2006
world of leather
maura @ 9:03 pm
Last weekend Gus and I went to the Brooklyn Museum with some friends of ours. We’ve only been there once before and it’s inexpensive and just around the corner, so it seemed like a pleasant way to spend a few hours. I gave the website a cursory glance before heading out the door, and it looked like the kids might like the Walton Ford exhibit, and maybe the grafitti exhibit too.
First stop: Walton Ford. His stuff is done in an olde fashioned naturalistic watercolorsy style, very pretty. The first two paintings were a tiger and a lion, so far, so good. But then we went into the next room and there is a water buffalo goring/being gored by a pack of wolves.
Hmm…somewhere in the dark recesses of my brain I’m remembering that I’ve read about Walton Ford in the past…oh yeah, at my old job. And the Brooklyn Museum website does say that Ford’s paintings “offer a wry critique of colonialism.” While I’m still trying to access those mental files we rounded the corner into the next room and are suddenly staring at Nila.
To be fair, the enormous elephant penis is pretty much exactly at 5 yr old eye level, so it’s not really surprising that Gus should have run right up to it, pointing, and asked “Mommy, what’s THAT???” As the other patrons giggled behind me, I mumbled something about the birds sitting on a branch and steered us onward. Not that I really care if he’s looking at penises in art, but I just did not feel like answering 1001 questions about it for the rest of the day.
Next we had to pass through the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. It was crazy crowded in there and Gus didn’t seem to care much about photos of (clothed) Johhny Depp groping (naked) Kate Moss, so we cruised on by.
My friends and I thought that the Ron Mueck exhibit would also be interesting for the kids. And, in a way, we were right. His sculptures are so very realistic — the skin of the figures is so textured: SO many pores. Plus the hair, everyone loves fake hair. I did get the “why is that big man naked?” question, but then his attention zipped to “what is behind that face on the wall?”
Gus was especially intrigued by the crouching little freaked out boy looking at himself in the mirror. He really really REALLY wanted to touch it, so I busted out with the “art is for looking” speech and the hugging as an excuse to hold his arms down. Somehow he got an arm free and swatted at the piece with the museum map he was clutching. He barely grazed it (with paper, mind you), yet the art fancier (male, around 30) to the left of us gasped, clucked, and scolded me!
Now COME ON. I know it’s wrong to touch the art, but cut me some slack! It’s not like I was standing on the other side of the gallery smoking a cigarette and drinking a bloody mary. I was RIGHT THERE, clearly attempting to grapple with a child who’d just morphed into an octopus. Sheesh!
We scooted over to catch up with our friends, only to discover that their kid was getting a little freaked out by the freaked out looks on the sculptures’ faces, so we hustled the kids right out of there.
Thank goodness for the Visible Storage Study Center! Lots of things they don’t have room for in the galleries are stored in 20′ tall enclosed lucite shelves. We looked at the funky furniture and housewares, and used the flashlights hanging from the cases to examine all the details. Hands on fun!
After all the excitement it was time for a snack. On the way to the elevators we nearly ran smack into a completely awesome installation by Swoon. I love love love her work. The piece consists of her printed sheets of paper suspended from the ceiling at different depths. Very nice. I later realized that it’s only there for another month or so — I think I will have to go back and see it again (go, student discount, go!).
Gus + his friend wanted ice cream, and ice cream they got. Then it was time for the grafitti exhibit. To get there we had to walk through the Hall of the Americas which features art of the Pacific which freaks Gus out (especially the totem poles). He insisted that we walk through the gallery with our eyes closed because it was scary. I really like Pacific art so this is kind of a drag for me, but I suppose he’ll grow out of it.
Next stop: Grafitti Basics. This turned out to be a very small space, though Gus was intrigued by an actual subway door covered in grafitti. But he was too jacked up on high fructose corn syrup to watch the video of Fab 5 Freddy and Keith Haring.
So we took off for the playground, so those kids could run the cultcha right out of them.
