A puppet show might be the most I’ve laughed all year. With some hilarious songs like “It Sucks To Be Me”, “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist”, “The Internet is For Porn”, “My Girlfriend, Who Lives in Canada”, and “Schadenfreude”, it was just a blast. There was so much existentialist slightly dark and depressing humor that was right up my alley. Of course there were gut-wrenching moments, like “There’s a Fine Line”, and hopeful moments like “For Now”. It was a fantastic experience, and it was rather sad that the theater was not even close to full, even after 15 years. Gizel stole the show with Kate and Lucy, especially during Kate’s “There’s a Fine Line”, Matt’s Princeton had his moments, and of course Jason’s Trekky was always hilarious. Easily my favorite show all year, and after all, it sucks to be me, but only for now.
A Trip to Tosca
This trip to the opera was nothing like any of the other trips we’ve taken for this class. The atmosphere was much more formal and the rules were very strict. After getting lost o our way to the theater, we showed up about five minutes after it started and they wouldn’t let us go to our seats during the first act so we wouldn’t disturb anyone. Luckily I could read the words off of the translator in front of me. Unfortunately, when we got to our seats, the translator in front of me didn’t work no matter how many times I pushed the button so I had trouble following exactly what was happening. Luckily I knew the general plot from reading it for class so I could make out when major events were happening, such as Tosca killing Scarpia. Overall, I really enjoyed the play when I didn’t have too much trouble figuring out what was happening. I am, however, looking forward to Avenue Q so I don’t have to wear a tie.
The Rich Stremme
It was an amazing experience learning about graffiti art with Rich Stremme. the many resources he showed us made us feel as if we were live at the time it happened. It was interesting to learn about Revs and how focused he was in his work.
however what I didn’t like about the presentation was how Rich focused a lot on Revs. and not on himself.
Most of the presentation was Revs and his works, there wasn’t enough on Stremme and his character.
but overall it was a good experience and a good lesson about Grafiti and it would be great to live that experience.
kerolous shehata
Documentaries
Friday, I was not in class as I had to go to a doctors appointment, as I was not in class, I obviously was unable to blog about our class visitor. Instead, I was assigned to watch two documentaries. The documentaries were, “Salad Days” and “Exit Through the Gift Shop”. I had a choice between watching “Salad Days” or another documentary, however I was able to find it easier, so it was the one I watched. Both of these documentaries were sort of examples of people using their art to defy or resist conformity.
In “Salad Days”, the documentary is focused on the roots of the Punk Rock scene, in the 80’s and very early 90’s. During this time, punk rock music was not widely accepted and therefore people found it almost appalling. I was surprised to find that this punk rock scene was rooted in Washington DC as I thought it would be more of a New York or Los Angeles thing. However, it makes sense that a sort of defiant genre could come from such a place. Although I could see why many people were frightened and confused by this new punk music, I can also see why a lot of people were drawn to it. The music I think helped to let the musician’s and audiences frustrations out and express how strongly they felt about certain topics. What I did not understand, was how strongly some people felt about this music, even resulting in the physical harm of some of the band members that were interviewed. Lastly, I thought since this documentary was made recently, it was interesting to see the juxtaposition of the bands and their members during the 80s and now.
The second documentary I watched was “Exit Through the Gift Shop”, I was more excited to see this documentary , as when researching this I found it had a lot to do with Banksy, who is a graffiti artist that we’ve mentioned throughout several points in our class. The film is set in the 90’s and revolves around the life of Thierry Guetta, a shop owner. One day Guetta finds out that his cousin is a prominent street artist, and becomes fascinated with graffiti. As Guetta is obsessed with filming, he records all of his new obsession which begins to grow. As Guetta becomes more and more obsessed with street art, he becomes anxious to meet an anonymous street artist Banksy, who’s growing legend excites Guetta. Eventually Guetta and Banksy meet in LA and become friends. Banksy has a huge impact on Guetta and Guetta becomes “Mr. Brainwash”, who begins to create and eventually sell his own street art. I liked this documentary better than “Salad Days” as it was more of a story format, additionally, to me I find graffiti much more interesting than Punk Rock.
