Art & Authenticy

Danny Senna’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night? showed us her past as a bi-racial child of a black father and a white mother. I thought it was interesting how she wrote about her family and her father’s past. Even with her father’s disapproval of the book, Senna continued with it. It seems to be me that Senna’s strength to write about this comes from her curiosity to know the past. With the family problems that she had, I thought that Senna does a great job in sharing it with us in her book. To a  lesser extreme, her story made me think about my own family. I remembered all the time s I had with my family and how my dad always said that I have a very good life compared to him when he was my age. It makes we wonder how hard my dad’s life was back then and the struggles he went through to be where he is now.

As I walked through the Abraham Lincoln and New york exhibition in the New York Historical Society, I realized how influential New York had been to Lincoln and his presidency. Even though, Abraham Lincoln has only been to New York for a couple days, New York’s support for Lincoln’s run for presidency was immense. I also learned that even with such great support from New York, Lincoln didn’t seem to be fulfilling his promises of ending the war quickly that the New Yorkers had wished to see. Because of this, many people began to lose trust in Lincoln as they began to doubt that man they thought would change everything. However, after his assassination, the New Yorkers realized what a great president they had lost. Throughout the exhibition, I was able to experience the relation between New York and Lincoln almost live with the numerous documents, artifacts and videos.

As I walked through the Museum of Art and Design, the Read my Pins: The Madelein Albright Collection exhibition caught my eye the most. There were so many different pins that Albright owned and it seemed like every time she had a meeting with somebody as the Secretary of State, her pin had a meaning behind it. There were hundreds of pins that separated into groups including bugs, plants, fruits and much more. The pin that caught my attention the most was the a pin that had a man carrying the world on his shoulder. Albright used this pin only in the most important meetings which described how much responsibility she carried. Many of the pins she owned were well designed and they were all so beautiful. Many of her pins also made statements including the time she had a meeting with a high official in Afghanistan. She wore a bright pin of the U.S. flag which emphasized the importance of representing her country.

The use of videos and films as a means to reflect their views – now that’s way to reach a broad audience. I feel that through these means the female artists can be more free and liberal of the society’s limitations in expressing their beliefs. One of the most interesting and also the most “active” pieces was Paralyzed, by Klara Liden. In Paralyzed the artist dances in a public train in Stockholm, oblivious to the stares of the co passengers in the train. I believe that through this she was trying to experience freedom – carefree and wild- without any inhibition created by social customs and norms, especially for women.

What truly amazed me was the artist’s ability to perform such a task. It would have taken very strong self-confidence and guts to perform the way she did on a packed local train. It was brilliant!!!

As I walked around watching the videos in the Reflections on the Electric Mirror: New Feminist Video Exhibition, there seemed to be a lot of videos that were hard to understand and somewhat redundant and meaningless. Most of the videos seemed like the women were doing short, small actions that only took five seconds but repeated doing that action for five minutes. However, there was a meaning behind each one but it was just hard for me to grasp. The first video I watched was when the lady were putting up blocks onto a relatively high shelf attached to the wall. There wasn’t a description to this video or at least I didn’t find it but it seemed to me that the message she was trying to show was that no matter how heavy the blocks were and no matter how high the shelves were, she still took the time and effort to put the blocks on the shelves. However, it was a rather long process that seemed to make me lose interest after she put up the first two blocks. What I did not understand was where the paint came from and what was the purpose of it.

Without much of a plot, Barber of Seville was not a very interesting story to follow. However, the comedic scenes throughout kept some of us awake. Filled with weird acts and an elongated and ridiculous plot, this opera seemed to be the most random play I had ever seen.But it didn’t seem to make sense to me how all the characters were all high class adults in the 18th century yet they all acted like children. All of them seemed to be making fun of each other as Figaro and the Count kept playing jokes on Bartholo. I realized that this provided some of the laughter throughout the rather long opera, but it didn’t fit in for me. it seemed as though the “love” between Rosina and the Count was won from a child’s game that the characters played. It didn’t seem like they fit into the high class costume that they dressed up in. I guess it doesn’t really matter since nothing seemed to make sense in this opera anyways.

“Wow!” was my first reaction as I stepped foot into the Eugene O’Neill theater that night. The graffiti-designed shrine, the photos, the computer screens, and then finally… the band from New York’s magical city of Brooklyn, Antibalas. Afrobeat music, hips that don’t lie, and Fela Kutti (acted by Sahr Ngaujah and Kevin Mambo – alternating) are more than enough to get a crowd singing “Yeah, Yeahyaaaah.” Never did I imagine that the audience members would be standing up, dancing along with the Broadway production. It is for this action, for this fun, that William and Jada Pickett Smith and Jay Z have taken on roles as producers of FELA!
I had the best time at the theater that night – it was informative, thought-provoking, fun, and exciting. As I ran from 49th Street to Penn Station, all I repeated was “Yeah, Yeahyaaaah”.. I loved it and if given the chance, I’m sure I can learn the clock dance a little better. That’s the effect such a production has on a person. 🙂

Ramones, originally from Queens, NY, is one of the most renowned bands of all time. When I saw their song, “Beat on the Brat” at the exhibition, I thought it was going to be one of the best tracks I’ll have ever listen to. I was right. With their three chords, a guitar, bass, and drums, Beat on the Brat was another song I knew I had to buy from iTunes later that night. The lyrics were so “authentic”, though unfortunately repetitive. It’s a song you can just sit back in a lounge chair and play a video game to. It’s liveliness is what makes it a Ramones song, as the Ramones are what revolutionized arenas into clubs and lounges. Now, you’ve all seen my dance skills and know they’re nothing special, but I may just be able to bust a new move or two to this song. Check out their video on youtube here.

The wonderful thing about audiobooks is that you get to hear your favorite authors read their own work in the way they intended to.  There is something about adding their own voice and emotions that create a new kind of dimension in the reading.

Luckily for us, we had O’Connor come in to read his own work.

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The work of Claes Oldenburg must’ve been treasured by the folks at the Whitney Museum.  He practically got an entire floor devoted to his work.

If you look past the weird subjects of his drawings and sculptures you will find an interesting exploration of differences, in this case, the difference between the soft and malleable and the hard and rigid.

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