Yesterday a Facebook friend posted something about a piece of installation art in the MOA on campus. He said, "Our family has derived great enjoyment from this art installation. I can't remember a time when my children were more engaged at the BYU MOA. They love it." Isn't that a fantastic endorsement? It being Friday, I told the children we were going to the museum today, and though there was a bit of whining about my choice of activity for field trip Friday, we went.
The installation is called Plexus 29 by Gabriel Dawe. It is a thread sculpture, a prism made of 80 miles of sewing thread, hooked from the ceiling of the atrium to small hooks along the wall. It is beautiful and fun, but I could not make the same posting on Facebook as my friend Marcus did. While we kids liked it, they were not super engaged. Turns out they had seen it before with Kent when they were on campus for a concert I missed, so it wasn't new. But even so, the sculpture is out of reach, you can't run your fingers across/through it, and it's string. So while I thought it was great, and did manage to get the kids to stand and let me take their picture, I wouldn't/couldn't say they were "engaged."
We did wander around the museum to look at other art. Downstairs was a very interesting installation about architecture in Provo. We could leave a comment about a building we like in Provo and what significance it has for us. I made a comment about the power plant which was just down the street from the house I grew up in. I felt I knew always where home was when I could see the smoke stacks. I'm sad my neighborhood has been razed to make way for hospital expansion, and I'm sort of sad the smoke will be removed.
I took a picture of this sculpture because it's titled, "Blockhead."
Blockhead was a favorite word of my dad's.
My first thought when I saw the title was,
"Oh! That's what a blockhead looks like."
LOVE these two.
Downstairs the children found the lecture hall in the museum. My guess is that they teach art history classes in here. There was a keyboard on the lectern and a monitor nearby, and Brandt immediately hopped onto the chair and began lecturing to us. Blythe wanted a turn. I had to call a stop to it all when they began trying to figure out how to turn on the projector.
There is a Vishnu exhibit up at the moment, with lots of Indian artworks. One room was very interactive, with things for the children to do. There was a big wall of pictures of Indians which I loved and should have taken a picture of. They were all relatively close up shots of faces, young and old; very striking. There was also a wall covered in bright papers called "Lotus Tide." The explanation on the wall said, "In Hinduism, the locus blossom represents the throne of the gods and is the symbol beauty, purity, and eternal love. Notice how the Lotus Tide is placed apart from the wall, or "waters" behind it. Just as the lotus flower floats above the muddy waters beneath, so we should strive to remain separate from the fallen world--to float above it, as it were, focused on acts of kindness that invoke good karma." We were to write on a flower an act of kindness we have done or want to do that can "invoke good karma," and then place it with the others in the Lotus Tide. I loved Blythe's. "I can be more obedient." That would, indeed, bring her good karma.
I particularly liked these two small statues which were in the same case. In both, Krishna is depicted with balls of butter, dancing with one in the lower picture. The informative bit of writing with that one says, "The spirited posture of this Krishna figure communicates a child's excitement at obtaining a ball of butter--a coveted treat." Our Blythe likes butter so much, she might dance with excitement at receiving a ball of it. "Woo hoo! Butter!" Both Krishnas look like they've eaten quite a bit of butter. My body relates.
No comments:
Post a Comment