In a final analysis of both documentaries, I believe both were clear and successful examples of irregular forms of art. Punk Rock and graffiti are both probably not seen as sort of ‘fine art’, but I believe both are successful in defying these standards.
-Connor Griffin
Night at the Brooklyn Museum
Last Wednesday, September 12th, the whole Macaulay class of 2022 took a trip to the Brooklyn Museum. Contrary to the MoMA, I was excited for this trip because I had been told that the museum featured a lot of ancient Egyptian artifacts and I find the ancient world extremely interesting. After waiting in the lounge for what felt like 8 months, we had pizza and got on the bus to go to the museum
When we arrived at the museum, I surveyed the outside of the museum and I thought the building itself was a lot nicer than I had expected, it almost resembled the US Capitol building. Next we waited in the lobby for 5-10 minutes while everyone got situated and found their way into the museum, we were handed t-shirts and ushered into another lobby area. We had to put our backpacks in bins which I was a little anxious about because I had my laptop car keys and airpods in it which if lost, I would be upset and also stranded in the CSI parking lot. After putting our bags down we took the stairs up to the 3rd floor auditorium where we were given a brief rundown of how this night related to our seminar class and also told where different exhibits were located within the museum.
The first exhibit that I went to was the ancient Egyptian exhibit, in my opinion this exhibit did not disappoint at all. Being surrounded by sculptures and art that has held up through thousands of years was a bit unbelievable and it gave me an insight into an ancient world that I had only heard about previously. Something I learned in this exhibit was that Egyptian sculptures are often depicted without noses as a way of taking power from the figure and also disguising the figure. This was interesting to me because I’ve always seen Egyptian figures like this and never thought to search for a reason why. After seeing the Egyptian sculptures, I decided it was time to see the mummy’s towards the back. At first we just saw some sarcophagi and I was a little disappointed because it was cool but it wasn’t an actual mummy, however as we walked further back we saw a small wrapped body in a glass tank. To me, seeing this mummy was the best part of the night, I tried to imagine the story behind this being’s life, who they were, where in Egypt they lived, their occupation, their social standing, how they died, how their body was found and much more. While my mind raced I started to observe the size of the body. It was quite small and I began to wonder how old this person was when they had died, after a quick google search I determined most Egyptian men were about 5 foot 3, this body seemed smaller, I was questioning whether or not this was a young man or a woman, however I could not know for sure.
After leaving the Egyptian exhibit, I traveled to the first floor to see the Blue Tint exhibit, to be honest I thought this exhibit was pretty underwhelming, there was a lot of just objects that I thought were just there because they were blue. The one thing I found interesting in this exhibit was a mirror which was shaped like a plate and distorted your view of yourself, after about 30 seconds or so of looking, the distortions started to give me a headache.
When I had seen enough, I went down to the lobby where I waited to get on the bus. At this point I was starving and very happy to be going home. In conclusion, I found the Brooklyn Museum quite interesting and definitely more interesting than the MoMA.
-Connor Griffin
A Night at the Brooklyn Museum
Matthew Mooney
Last night, the entire Macaulay class of 2022 gathered at the Brooklyn Museum for a Night at the Museum. Unlike Cooper Hewitt, this museum is as traditional as they get. A lot of the works have rope or plexiglass around them, and there was security everywhere to make sure nobody laid a finger on some priceless painting or sculpture.
Regardless, there were some really interesting sections of the museum. One of my favorites was a massive room in the center of the third floor. This room was a huge square with paintings and sculptures all along the perimeter walls. Then, in the center of the room was a separate sectioned off square with a beautifully designed floor and ceiling. The best part? We were totally free to walk around that section and see the tile designs under our feet and the strange geometric, almost plaid pattern on the ceiling way above our heads.
I’d have to say the best part of the whole night was being able to mingle with students from other Macaulay campuses, seeing some old friends from High School, getting to meet the new friends that they’ve made so far, and introducing them to mine.
