Day Two: Guggenheim

Guggenheim, Christopher wool

We started our day at Guggenheim museum today, which was a fascinating circular building that the artwork spiraled around the building.  We saw the Christopher Wool exhibition which was quite interesting and an example of an artist utilising graffiti in his works.  This is exactly what New York loves, a type of conceptual artist that incorporates street art into his practice, as a creative city this appeals to ‘New Yorkers’ and I think truely demonstrates typical New York art.  One in particular that stood out for me was titled ‘Untitled’, this was Wool’s longest quotation painting that he has done. It read ‘The show is over the audience get up to leave their seats time to collect their coats and go home they turn around no more coats and no more home.’  I found this quite an aggressive piece as the words were difficult to read, there were no spaces which seemed to look like a canvas of random letters.  This may turn people away and they may be less likely to look into the painting and determine exactly what it says.

What I liked about Christopher Wool’s work is that as he progresses through his art, he uses different mediums such as silk screen and splatting paint, it interested me to observe how his art may look different in different mediums, which obviously he found to be a fascinating process also.

We also explored the Upper East Side which was another interesting experience, I find it fascinating that each part of New York can be completely different, from the graffiti laden and hipster Brooklyn to the well kept and expensive streets of the Upper East Side.  It is an example of the diversity in New York, which I love.  We came across The Metropolitan Museum and admired the outside architecture.

We also decided it was a must to see a Broadway Show in Times Square and heard about the lottery that occurs before the show where you can acquire cheap leftover tickets.  The night worked in our favour and we managed to get great seats right near the front of broadway show, Mamma Mia.  The show was fantastic and the threatre was also fascinating to see.  The interior of the theatre was stunning and alot smaller than expected, therefore no matter where you were in the theatre you had a pretty decent view of the show.  I found it a positive experience and it is great that they do a system such as the lottery, to ensure people on all budgets can enjoy something that New York is famous for!

Zoe

Day One: Moma, 5th Ave, meeting with Elliot @ Cinereach

Our fifth day in New York City started with a trip to Moma. We caught the subway (which we seem to be getting the hang of now!) and strolled through Central Park. It was amazing to witness how huge the park actually is as we seem to see only a small part of it each day. We saw the Pulitzer Fountain which was exciting; being an avid Friends fan! We made our way to MoMA where we enjoyed the Magnitte exhibition.

I found his work quite profound in a way that the pieces got you thinking about the surrealist perspective of the scenes he painted. The first piece we looked at reflected a crime scene of some sort. The menaced assassin 1927 evoked an anticipating narrative which was not a theatrical way, therefore it was an irrational mystery which illustrated a confronting scene to me.
My favourite piece was a grid of different scenes and images which represented all different fragments of consciousness. It was interesting that the cannon defined in the painting was pointing at the female body as a representation that the nude sexuality unconscious is an irrational sexualisation. There were cracks in the ceiling which I analysed as having an altered/ defected mind/ conscience, the cracks to me represented him breaking away from the conventional society, restricting sexuality.
We discovered the wonderful pieces from Vincent Van Gogh and Salvador Dali which was exciting, both pieces gave me feelings of enlightenment as I had seen them both numerous times, but not in real life.  It was amazing to see these famous pieces up close and analyse the paintings in a different light.
We met with Elliot from Cinereach (along the way we stumbled across the opening of the Saks Christmas window displays which was amazing to see and analyse the enthusiastic and exciting Christmas culture that is all around New York) for a talk about how he got to where he is now as he is working within an independent film company in New York City. I found this fascinating and it instilled into my head the exciting possibility of moving to New York, even short term.. To do what everyone tries to in NY and try to ‘make it’.  He explained the ins and outs of getting a visa and the struggles that you may come across, he made me feel as though it was possible to have what seems to be such a big dream of living in NYC.
We made our way up the Empire State Building to observe the city by night. Whilst it was freezing, it was stunning and so great to see all of NY on a floor plan underneath you. We then emmersed ourselves into New York culture and met a typical ‘New Yorker’ who worked on the 86th floor of the Empire State, he had an outlook on life was quite profound compared to that of what I am used to in Australian culture, the conversations we had got us thinking and somewhat got us inspired to put more efforts into our creative practice.
We have met a lot of people during our time so far and each and everyone of them have been so inviting and unique and very welcoming, which is not what I expected ‘New Yorkers’ to be like.  To me, connecting with people whilst you are overseas is what immersing yourself in a culture is all about.

Zoe.

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