Museum Art Gallery Visit 3

While we were in Williamstown we also went to the MASS MoCA, a small kind of hipster, modern museum hidden in an old building. My mom and I went there just thinking we would check a Museum art gallery visit off the list - little did I know this exhibit would end up being so incredibly helpful. What we didn't know going in was that most of the museum was filled with 3D pieces, leaving me with many take aways.

The first thing that I noticed was that the lighting of the rooms really changed the interpretation of the art pieces. If you look at these photos, you can see that there is some sense of electricity. I feel like if the art gallery people lit the room normally, we would loose that sense of energy. It was almost like the whole room was a art piece itself. It was really a full body experience which I thought was really cool.

Another take away was the use of movement could take a piece from being interesting to downright terrifying. As you can see in the video, there was a table set up with little mundane objects. Alone the piece would have been fine. However, above the table was a robotic bird flying around in circles over your head. It made it feel like you were in some sort of nightmare as the music was also selectively picked to fit the intensity of the piece. It was probably one of my favorite parts of the entire museum as the flying crow almost commanded you to pay attention to it.


My last take away was that deceiving the eye can be one of your most powerful tools. Some of the first art pieces I had seen looked like just normal objects with nothing interesting about them. But then you would read the description and see that the deflated basketball was actually made of glass or that the rubber bands were also made of glass. It was so interesting because the artist got the texture completely right and you would have no idea unless you looked closer.

Another way one artist would trick your eye was by these really interesting drawings. They were drawn on bent glass but it looked like they were just drawn on a normal canvas. I realized that it must take so much talent and patience to do one of those pieces but they were some of my favorite in the gallery.

Museum Art Gallery 2

When I was visiting Williams College this summer for my mom's 30th reunion, one of her former classmates rented out the Clark Museum just for her class. The Clark Museum had just put up a new exhibit which featured nude painting from various eras in Europe. As I strolled through this intense exhibit with some of the most brilliant and education human beings in the entire world, I ended up having some very interesting conversations. Unfortunately, they didn't allow me to take photos.

I was talking to one of my mom's close friend Jen about how the depiction of women have changed in from then to now. For me personally it was very interesting comparing these two times. Today, within the click of a series of buttons, I could send a nude image to over 100 boys in my contacts. However back then (sorry don't remember the dates), men had to travel to private rooms where these erotic images were stored. It was a cultural taboo to go to these "art brothels" but today it can become almost like a competition to see who can get girls to send the most nudes.

This striking contrast has circled through my mind throughout my summer, even though it has been over a month since I was there.

I think what was also interesting about this exhibit was that the focus was on the theme rather than the aesthetic of the art itself. Of course, it was an art gallery like there is going to be focus on the art but when the guides were taking us through they really wanted us to look at the big picture. If you asked me what medium most of the pieces were in - I couldn't tell you. But I think that represents a bigger point. Art can be examined and different levels. It just depends how far we want to zoom out.

Overall, my trip to the Clark Museum was a fantastic experience.