The first chapter of Ways of Seeing criticizes this idea of a “bogus religiosity” that we have come to assign to works of art in the wake of being able to reproduce them. I think that the Brooklyn Museum suffers from this a little bit; treating the works of art like holy relics that you can’t stand too close to or else you’re showing some sort of disrespect or irreverence. However, overall I really thought a lot of the backstories and blurbs written about the pieces on the walls were very interesting, especially the section about Egypt on the third floor.
My Visit to the Cooper Hewitt Museum
Matthew Mooney
On September 10, I visited the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in Manhattan. I was particularly intrigued by this museum because their website suggested that there was a great emphasis on interactive experiences and activities. Given that most of my prior museum experiences involved constantly being reminded that we weren’t allowed to get too close to or touch anything, I figured that this would be a welcome change. In addition, probably partly due to my exposure to engineering classes in my high school years, I have become a very hands-on learner. I am most engaged and interested in topics when I’m able to interact with and manipulate my environment.
When I first showed up, I was a little bit concerned that I had been mislead into thinking that this museum was any different from a typical art museum whee you have to stand behind ropes and look at things from a distance. This is because one of the first exhibits we saw thee was called “Moustiers Ceramics”. This exhibit consisted of a wide of array of ceramic objects as well as some photos of ceramics and other related objects. While it was a very interesting exhibit with some beautiful pieces, it definetely had an environment that was very similar to a typical art museum, and that’s not exactly what I was hoping for. There were a few other exhibits similar to that, such as one called “Iridescence,” which showcased objects that displayed a rainbow pattern when light hit them in a certain way. However, even these exhibits had a special interactive twist. When we entered the museum, we were given a special pen that could be used on something called an interactive table to draw or save information.
However, undoubtedly my favorite exhibit, and the one that I spent the most time in was called “The Immersion Room.” This was a small square room with blank walls and a table with a tablet-like touch screen in it. Using the special pen from before, you could choose a design, or draw your own, that would be projected onto all four walls. Some of them would also have audio clips that told you some information about the origin of the design.
I really enjoyed how much the Cooper Hewitt museum allowed me to interact with the exhibits themselves and I would definitely go back.
My Experience at The Whitney
On September 10, my friends and I visited the Whitney Museum of American Art. I honestly was unsure of what to expect. I’m very used to visiting museums with a variety of art styles spanning through long periods of time, such as The Met, so visiting a museum that primarily consists of modern art was out of my usual comfort zone.
During my visit, there was one exhibit that really stood out to me due to its shock value: “David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night”. The exhibit itself was a temporary exhibit and was organized so that the observer was to follow a path throughout its entirety. The exhibit began with an interesting self-portrait of Wojnarowicz, and then proceeded to relatively ordinary art, such as photographs and slightly distorted landscapes. I liked these works because they were relatively simplistic and generally pleasing to look at. However, as the exhibit progressed, the art grew to be much darker and ominous. I vividly remember one painting showing the outline of America filled in to appear as a target. This, of course, made me wonder what Wojnarowicz thought America to be the target of, or even if he had anything specific in mind. I thought that I’d seen the most shocking parts of the exhibit…until we reached the end. At this point there was a video being projected, so my friends and I stopped to watch it. It began with short clips of Wojnarowicz creating some of the pieces of art displayed in the exhibit from a first-person perspective and rapidly came to include very explicit clips as well as gory religious imagery. The video ended with a statement that this was Wojnarowicz’s life work and that he had passed away before he was able to complete it.
After having seen everything in the exhibit I decided to learn more about Wojnarowicz himself to see if I could learn what he was trying to convey through his art. He began his work in the late 1970s and focused on art that would represent the LGBT+ community as well as make a statement about the AIDS crisis during the late 1980s. I also learned that Wojnarowicz himself was, in fact, both queer and HIV-positive, leading me to believe that the stigma against people like him–what he referred to as “outsiders”–was most likely the inspiration behind his more disturbing works. More so than just these specific topics, he clearly aimed to cover general subjects that stand the test of time such as religion and love. In my opinion, he was able to portray these topics in very unusual, yet effective, ways as art is meant to do.
