Sienna Bates is sixteen and dealing with it. She likes to write, read, go on the Internet, and take time to just relax. She loves buying random stuff from eBay and is on a perpetual quasi-diet. She wants to write novels for a living, but who doesn't?
John Mason's “Sculptural Form”; Peter Voulkos's “Vee”; Claes Oldenburg's “Giant BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwich)”; and Trude Guermonprez's “Banner" in "Crafting Modernism." Photo Credit: Kirsten Luce.
I’ll bet the curator of Crafting Modernism at the Museum of Art and Design didn’t intend for her exhibit to look like hipster version of IKEA, but unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened.
It seemed to me that many of the peices there were functional enough for everyday use, but there was always at least one element that made them completely impractical. Take J.B. Blunk‘s “Scrap Chair” for instance. One half of the chair looks rather inviting, but the other half is composed entirely out of multicolored string, making the work interesting to look at, but not much else. Or, take the wooden baby cradle that doubled as a small wardrobe. Surely, you COULD leave your baby in it, but the woodwork was so dark and menacing I don’t imagine any child would ever enjoy rocking in it. [click to continue….]
Tagged as:
Crafting Modernism,
Museum of Art and Design
Xu Bing. "Background Story 6." Wood and tempered glass, lightbox, natural debris. 2010 @ the MAD Museum.
As I walked through the pearly white staircase of the MAD Museum to see the “Dead or Alive: Nature Becomes Art” exhibition, I expected to see a display full of zombies, cowboys, or some strange combination of the two. I must say I was pleasantly surprised when I found the presentation to be made of thought-provoking art rather than an undead version of a Country Western. Needless to say, the “Dead or Alive” exhibit at the MAD Museum wasn’t anything like I expected.
The first piece that caught my eye was Jennifer Angus’s “Victorian Fancy.” Upon first glace, it simply looks like a life-size wooden dollhouse. But when you step closer and look inside one of the small windows, you see something quite surprising: an array of various insect carcasses, some plastered on the wall, some flying in the air, and some even sitting and enjoying a nice cup of tea. Another piece, Tessa Farmer’s “Marauding Horde,” also incorporates the use of dead bugs. [click to continue….]
Tagged as:
Dead or Alive,
Jennifer Angus,
Tessa Farmer,
The MAD Museum,
Visual Arts Teen Reviewers and Critics program,
Xu Bing
