The Politics of Art & Authenticity

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At the beginning of the day, MoMA was definitely something I was excited to go to because it was something I would never imagine myself going on my own time. I never stepped foot into a museum. Except for the Natural History Museum, but I don’t really count that as an experience because I was young and I kind of just ran around with my friends at the time. I didn’t appreciate what was around me at the time. When we arrived, the first thing we saw was The Scream by Edvard Munch. This famous piece of artwork that I seen basically every where, on television, in textbooks, basically every where since I don’t even know how long, but to see it before my eyes was incredible. Although people praise this artwork, I looked at it and I said to myself, “This is it? This is what people obsess about, what people think is amazing.” I looked at it and it looked so simple, as if he just took Crayola crayons and wanted to draw something real quick. It didn’t look so special to me and that is when I realized I’m not an artsy person. I understand the time he took, but I expected to see GREAT detail to the point where I’d look at the painting and go, “I wish I was an artist.” However, when I looked at this artwork, I said to myself, “It looks like I can do this” (But of course I can’t because my drawing skills on a scale of 10 is undefined. It’s horrible I must tell you). I do enjoy looking at artwork, especially The Scream because I got to see this painting with my own eyes without media having to portray it themselves.

Also, at the MoMA, the photography section was a little too much for me. I guess the term “modern art” can be interpreted VERY loosely and I wish it wasn’t. I guess my view on that section of the museum is that if you are not open minded about stepping into the photography section of MoMA, then I don’t think you should. Just a fair warning.

Later that night, after watching The Barnard Fall Project, although I left early, it was a different experience. I walked into the theater with a very open mind, actually excited to see what this “modern dance” is because I didn’t even know there was such thing as “modern dance.” I guess, I know what it’s called modern. The way the danced was so very unique I would say. It was just their movements seemed so “different” in a sense. I guess it’s just not what I’m use consider dance. The one thing that really bothered me though was that during the second dance, they kept walking around to wherever they were going. It wasn’t dancing to me, it was just walk to where you need to stand and that what grind my gears at the moment. However, the one thing I must applaud about The Barnard Fall Project was the first dance because the fact that majority of the dance was performed without music. I’ve tried to dance without music in a group and it was a complete fail because people were just off beat, but during the performance everyone was basically in sync with each other. It was amazing to watch and the stamina that they have. Jeez… the amount of jumping and leaping and running and walking they did was just…. CLAPS FOR YOU GLENN COCO (Excuse my Mean Girls reference).

All I can say about this modern stuff is that one needs an open mind, I wish someone told me that sooner or else my mind would of been opened rather than closed. Now I know, an open mind is needed when you are exploring NYC in a different way than what I’m use to seeing NYC as I see it.