–Victoria Nicoletta
Museum of Modern Art September 1, 2018 Michael Stora
On September 1, 2018, I decided to take a trip to the Museum of Modern Art with my mother and sister. Since my Father works in Brooklyn, he made a surprise visit and met us at the museum. Since I use the Cultural passport, the price of admittance was fourteen dollars. Now that my family and I were ready to go, we set out to explore the museum.
The first exhibit that I looked at was that of Constantin Brancusi, who lived in Romania. At his youth, Brancusi learned direct carving techniques, making him a skilled woodworker. After moving too Paris, Brancusi sculptured by modeling clay, and casting it before bronze. Brancusi abandoned these techniques after a short time and began carving his sculptures from wood and stone. My favorite work that was considered one of his stereotypical disturbing works is the Endless Column created in 1918. This sculpture is my favorite because of the rhythmic geometry that portrays infinite expansion.
The next exhibit that was explored, had to do with the architecture in Yugoslavia from 1948 to 1980, which portrays the advance of the country toward a concrete Utopia. The multiethnic and multilingual country was brought together by antifascist struggle during World War II. Following World War II, the country introduced a five-year plan that pushed for war-ravaged cities and called for urbanization. The sculpture that caught my eye was the Yugoslav Pavilion at Expo 58, Brussels, Belgium. The reason for this sculpture to catch my eyes was the modern touch to it. Now I have an affection for modern and it feels like this exhibit had a jump on the United States. Obviously, not on a luxury scale, but the more I looked at every sculpture the more it became clear to me that there was a heavy theme of modern structure.
Before reaching another floor, no one in my family realized that there was a huge helicopter hanging by two stability cables. To me, this put my height in the world on perspective because I could have walked around the first and second floor of the museum and not noticed the helicopter. After doing further research at home, I discovered that the inventor of the Bell-47D1 is Arthur Young. This helicopter was not only beautiful but as efficient as its beauty. The helicopter was awarded the world’s first commercial helicopter license by the Civil Aeronautics Administration.
It took some time, after seeing the helicopter, for something to catch my eye. That was until my family and I reached the top floor, entering the exhibit with Van Gough’s work, along with Picasso and Frida Kahlo. Obviously, the thing that would catch anyone’s eye, is the huge crowd of people surrounding a painting. In turned out to be Van Gough’s Starry Night. Although this experience is amazing to some, due to years of appreciation, it was not for me because of another work. Wheatfield with Crows, created by Van Gough is considered to be his final work before killing himself. However, this painting is not in the Museum of Modern Art, which was a disappointment. The painting amazes me because no one knows what was going through this man’s head when creating this image. It is impossible to ever know what someone is truly thinking which excites me in a way.
After taking the escalators down, I made one last stop in the Sculpture Garden, which was beautiful. After this my family and I departed to eat at a restaurant a few blocks away and then headed home. All together the trip was an amazing experience that had an impact on my view of art.
A night at the Brooklyn Museum
I went to the Brooklyn Museum on Wednesday, September 12th 2018 with everyone from CSI Macaulay. As soon as we entered, there was a bright blue sign that hurt my eyes. Then, we went to the Infinite Blue exhibit and observed this one piece of art that is called East River View with Brooklyn Bridge. I observed that the artist was so talented that he/she managed to create a ripple effect on the water and show the reflection of the light on the water. I also liked how the piece was not entirely blue, but rather beautifully blended together with the orange, yellow, and white present. My favorite piece was Not Yet Tilted because it contained the most bright blue that is my favorite color. I also noticed that the bottom of the waterfall resembled clouds to possibly show that the end can also be the beginning of something. The blues in the piece progressively became darker from the top to the bottom to show that people may not stay as pure as they are when they are first born. On the fifth floor, one piece of art really caught my eye and I believe it was a copy of the original in the White House. The presidential portrait of George Washington was very beautiful and the detail and hard work put in creating it was very impressive. The sword and most aspects of the portrait are symbolic of the president’s life to show his best and most American parts. In this way, the artist was sure to only include the positive and most likable characteristics of President Washington, like we discussed in class.