There have only been a few of those days in my life, days when I was so touched by a thing that I completely lost myself on the streets, almost losing my life to a car. It happened this Monday, Dec 4, 2006.
It was one of my classes at MOMA, Tammy was too sick to attend. Same old crowd, same old 2nd floor exhibition hall, same old Warhol to start the discussion - the topic of the day was MOMA's Special Exhibition 2006, titled "Out of Time - A Contemporary View". http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2006/out_of_time.html
The first piece of art that caught my eyes is Bill Viola's video work, 5 screener, with the downside-up diving people and some water dance (my definition). To be honest, before seeing this work, I had never been genuinely impressed by any video art, but for some reason when those nake people splashing into the water downside-up, I instantaneously connect them to the legendary Chinese monkey that was born out of stone crack. Never had I seen a stronger representation of life and the cycle of life. I was shocked from head to toe and couldn't stop the millions of thoughts in my head until Claudia clarified that Bill's work was indeed influenced by Asian philisophy and myth. http://www.billviola.com/index.htm
So what? Moved on to Jeff Koons, onto the crazy artist who bites his body, then onto the woman who uses her eye-lashes to paint ... I was back to the zone of "artist girl in finance", planning on my ski trip in the head and worrying about the year-end outlook for the fixed income market, until ...
I saw Carrie Mae Weems' astonishing work made out of old photos of African American people.
Believe it or not, it was less of a racial issue, less of personal issue, but more of the power of art that deeply grabbed my heart. It was the power of tranforming images to the loudest voice, the power of communicating the uncommunicatible, the power to enpower, that inspired me. I started to have tears in my eyes.
Before I had a chance to calm myself down, Gerhard Richter's paintings jumped into my eyes.
I learned of Richter's works in college, but never was I able to understand why Professor Salzillo adviced me to look into his paintings for my own artistic inspiration, until this moment. I am such a whimsical person, that I often find myself looking for myself. I believe doubt is the very definition of life, but meanwhile, I demand certainties from people around me. Maybe I am the happiest locating between dream and reality, between truth and lie, between painting and photography, like Richter.
I was truely happy at that moment of discovery. Art answered my questions that I couldn't find answers for in real life, art is my lover and friend. And I was ecstatic to find such connection with many other pieces of art in this exhibition.
There are only a few of those days in my life - days that I live my entire life for.
It was one of my classes at MOMA, Tammy was too sick to attend. Same old crowd, same old 2nd floor exhibition hall, same old Warhol to start the discussion - the topic of the day was MOMA's Special Exhibition 2006, titled "Out of Time - A Contemporary View". http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2006/out_of_time.html
The first piece of art that caught my eyes is Bill Viola's video work, 5 screener, with the downside-up diving people and some water dance (my definition). To be honest, before seeing this work, I had never been genuinely impressed by any video art, but for some reason when those nake people splashing into the water downside-up, I instantaneously connect them to the legendary Chinese monkey that was born out of stone crack. Never had I seen a stronger representation of life and the cycle of life. I was shocked from head to toe and couldn't stop the millions of thoughts in my head until Claudia clarified that Bill's work was indeed influenced by Asian philisophy and myth. http://www.billviola.com/index.htm
So what? Moved on to Jeff Koons, onto the crazy artist who bites his body, then onto the woman who uses her eye-lashes to paint ... I was back to the zone of "artist girl in finance", planning on my ski trip in the head and worrying about the year-end outlook for the fixed income market, until ...
I saw Carrie Mae Weems' astonishing work made out of old photos of African American people.
Believe it or not, it was less of a racial issue, less of personal issue, but more of the power of art that deeply grabbed my heart. It was the power of tranforming images to the loudest voice, the power of communicating the uncommunicatible, the power to enpower, that inspired me. I started to have tears in my eyes.
Before I had a chance to calm myself down, Gerhard Richter's paintings jumped into my eyes.
I learned of Richter's works in college, but never was I able to understand why Professor Salzillo adviced me to look into his paintings for my own artistic inspiration, until this moment. I am such a whimsical person, that I often find myself looking for myself. I believe doubt is the very definition of life, but meanwhile, I demand certainties from people around me. Maybe I am the happiest locating between dream and reality, between truth and lie, between painting and photography, like Richter.
I was truely happy at that moment of discovery. Art answered my questions that I couldn't find answers for in real life, art is my lover and friend. And I was ecstatic to find such connection with many other pieces of art in this exhibition.
There are only a few of those days in my life - days that I live my entire life for.
posted by Sibiu_Night at 5:50 PM
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