Back in DC and loving it!!!!

June 26, 2008

The Martin Luthur King Library in DC. Just one the random buildings I wandered by the other day.

Well I made my way back into DC to make some repeat visits to a couple Smithsonian Museums. My first stop was back at the Museum of African Art. A couple new exhibits have opened since my last visit so I had to go back. I was unable to take any pictures (usually you can't in the temporary exhibits) but they were very good. One of them was Textstyles and had examples of African textiles, garmets and accessories. There were also a lot of stories about how they were used, made and the influences that have caused change over the years. Very interesting. The second exhibit was a exhibit with the works of a Ghanaian artist named El Anatsui titled Gawu. (Gawu is derived from the word "ewe" in Anatsui's native language. It has several potential meanings including "metal" and a "fashioned cloak".) Both of these meanings would make sense considering Anatsui's work. He works with mostly metal fragments of things that have been discarded. He makes metal "cloths" that are constructed with the aluminum wrapings from the tops of liquor bottles, three-dimensional sculptures made of the discarded tops of evaporated milk tins and a crumpling wall made of rusty metal graters and old printing plates for a few examples. The items were all gathered in Nigeria where Anatsui lived for 28 years. The work really was quite brillant and really makes you look at trash in a very different way.

From there I headed back to the Hirshorn Gallery to see Part 2 of The Cinema Effect: Realisms. I saw Part 1: Dreams, a few months back and had to go back to see the next portion. I am not sure which one was better. I found "Dreams" a lot more dramatic but "Realims" was much more thought provoking. I must say though that my true feelins of Part 1 were not really complete until I saw Part 2. I am very glad I was still in the area so I could see both parts.

Both exhibits were collections of mostly video art by many different international artists the were combined to make one big exhibit. In Dreams, artists used the technology of cinema to recall the dream-like state induced by film viewing, transporting viewers out of thier daily lives to a place where definitions and understanding of reality are questioned. Realisms continues to play on this and how what we are viewing in cinema (and TV) distort our depictions of reality. In one case I watched a film (in Itailian with english subtitiles I might add) that appeared to be fiction but then you realize that the entire script is written from interviews with film students that are being played on TVs on one side of the room. So the situations in the film are fiction but all the dialogue is the combination of the interviews. In another room you walk in and on 4 walls there were shots from New York City, or at least it appeared to be New York City until you look a little bit closer and realize that the shots are in fact from a film set, in Los Angeles. Very, very interesting. If there exhibits ever land in a museum near you , I totally recommend taking some time to check them out, but make sure you allow yourself some time. You cannot just walk in, take a look and walk out and still get the full effect. You usually need to watch the full thing and in some cases that could be 20 minutes.

I then made a stop at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. I had wandered by here quite a few times on previous visits to DC but never wandered through. Now that everything is so green and the fountain was up and running it was a very pretty place to stop and had quite a few interesting large pieces of art. In the winter the fountain is usually an ice rink I guess but I missed that. Here are a few pictures.

The fountain in the middle of the garden... and no I don't know who those people are.

This is Aurora by American artist Mark Di Suvero. It points to the gate to get out of the garden just in case you get lost.

This is Magdalena Abakanowicz's Puellae (Girls).

This one is called Typewriter Eraser, Scale X (cleaver I know). The artists are Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen.

The next stop was at the old Post Office. This was another place I had walked past many times and had been told to take a few minutes to go up the tower. It offers very similar views to those on the top of the Washington Monument but the windows are open so you want to go up there on a nice day.

The Old Post Office.

The Old Post Office was built in the 1890's. At the time it was DC's tallest building. Today it is DC's third tallest building (the Washington Monument and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception are taller). The building served as the city post office from 1898 to 1914 but eventually the building became to small and was moved. In the 1970's the government had plans to tear it down but there were protests and all that kind of thing and instead it was renovated. It now houses offices including the Board of Education (you still have to go through security to get in). The view from the top is very good. You can also stop by the level that holds all the bells. The bells are rung by the Washington Ringing Society (seriously I am not making that up) for American holidays and other special events and that kind of thing. Apparently they practice thier bell ringing on thursday nights (also not making that up).

One of the big bells.

Looking toward the Capitol through the protective wires. The observation level is open to air but there is still something in the way from those perfect camera shots.

This side of the building has glass not wires. The domed building behind me is the Natural History Museum.

Julie