artsy fartsy

I discovered the black and white settings on my camera just in time for an impromptu visit to an open mic night on the Lower East Side. I really loved trying to capture the earnestness and energy of the performers and the vibe of the place.

daylight

First year of graduate school officially finished, and I have time, glorious time! I'd let this blog slide and realized I really missed the creative outlet, so in honor of Summer, it's time to get this thing going again.



Walking down by the Highline/West River yesterday and the sunset was absolutely spectacular. I'd forgotten how amazing it is just to wander the city - as the Italians say, "l'arte di fare niente," the art of doing nothing.

Life is short, art is long, time is fleeting, experience fallible, decisions difficult.

-- first aphorism of Hippocrates (460-370 BCE)

"Art is what makes life more interesting than art"

-Robert Filliou

Art and Censorship

(Image from CNN.com)

This is something I am extremely passionate about, and I feel the need to speak out about it.
Today, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., removed David Wojnarowicz's video-portrait entitled "A Fire in My Belly" from the exhibition "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture," because of a small scene depicting a crucifix covered in ants, which was apparently offensive to Christians and aroused "the ire of the Catholic League and politicians," as CNN reports.

(http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/01/video-of-crucifix-removed-from-gallery/)

As a student of art history, and someone not unfamiliar with exhibiting controversial or potentially offensive art, I understand that there are and have been works of art which have been considered transgressive, provocative and taboo. I also understand that museum space is, rightly, public space.

However, part of the mission of museums, curators and artists is to create and present art and exhibitions which challenge the public. An exhibition such as "Hide/Seek" is about questions of gender, sexuality and identity, and meant to facilitate expression and constructive dialogue. Censoring a work of art because it is offensive to some destroys any chance for learning and communication. Letting a knee-jerk reaction of fear lead to this type of censorship trivializes and does disservice to a work of art that has many more layers of meaning and content than one short provocative scene.

Furthermore, the public is done a disservice as well: I firmly believe that uncomfortable and "difficult" art can offer some of the most profound learning experiences for those who have the courage and freedom to confront their own discomfort and to experience a work of art in an informative and thoughtfully-curated exhibition such as this one.

Visitors to museums always have a choice: to engage with a work of art or to walk away. Because of this and every instance of censorship, the choice is no longer theirs to make.

forest dwellers

I love the woods around my town this time of year. They are so stark and barren, quite romantic in a gothic/Wuthering Heights sort of way. The branches have a life of their own without leaves; I love the way the church spire peeks out between them, it reminds me of how old-New England must have felt, though admittedly not much has changed in Woodstock over the centuries...




I'm pretty sure this is the cave that we thought housed a troll when we were kids.

Two roads diverged...




Yard work, to prepare for the coming snow




barn doors and scuffed boots... ah I miss Vermont

blackandwhite

I can't take credit for these gorgeous black and white photographs, taken with a real film camera by my friend Alberto. They document the festivities of our Oct. 29 Peggy Guggenheim Interns Society Gala so elegantly. It was such an amazing weekend, absolutely lovely to see so many people I had missed since summer! And at what better venue than the Guggenheim?



At MoMA, earlier that day...


Here I am at Le Pain Quotidien, drinking cappuccino out of a bowl.

The gang. We had such a fun time!