After spending a little over a month at home relaxing, working on some projects (including this website), and burning through quite a bit of Netflix, I'm back at school ready (ish?) for another semester. While I was home, I had the great fortune of being able to hang out with my mom and check out some of the local art happenings that I was missing while I was away at school. About a week before I was set to go back to Ohio, we went to the Memorial Art Gallery, which has always been one of my favorite places in the city of Rochester. My mom and I have been long time members there, and ever since I was little she has been taking me to exhibits, classes and special events there.
We picked a good day to go, because it was one of the last before the current exhibit, titled "Memory Theatre", was set to close. Usually before we go to exhibits together, my mom or I know ahead of time or at least have heard about whatever was new and exciting there, but neither of us were really sure what to expect, and now, weeks later, I am starting to collect and understand my thoughts on what I saw.
The exhibit featured many works in different media, from different eras, by artists of different nationalities and culture perspectives, and they all approached the broad topic of "memory" in different ways. There were pieces that took a more personal approach - from a collection of personal belongings and knickknacks molded in to a plastic head to painted comics that told stories of the artists experience growing up in a crowded apartment complex in Russia. There were pieces that took a more cultural approach, attempting to preserve the memories of certain eras or peoples - a series of photographic prints depicting multiple American responses to the 9/11 attacks, glass art pieces made from destroyed churches or monuments (including many pieces that came from the ruins of World War II war zones), and many other preserved artifacts from around the world. Many works in the exhibit dealt with the idea of memory after death - a wall of memorializing ribbons made from cremated remains of a loved one (gross but rad!), post mortem portraits, c-prints of individual copper canisters containing cremated remains of patients from a state-run psychiatric hospital - all serving as modern momento moris, if you will. Others chose to investigate the more psychological and scientific aspects of our notion of memory - interactive investigations of how we perceive/remember images (try it yourself!), and a video chapter of a man's experiment of recording one word a day .
We picked a good day to go, because it was one of the last before the current exhibit, titled "Memory Theatre", was set to close. Usually before we go to exhibits together, my mom or I know ahead of time or at least have heard about whatever was new and exciting there, but neither of us were really sure what to expect, and now, weeks later, I am starting to collect and understand my thoughts on what I saw.
The exhibit featured many works in different media, from different eras, by artists of different nationalities and culture perspectives, and they all approached the broad topic of "memory" in different ways. There were pieces that took a more personal approach - from a collection of personal belongings and knickknacks molded in to a plastic head to painted comics that told stories of the artists experience growing up in a crowded apartment complex in Russia. There were pieces that took a more cultural approach, attempting to preserve the memories of certain eras or peoples - a series of photographic prints depicting multiple American responses to the 9/11 attacks, glass art pieces made from destroyed churches or monuments (including many pieces that came from the ruins of World War II war zones), and many other preserved artifacts from around the world. Many works in the exhibit dealt with the idea of memory after death - a wall of memorializing ribbons made from cremated remains of a loved one (gross but rad!), post mortem portraits, c-prints of individual copper canisters containing cremated remains of patients from a state-run psychiatric hospital - all serving as modern momento moris, if you will. Others chose to investigate the more psychological and scientific aspects of our notion of memory - interactive investigations of how we perceive/remember images (try it yourself!), and a video chapter of a man's experiment of recording one word a day .
| Together, all of these (and more, of course), made for a really interesting and engaging exhibit. However, one of my favorite things in the gallery that day isn't listed on the MAG's website, nor did it have a plaque with an artist name or description of the piece next to it on the wall. In the back corner of one of the rooms in the gallery there was a table with a few pads of sticky notes and pens, offering themselves to the viewers. Each sticky note had one of three questions on it for the patrons regarding memory: "What is your first memory", "What is your favorite memory", "What is something you wish you could remember?". People would post their answers to the back wall, leaving a display of memories for all to see. |  i dont know if i am really allowed to have taken this picture in the gallery but i did it anyways and here it is. |
Because we were there on one of the last days of the exhibit, the wall was covered in sticky notes, to the point where many overlapped and some were peeling off and littering the floor. I didn't answer one of the questions myself, but I became consumed with reading the ones posted by fellow patrons of the museum. People of all ages and cultural backgrounds had answered, as evidenced by some that just contained childish scribbles or were written in foreign languages. Some answers were light and simple:
What is something you wish you could remember?
Where I left my mittens!
More of my high school Spanish!
My wife's birthday...oops!
Others were a bit more haunting:
More about my mom's last few days
My dad before he started drinking
Life before cancer
Some were written in elegant, detailed paragraphs in flowing cursive letters, while others stung me with their simplicity and sweetness in scribbled, chicken-scratch handwriting:
What is your favorite memory?
Everything about Susan.
Where I left my mittens!
More of my high school Spanish!
My wife's birthday...oops!
Others were a bit more haunting:
More about my mom's last few days
My dad before he started drinking
Life before cancer
Some were written in elegant, detailed paragraphs in flowing cursive letters, while others stung me with their simplicity and sweetness in scribbled, chicken-scratch handwriting:
What is your favorite memory?
Everything about Susan.
The collection of all of these fragments of memories collaged together almost brought me to tears. Even the ones that people didn't take as seriously (I only noticed a few hand-drawn penises) made for a collection representing the collective identity of the museums audience. These are the people who still go to galleries, and even if they were forced to be there on a school trip, they saw the art, and on some level, they invested themselves in it. One of the key things I learned about art during my first year at art school was that the viewer completes the work, and often in modern art, the viewer is a key factor in creating the work, while the artist merely serves as a catalyst for generating or documenting an artistic observation. This wall was such a vibrant example and it gave me the full-body rush and thrill that good art often does.
I know a lot of people may view this as a lazy wall to fill a gallery wall, and some wouldn't call this "art", especially by traditional standards, but I found it to be the most striking thing I saw all winter break. After all the different perspectives and approaches to understanding "memory" that this exhibit opened me up to, I think this is certainly the piece I will remember the most.
On the topic of memory, I have started this blog addition to my website for that reason - I want to be able to use writing as a way of collecting, organizing and remembering all of my thoughts and experiences with art throughout this new year. I hope that in this I will grow as a writer, an artist and a student, so that I can be the best that I can be and other cliche things. I also hope that maybe some of you will be reading and commenting (critiques always welcome!) so that I can stay on track and encouraged.
Thanks a bunch.
Trina.
I know a lot of people may view this as a lazy wall to fill a gallery wall, and some wouldn't call this "art", especially by traditional standards, but I found it to be the most striking thing I saw all winter break. After all the different perspectives and approaches to understanding "memory" that this exhibit opened me up to, I think this is certainly the piece I will remember the most.
On the topic of memory, I have started this blog addition to my website for that reason - I want to be able to use writing as a way of collecting, organizing and remembering all of my thoughts and experiences with art throughout this new year. I hope that in this I will grow as a writer, an artist and a student, so that I can be the best that I can be and other cliche things. I also hope that maybe some of you will be reading and commenting (critiques always welcome!) so that I can stay on track and encouraged.
Thanks a bunch.
Trina.
