Tag: umma

PREVIEW: Norton Juster Lecture at UMMA

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Image Courtesy via rmichaelson.com

He breathed life into such beloved classic characters as Tock the Dog, the Humbug, King Azaz, the Mathmagician, the Princesses Rhyme and Reason, and of course, Milo. He is Norton Juster, the author of The Phantom Tollbooth, a book that celebrates the paradox of youthfully growing up, plays with the English language, and perfectly times intellectual puns. Although the book is consistently labeled as “children’s literature,” critics often acknowledge that the wordplay and extended metaphor of achieving wisdom would totally go over children’s heads. Nevertheless, the plot, the characters, and the essence of the book is translatable across all ages. It’s a story that a family can read together and all gain something from the experience. I first read it last year as a sophomore in college, and it instantly bumped up to one of the most influential books I’ve ever read. And I am beyond excited to announce that Norton Juster has been invited to speak about Children’s Literature and his process of writing The Phantom Tollbooth, as part of the Zell Visiting Writer Series.

The talk will begin with a documentary called “The Phantom Tollbooth: Beyond Expectations” and will be followed with an invigorating Q&A with Juster himself. Come for the inspiration, the whimsy, and the great word puns.

What: Norton Juster Lamstein Lecture in Children’s Literature

Where: University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA), Helmut Stern Auditorium

When: Thursday, March 12 at 5:10 – 7

How Much?: Free!!!!

 

REVIEW: Witch Exhibition in the UMMA

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Got a minute? Gather a few of your friends together and then tell them to each draw a picture of a unicorn. Chances are they will all include a horse with a mane and a horn sticking out of its forehead – plus or minus a few stars and rainbows. Next, tell your friends to draw a picture of a witch. Suddenly, we have a whole spectrum of possibilities. Is she old or young? Wrinkly skin with craggily nose and warts? Is she wearing a hat? Is she a peasant in Salem, Massachusetts? Does she ride a broom or stay on the ground with her cat and her cauldron? Does she look like Hermione or Luna? Really, the only constant is that she’s a she. It is quite remarkable that the witch, like the unicorn, is an imaginative construct. And yet, we have no collective idea of what she looks like!

I’m in the course here at U-M called “The History of Witchcraft.” One of our assignments was to visit the U-M Museum of Art and check out their limited-time collection of “Witch” art. The small collection of only 15 pieces is located down the stairs in the basement of the modern Frankel Family Wing. The collection mostly displays printed etchings by Francisco de Goya. These etchings are a part of his larger work, “Los Caprichos,” which mostly serve as a satirical medium for Goya’s criticism of 18th century Spanish society. (This video by the San Jose Museum of Art describes wonderfully Goya’s Caprices in more detail. You can even click on each individual etchings to learn more about the hidden meanings.)

I can’t show pictures here because of copyright issues; all the more reason to go see them yourself! But I can describe to you a few that really caught my attention: either because they were so disturbing or because they simply confounded me. The collection ranges from Goya’s Early Modern prints to 20th-century abstract drawings and photography. One of my absolute favorites was “The Witch with the Comb” by Paul Klee. I loved how it was not obvious that the drawing was of a witch.

To me, the woman immediately struck me as an abstract 1920’s flapper rendition of the Queen of Hearts. Her hair was cut in an asymmetrical bob, she wore a shawl and jewelry, and her cocktail dress even had a fringe trim. She definitely looked like an upper-class woman, or at least, like a middle-class woman attempting to look like an aristocrat. Her face was stern with a straight across eyebrow and a pinched little chin. The strange thing about the woman was that her arms were drawn to look like arrows, pointing downward (“towards HELL!” I joked). Why did Paul Klee choose to disfigure this noble woman? The lack of hands dehumanized her, while drawing your attention down to the bottom of the picture. Now you notice her shoes – prototypical ‘witch’ shoes with a curled tip.  Is this woman secretly a witch? Klee reminds us again of the idea that anyone can be a witch. All you have to do is call her one, which he has done in the title. We read in class that many witches could transform themselves into more attractive, humanistic women. I guess even witches can make mistakes sometimes and leave their identities exposed to those who notice the small details.

You could easily spend an hour staring at these 15 pieces, which seem to have more significance when brought together in one glass case. You can contrast and compare, noticing witchy details that are marked in this print and not that. Why did he choose to obscure her leg here? What is he trying to hide? Take a friend and ask each other questions. Start with a simple: what is going on here? I promise you – that will be enough to keep your mind active.

