For the first time I have taken a second look at an exhibit in a different museum.

Last year I saw HIDE/SEEK twice at the National Portrait Gallery. Today I experienced HIDE/SEEK at the Tacoma Art Museum.  This viewing was a completely different experience for many reasons.  Many of the well known pieces were on view in Tacoma; some were replaced with similar work, an adjustment clearly presented by the museum with a small reproduction of the original work accompanying the wall text.  Eakin’s, Hartley and Warhol were all on display again, there were different Demuth and O’Keeffe paintings shown and I did not see Keith Haring’s work (the brochure says one is at Tacoma) or Annie Leibovitz’s photograph of Ellen DeGeneres.  This re-arrangement of the pieces, in a chronological order versus a thematic one did draw my attention to Minor White’s work and Grant Wood’s Arnold Comes of Age.

The most interesting charge as far as the pieces displayed was Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)by Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

(Photo of a museum visitor interacting with untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA) by Félix González-Torres photo credit Molly Robert via Smithsonian Mag)

My image of the same piece from Tacoma Art Museum

I don’t want to sound as if I am putting down the Portrait Gallery, I love the museum and thought that the exhibit they displayed was great. The controversy surrounding the exhibit however seemed to permeate my viewing at the Portrait Gallery, it led to the space being filled with people on both visits. Anyone who has spent time in a crowded gallery understands how hard it can be to really see the individual pieces much less understand the overall conversation presented. Tacoma, with only a few visitors allowed for more time to reflect on the works and see the emotion connected with the exhibit that I had missed before.

And yes, Tacoma had A Fire in My Belly playing – some people watched it, others decided not to. Guess what, the world did not end.

Yarn bombing?
I was very surprised to find out that this really cool art I had been seeing online had a name. When I started to see work online by Magda Sayeg I thought the knit pieces were just performance art meets environmental art. An evolution or new version of the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude do, and in some ways it is.

Guerilla Suit and Knitta Please present: #Williebomb

As it turns out yarn bombing was started by Magda Sayeg (tried to post some of her work – but honestly just look at her site), a creative knitter who hated to look outside her shop and see all the concrete and steel. She started small, knitting a cover for her door knob then the stop sign pole across the street. Now she is knitting pieces to cover statues and cars. Her idea has caught on and the number of yarn bombers is unknown, but projects have been popping up all over the world.

This art has been compared to graffiti, due to the spontaneous knitted coverings appearing over night and the individuals who created them being unknown. This is covering public property and in most all cases no one is getting permission before they knit colorful patchworks around city trees. There is something very different about yarn bombing from the graffiti tags covering bridges and signs. Yarn bombing is all about adding some color, and let’s be honest it is a lot easier to remove a knit wrapping around a tree trunk than spray paint from a billboard. How awesome is a pink crochet covered tank?

Also, it is a lot easier to bring that tank back to its boring-ness than if it had been spray painted. (I am not against all graffiti, just far too often it comes across as destructive rather than artistic.) Aside from the whimsy, I love this movement because it is taking crafting to a new level. I love crafting and hate that it is so often pushed aside as being a lower art form.  With yarn bombing different people are paying attention and taking part. There is even a book Knit the City, with the tag line “Prepare to meet your friendly neighbourhood guerrilla knitters, whose prime objective is to enliven the dull city streets with a riot of colour – one stitch at a time.”

As someone who has been known to knit, some of these bombings represent a serious commitment of time and planning. This past June celebrated the first official yarn bombing day, with colorful decorations appearing all over the world. I may have to find out how to participate this year because it just feels like it would be a lot of fun.  This is a complete movement or a mission maybe — a mission to bring craft, graffiti and art all together. What is there not to love?

Seattle Yarn Bombing photograph courtesy of Suzanne Tidwell via yarnbombing.com

Links:

• Yarnbombing Blog
• Guardian Article
• Yarn Bombs

I am sure it is not a surprise that I found something I love on Flavorwire. Once again I have been catching up on the feed and found the photography of Jason Powell. Combining old photographs and current locations is something that I would love to try and add to his work the fact that many of the landmarks I have been to and I am in love.

Looking Into the Past: Newsies, US Capitol. Original image taken by Lewis Wickes Hine in April of 1912, courtesy of the Library of Congress. Jason E. Powell

Jason has included the history of the places and events captured (it is educational) making this more than just a simple what can I do with my camera page.  Honestly, check out his webpage, very cool stuff.

I found Ju Duoqi through Flavor Wire, or more accurately found Flavor Wire through her. What she does is recreate famous works of art using vegetables. Each work is careful created using what she finds at her local market and then she photographs the arrangement. I cannot imagine the process of deciding the best way to represent Van Gogh’s face or what a piece of celery is trying to be.

The Kiss of the Radishes from Galerie Paris-Beijing

Yes her work represents other artists work, but to see the Mona Lisa while you are in your grocery isle is an inspiring concept. The Chinese artist talks about her role as that of a director, giving each vegetable their role to play in the total piece. This is quote about the potatoes used in Liberty Leading the Vegetables from Galerie Paris-Beijing

“The yam soldiers, with their bewildering little round eyes raise a cabbage banner. Having figured out what moving forward means, have they lost their momentum? Each of the potato-head soldiers has a different expression, not sure of their bearing, perhaps surprised, but that is definitely a completely unadorned potato. You wouldn’t know them any better if they were chopped into French fries and covered in ketchup, but when placed in the picture, they all appear unfamiliar and rich in facial expression. On the ground lies the body of a winter melon soldier, with rotting ketchup flowing out of his body like blood. The battleground is strewn with rotting vegetable leaves. This great story of history, this world-famous painting, here becomes completely absurd. How do you approach this famous painting, do you really know its historical background? Do you know what meaning the painter wished to convey? I believe that the world is the world as I understand it, and none other.”

Not all of the materials are in their raw state, in some images Ju has cooked the vegetables, she has used tofu and even let some of the items rot to get the look she wants. One of the interesting things that she has talked about in relation to her art is that not only does she no longer need to work with models, but that she can still be at home.

Other Links to Ju Duoqi

• YouTube Video Interview

So not about art, but I love Flavor Wire and I made the feed. For some strange reason Camper Van Beethoven has been in my head recently, so when there was a posting on Great Opening Lines in Music I had to post a comment. Today another list was posted and I made the cut! Truthfully I had in my head the Eye of Fatima in my head when I posted, but Take the Skinheads Bowling is a better name for a song.

50 More Great Opening Lines in Music

oh, nice one Lou for Poe, that is a good one too.

A few weeks ago (is it months now?) I commented on google digitizing museums, something I am still not 100% sold on, but today Flavor Wire led me to the digital Sistine Chapel. Aside from the music which I could not see away to turn off and love this. I have heard that actually seeing the chapel is hard due to other tourist so this offers you a completely unobstructed view.

A new distraction, I am trying to identify out each of the painted represented in Arthur Buxton’s  Van Gogh Visualisation.

I am guessing that the fifth row, third in is Musee d’Orsay’s Self-portrait but other than that…

Flavorwire has quickly become my favorite place to loose hours of my day and while I have never been a huge fan of Jackons Pollock’s work I do find him to be a very interesting part of art history. In “observance” of his birth Flavorwire posted an interesting article 50 things you did not know about Jackson Pollock. I am continue to be fascinated by the man.

In January 1951, Art News published a list of the best exhibitions of 1950. The top three shows belonged to Pollock.

According to his wife, Lee Krasner, Pollock began titling his later works with numbers because “numbers are neutral. They force people to look at the picture for what it is — pure painting.”