Myles at the Carnegie International
Attending any type of art exhibition with a one-year-old is an adventure. I had no expectation except that Myles would at some point be very cranky and we would have to leave regardless of how far we would get.
Myles loved the International. The very first thing he saw was 40 tv screen installation of people giving some sort of autobiographical testimonial. Each screen was a different person. He kept pointing to this tv set or that one and we would walk over to it, watch a little while, and then he would point at another one. He really got into the roomful of Robert Crumb. I don't know why, I don't know why, but he was fascinated with Robert Crumb's sketches. All over the museum whenever he saw something Robert Crumb he reached his hand out and grunted. There was a Robert Breer video, ATOZ, that he would not leave and kept trying to go back to once I let him walk around (thankfully he will not walk unaccompanied yet so he was pretty easy to keep coralled). It was a film with some animation going through the alphabet, like something you would see on Sesame Street, except not Sesame Street. Like R could be for revolver as well as racoon. This elephant was actually for B, as in Big.
Then there were these really cool ceramic vessels by Kathy Butterly that I held him up to see but wouldn't let him touch.
He loved the little details and kept pointing and commenting in his conversational babble. Occassionally he would say, "Touch this" and I would have to say no.
There were these huge paintings by Julie Mehretu that he wanted me to take him up close to see. There was a lot of color and shapes going on in one triptych of hers. They were mesmerizing to me, the pretend-sophisitcate; I suspect he felt the same way about them. The Eva Rothschild sculptures were almost too much for him to bear. Some were shiny and one had a million tentacles and they just looked so inviting to his little one year old hands.
What really got him, though, was a major installation by John Bock. We missed the corresponding video, but that was okay. He built inside the Carnegie a two-story minaiature house/barn/junk deposit. This was definitely touch-ville for the little guy. And he would not leave. He walked around the sort of sitting room and touch everything. Then he would crawl around the sort of hallway. He was all over that installation. Art you can touch is a good thing for kids.
One of the last things we saw was a line-up of globes by Mangelos. These were globes, like you would have in a classroom or your bedroom growing up, painted over and inscibed with manifestos.
There were two that Myles kept pointing to and wanting to see as close as I would let him. They were tributes to Hegel with comments on being and nothing. I said to him, "You would like the Hegel best, wouldn't you?"
Myles loved the International. The very first thing he saw was 40 tv screen installation of people giving some sort of autobiographical testimonial. Each screen was a different person. He kept pointing to this tv set or that one and we would walk over to it, watch a little while, and then he would point at another one. He really got into the roomful of Robert Crumb. I don't know why, I don't know why, but he was fascinated with Robert Crumb's sketches. All over the museum whenever he saw something Robert Crumb he reached his hand out and grunted. There was a Robert Breer video, ATOZ, that he would not leave and kept trying to go back to once I let him walk around (thankfully he will not walk unaccompanied yet so he was pretty easy to keep coralled). It was a film with some animation going through the alphabet, like something you would see on Sesame Street, except not Sesame Street. Like R could be for revolver as well as racoon. This elephant was actually for B, as in Big.
Then there were these really cool ceramic vessels by Kathy Butterly that I held him up to see but wouldn't let him touch.
He loved the little details and kept pointing and commenting in his conversational babble. Occassionally he would say, "Touch this" and I would have to say no.
There were these huge paintings by Julie Mehretu that he wanted me to take him up close to see. There was a lot of color and shapes going on in one triptych of hers. They were mesmerizing to me, the pretend-sophisitcate; I suspect he felt the same way about them. The Eva Rothschild sculptures were almost too much for him to bear. Some were shiny and one had a million tentacles and they just looked so inviting to his little one year old hands.
What really got him, though, was a major installation by John Bock. We missed the corresponding video, but that was okay. He built inside the Carnegie a two-story minaiature house/barn/junk deposit. This was definitely touch-ville for the little guy. And he would not leave. He walked around the sort of sitting room and touch everything. Then he would crawl around the sort of hallway. He was all over that installation. Art you can touch is a good thing for kids.
One of the last things we saw was a line-up of globes by Mangelos. These were globes, like you would have in a classroom or your bedroom growing up, painted over and inscibed with manifestos.
There were two that Myles kept pointing to and wanting to see as close as I would let him. They were tributes to Hegel with comments on being and nothing. I said to him, "You would like the Hegel best, wouldn't you?"
Comments
"Fudge alone is real..."
"...like a big cosmic hamburger..."
"A bow on my butt?"
"Reading about cosmology is something I do in my spare time."
"I made the curry chicken, but I only used a small amount of curry because I didn't want to cause you Americans to start crying."