Works of Art in the Brooklyn Museum

Although the Brooklyn Museum is considered close compared to the other museums in the city, it’s also one of the few that I’ve never actually visited before. As someone who really loves exploring museums, I walked into the museum excited to see the different displays they had.

The Dinner Party was one of the first exhibits I saw and I must say I was disappointed. Since it was supposed to be feminist art, I thought that it would honor or show the beauty of feminism, instead I felt like it did the opposite.  I didn’t really appreciate the fact that the names were on the cloth on the bottom since it made it hard to read who the plate represented. I feel like the rigid form of the Dinner Party doesn’t really tell us what feminism is. The exhibit was way too structured and made me feel like woman were being controlled rather then increasing in power. Another thing that bothered me was how as the years passed the plates got increasingly bigger and the design would become 3 dimensional. I don’t really understand why a woman more towards the present would have a plate that pops up compared to a woman int he past. As feminist art I feel like every woman should have been given the same level of treatment because each and everyone of them made a significant impact in their own way. I was also a little bit disturbed by the art on the plates since it seemed to exploit the woman human body.

An exhibit that greatly disturbed me was Matthew Buckingham: “The Spirit and the Letter”. It was fascinating yet eerie at the same time. When I first walked in, all I saw was what seemed like a  beautiful chandelier in an upright position. Soon enough I heard a voice coming from the room and to my surprise I saw a woman on a projection. This woman however was walking on the screen upside down and would disappear and reappear on the screen at times. I really like this exhibit because it distorted everything in the room. The fact that the woman was upside down, and the chandelier was hanging compared to the chandelier next to me that was upright, made me question what was actually correct. This exhibit plays with your senses. When my friends walked in soon afterward they woman had already disappeared and they didn’t believe me when I told them a woman was there and thought I was hallucinating. Even I questioned myself for a moment as to where the woman went.

One of my favorite exhibits was Sanford Biggers: Sweet Funk – An Introspective. As someone who has played the piano for a number of years I was quite intrigued to see a tree intertwined into the piano. It was even more intriguing to see the keys play by itself. If I could I would have sat in that room and listened to the piano all day. The very image of the tree and piano left me at peace even though the exhibit itself was really strange and somewhat grotesque . It was beautiful to see nature and an instrument come together to form art. Something that disturbed me was the huge red lips you would see beyond the tree. It was as if someone was watching you from  a far and laughing at you while you were amused by the tree.

Another exhibit I thoroughly enjoyed were the period rooms. I really love being able to be a part of the art rather then to just simply look at it. I had fun walking around and looking into each different room. We could even enter some rooms to an extent. I feel like the museum really brought out the feel of the rooms. I was so tempted to just step into a room and sit on someone but thankfully there was glass preventing me from doing so. I like how the glass they used was barely visible and I wouldn’t know that I was looking through glass until I actually hit it. This exhibit showed how different things were back then. I mean my house looks nothing like Rockefeller’s house.

I really enjoyed looking at the art in the Brooklyn Museum. There are very little barriers in this museum and it allows the audience to interact and connect more with the art. A lot of the exhibits were in the open and it allowed me to see things more closely without damaging the art. I was especially surprised to see all those skateboards out in the open just laying there on the floor.