So for my second Culture Corner post (see the first one here) I have A LOT to share. I was really tempted to just drop in the photos and let you enjoy them, but I guess I should explain everything or at least give some basic descriptors, so without further fanfare here you go.
This first set of photos, above, was an outdoor installation between the Boston and Brookline Campus of my work titled Studios without Walls: Through the Trees. There were quite a few installations and the primary point of the work is to engage audiences in considering the relationship between site-specific art and the environment in which it is seen. There were many more installations, but these three were my favorites. The first large photo (that looks like a mouth) is the installation Doorway which the artist designed as an entry way to the natural world. The next photo (top right) is of the installation titled Tree Dreams and the reason I photographed this one is the ethereal quality of seeing the glimpses of color through the trees and as you get closer their indefinable qualities becomes even more apparent. The final two photos are of my favorite installation piece entitled Anatomy of a Tree. This piece was by far the coolest because I feel it interacts with the environment and locale better than any other. The copper bands are recycled MRI film, this green space is right near the Longwood Medical Area a very large hospital and research complex, and the circles are the artists interpretation of the age lines within a tree.
These last three sets of photos are from when my family came to visit and we did all sorts of cultural things. They start at the library and then go (back) to the Museum of Fine Arts and finally end with two photos of the American Repertory Theatre performance of Pirates of Penzance.
The first photo of the Lion is one of the large sculptures inside the original Copley Square location of the library (1895) which you can read more about here. The other three photos come from the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the BPL. It was an interesting exhibit, but there have been much more interesting ones in the past. You can check out the exhibition’s full description by clicking here.
This next group of photos is from the MFA. As part of my mom’s Christmas present my sister and I helped pay for her flights up to my sister’s graduation and I took her to the MFA and to see Pirates of Penzance (the final set of photos). Rather than going into what each of the photos are I’ve given their title and artist as part of the file name. I’m sure I will do a full post in the near future about Renoir’s Dance at Bougival for many reasons so you’ll have to keep an eye out.
The two things to note in this group are the first two photos on the upper left. They are of a small exhibition of Michelangelo’s drawings titled Sacred and Profane. It was really interesting to see many of his sketches with so much detail and then the more fascinating part, the profane if you will, on another corner of the paper a hastily scribbled shopping list or an abandoned letter (according to the descriptions at least – my Italian is pretty much non-existent). The other thing to note are the final two photos on the bottom right. The first is a Letter to the Dead approximately 4,100 years old. It’s antiquity completely baffles me and I just love to go and stand in front of it (it’s tiny) and imagine that a person wrote this small document so many thousands of years ago. The other is the Bust of Prince Ankhhaf, one of the pieces mentioned in Waxman’s Loot which Egypt demanded be repatriated. It’s fascinating because it is one of very few Egyptian sculptures in a realistic style. You can see more (professional) pictures of the bust and read a little about it, including a brief sentence on its provenance (one of Waxman’s issues) here.
I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy Pirates of Penzance due to the structure and the non-traditional stage I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. If you look at the photo on the right you will see a child in a kiddie pool and audience members all around the stage. I was glad we had normal seats, but the people sitting in the performance area seemed to have a great time and I could see where kids would thoroughly enjoy that aspect of the performance.
Well that’s another REALLY long post for Cultural Corner. I’m not sure what cultural events I will get to this month, but I will get to something so I have something to write about in July. Maybe I’ll do some pop culture and go see a movie 🙂
I didn’t realise you were in Boston but I loved visiting the city a couple of years ago and instantly recognised the lion from the library! Sacred and Profane sounds a great exhibition, I’ve seen some of his work in Rome and Milan but never a structured exhibition of it. 🙂
I LOVE Boston 🙂 I’ve never seen anything by Michelangelo. I was in Florence, but was outside of the city and had to leave so early I didn’t even get to go see David, but this was really neat – everything was so tiny and had so many different things on it! I guess that’s how valuable paper was at the time that you reused it.
I made it to the Blue and White exhibit at the MFA during a visit to Boston. It was fascinating!
That’s awesome! It was a really great exhibit, I wasn’t sure what to expect and I enjoyed being able to take my family back to see it. Their comment was ‘Geez, how often do you come here, you’re like a tour guide!’
Oh this makes me miss Boston.
I love this! I also love the maps in that room at the Boston lib!