A couple days ago, I finally went to the Whitney Museum of American Art, located on 75th Street and Madison Avenue. Like most visitors, my main goal was to see Yayoi Kusama’s Fireflies on the Water. However, I also visited the other exhibitions.
The line was long, reaching out and around the building. The wait on this Thursday morning at around 11 (the museum’s opening hour) was about 20 minutes long. Luckily however, I got to skip the line and go straight to the members desk because I have the most beneficial title after member and benefactor: other museum staff. But if you’re planning to visit the museum for the Fireflies installation, which I highly recommend, go early (as in opening time) because tickets for the installation are timed. And when I got into the museum at around 12, my timed ticket was already for 3:20 to 3:40. Timed tickets run out fast.
We started on the second floor, currently occupied by the ‘Signs & Symbols’ exhibition. This floor was really quiet and a bit intimidating. Security guards stood at Basically every corner or gap in the wall. But the artworks showcased were fascinating. My friend and I tried to decrypt the pieces. But alas, we failed miserably. There were a lot of really cool works, but my favorite of the exhibition and maybe of the whole museum (besides Fireflies) was George Grosz’s The Painter of the Hole 1.
On the third floor was Sharon Hayes’ There’s So Much I Want to Say to You installation. The pieces in this exhibit steered away from traditional mediums and incorporated sound. A wooden structure/floor was built up. When you enter the floor, you first see a huge white fabric banner with huge black letters forming a statement. Then, walking around, videos and signs greet you. Unlike the second floor, there are lots of sounds here, speeches, confessions, chants, etc. coming from speakers. But not only are the sounds loud, the art and statements are loud. Protest signs stand with campaign signs in a huge corner. Compared to the dark and quiet Signs & Symbols exhibition, this one is bright and outspoken.
The fourth floor though was the big attraction though, featuring a retrospection on Yayoi Kusama. This floor was by far the most crowded, however it was still manageable. To the right of the entrance are huge canvases on bright, vibrant, and funky paintings covering all sides. Now, I don’t know if I was supposed to start from the right or left. But I started from the right and traveled back in time through Kusama’s career. Next room were organic, tentacle-like shapes of stuffed fabric reaching up in one corner. A lot of the paintings on the walls explored form and color relations. And a lot of them give me an unsettling feeling, like tentacles creeping around me or bacteria spreading at exponential rates. Some other notable pieces were a rowboat constructed by the same kind of sewn stuffed fabric and plastic, painted gray, and a wall of ‘via air mail’ stickers. I recommend visiting this exhibition. Kusama is a very odd, but fun artist.
On the fifth floor was “Singular Visions.” This exhibition was fascinating. Unfortunately, it just ends tomorrow on August 5th. There were lots of huge pieces, such as a sailboat the size of the room and a circus diorama made of cloth, wood, etc. A lot of the pieces were made of unconventional objects and created a real sense of intimacy. Lighting was different in each room and it really affected the mood, changing from step to step. Most of the pieces were large scale and eye-catching.
Down to the fifth floor mezzanine, there was a small exhibit on Edward Hopper. (I am a fan of his work.)
At 3:15-ish, we went to the lobby entrance of the Fireflies installation. We sat in a room, waiting for our turn. (The time slot is first come first serve.) Everyone is timed: you enter the room for exactly one minute and take it all in. While waiting, my friend and I met a lovely lady from Georgia, here to see the Fireflies, but most importantly visiting her daughter in NYC. When she came to the museum, they were out of timed tickets for the day. However, two girls were scared they’d be too dizzy in the room and gave her and her husband the tickets. How fortunate! Especially since this was their only chance to see the installation.
You walk in and stand on a small dock that reaches the center of the room. The door is closed. You are timed. The walls are plated with mirrors. The floor is black, but filled with about two inches of water. And hanging from the ceiling are 150 colored lights. After getting over the fact that there are ten me’s in the room, I stared deep into the mirror. It really looks as if this small room stretches out endlessly. The view is spectacular. I could sit in this room for hours. The lights sparkle and glimmer far and wide. It’s really an experience. A breathtaking experience everyone should have. It wasn’t life-changing, as the lady asked me when I exited, but it was amazing. Well worth the wait on line, I’d say. This way of experiencing art is different and I like it.
[photo credit: whitney.org // Unfortunately, photography is not permitted in this museum so I don’t have any visual aids in this post. That’s even more of an incentive to visit yourself.]
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