arty farty day

My bestie and I finally made arty farty day happen this weekend.  We literally spent hours making sure we looked arty enough and off we went.  Now don't get me wrong, art is a way of life, but sometimes I have to make a concerted effort to look the part.  Don't tell me you've never embellished your look a little to match a certain outing.

So, education plus today.  Art is so educational! High order thinking is involved right here before your eyes as people search for meaning in visual communication.  I'm told the average person looks at an artwork for 30 seconds or under, decides whether they like it, and is done.  Others will stand for copious amounts of time making up what seems from time to time to be pretentious dribble.  Today I pondered the meaning of life. Put me in category number 2.  GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art) is the bomb diggity and I have broken the sound barrier of thought!

Tromarama, EVERYONE IS EVERYBODY, 2012

Tromarama, EVERYONE IS EVERYBODY, 2012

Let's take a little virtual tour of some of my favourites from today.  Tromarama.  Who doesn't love a stop motion with little singing mouths bringing to life all sorts of inanimate objects? As my bestie and I sat on a vinyl bench and watched, we reflected on humankind and a society of consumers. We live to accumulate stuff.

Tromarama takes you through so many every day objects happily singing away, each item has a little personality and voice. It's funny that so many items are accumulated to make one happy or to project the right image.  Am I hipster, ecclectic, beachy, preppy, new age, conservative, old money...?  It got us thinking about how much we collect and how this projects our personalities, our values, our wealth, taste, our whole identities are wrapped up in what we choose to surround and clothe ourselves in.  It sums up the fortunate and the less fortunate, the tasteful and the tasteless, even our priorities in life.  

Isn't it crazy that a bunch of singing handbags could stimulate a conversation like this?

Raqib Shaw

Raqib Shaw | Paradise Lost 2011–12 

We spent some time staring at Raqib Shaw's series, admiring the detail and scale of the works.  So, so alluring they are, littered with rhinestones and outlined in gold.  Every person in the room was pulled in with the lullaby of sheer beauty, stepping close to examine the detail only to be confronted with blood and violence.  It reminded me of my first experience of Bosch's triptych, Garden of Earthly Delights which seemed to be such a beautiful painting until on close inspection I noticed the disturbing imagery of damned souls trapped in perdition committing ghastly acts, acts to make one blush.  

Shaw's works reminds me a lot of today's world, how there seem to be so many things around that appear so alluring, so appealing yet on closer inspection are insidious.  We buy into what looks like a cool thing to do, t stuff hat will make us happier, more popular...lifestyles, money, material goods, even altering looks.  These are the things that are considered valuable in our society. These are promoted every day, everywhere we turn. Some will sell their soul (Believe me, I have seen it on TV) for the glitter and rhinestones of life but in the end are they as nice as they appear? What happens when the sparkle dims, the gold tarnishes and we get a closer look at the picture?

Nguyen Manh Hung, Vietnam b.1976 | Living together in paradise,2009 

 So much to contemplate- I must admit, we exhausted ourselves quickly as our contributions to the universe were begat, but one of our favourite favourites was Nguyen Manh Hung's piece Living Together in Paradise. It is exactly as the title suggests. A quirky little piece of paradise.  Perfect for staring. Perfect for wondering. Perfect.