Author: AgnesG

Finally…after several failed tries and tons of disappointments, I finally made it to a Japanese prints exhibition—though a different one—the Hiroshige exhibition at Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibit features Utagawa Hiroshige’s works, most of which are landscapes that depict winter scenes, corresponding to the recent snowy and freezing weather.

Entering the museum after a long walk along N. Michigan Avenue made my glasses fogged up. My legs and fingers were numb and I had to sit on the bench for a few minutes to warm my body up before going into the galleries. This scene seemed a bit ironic because this girl who kept complaining about the unloveliness and horribleness of this season was going to see an exhibit called Winter Scenes and appreciate the beauty of the snow as if she had never experienced the rigors of it.

The exhibit was tiny actually, and I almost missed it while walking through different galleries because it only occupied a quiet in-between corridor. Prints of snow scenes were hanging on the walls on both sides of the corridor. Some depict people toiling across the bridge in the heavy snow; two depict geisha walking out of the house however hanging back by the snow; several depict birds in the winter firmly fighting against the severe weather.

An interesting thing I noticed was that although all prints shared the theme of snow, snow itself was not even printed. The dominating white color blocks covering each print were actually just the unpainted paper itself. Presenting the most prominent part of a work by leaving the paper blank—this may be the simplest and the most candid way to depict nature itself.

Yesterday, I took a same-day return trip to Chicago. Having traveled there by train for four times, I was not as curious and excited; instead, I was more worried about the classes I missed and the back pain caused by the long sedentary train ride. Taking a break from reviewing lecture slides on my laptop, I looked around and noticed people doing different activities and had various states of mood. Interestingly, from the things they were doing, their talking voices, facial expressions, and body gestures, I could almost take a guess on their purposes of traveling. Below are the three major moods I found among people around me upon my very sketchy observation.

Excitement

The two ladies who were seated several rows ahead of me were talking loudly about their travel plans for the following week in Chicago. The excitement in their voices was palpable, which reminded me of my first time to take a train to Chicago. It was the thanksgiving break two years ago, and I was traveling with four of my friends. We were so excited about the trip and were chattering along the way. And you know what, the train arrived on schedule that time! Actually we were so exhilarated and everything seemed like a novelty for us that we would not mind staying longer on the train.

Anxiety

Train rides, possibly the most old-fashioned form of transportation, could be enjoyable, as long as one has enough patience and nothing urgent to do because the train is often delayed, especially in snowy winters like now. Unfortunately I did not have as much patience this time because I had an important appointment at noon which I strongly didn’t want to miss because otherwise I would have to stay for an extra night and skip all classes of another day. The train moved at the painfully slow speed, and as the appointment time was approaching, I got more and more anxious but could do nothing about it. The guy sitting behind me made several phone calls to adjust the meeting time with his friends. His voice was filled with impatience and frustration. I felt deep sympathy and compassion for him, and myself.

Contentment, Tiredness and Boredom

On the returning train, there were fewer passionate travelers because most night train rides were “homeward bounds” for wanderers and students returning to schools.  Thus, the train had a quiet ambiance, mingled with occasional sounds of typing the keyboard, peaceful, almost imperceptible snores and whispers of people answering the phone. Feeling exhausted after the errands on foot in the afternoon and more than ten hours of train ride, I opened my laptop and started doing the readings for Wednesday’s class. It was almost midnight, and everyone on the train seemed lethargic after a long day, waiting in silent for the train to reach their destination.

How did you spend your snow day?

When my friend sprang up from her seat and ran to me in the excitement of telling me the good news of getting an extra day-off, I breathed a sign of relief. Thanks to the snow, I could finally escape from the endless art history reading assignments for a while and go back early after spending three hours studying in the library and preparing for my upcoming exam on Thursday.

Actually, I only have two classes on Tuesdays, so my day was not significantly different from a normal Tuesday: getting up around 8am, having my regular breakfast in the dining hall, and heading to the library instead of classes. With tons of materials to study for exam, I planned to immerse myself in study slides and readings. However, after finding a spot by the window with a perfect view of the outside, I was surprised to see gleams of sunshine falling on the big colored glass windows and casting the reflection of myself. I was blown away by this unintentional glimpse: a nice day, despite the low temperature.

I rejoiced that I raised my head and caught this beautiful image of the snowy town, a scene I would not have noticed if I had been sitting in the auditorium listening carefully to the professor, a scene I would not have noticed if I had been hasting to finish up lunch, a scene I would not have noticed if I had been rushing from class to class worrying about being late…I almost felt like a thief, who hid in this lovely corner of the library after covertly peeling today’s page from a tear-off calendar. However, it is not fair to say that such beauty does not exist when I hurry from place to place with only one thought in mind: to get things (homework, papers, reading, etc.) done. Instead, it is me who keeps ignoring the peaceful and beautiful nature of life and chooses to constantly rush without noticing or appreciating the views along the way. I overlook many beautiful moments like this as if they never exist, but whenever I slow down and look around, they are always there.

How will you spend your next snow day? Whatever you plan to do, just take your time, and enjoy the relaxing tranquility of life.

The temperature has reached a new low this week. It was not funny this morning to have the first class in the Natural Science auditorium after the heat of the building had been turned down for three days. I was so cold and hardly had enough energy left to survive the following two back-to-back classes.