I believe that UMMA will keep this Witch Exhibition up for another week or two. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see how real artists have attempted to portray witches in their work.  Maybe your witch drawing will be more similar than you ever expected.

Review–Seeing is Believing / A Consideration of Image, Memory, and the Velocity of Time

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The UMMA has recently installed an exhibition in their new media gallery located on the main floor entitled Performing Still Images: David Claerbout and Matthew Buckingham. The exhibition problematizes the relationship between photography, film, and time. Buckingham’s piece, “Image of Absalon Projected Until it Vanishes”, features a still image with the intention that the image continually deteriorates over the course of its exhibition. I saw this piece for the first time Wednesday, and it had already deteriorated to the point where Absalon’s figure is barely recognizable, and many of the finer details of the photograph have already disintegrated. The piece is a haunting reminder of the limitations of the medium—although we tend to see photography as an art form that immortalizes a snapshot of time, Buckingham reminds us that the medium, like our own memory, is faulty and transitory, ultimately worn away like all other things by time. Claerbout’s piece, “The American Room”, is a 25 minute video of a series of still photographs taken from a room—it is as if someone hit a pause button—everyone is eerily still. Although the images are still, the Claerbout has manipulated the images using green-screen technology to create the effect of a moving camera within each shot—audiences see sweeping pans and changing camera angles over these stills, a seemingly impossible phenomenon.
This Wednesday, I attended the exhibit and a panel discussion on the artists afterward. The exhibit featured a curator, two local artists, and a visiting lecture through the Stamps school, all individuals from unique artistic backgrounds who lended the audience their insight in hopes of achieving a greater understanding of the internal meaning the exhibit presents. During this exhibition, the panel addressed themes relevant not only to the two works in the exhibition, but also relevant to each artist’s entire body of work.
After viewing Claerbout’s earlier work, I understood his artistic progression to the piece I saw in person, his tremendous fascination with the social reality of time as opposed to the objective reality of time—in other words, real time versus experienced time. The computer generated effect of camera movement imposed on still images detached me from the subject I was viewing—rather than attempt to identify with the characters in the photo, I identified with the photographer, who must choose one ideal vantage point out of thousands of possibilities in order to capture the emotion of his or her subject. Another fascinating idea the panel discussed was the idea of experiencing filmic time while viewing a still image—Claerbout turns a still image into a 25-minute film that is compelling enough to keep people watching. In some sense, he’s creating something out of nothing.
Buckingham’s also considers the distinction between experienced and real time. His decaying photograph is like a metaphor for memory—our own perception of the experiences we have had in our lifetime is imperfect and fleeting. The longer it has been since the event we are recalling, the more fuzzy the details get, the more likely we are to remember the event in question incorrectly. My personal interpretation of Buckingham’s work was a confrontation with the mortality of human experience. We believe we can immortalize our experiences by logging historical records and photographs, but we forget that these records are also vulnerable to the passage of time.
Needless to say, the exhibition features fascinating and creative works of art that challenge the limits of what their medium is capable of, and present some stirring philosophical and metaphysical questions to mull over. I highly recommend attending UMMA’s hub lecture series to students interested in the UMMA’s exhibitions. The panels are an opportunity to gain a deeper introduction into an artist’s work, and to glean understanding into the artist’s personal philosophy, which in my opinion enhances the museum experience as a whole.

Read more about the exhibit here: http://www.umma.umich.edu/view/exhibitions/2013-davidclaerbout.php

Some links to videos presented during the panel discussion:
Claerbout’s “Piano Player”
Bas Jan Ader’s “The Fall”—This is pretty funny to watch on repeat
Bill Viola’s “Reflection Pool”—A 7 minute video that is a time commitment, but well worth a contemplative viewing.

