Ok, Museum Time. We went to the Museum of Contemporary Art (just a short pleasant walk from our doorstep!) the other day. Two big things are happening there : a Koons retrospective, and a "Look at all the great stuff we have in our collection!/F-you Art Institute" show.
The Koons Show - I'd heard a lot of discussion before hand, and really who hasn't heard a lot of discussion about him, in general? Anyway, this is a big show - and featured all the greatest hits. The hanging blue heart, the porn, the Michael Jackson. This show was more about finally seeing the objects behind all the discussion, kind of like scratching an itch. However, issues of originality/"aura" abound, as one realizes that his work takes a sharp sarcastic position about the whole idea of high-art, jaw-dropping, object worship. The high level of technical virtuosity he presents just furthers that whole shiny/sexy/playful allure the objects have. Like he's mashing all "good" things together to talk about the people/cultural practices that do that for real.
However, that could mostly all be understood without seeing the show. The most visceral reaction we had looking at this work up close was just laughing. Whatever else his work does, and there's a lot, seeing giant ceramic kitschy replicas of the cultural detritus we've all come to filter out is just funny. Giant teddy bears, inflatable toys, balloons, sex, cute kids, ..you know. All funny things.
Oh, and he went to school here.
The Show-Off Show- Ok, so the Art Institute is opening a new Contemporary wing this spring, so it seems the MCA is saying "well whatev, we've been doing this way longer than you. Look at my Naumans. Oh, and did I mention Kara Walker? and the Hairy Who? Oh, and let me remind you about BRUCE NAUMAN." So of course, this was enjoyable because they were showing off some of their best stuff.
Personally, I developed a big crush on Bruce Nauman. Perhaps it's like one of those things when your friend says "hey, look at that cute boy!" and you say "oh, yeah, come to think of it, he is cute!" But really, I think this boy was always cute, no matter what the MCA says. There was a piece featuring a video projection of him beating a large sack full of something, relentlessly, brutally. In front of it was a yellow plexi-glass architectural construction, than doubles as a rat maze. Small TVs featuring the beating video a pressed up against the plexi, beaming that violence into this opressively yellow, disorienting environment. A camera up above pans the room methodically, periodically splicing shots of the viewers in to the projected video. We are all complicit. But there's nothing that can be done. And we're so busy worrying what's going on in this big fancy artificial construction.
Another Nauman piece that I was happy to see again features two televisions, side-by-side, one with a frontal shot of an older-middle-aged white woman and the other a middle-aged black man. They are each reciting a series of conjugations of states of being. "I am -------. You are -----. We are -----. This is ------." where the blanks are filled in with such things as : a good man/woman, a bad man/woman, evil man/woman, fun, boring, having sex... " etc, creating a litany of very common, yet ultimately revealing and all-encompassing statements of self-assertion. The two actors inflect the phrases differently, so "this is fun" can be joyful or sardonic. You probably are familiar with this work, so I'll stop.
Ok, I've never been a big Hairy Who fan. But I'm in Chicago now, at SAIC, and they are everywhere I look. And they seem to be a corner-stone to the Art Institute/ MCA turf war, as each is featuring them similarly at the moment. But MCA's is bigger.
I'm done now.
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