The weather seemed to get better after my friend and I got out of my film class—at least the sun came out. However, it turned out to be merely a veneer of agreeableness, because I felt like that the biting winds almost penetrated into my skin like daggers. Trying to escape from the freezing snowland outside, we chose to walk into UMMA for a temporary shelter of warmth as we passed by the façade of the museum.

As we entered the museum, my friend’s glasses immediately fogged up. He wiped his glasses as he walked toward the apse, and when he put his glasses back on and raised his head, he was astonished to see the sentence on the screen hanging on the wall. “They stop at the screen, lower their heads, and look at the phone.” Obviously the recorder misrecognized the fogging glasses as a phone. However, having anticipating such reaction from him for a while, I was satisfied to see that this misrecognition did not affect the surprise in his eyes. I finally told him about the secret of this magic screen by pointing at a student typing on his computer at the corner of the gallery space.

The installation by Dora García, called Instant Narrative, is a part of the “Affecting the Audience” project at UMMA this semester. Basically there is a performer who records what is happening within the exhibition space. What is interesting about this project is that it invites the visitors to actually participate in the artwork and watch their own participations in the project on the screen at the same time. In an attempt to emphasize my sense of being, I jumped up. As expected, “the girl jumps into the air.” the screen followed.

If you would like to watch how every action you take is recorded on the big screen, come visit this great exhibition at UMMA. Wear your craziest costumes or think about some weird gestures before you come—trust me, these would make your experience even more remarkable.

This semester, I’m glad to take an introductory film class with professor Cohen. One of the most awesome parts of this course is that every Tuesday night, we have a film screening section during which the whole class watch a selected film together, and the film would be discussed in class on the following day. Last week, our first showing was Chinatown, a 1974 film directed by Roman Polanski based on the screenplay by Robert Towne.

The large context of the story of Chinatown was drawn from the true historical event, California Water Wars. However, Polanski and Towne smartly chose a small angle by telling the story from the point of view of a private detective, Gittes (Jack Nicholson). In the process of investigating into an extramarital affair, Gittes gets involved into a mysterious murder and he consequentially finds out a huge conspiracy behind the drought of the city.

The cinematography is great. My favorite scene is the one in which Mrs. Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) looks out of the window while waiting for Gittes, leaving her back to the audience. As the widow of the murder victim, she is wearing an appropriate black dress, impatiently folding her arms and holding a cigarette in her right hand. Her elegant silhouette stands out from the horizontal lines of the blinds. This scene is so breathtaking and the silhouette immediately reminds me of the Montmartre star, Jane Avril, depicted by Toulouse Lautrec in his poster Divan Japonais.

The acting is also noteworthy. Mrs. Mulwray would light a cigarette every time she feels nervous or disturbed. This detail is not quite noticeable, but it helps articulate the personality and inner state of the character and makes the character much more credible. An interesting counterpart could be found in a driving scene in the latter half of the film, where Gittes fails to light a cigarette four times as he was talking to Mrs. Mulwray. This detail, similarly, accurately portrays the anxiety of the character.

Overall, this film is marvelous. I’m impressed by the fantastic technique and impeccable performance, and some meaningful lines and scenes really gave me pause. I would like to watch it again in the near future.

Tomorrow afternoon in my museum studies class, half of the class will be presenting our virtual gallery projects. I will also be showing my own exhibition to my professor and classmates, and I’m super excited about it.

Virtual gallery is a semester-long project for my museum studies class, which requires me to curate a virtual exhibition on the computer. I had to choose 15 objects that I had access to, and then come up with a theme, or storyline, for the exhibition to connect the objects together. I was also responsible for object documentation, label writing and gallery space designing. If you think it is complicated, then congratulations, technical problems of the software and computer was just a bonus added on to all these!

The objects of my exhibition are 15 pairs of shoes. I bought them in different times and situations, and each of them contains at least one of my personal stories. As a whole, the exhibition almost forms a biography of me, and every time I look at these shoes being displayed in my gallery, I get a reminiscent feeling toward these past moments of my life.

For me, the documentation process was the most complicated and time-consuming part of this project, because I had to deal with Photoshop…well…as an art history student who is always “stuck in the past,” I just can’t master any photo-editing software like this. Ok…so I took an individual photo for each of the 15 objects, opened these photos in Photoshop, and followed the instructions on the Photoshop handout step by step. After hundreds of mistakes, I finally managed to get rid of the backgrounds of my messy desk and keep only the objects themselves. Compared to this, label writing was much easier.

Designing the arrangement of the gallery, I would say, was the most interesting part of the project. I felt like I got full control over everything in the gallery because I could move them wherever I want. I got the freedom to choose the color of the walls, ceiling and floor too, or add some benches, signs, or shelves. It was as if decorating a new apartment, when thinking about how nice the apartment would be after furnishing could easily make me excited.

Viola! So the pictures below show how my final exhibition looks like, and tomorrow will be its formal “opening.” Although it is costly to rent an actual gallery space and to furnish it the way I want, and even harder to gather a large group of visiters who are interested in looking at my old and worn shoes, I could do all this on this virtual site. Reflecting upon the efforts I put on this project, it was like a process of realizing a dream, and I myself was the one who made all the sketches and plans in my mind come true.