Untitled, 2008

So at the ICA we were only able to see the main, temporary, exhibit by Tara Donovan. We were lucky, however, because the way out was through their smaller, permanent gallery. As we ran through, still wet feet squeaking with each step, I had to stop and look at a piece by a German artist, Kai Althoff. 
The painting that I saw hanging^^ really reminded me of the movie Mirror Mask. The girl has this distinct style of doodles.. really stylized but well designed and sorta dark. Anyways. They defiantly don't have a strong technique aspect but his work is really strong and straightforward, which I like. I wish there was an online collection, a complete collection, of his work. Grrr.

I wouldn't mind being a jellyfish...

So. On that twenty minute walk through Boston in the pouring rain every inch of me got soaked, including my backpack. And what was in the front pocket of that backpack, you may ask? Well, apart from some basic items, a pencil set, some gum, a rubber dinosaur wallet, there was my brand new camera. The first thing I've ever bought myself that was that big. I had had it a week, a week and a half, and now it's kaput. I suppose it'll be okay; I can return it this weekend but still. 

Anyways. The aquarium started of a bit depressing but by the end was incredible. Their outside exhibit, the one next to the ticket counter, is a very small and dirty tank with a few seals that swim from one side to the other over and over. They looked very sad, although it might have been largely the miserable weather. 

Once we got inside everything perked up. The first thing we saw was the jellyfish exhibit which was SO INSANE! We spend a solid forty five minutes sketching. Then we split up into groups of two or three and wandered over to the penguins. Katie and I fell in love with the baby penguin. Actually no, they weren't babies. They were little blue penguins. Still very cute. Although there was one who was either molting or sick because he had lost nearly all of his feathers. It was pretty sad. Like a little fetus stuck in the penguin cage. 

Well anyways. Overall the aquarium was awesome. The jellies were stunning and the birds adorable. We saw a shark and I understood completely what a french family was saying. There was a turtle and afterward I had some pretty fabulous frozen yogurt. Not a bad day, if I do say so myself.

My camera broke before we got the the aquarium so I stole some of Adina's jellyfish photos^^

Tara Donovan

So Monday we didn't have school and Tuesday we had a field trip which means that today was my first day of school. It sucked so bad. I'm not quite sure why; we got our grades and mine were all A's except an 89 in art. It was that my average was a 91.2. It was so important to me that I got a 93 average, the cutoff between honers and high honers. God I just want to go to sleep.

Anyways, the field trip. Mum [my art teacher] took us all to Boston on the train to see the Tara Donovan show at the ICA and draw at the aquarium. It was raining cats and dogs and we had decided to walk everywhere, twenty minutes from the station to the museum and then another twenty to the aquarium. By the time we reached the ICA we were soaked to the bone. 

Anyways, about the art. The show we saw at the ICA [a very small museum] was of sculptures by a thirty something woman who has just won the MacArthur Genius Grant, Tara Donovan. It was insane. Katie was being cynical as usual but it bugged me more than usual because I really loved the work. The entire day I had to hear "It's just not art, it's just not!" 

So Donovan's whole thing is using ridiculous amounts of everyday materials to make sculptures are anything but. The picture above is a close up view of this rope/seaanemone/cell form that's made of paper plates. It's one of the only pieces held together by any adhesive. 

Oh god, it was so insane. 
Then there was this giant hanging piece made of Styrofoam cups, illuminated by florescent lights within. 
My god it was insane. There were no cameras allowed in the museum because her work isn't copyrighted yet and I can't find any decent ones other than these three. 

Well anyways, the overall feel of her work was of another world created by the manipulating the multitude of mass produced products. My mum once said that, generally, 2D work is holding a mirror to the world and showing the artist's perspective. 3D work, on the other hand, is creating a world. I think I want to make sculptures. Actually, I've already started on some. The show was so inspirational that I think we're gonna go back sometime soon because we didn't get to see the rest of the museum. 

Oh god, I almost forgot! The most incredible piece took up the entire floor and was made of Mylar paper [I believe] twisted and bunched and formed into these giant black spheres that popped up from the concrete. Some were huge and some were tiny; the biggest reminded me of a jetson version of an adobe hut like the ones described in this book I'm reading about Albanian gypsies and their overwhelming poverty and forced cultural degradation. There's one passage where she describes an entire city, or maybe a town, of handmade adobe spheres some too small for a man to stand or lie down in, all of which are the sole dwellings of these gypsies ostracized from the culture they were forced to join.

Anyways. I'll make another post later specifically about the aquarium.