Berecka Press Release / Quick Art Viewing
Alan Berecka (who, if you're not keeping track, is the author of the recently released neoNuma Arts collection of poetry, The Comic Flaw) spends his days as a librarian for Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, TX. They put together a nice press release about it all here. Give it a read. It's a nice job.
While I'm logged in here, I thought I'd jot a note about a couple of things I did a bit on the fly today. After a doctor's appointment (cholesterol is still to high!), I impulsively pulled the "stop request" wire on the bus as we passed the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. The CAMH is always free and having spent money to find out I haven't yet done enough to regulate my cholesterol (although, I'm happy to say, everything else checked out just fine), I decided I needed some art and free worked.
The current show is called The Puppet Show and in the center of ground-level space are five pupets, about 3 feet tall (although I'm terrible at judging such things), suspended from the ceiling. I assume the gizmos in the ceiling were set on a timer, because every once in a while, they'd take to tap dancing. Lot of fun.
The rest of the display was a mix of puppet museum type stuff and video-viewing booths and rooms of short films starring puppets. The one I watched longest had a story-line I couln't quite follow (there was no dialog and I came in the middle, so this might be all my fault) but the manipulations of the puppets are fascinating to watch. At one point, a stack of sticks are pulled upward until there is the framework for a structure the puppets can enter and interact with. When I saw what was happening to those sticks, I couldn't help but smile at the ingenuity and engineering.
The best part of the exhibit, though, had little to do with puppets. There was a round table set up in the middle of the room and a circular projection beamed down upon it, spinning around and around. The projection was a swirl of what I thought, at first glance, to be abstract animation. In the center of the table was a shiny metal tube (I have no idea how big---big enough to put a grown man's arm into, I'd say) that reflected the projections. I'm slow, but I finally realized that the shiny tube was the point. When the projections were reflected on it, they became no-so-abstract. In fact, suddenly we saw the animation was country side passing by, an airplane floating in a sky full of clouds, or people walking, reclining, or some more fantastical elements such as a robot-like thing towering over the view. Again, quite a lot of fun.
In both cases, I don't know that I found any deeper meaning behind the artwork---although the intelligence exhibited suggested that there likely was something there---but the incredible craft and wit was plenty to recommend the exhibit. One of the more delightful exhibits I've seen at the CAMH.
On my way home, I had to transfer buses, so I decided to see what was on display in the Williams Tower, that skysraper that wandered away from downtown and settled by the Galleria. The lobby of the tower always has an art display, and quite often it's very very good.
Today's exhibit was Grounded: Contemporary Works by Australian Aboriginal Artists. This was a mixed bag for me, but there was enough eye candy to keep me there a bit. These artists from Down Under like their dots and sometimes it was tedious, other times mesmerizing. I couldn't tell what made sone piece exciting and another less so, but like so much about art, I'm sure it was just my perspective and tastes. You can see what I mean at the Booker-Lowe Gallery, which curated this show. Check it out if you find yourself near the Water Wall. It's a bit difficult to describe and should be seen in person.
The current show is called The Puppet Show and in the center of ground-level space are five pupets, about 3 feet tall (although I'm terrible at judging such things), suspended from the ceiling. I assume the gizmos in the ceiling were set on a timer, because every once in a while, they'd take to tap dancing. Lot of fun.
The rest of the display was a mix of puppet museum type stuff and video-viewing booths and rooms of short films starring puppets. The one I watched longest had a story-line I couln't quite follow (there was no dialog and I came in the middle, so this might be all my fault) but the manipulations of the puppets are fascinating to watch. At one point, a stack of sticks are pulled upward until there is the framework for a structure the puppets can enter and interact with. When I saw what was happening to those sticks, I couldn't help but smile at the ingenuity and engineering.
The best part of the exhibit, though, had little to do with puppets. There was a round table set up in the middle of the room and a circular projection beamed down upon it, spinning around and around. The projection was a swirl of what I thought, at first glance, to be abstract animation. In the center of the table was a shiny metal tube (I have no idea how big---big enough to put a grown man's arm into, I'd say) that reflected the projections. I'm slow, but I finally realized that the shiny tube was the point. When the projections were reflected on it, they became no-so-abstract. In fact, suddenly we saw the animation was country side passing by, an airplane floating in a sky full of clouds, or people walking, reclining, or some more fantastical elements such as a robot-like thing towering over the view. Again, quite a lot of fun.
In both cases, I don't know that I found any deeper meaning behind the artwork---although the intelligence exhibited suggested that there likely was something there---but the incredible craft and wit was plenty to recommend the exhibit. One of the more delightful exhibits I've seen at the CAMH.
On my way home, I had to transfer buses, so I decided to see what was on display in the Williams Tower, that skysraper that wandered away from downtown and settled by the Galleria. The lobby of the tower always has an art display, and quite often it's very very good.
Today's exhibit was Grounded: Contemporary Works by Australian Aboriginal Artists. This was a mixed bag for me, but there was enough eye candy to keep me there a bit. These artists from Down Under like their dots and sometimes it was tedious, other times mesmerizing. I couldn't tell what made sone piece exciting and another less so, but like so much about art, I'm sure it was just my perspective and tastes. You can see what I mean at the Booker-Lowe Gallery, which curated this show. Check it out if you find yourself near the Water Wall. It's a bit difficult to describe and should be seen in person.
posted by Neil Ellis Orts at 2:12 PM
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