Go for the Chalet
So here you have it: my first blog. To be more exact it’s my first post on my first blog. Thanks for being here, whoever you may be or wherever you’re coming from. For the past two days I’ve been screwing with the template in an attempt to make this all look how I wanted that I didn’t even think about what I’d blog about. Think, think, think…
Oh yeah, that reminds me, there’s a reason for the picture above. Last week I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art here in Chicago. The pic is one I took of an external installation in front of the main entrance to the museum. ‘Short Cut’ [2003] by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset set a comedic tone for a mainly serious overall exhibit entitled ‘Universal Experience: Art, Life, and the Tourist’s Eye.’ I say the exhibit was serious for a reason. And I’m going to tell you why. Because I can. This exhibit is about traveling and leaving home and being removed from your comfort zone. Some jet set; others pack it in a car; I’ve seen some just walk. Growing up as a kid I’d be taken to Tampa Bay, Florida to visit my grandparents. On these trips I was actually expanding my comfort zone, stretching it from way up here to way down there. These types of getaways are consistent with youth. There’s familiar faces waiting, familiar food to be expected, common smells of my grandparents’ place. The exhibit I saw didn’t take me to that place. And I’m pretty glad it didn’t. I’ve seen Epcot enough. Donald Duck sucks. It’s about time. Certain parts of this collection put a pack on my back and sat me down in a lounge in an airport in a country I was not comfortable in. The language was odd. The food didn’t look right. I would’ve been stared at. I would’ve been asked questions I did not know the answers to. THIS is what traveling is about. Take yourself out of your zone. Just leave. Please do it. I need to do it more and I will, promise.
I used to not understand people who reviewed anything in the art world. I think, in my own way, I just reviewed my first exhibit. Really, it felt good. A fine afternoon at the MCA.
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