The Arts in New York City

umm as usual i’m confused to what we’re supposed to blog and what we’re supposed to actually type up, so i just did an essay on the exhibition as a whole, but i think we’re just supposed to focus on connection with the artist? oh well i’ll figure it out.

but today i went with mary to the “Depth of Field” exhibition at the Met, not a huge exhibition but lots of variation within modern photography, in both appearance and concepts. you can view all the photographs online at http://www.metmuseum.org/special/depth/modern_photography_images.asp but all of them truly need to be seen in person to get the real feel of what these photographers are trying to do.

some photos that immediately stood out were Jpeg ny02 by Thomas Ruff, a large photo of lower manhattan on 9/11 with only the north tower standing in a plume of debris. however, it has been manipulated to look like a poorly compressed photo you’d find on google images, so is slightly pixilated.

also there was a familiar cowboy by Richard Prince, which was in a somewhat similar vain to what Ruff is trying to do, and both could be considered ‘appropriation’.

The piece that i felt the most connection with was Annual Rings by Dennis Oppenheim.

the photo itself i thought was very good, and wasn’t trying too hard to be ‘artsy’ or have an especially dynamic or dramatic composition or angle. i prefer this straight-forward style of documenting things as they happen, and the fact that along with the photos he had provided maps with the location drawn on, gave the sense of time and place to the art which i thought was very important to the art. what he did basically was make a sculpture from trampling rings in the snow to mimic the rings of a tree trunk. the rings are carried on the other side of the river, which is also the USA/Canada border. he was one of the first people to really try and break away from the norm in sculpture which i admired.

the exhibition is well worth checking out (and it’s free with the cultural passport B-) ), plus you’re at the met so if you’re bored there’s plenty else to do. there’s lots of different things in one small room, i think everyone would see something they liked.