy from Star Wars and then some wandered amongst the forest as the artist took photographs. The video of him photographing playing on a wall while all the empty costumes stood in a silent forest in the dim room. It reminded me of Macbeth's moving forest of doom...




Sometimes I wonder about modern art and how to understand it, but sometimes it's just too cool to ignore. (Sorry for the short post--tomorrow will probably be a no-post day and then it'll be back to work on Tuesday and the recommencement of adventures.)

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