Review–Erik Santos@UMMA: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

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After this Thursday, one of my biggest regrets over the past 3 years I’ve been at school here is not spending enough time at the UMMA. The UMMA is a great cultural resource not only because of its amazing collection of paintings and its innovative gallery setup, but also because it is frequently a live performance venue for artists of all types (and the shows are free!). The event I attended this Thursday had very little to do with any of the common connotations associated with a night at an art museum. The event was accessible and enjoyable even to people uninterested in esoteric art, most of the people in the audience didn’t have grey hair yet, and the audience was actually encouraged to be loud. The event also had nothing to do with paintings or sculptures, this was a live performance of the classic rock album Ziggy Stardust and a short animated film screening by University of Michigan composition professor Erik Santos and his co-performers Toko Shiiki Santos and Collin McRae.
Santos devoted the first half of his show to playing David Bowie’s classic Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars album in its entirety. Covering this album live is difficult, as much of its unique sound comes from the Bowie’s heavy studio experimentation with layering multiple guitar tracks with a multitude of distortion effects. Santos adapted the original music to play by himself on acoustic guitar. As a fan of Bowie, I admit I was pretty skeptical about such a stripped down adaptation. Nevertheless, I loved the performance. Rather than imitate the album’s instrumental variety, Santos’ focused, minimalist approach captured the raw energy of a live rock performance. I was particularly amazed by his vocal performance—critics often label Bowie the rock and roll chameleon due to his ability to seamlessly change the range, tone, and character of his vocals. The live cover presented me with a narrative—the story of a rockstar’s rise to fame followed by his tragic inability to cope with the pressures of stardom.

The highlight of the second half of the show was a screening of an animated short. Toko and Collin are responsible for design and animation, while Erik composed the video’s score. The video is a response to the suffering caused by the recent tsunami in Japan. Narrated in Japanese, the film chronicles the journey of a blue dragon, born from innocent and pure human sympathy, as it flies to Japan to comfort and inspire tsunami survivors. The dragon’s journey is harrowing, but as the blue dragon begins to falter, a panoply of colorful dragons come to its aid. The animation style of the video was striking and gorgeous. The lush color palette demonstrates the tangible effects of human emotions. At the outset, when characters are grief-stricken by the tragedy, the world is enveloped in shades of blue; nevertheless, people’s continuing optimism and good will unleash a hopeful rainbow of colors which illuminates the sky. (Watch the video here if interested)
Needless to say, I enjoyed my evening at the UMMA very much, and plan to go back soon for special events. For those interested in checking the UMMA out, consider attending UMMA After Hours on Friday, October 18th. I hear there’ll be free donuts and cider.

PREVIEW: UMMA’s 24-Hour Art21 Screening

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UMMA’s 24-Hour Art21 Screening

If you find yourself at the UGLI this Staurday night, studying into the wee hours of the morn and, nearing dawn you need a study break, never fear! Entertainment is on the way. UMMA and the UGLI are teaming up to present a 24-hour marathon screening of Art21. PBS’s series features one hour pieces on famous twentieth century contemporary artists. The episodes to be aired this weekend will include celebrated  names such as Kara Walker, Ai Weiwei, El Anatsui, Cindy Sherman, Matthew Barney, Barry McGee, Laurie Anderson, Marina Abramović, Jeff Koons, John Baldessari, and many more (ninety, to be exact, because this event honors 100 working artists). The series invites viewers into the studios, homes, galleries, and creative spaces of these pioneering stylists. This behind-the-scenes look is inspiring to artist types and others alike.  So whether you intend to be at the library this weekend or not, you will certainly have something enjoyable to do!

For more information on Art21, click here. The Facebook event and the UMMA’s student blog The Annex will also tell you everything you need to know about the screening. See you there!

PREVIEW: UMMA’s Student Late Night

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UMMA’s Student Late Night

On Thursday April 4th from 8-11 pm, the UMMA will host the annual Student Late Night. Since September, the UMMA Student Programming Advisory Council (SPAC) has been planning for this multi-media evening. The venue will be jam packed with activities, performances, and prizes.  WCBN Radio will be DJ-ing all night; live music  includes Music School senior Peter Felsman and friends who will accompany a performance by Cadance Dance Company.  The Ann Arbor Art Center will host an art-making activity. The SPAC has arranged a scavenger hunt throughout the museum, featuring pieces from the permanent collection. But there will also be ample opportunity to explore the visiting exhibits by El Anatsui, Florencia Pita F/P Mod, and Francis Alÿs. There will also be  a photo booth for you and your friends as well as free snacks and refreshments. The evening is partially  sponsored by Arts at Michigan and a number of local businesses and restaurants whose goods are up for prizes. Come get your UMMA gear, including buttons featuring images from the permanent collection, and so much more.

Bring your friends! In the meantime, check out the SPAC’s blog The Annex. See you there!