Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Life On Mars, Part One

THNX 1084

On the friday after Thanksgiving - the so-called "Black Friday" - we all decided to go to the CARNEGIE MUSEUM to see the 2008 CARNEGIE INTERNATIONAL art exhibition, titled "LIFE ON MARS". Me, Missy, Missy's brother Joe, and Missy's parents, John and Rita, piled into a car and headed out to meet Missy's other brother, Greg, and his wife Christina at their new house. On the way there, we saw this Obama bumper sticker on the back of this van. You know you're no longer in the South when you see Obama bumper stickers written in HEBREW:

THNX 0874

THNX 0875

The stairs up to the house were a bit icy:

THNX 0882

THNX 0883

Before splitting everyone up into two cars, we marveled at all the beautiful stained glass windows in the house:

THNX 0884

THNX 0885

THNX 0887

THNX 0894

Greg had to fill-up at a gas station before we could head into the city...

THNX 0903

THNX 0906

THNX 0907

THNX 0910

THNX 0913

I was hoping that everyone would be too busy shopping to even think about going to a museum, but I was wrong...the Carnegie was jam packed! In a way, it was good because the large crowds made it possible for me to sneak a photo every now and then while the docents and security guards were busy minding over other people:

THNX 0914

THNX 0915

We slowly made our way up to the main portion of the exhibition:

THNX 0917

First up was some artwork by MARK BRADFORD:

THNX 0919

THNX 0920

A painting by Mexican artist Daniel Guzman:

THNX 0922

Swiss artist THOMAS HIRSCHHORN installed this humungous multi-roomed man-made cavern, built out of wood and covered entirely in brown packing tape. The inside was decorated like a college dude's dorm room, replete with cheesy posters, shelves full of college textbooks, and soda and beer cans strewn throughout the cave floor. The installation was called "Cavemanman":

THNX 0923

I wasn't able to take any good photos in the cave, and of course, the few I did manage to take don't really give you the immense sense of scale involved in the piece:

THNX 0924

An installation by MIKE KELLEY, depicting various models of Superman's home city of Kandor, on the planet Krypton:

THNX 0927

This painting was part of a different exhibition running concurrently with the Life On Mars one...I'm sorry that I don't know who the artist is:

THNX 0929

I was really eager to see works by Scottish artist DAVID SHRIGLEY. We found one little room showcasing some of his work. I love the absurdity and dark humor:

THNX 0934

THNX 0935

In an adjacent room were all these miniature dollhouse scenes that Missy's mom enjoyed very much:

THNX 0937

Another David Shrigley piece hanging at the end of a hallway:

THNX 0940

A video installation by Thai artist APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL:



We crossed over into some rooms that displayed some of the Carnegie's permanent collection:

THNX 0941

THNX 0943

THNX 0944

THNX 0947

THNX 0950

THNX 0949

We made our way back down to the lobby area where more parts of the "Life On Mars" exhibit were presented:

THNX 0951

No comments: