Museum Hopping in Boston

While attending my first residency at AIB this June, I was able to take advantage of three great museums in Boston.

ICA: Josiah McElheny: Some Pictures of the Infinite

This was a great starting off point to begin my museum visits in Boston. Besides being an impressive space, the ICA organized an engaging show on Josiah McElheny’s “Some Pictures of the Infinite.” A variety of media attempted the impossible task of representing the unrepresentable. When I walked over to photograph one of McElheny’s chandelier sculptures, I discovered the piece had an interactive component. As I lined up my camera, I was simultaneously outside the piece and yet reflected in the mirrored bulb. My reflection was not only visible in the bulb I was focusing on, but also in every other bulb accompanying the piece. I found myself inside yet outside, independent yet part of a greater whole, grounded yet expansive. Nice work.

MIT: ‘Joachim Koester: To navigate, in a genuine way, in the unknown...’

I attended Ben Sloat’s field trip to view Joachim Koester’s exhibit at MIT. I was interested in learning more about Koester’s interest “in the unknown” and “what can and cannot be told.” The film installations “Tarantism” was housed in an almost completely blacked out room with jagged boards nailed against the window and set up as partitions. The photography was most interesting to me depicting mysterious scenes from a squatter community in Copenhagen and a project titled “The Kant Walks.” A revealing quote from Koester:  

“My next days in Kaliningrad were spent on foot, following Kalinikov's walks, or Kant's - I was never sure. Drifting through the ‘subtle realms’, the 'psychogeography' of a city that officially, for more than forty years, had no past - in Soviet text and guidebooks Kant was born in Kaliningrad. Paradoxically, I found that the concealment of the city's history, made it appear even more distinct, exactly because the past was not compartmentalized as such, but seemed to turn up as 'blind spots'. Detours, dead ends, overgrown streets, a small castle lost in an industrial quarter, evoked history as a chaos, a dormant presence far more potential than tidy linear narratives used to explain past events. Nowhere in Europe are the traces after World War Two more visible than in Kaliningrad. Hauntings from a war that shaped lives and destinies for generations to come. Including my own - like many, affected by the ‘third generation syndrome’, I have always felt as if I was pulled towards an empty space: ‘that which has not been said.’”

MFA

On my last day in Boston, I visited the Museum of Fine Art. Having never been before, I was surprised at how large the museum was and the number of works housed here. I definitely need to plan more time next visit!

Edward Weston: Leaves of Grass

This was my first stop at the MFA and the room showcased a selection of images from the “Leave of Grass” project. The exhibition left me curious to view the original edition of “Leaves of Grass” with the full text and the accompanying final selection of images. In addition, it would be fascinating to see Weston’s contact sheets. A number of the images on display did not make it into the final book edition.

Silver, Salt, and Sunlight: Early Photography in Britain and France

Viewing early photography reminds me to recognize the skill and patience required to produce a successful image using old methods. I learned of a female British photographer, Anna Atkins, who published the first photographically illustrated book titled “Photographs on British Algae” using cyanotypes in the 19^th century. Ladies represent!

The Invention of Fantasy: 18^th Century Venice

I was interested in this exhibition due to my curiosity in exploring how places become romanticized and exoticized. I also have family in Italy, lived in Florence and Sicily, and have spent time in Venice. The drawings and prints were skillfully crafted but the idea of “fantasy” seemed to be portrayed in a more playful, theatrical sense. Although it was not what I expected, there were some comical prints on everyday Venetian life as well as a number incorporating biblical and mythological narratives.

Contemporary Wing

I wasn’t sure I would have enough time for this wing but I am so glad I did. A number of works were accompanied by an artist quote that resonated with me.

Blue Green Yellow Orange Red, Ellsworth Kelly, “I think that if you turn off your mind and look at things only with your eyes, ultimately everything becomes abstract.”

Steigend steigend sinke nieder (Rising, rising, falling down), Anselm Kiefer, “The more scarred the work of art is by the battles waged on the borders between art and life, the more interesting it becomes.”

Tamahagane,  Henry Mandel, “Ours is a chaotic world and abstraction is my way to depict its essence.”

Manhole, Ivàn Navarro, “My work consist[s] of (metaphorically) ‘diryting’ the purity of industrial forms.”