Category: Uncategorized (Page 5 of 7)

I was pleasantly shocked by my first experience at the ballet. I honestly did not expect to enjoy it much but I found that within the first few moments, I was absorbed in the beauty and grace of the dance. My favorite was Monotones I and II because it was simple, not at all confusing and solely about the dance. There was not any theatrics, just the three performers and their dance. I felt that the Brahms-Haydn Variations was a  good first performance to have seen because it showcased different aspects of the ballet and though it was a little bit overwhelming and very hard to keep up with, it contradicted the stereotype that ballet is slow and almost boring. The Green Table was different from the first two in that it had a story. I found that it was a perfect performance to end on because toward the end, I  was getting antsy but the story held my attention and kept me entertained until the end. What I noticed most about the ballet though, was the importance of the music. How the music and steps work together to create an amazing performance, creating dramatic pauses and setting the tempo for the dance.

Thursday night made me really thankful that I’m in Macaulay. Although I try not to take the abundance of culture and exciting things to do that we have available in NYC for granted, without Macaulay I doubt that I would have gone to the ballet. And now that I’ve gone I’m really glad to have had that opportunity. The first two acts were romantic and elegant, as would be expected of a ballet; but the real standout was the final act, The Green Table. It was quite dark for a generally romantic and pleasant genre, but perhaps the fact that it defies the usual expectations of ballet was what made it so memorable. It announced its overtly political and antiwar stance from the first minute. The curtains were pulled back to reveal the dancers dressed up as old white male diplomats gathered around a green table, portraying the charade of international negotiations.  Tellingly, the green table was shaped like a coffin. Before long, the attempt at diplomacy degenerated into chaos and bloodshed.  One dancer fired an extremely disarming and shocking shot from a makeshift gun, heralding the breakdown of the talks. The act proceeded to depict all the suffering that occurs in war. The juxtaposition of the elegant and limber moves of the ballerinas with the heavy subject of the ballet only made the show all the more compelling. The images of the night will be embedded in my mind for a long time.

On Thursday, I went to see the ABT’s 75th Anniversary show at Lincoln Theater. There were three ballets in a row, the first two not having much of a story. The third on the other hand was perhaps the best stage show I’ve ever seen. It’s called The Green Table, and it was choreographed in 1932 as an anti-war statement. It opens with suit-wearing dancers in fiendish masks resembling old men seeming to be negotiating. These “Gentlemen In Black” as the Playbill calls them, are meant to represent diplomats. The diplomacy inevitably fails, resulting in a war. There is a dancer in skull paint, meant to represent Death, as well as several young men wearing helmets meant to represent soldiers, three women in dresses meant to represent their wives, and a character in a tight white shirt and a bowler hat called the “Profiteer,” who I can only assume is an arms manufacturer or someone else who profits off of war. In the course of the story, every character ends up dying and following Death to their eternal rest, only for the first scene, the one with the Gentlemen In Black, to repeat movement for movement. Thus, the ballet ends, with the cycle of politics and warfare continuing onwards, seemingly for eternity. As you can probably tell, this is a highly cynical ballet, in sharp contrast to the whimsy of classics like the Nutcracker. The Green Table deserves far more attention than it gets in our culture.

Where’s the art in nonart?
What affects our perception of beauty in art?
How is art demonstrated in nature?
What is considered art?
Why art for the first Macaulay class?
Why do we feel such a connection to art?
How can we, as a society, make art more relatable to the general public?
What is the most thought-provoking form of art?
What makes something beautiful?
Does art have to have a meaning?
Is music considered art?
Is there perfection in art?
If anything can be classified as art, does it lose meaning?
How does music translate into visual art?
How is art significant in a society fixated on technology?
Is digital art art?
What categories do we judge art by?
How can we learn to appreciate art?
How come we don’t focus on written forms of art?
Is there a difference between popular and great art?

I had always read about the High line in books or magazines as one of the “must see” sights of New York City. I have been to the city too many times to count and yet I had never visited this “must see” location.

Our Macaulay Seminar trip was my first time there and I was overwhelmed by the sheer awesomeness of the high line. It wasn’t as I had expected but the unexpected surprises are usually the best ones and this time was no different.

Just the layout, nature above the ground, which is almost like nature taken out of context, was a very cool and different idea. As was the term “park.” this new depiction an idea of park as sights to see rather than area to play was a nice change for me. One of the aspects that I think of when I think about New York City is the art and graffiti that is painted on to the buildings.  So, of all of the pieces that I saw, Damian Ortega’s Physical Graffiti series was my favorite because of the idea of graffiti out of its context which, in my opinion, almost embodies the essence of the high line. These pieces were of metal graffiti suspended above the platform and in two of the three cases, against a plain white wall, which gives the appearance of true graffiti that is painted on plain building walls. And yet these pieces stand on their own,  a new representation of graffiti. The third though, is suspended not in front of a plain white wall, but over the city, making the suggestion that the graffiti is a representation of the essence and creativity of New York City. This piece doesn’t look as natural as the others and almost fades into the background of the city but I think that it makes the biggest statement and is most representative of the message Ortega intended to send.

Thanks,

Virginia

What are those?! This is the first thought that entered my mind as I stood in front of this artwork.  My theory is that works of graffiti, like the one above, is a message, encoded so that only a select few people can comprehend the message.  When I looked closely, I believed that it was a fancy form of cursive writing.  This is the main reason that I liked this work of art: it seemed to have a definitive purpose unlike the other works of art in the highline.  Many people say that art conveys something, something that is different for anyone who views it.  But not this art.  This art had ONE purpose.  According to my theory, which may or may not be credible, the artist was trying to convey a cryptic, written message to someone.  The next logical question is: who is the message intended for?  Is it the common people, members of an inconspicuous organization or someone else entirely?  As I stood in west Manhattan, I began to think about the writing.  The work of art probably wasn’t meant for the upper class society since they would have other means necessary to disperse their messages.  I theorized that this art belonged to a young to middle aged strata of society as corroborated by the style of writing, the use of spray paint etc.  Although I could neither establish the intended audience of the art or its meaning, I liked this work because it was thought provoking.

My favorite photo that I took at the Highline was Ryan Gander’s Zooming out, 2015, which is a bronze cast of a phone, wallet, and USB flash drive. When I looked at it from far away, I honestly thought someone must have forgotten his or her phone and wallet, but when I came closer to it, I started to laugh. I never thought a piece of artwork would make me laugh until I saw this. I then took out my iPhone 5 and began comparing it to the bronze phone on the bench. They both looked exactly the same. The bronze phone and wallet were so well crafted that he made them look so realistic. This is why this photo was my favorite.