Tosca was the first ballet I’ve been to and it did not disappoint. It was mostly enjoyable, except for the first act which I found a little bit boring. The singing was not as intense as it was in the second and third act. Speaking of singing, Sonda Radvanovsky’s performance was excellent and astounding. Her ability to portray her feelings in her face and her singing was captivating. My favorite part was when she was trying to convince Scarpia that her lover, Cavaradossi, is not hiding Angelotti. Her facial expressions were on point. Before she even said that she knew where Angelotti was hidden, her face showed it all. I knew right at the moment when her face went from strong to an expression of defeat, that she would reveal his location. Another moment I liked was when she stabbed Scarpia. It showed a subtle change of character within her. She went from a vulnerable women to one that was strong and driven. The difference between her personality in Act II and Act III shed new light into how I interpreted the rest of the opera. Even her clothing color changed from a bright red to a bold black. In the third act, she appeared stronger and was more in control of things. She wasn’t just going around and complaining about her problems anymore, she started to take initiative. She was more daring. This was all captured by Radvanovsky’s outstanding performance.

For the most part, this opera was good and to my surprise, not boring. I definitely want to go to more in the future.

I was looking through Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal’s comics because I was bored. I looked at each one and clicked next pretty quickly, until I came across this one. This one got an actual chuckle out of me. It is basically the artist’s interpretation as to how Macgritte came up with the painting The Treachery of Images. I remember seeing the painting at the Macgritte exhibit at the MoMA and could not really understand the painting. A painting of a pipe with the words “this is not a pipe” was contradictory and so I remember just standing in front of the painting with a really puzzled face. I soon forgot about the painting as I walked around the exhibit. However, after coming across this very funny comic strip, it made me remember how I saw the painting. I accept this artist’s version of why Macgritte decided to come up with his The Treachery of Images.

Last Tuesday, we went to see the contemporary ballet, Complexions, at the Joyce Theater. The first thing I noticed was the very sculpted body of each dancer. The dim lights and shadows emphasized the muscles even more. This made me think about how much effort each dancer has to put in their moves. Even a skip, a hop, a spin across the stage required the utmost concentration and focus. The amount of discipline and energy in making the difficult look effortless was remarkable.

There were a lot of quiet almost silent moments in the second segment that made me uncomfortable because it threw me off. After minutes of music in the background, the sudden quietness startled me. I didn’t know what to concentrate on anymore. However, after a few minutes of silence I began to focus on the heavy breathing of each dancer. There was this one part when the dancers ended an act by breathing heavily in sync with each other and facing the audience and I found this part especially captivating. Another part that I particularly remember was when at the end of one dance all of the dancers walked all the way up to the front of the stage and just stared into the audience. Their methods of engaging us was different than most shows that I’ve seen. By causing slight awkwardness and discomfort with us – the audience, is the dancer able to capture our undivided attention. However, despite the silence, the second segment of the three part ballet was my favorite.

Compared to the first and second parts, the last segment of the ballet was lively and upbeat. However, I did not find it particularly memorable. It was fun to watch but compared its previous counterpart it was more predictable, making it almost boring. Overall, this ballet was a good experience and definitely helped spark my interest in the art of dance.

Last week before the Thanksgiving break, I went to pay a visit to my high school for Alumni Day. My school is located in Tribeca and so I decided to walk through City Hall to get there. While walking I noticed the building pictured above. It is the Beekman Tower at 8 Spruce Street. It was designed by architect Frank Gehry and it was his first skyscraper. I never realized that it was completed and upon further research I found out that it was completed two years ago. As a high schooler I used to always walk by the building as it was under construction. Designed by an architect superstar or not, I thought it was ugly then and still think its an eyesore. Many praise it as one of finest skyscrapers to have risen in New York. To me, it will always look like an uncompleted building still waiting to receive its finishing touches.

On Tuesday, September 10, we went to visit the International Center of Photography. Two displays stuck with me in particular. One of them being the blown up pictures of iPad scans by Andrea Longacre-White. She scanned iPads and the light from the scanner would produce heat making the iPad respond thinking it is human touch. Her pictures of the scans depict the iPad glitch and trying to decide what it wants to open up. Also visible were the many fingerprints from everyday use on the screen of the tablet. The fingerprints showed intimacy of the owner and the iPad and this showed our increasing dependence on our digital tools.

