17/4/13 – Tilda Swinton ‘Appears’ at MoMA

What the?

Today we did the special exhibits at MoMA. On the sixth floor, we looked at Claes Oldenburg – he did some imaginative work particularly displaying every day house hold items as works of art. Did I mention he was also ’nuts’ and we were allowed to go into his ‘mouse museum’ where he had arranged his collection of toys, oh, and his cubby house where he put his ray gun collection.

I then looked at the 3^rd floor and the designs of Labrouste (1803-1875). He was responsible for responsible for many large public works in France including the ‘Bibliotech de Nationale’ and the ‘Bibliotech St Genevieve’. His support of the new medium of iron over the traditional wood was something that set him apart for the others of his day. Did you know that the 2011 movie ‘Hugo’ was filmed in the Bibliotech de Nationale’?     

In search of the photographic work of Man Ray, I came across a large glass box with a sleeping woman inside. A press release from the MoMA Department of Communication that I was given by a guide when I asked ‘what’ she, was informed me that I had seen ‘The Maybe’ – a performance piece by Tilda Swinton. It was to appear on unknown dates in unknown locations and was organised by Klaus Biesenbach Director of MoMA PS1 and Chief Curator at Large at MoMA.

Tilda is an English actress and has successfully ‘appeared’ in England and Germany but these were in the times before social media. I then spent the rest of the afternoon being asked by young people if I had seen her. To which I replied a simple yes. Her location was something for them to find….good luck youngens this ol’ girl’s already been there seen that!

I really enjoyed the works we saw today particularly the design and technology aspects of the exhibition by the masters over the years and the new breed of designers and inventors. Great to see the classic designs from years gone past but even more amazing to see Martin Ruiz de Azua’s ‘Basic Shelter’ - homeless shelters made from emergency foil blankets,

Massoud Hassani’s windpowered deminer – it triggers landmines in Afghanistan, or

energy collected from Cochrnae and Howes ‘Grow’ - plastic leaves that move in the wind and collect the sun, and

Bruno and Brutters ‘EPT’ - tables that can withstand falling items in an earthquake and

Ray Tomlinson’s @. But I was blown away by new thinking looking at using bees to tell the health of people from their breath or an artificial biological clock to keep women informed on ‘how much time they have left’! What a wonderful world!

We also wandered around the sculpture garden and thoroughly enjoyed seeing a young father showing his son ‘The River’ by Maillol, ‘Moonbird’ by Miro and Auguste Rodin’s ‘John the Baptist’ and Henry Moore’s ‘Family Group’. This garden has great light and it is a very peaceful and contemplative place.   

The photo of the dad and son has led me to start a NYC iconic people series – so far I have the cool dad and son and also the dog walkers…. Watch the blog for others appearing soon.