The Arts of Survival

One of the joys of travel is visiting local museums, and, for an American, especially in the US where we may meet newly found artists in other venues not to mention being able to read the labels.  Santa Fe is unusually rich in museums for a town of its size (of course, it is also the sate capital).  It also has a number of distinguished art galleries for those who like to wander, but that is another story.

The Museum of International Folk Art is always worth a visit, and a very interesting show at the moment is The Arts of Survival which features the response of folk artists to four very recent natural disasters--Hurricane Katrina, USA, in 2005, and three from 2010--the eruption of Mt. Merapi Volcano in Indonesia, the Pakistan flood and the earthquake in Haiti.  Thus we have four events, four elements (earth, air, fire and water) and four nations but essentially one time period.  All of the artists are of necessity contemporary; the responses are in traditional forms--masks, scroll paintings, puppets and so on.  We see "folk art" not as a fossilized artifact of dead times, but as a living tradition responding daily to the life we live.  Particularly interesting are the quilt tops of Pakistan.  Unusable clothes donated by relief organizations were transformed into works of art to be sold in nearby stores and markets.  It is a rich, fascinating show and also powerful in a way that more traditional art forms often are not.

A number of relief organizations are mentioned in the handouts with the show.  Most are famous and easy to find.  One I though sounded particularly interesting was Aid to Artisans which "gives practial assistance to artisan groups worldwide."

The show will be on until May of 2012.

The Pillow Book

The Pillow Book which has an all-white set, a square with a low bench surrounding it on four sides thus inventing a new form--theater in the square--and all white props including a number of pillows and a gun.  Three character--two women and a man--perform a number of roles in various times and places.  All are of current time but the sequence of events and the consistency of character are not entirely clear.  What is it about?  Man and women, childbirth or not, love or not, truth or not--obviously I am not entirely clear, but the acting is first-rate, the scenes well-shaped and the audience was involved.  It isn't a masterpiece, but it is definitely worth seeing.

At the 59 East 59 theater August 4-20, 2011.

Mass MOCA, Sol Lewitt

Mass MOCA, or the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, in North Adams is a very large museum.  It is located in an old abandoned factory complex of which Massachusetts is abundantly supplied.  These abandoned buildings have been taken over by a museum with no collection--hence temporary exhibits by mostly living artists.  Each exhibit may stay for some time but usually when you visit, you see a different collection from your previous visit.  Whatever you saw before is gone.  There is currently one exception--more about that later.

On our visit in July 2011, the first exhibit we saw was of large pictures of work in various places.  Pictures for the most part of unengaged crowds or groups doing whatever was necessary--sometimes just entering or leaving a plant.  They may you reflect, are engaging in a somber way, but none are "pretty."  This is not glamorous work.

We also saw a very interesting enormous work of slats or sticks in the general shape of a horn of plenty and viewed from the inside with objects interpolated, it had depth, layering, mystery and some of the texture of the late Louise Nevelson.

But the major piece was the Sol LeWitt retrospective of wall drawings.  Remember the temporary exhibits?  These are on display for twenty-five years, four years in the planning and execution and millions of dollars in the making.  Even for Mass MOCA this is a huge undertaking.  LeWitt was a conceptual artist--in other words he contributed the idea and the directions for its execution.  He was active in the planning and the conceptualizing but died recently.  The retrospective covers the years from 1969 to 2011, three floors, and dozens and dozens of works all featuring some variation of lines and colors--not a recognizable object in the lot.

Go, if you can.  It is amazing and powerful and overwhelming.

Amadigi di Gaula, Central City, Big Thommpson Canyon

We are traveling the West for convention, fun and culture, of course.  Health, not so much--a nasty cold that would not go away finally sent me to the emergency room (St Mary's Hospital, Phoenix, AZ and very mice) and has slowed down my finishing a number of chores.  All of the days I had plenty of time to get them done, I slept.

On a more cheerful note we went to Central City Opera for the first time.  Central City is high (literally--8,000 feet) in the  Colorado Rocky Mountains.  On the way we detoured through Big Thompson Canyon and Estes Park, a nice touristy town unrecognizable from our last visit twenty years ago.  The canyon is a spectacular drive.

Handel's Amadigi di Gaula is a trivial opera with a ridiculous plot and lovely music performed by a stellar cast.  Melissa, the evil sorceress, is in love with Amadigi who loves Oriana.  Dardano, Amadigi's best friend also loves Oriana.  Endless complications until Orgando, a sort of good god, enters ten minutes (or less) before the end and sets everything right.  Lots of melancholy singing but this was before dissonance was popular so it is still beautiful. 

Coming out of the opera, we learned that all the water in Central City was off due to recent storms.  We saw them draining reddish water from a hydrant on the way out of town.  Meanwhile the highway was not moving so we took side roads back to Denver getting another beautiful drive.