Landscapes
On Monday, T and I drove back from Rhode Island to Virginia. Rather than spending the whole day in the car, we took a small detour and stopped for a few hours at Storm King Art Center. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed walking around the site looking at the sculptures. (We had the place almost to ourselves, with most guests staying on the trams that will take you around.)
The featured installation this year is Maya Lin's Wavefield, where she has shaped the earth to make waves of grass. Because of the heavy rains of the past month, we weren't allowed to walk over and through them, but only observe them from the outside. I have to admit that I was underwhelmed by the effect, surrounded as we were by the swooping curve of the mountains around us. It did make me think about the degree to which the other shapes of the park are man-made, which was interesting.
As it happens, the Corcoran's Maya Lin exhibit is closing this week, so I went after work on Thursday. This also features her visions of landcape, with three large pieces that each mimic topographical lines in different ways. My favorite of them was the 2×4 landscape, a gigantic hill made up of 2×4 boards cut to different heights. It creates a pixellated effect that is odd to see in real life. Before they disassemble it, they're letting small groups walk on it — I wish I had known about it in time to register.
July 15th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
On a recent family road trip, we stopped by the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, and my kids and husband loved the infinite dot art installations by Yayoi Kusama. The whole museum is worth checking out. They bill it as art you can really get into. http://www.mattress.org