The next piece was the diorama map of New York by Sohei Nishino. There were 10,000 images used to create the map. Nishino photographed and collaged the whole thing by hand. His diorama creations are his way to reminds us that human imagination is needed to create meaning out of accumulations of visual information. In an age where everything is handed to us, for instance Google maps, we need to remember that we still have our own imagination and creativity to build on.
I remember spending a long time looking at the map trying to figure out where everything was and how different it was from an actual map. It was intriguing to see my own city depicted in a different way.

My favorite exhibition was the Poppy Fields one by Zhang Huan at Pace Gallery. It was his first solo exhibition in New York since 2010. The exhibit featured a series of large and vividly colored oil paintings. Against the white walls, the colors really popped out which made each painting stand out even more.

From afar, each work displays a mixture of colors ranging from black to candy-colored pink. Walking around the gallery gives the viewer a dizzying feeling. As one approaches each painting to find that upon further inspection, the big abstract painting is actually made up of tiny faces with big eyes and wild Cheshire grins.

As seen in the picture above, the whole linen canvas is covered in smiling faces and skulls. This one was my favorite of all of them because from a distance it just looked black and gloomy. However, when I looked at it from a closer point of view I saw a bunch of grinning faces staring at me. This made the whole gloomy feeling away even with the “boring” colors it was painted with.
Another interesting thing about these paintings is the impasto technique that Zhang Huan employs. The impasto technique is when the painter puts on the paint really thick on a canvas, and to the point where the strokes are visible. Along with an already visible Cheshire grinning face, there is a pop up effect that comes with it. It makes it look like all the faces are coming out at the viewer.

The MoMA is always a fun museum to visit because of its exhibitions and the most recent visit did not fail my expectations. The MoMA held a René Magritte exhibition and this was exciting because I finally discovered who this artist was. Having seen his works all over, for example the sky in the eye and the painting with the apple in front of the man, I was treated to a nice surprise when the exhibit I was going to was going to be about him. I was walking around with Professor Eversley and right as we entered the exhibit she started talking about alienation and the dismembered bodies. As I walked around the exhibit I saw more and more of this “alienation” that Professor Eversley was talking about. Magritte painted many pictures of body parts without the head and because there is no head, it shows a sense of being isolated. Another theme that I saw with his paintings were the words over images, the same print over and over again, and segmentation. The painting above, I thought, was a good “summary” painting of what was in the exhibit. It showed human flesh, segmentation, and all the different prints such as wooden planks, the sky, and the bells.

After this exhibit, I went down to the second floor to the Projects Gallery. I came across Mike Kelley’s Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #1. It was a film exploring the psychologically fraught relationship between two men. One of them was constantly subjugated by the owner of the house in which this was filmed. The other man tried to assert his dominance however, he failed many times. It was overall an interesting and slightly disturbing film.

Upon finding out the Whitney was closed on Tuesday, we decided to take a trip to the Met a few blocks down 5th ave. When I got to the Met I knew exactly where I wanted to go. I wanted to go to my favorite part of the museum which was the Sackler Wing.
The Sackler Wing has always been my favorite place in the museum. In the middle, stood the Temple of Dendur and in front of that is water. All of this was partially enclosed by a huge glass window facing a vast green lawn, colorful trees, and clear blue skies. Every time I visit the Met I have to go to this spot in the museum. Especially when it’s empty, the Sackler Wing is very comforting and beautiful. The water and the amount of space in there is stress relieving. My favorite time to visit is at night when the sun is down and the Sackler Wing is only lit by the dim yellow lights in the museum reflected off of the water. It is very peaceful in there at night especially when it isn’t as crowded.
After visiting my favorite spot we decided to check out the American Wing. We went through a bunch of model rooms inspired by neoclassicism. However, I did not find it all that interesting. As we stepped out of those rooms, what caught my attention were the stained glass windows that lined the walls of the area next to the eating area of the American Wing.

The View of Oyster Bay by Louis C. Tiffany made in 1908 was my favorite. It looked pretty simple from afar but as I went closer I realized how intricate it actually was. The combination of different shades of blue and green glass was beautiful. The stained glass windows are supposed to be the view from that of Louis C. Tiffany’s country estate in Oyster Bay.
Then as we were looking for the exit we walked by the Arms and Armor collection which was interesting. At first I thought it would just display armor of the European kind but as I browsed around, I saw armors from all over the world. The contrast and seeing the difference between armors depending on the country was fascinating.
Overall, the unexpected trip to the Met was a fun one and discovering new parts of the museum during each visit is always entertaining.