Tag Archives: MOMA

Frank Ocean Installation at MOMA

Ok, the title of this blog post may be misleading, but I’ve been contemplating Frank Ocean‘s performance at the Grammys the other night, trying to place it in some context, maybe even re-contextualize it. And here’s what I’ve come up with. I think the entire thing — him, the video, keyboard, every element that made it up — should be installed in the atrium at MoMA as part performance art / part video installation for a several-week run. Every day when the museum opens, he arrives with accompanying video, performs “Forrest Gump” for the entire time the museum is open, and turns around and leaves at closing. Basically his entire Grammy performance stretched out for seven hours. The entire thing repeats itself the very next day. And the day after that. And so on, for weeks. It means whatever you want it to mean, but by him running up to the keyboard every morning, only to turn around at the end of the day and run back down away from it, we’re confronted with the inevitability of our Sisyphean existence. He knows at the beginning of the day how it’s going to end, and at the end of the day knows how it’s going to begin tomorrow. And so do we. But he must get up and do it again.

The only difference is what he decides to do with the song in between those times. Rearrange it. Change the key. Change the words. Maybe even invite the public to join him and collaborate and make it participatory. The only constant the beginning and the end, the arriving and the leaving alone, and the running. Always the running.

A Few of My Favorite Things 2011

1 Reply

In no particular order, and for no particular reason, here are a few of my favorite things from the world of culture in 2011. (Caveat: not a “best of,” mind you, just some stuff I liked.)

(Book) The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier- Imagine our pain, physical, psychological and emotional, illuminating from our bodies. If we saw each others pain, would we become more empathetic human beings? Or take it all in stride? That, to me, is the central question raised in Brockheimer’s (dystopian?) novel. And amid all that pain, there is love, represented by a book of declarations that no one seems to want to let go of. Love, somehow, can be more important to hold on to than pain, it seems. Yet we often choose the opposite.

(Film/Film Review) Poetry / Review of Poetry in the New York Times- There are several things that can draw you to a film: word-of-mouth recommendations, favorite directors or actors, enticing trailers or great reviews, et al. Earlier in the year, it was a single review of Poetry by Manohla Dargis in the New York Times that made me want to see it. It was one of the most beautiful and well written reviews I could recall. When Poetry finally arrived at The Belcourt some months later, it was for me one of the most highly anticipated films of the year (take that, War Horse). It was heartbreakingly beautiful. Thank you, Manohla.

(Film) The Artist – So entertaining I saw it twice, and brought my sister along the second time. She, for whom “black-and-white silent film” does not scream “must-see,” loved it.

(Concert) U2 360 Tour at Vanderbilt Stadium – It was everything I wanted it to be, and saved me from having to admit I had only seen U2 on the awful PopMart Tour. They brought the stadium rock show, and I was redeemed. Hell, I even enjoyed “Even Better Than The Real Thing,” a song I always skipped on Achtung Baby. And classic U2 songs aside, I forgot how much I like that song “Stay (Faraway So Close).”

(Band/Show) The David Wax Museum at the Americana Music Association Festival – The best part of attending a festival of any sort is discovery. I might be late to the game, but The David Wax Museum’s gig at the Station Inn was the find, and highlight, of the Festival for me. Thoroughly unique and highly entertaining. This year, I seemed to be really interested in things that made me happy. They made me happy. As does the video for “Born with a Broken Heart.”

“Born With A Broken Heart” from Anthem Multimedia on Vimeo.

Continue reading →

Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree at MOMA (Photos)

Leave a reply

There’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree “instruction piece” at the Museum of Modern Art. Wish Trees are common at weddings and other events, and often pop up in offices and retail establishments during the holidays. It’s where the wishes wind up that makes it unique.

The tree is located in the sculpture garden. Visitors are instructed to write a wish on a tag, fold it, hang it on the tree, and ask others to do the same. Periodically, and presumably, those wishes are gathered by Ono and dropped into an clear acrylic box in the gallery. There’s something eery about all these wishes piled up in the box. Approaching it and walking around it feels slightly uncomfortable at first, yet you’re drawn in. We’re not supposed to know what people wish, after all. But then you soften, because it’s hard not to smile at wishes asking for love, and hope and “more wishes.” Or “just to be happy.” Or that he would “study film,” because “he deserves it” (signed, “his mom”). You have to get close, though, to make out the writing on many of the tags, and that’s where it truly gets intimate. The box practically begs you to crouch down and start reading the wishes. And then you can’t stop and are almost crawling around it going from one wish to the next. Thousands of tags and wishes, created by thousands of visitors from all over the world, soon turn into small windows into the dreams and aspirations of individual people. And there will be more. And it’s beautiful. Because you realize that you, too, have wishes, and are part of some kind of “wish” continuum. All of us, wishing. Something.

Did I write down a wish and hang it on the tree? You bet.

Continue reading →