Right place, wrong time

From the outside, the Guggenheim is a structural marvel. Since it is very difficult to describe, you’ll have to take my word for it (or take your eyes to it). The inside looked promising, a beautiful ceiling and spirals leading upward to the various exhibits on display. On this particular day, there were only two exhibits on display; hence the terrible timing. I had just missed the Louise Bourgeoise exhibit; and the museum was in the transitional phase of bringing down the old, and setting up the new, effectively limiting off the majority of the museum.

I, always the optimist, still tried to find the good in a bad day. The Catherine Opie exhibit was distinctive in that her photographs were all of buildings, streets, roads, etc, none of which contained any people in sight. All of her pieces were named “Untitled #,” # being whatever number she had assigned for that particular one. I thought that it was a very interesting technique; by not giving the photograph a name, Opie forces the observor to either make a personal name for the photograph, or move on and forget about it. I had chosen the latter for many of her pictures, but the one that had really stood out left quite an impression on me. A snapshot of American life, the photograph was of a fast food (junk food) place, with an advertisement for Funeral services in plain sight. It was a wonderful mix of acuity and irony, which I thought was a great combination. Having found something meaningful in a photograph of something that seemed so “ordinary” at first, I took a second look at ther other photos in search of something I had missed, and spent the afternoon there.

I had though it was the wrong time; but if I had gone at any other time, I wouldn’t have made the observations about that I did about Opie’s exhibit. It’s a nice bit of irony in itself.