Time of the Past
Photograph showing the inner workings of an ancient clock that was on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art several years ago. Built during the Renaissance in (I believe) the Venice region, the clock apparently is still functional, (though it was not running while on display- understandably since that would put strain on it).
Dome of the Bisected Hemisphere
On this, the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 that I’m sure every news report will tell us not to forget, and remind us that we haven’t forgotten… I wanted to share this picture of Abdulnasser Gharem’s sculpture, titled “Hemisphere”, which was featured in LACMA earlier this year. It represents the duality of Islam, (or frankly, all religions), between the peaceful and spiritual, (as depicted by the right half, based on the green dome of the Mosque of the Prophet in Media), and the political and violent tendencies, (as depicted by the left half, based on a Persian military helmet). The midpiece that is front and center is models on a noseguard from the helmet, which protects the face while also separating it.
And while we can list this duality in all religions, given the beauty of this work, and the darker responses to the terrorist attack 16 years ago, I wanted to post this – today – to show that beauty can come from all places, and that almost everything has two sides.
(Also, I’m really happy with how the picture came out.)
Katamari Phoenix
One of my favorite exhibits in LACMA’s Korean wing, this work of art reminds me of a Katamari… It is a large, (6-8 feet diameter), spherical construction, made from broken pottery fused together, with a golden metallic sealant running along the edges of the individual pieces.
… Now if I can find the Prince…
Parrot Ewer at LACMA via Merriam-Webster
Photograph of a ancient Chinese Parrot Ewer.
A few weeks back, I noticed that LACMA and Merriam-Webster’s twitter accounts were tweeting back and forth; one tweet in particular caught my attention:
However, the piece of art wasn’t something that I could remember- after a prompt from the LACMA account, I checked it out- and there it was, plain as day. So, here we are…
Farewell to Penetrable
This Sunday, 12 Feb 2017, was the last day that the Penetrable installation was at LACMA; this photo is to commemorate the fabulous piece of art.
A little of history of Penetrable, (from the LACMA site):
In the 1950s and 1960s, several Latin American artists settled in Paris, where they became key players in the movement of kinetic and op art. One such artist was the Venezuelan Jesús Rafael Soto, whose projects directly engaged the viewers’ participation. This is the case of Penetrable, a long-term loan from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, installed on LACMA’s plaza.
As the work’s title implies, the architecturally scaled structure is intended to be pierced both optically and physically by the viewer. This interactive aspect sets it apart from many works presented within museum settings, in which objects are not meant to be touched. The piece is made of basic industrial materials, the bulk of it comprised of yellow plastic hoses that are suspended from a simple steel grid.
When viewers walk through the dense curtain of plastic tubes, they disappear into them and become part of the work. Soto was profoundly interested in the dematerializing effect of light, which he sought to recreate through such works. In the artist’s words “[the] man is no longer here and the world there, he is inside the fullness and it’s this fullness that I want to make people feel.”
Although Soto’s work is conceived as a geometric sculpture, it lacks a solid surface or plane; its shape is easily altered by human contact, or even natural elements such as wind and rain. In other words, it is a work in constant flux. This playful and profoundly sensorial aspect of Soto’s Penetrable has made it one of the most popular works in the museum—an object that invites the viewer to become one with the work of art.
Wonder in the Water
What happens when you show someone a beautiful sight? If you’re lucky, you’ll see their sense of wonder come out- as shown here with someone special in LACMA’s Rain Room…
And Happy Halloween everyone!
Cherries in Bloom at LACMA
Photograph of a sprig of Cherry Blossoms blooming before the spire of LACMA’s Japanese Pavillion.
Ancient City of Gold
Calligraphy on the Red Cliffs
Photograph of Dǒng Qíchāng’s (董其昌) calligraphic transcription of work the Su Shi (蘇軾) masterpiece, “Second Prose Poem on the Red Cliff”, which is currently on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This piece immediately grabbed my attention, not just because of its size, but due to its content- Red Cliffs (赤壁), or more specifically, the 3rd Century Battle of Red Cliffs, (赤壁之戰), from China’s Three Kingdoms period, is one of the most pivotal battles of that time. (I’ll stop here, because I could seriously go on way too much- the Three Kingdoms is one of my interests…)
Dong Qichang was a Ming Dynasty painter, scholar, calligrapher, and art theorist- his works favored formal likeness, and avoided anything he deemed to be slick or sentimental. As time went on, he tended to create landscapes with intentionally distorted spatial features. He is considered the one of the most, if not the most, versatile Chinese artist of the last five centuries.
Streaking Skyward
A skyward view from within Jesús Rafael Soto’s sculpture, Penetrable, on permanent exhibition at LACMA. While it can be fun to play in the spaghetti, it also gives many opportunities to look at the work in and through a different perspective…
Mysidian Moments Photojournal 