AP Drawing: Museum Visit 2
For this quarter's museum/gallery visit, I went to the IN Exhibition at the Australian High Commission with my brother, dad, and grandpa (my grandpa and brother are featured in the picture below).
The first thing my brother noticed when he walked in was this piece called "Wait in Gold" by Gayatri Ayr Mahadewi from CIS done in ceramics and gold leaf. It was basically a small white pot surrounded by a bunch of abstract, cracked looking parts, which had their crack lines defined with gold foil. Kept on the mirrored surface, it was a very beautiful piece. When my brother walked up to it, he asked: "Why did she make a bunch of eggs?" I was a little confused at first as to why he thought it was eggs because I thought that the broken parts were other pots, and the little pot was waiting to be broken. Then I realised that there was no reason it couldn't be eggs. In fact, it would kinda make sense that the broken parts be eggs because it was like you were waiting for them to hatch. I thought it was super interesting how a small, not particularly artsy eight year old boy had made a perfectly reasonable inference as to what the meaning of the piece could be. Art often gets a pretentious name because people feel like they don't "get it", but you don't have to read super deep into every single art piece that you see, and your interpretations don't have to match up with every expert.
Walking around the exhibition, I came across this piece called "Urban Decay" by Daniela Volschenj also from CIS. Only reading the title, my mind immediately jumped to the ever so famous makeup brand Urban Decay, the creators and the Naked eyeshadow palettes. However, when I looked at the piece itself, done with pen, watercolour, canvas, paper, and a lightbox, it was literally small caricatures of buildings deteriorating. Decay in an urban setting ... urban decay. It was only then when I realised that that's literally what the makeup brands name is supposed to mean. There must be people who walk into Sephora, read the name Urban Decay, and immediately picture something close to what this piece depicts. I never thought about how their perception of the world must be different than mine.
There was this piece by Emily Nicholls from Dulwich College. It was done in 3 rectangles on this super large canvas with the negative space of the canvas between the rectangles. On the top, there was some dry brushing with various shades of grey being partially covered by purple swirls. As you moved down into the 2nd and 3rd rectangle, the purple swirls start to take over the grey. It was very striking because of its size and its colors but regardless of how hard I tried, I didn't understand what Nicholls was trying to depict or what statement she was trying to make. When my family caught up to me staring at the piece, they asked me what it meant. I had to say to them that I didn't know. In fact, this wasn't the only piece which I didn't grasp the intentions behind. There was one more untitled Pollock-esque piece that I was 100% lost with. Were these pieces created with intention? I'n inclined to say yes. Would I have understood these pieces better with a title? Maybe, maybe not. Is it bad that I didn't understand these pieces? No. It just means I didn't connect, and that's not a crime. I wonder if the reason some people don't like art is that they don't realise that they're allowed to not understand, and that thats not their fault — its not anybody's.
There was another piece which I felt as very notable. "Overcrowding in Korean" by Minjung Park from UWC Dover was an oil painting done on canvas. It depicted this super up close version of a pomegranate with some red and yellow lanterns underneath it. I understand the word 'overcrowding' in the title because the piece did indeed feel almost claustrophobic. The seeds were so closely shoved together that you almost felt like you were on a crowded street. But on the other hand, the piece was so rich in color and contrast that it felt jubilant, juicy, and somewhat decadent. I've never been to Korea, but perhaps this is how Park feels about bustling Korean streets. Maybe they feel at home and happy even amongst the sea of people. I find it wildly wonderful how one can get all of that from a painting and a three word title. This, of course, is not the only piece which I felt I really understood (I remember I got a feel for most of them), this is just the one I remember most vividly. How marvellous are the arts as a method of communication? What can match both the simplicity and the clarity?
PS: I'd really like to congratulate everyone who was in the exhibition — all the work was so good!
Thank you for reading!
Comments
Post a Comment