Art & Authenticy

It seemed like all the dances were telling a story. However, I didn’t quite understand any of them other than the second one because of the title of the dance. To me, the other three dances were hard to understand and hard to follow the story behind the dancing. However, the second one just seemed like they were animals and what they were doing in a usual day. There was no need to follow anything because it was more like activities rather than a story. Other than the hard to understand part, the dancing was amazing. What they were best at was how precise the dancing was and how together they all were. It was a fun show to watch but I wished they explained to us the meaning behind each dance beforehand.

The Barber of Seville was actually funny.

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There Are No Happy Endings

“THERE”, “ARE”, “NO”, “HAPPY”, “ENDINGS.” These words are shown repetitively in one of the videos in the Brooklyn Museum’s current exhibition, “Reflections on the Electric Mirror: New Feminist Video.” As a representation of feminism, the sentence made little sense to me when I saw it ( and doesn’t make any more sense now), but managed to stay in my mind and be the first images to pop up in my head whenever I hear or think about feminism. Maybe it’s because of the absolute and strong message contained in the short, curt sentence. Maybe on some levels, I do agree with what is said. The feminist movements did bring more freedom to woman in some fields but also created new dilemmas for them in other areas. Women may have become more involved in the workplace, but glass ceilings still exist in many industries. Society have accepted the idea of women going to school and pursuing a career, but they are still often expected to spend the majority of their married life taking care of the house and the children.

In a sense, none of the feminist movements had a happy ending. But I do not believe that there are no happy ending, because I’d rather see the various feminist movements as parts of one continuing process that will gradually make the world a fairer place for woman even though the perfect world with total equality between the sexes do not exist.

Danzy Senna is an interesting lady to say the least. Hearing her read about her family was certainly unique. When she talked about her family, I started thinking about mine. Granted there aren’t as many overt issues as with hers, I can still appreciate and accept the idea that no family is perfect.

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This exhibit actually reminded me of our trip to the ICP. When you look at each piece individually it seems to have little coherence, but together it is an exhibition of freedom and equality. While some of the films made no impression, the overall significance was deep. I believe having many different videos playing was an effective tool because it showed the many sides and viewpoints of real life feminists. I was surprised that this exhibit came into existence. Many are still debating whether or not there is a third wave of feminism, if there is, this is a welcome addition and tool in the fight.

I had never seen ballet before and so I was extremely excited over the prospect of witnessing it for the first time. Unfortunately it was a dampener over my high hopes. Although I got a basic idea about what ballet is, I could not understand the meaning behind the dances that were performed that day. I Liked the harmony and the colors of the costumes of the first dance Les Biches but other than that it was really hard to understand the purpose behind the dance until i read the information booklet. As for the second one Afternoon of a Faun, there was no way I could have imagines them to be a pair of animals. I enjoyed the third one Four Bagatelles as it showed Ballet in it’s true form – simple and uncomplicated – I did not have to force myself to look for a story behind the dance. I liked the beauty of simple and pure dance form. A for the last one Grand duo it left me speechless. The energy and the costumes were admirable, but it was simply too long and again it left me wondering over the meaning behind the dance.

Cheap tickets and ballet shoes: two things I was never a fan of (that’s a joke, guys). Ballet is pretty intimidating though, probably because I can’t walk in ballet shoes, nevermind dance in them. The Fall for Dance began with a ballet number and was soon followed by some African-jazz dancing. The animals, as I correctly perceived them to be, danced so “animal-like” that it was easily noticeable that they were in the jungle. The costumes didn’t help one bit, it was the way the dancers interacted with one another, the way they interacted on one another. Too bad I couldn’t get up and jump and down like them; instead, I had to sit down and watch the rest of the performances. The rest of the performance was a fail for me. It really needed a translator on stage telling the audience what they wanted us to believe, was going on.

As I watched through the short film, I was intrigued because this film felt very knew to me as the mother starts the film with a fight with another to protect her children. Even though she did not have much, was a single mother, she supported her children no matter what happened. It was interesting how the priority of her children was always first no matter what happened and no matter how harsh she would seem to treat them. The wasp seemed to be more beneficial than harmful as it reminded the family of how close they were. It makes me think about the extent to which parents would protect their children and watch out for them. Through watching these short films, I realized that they all showed a message in such a short time.

When I first entered I was amazed at all the different artworks that were displayed. The museum was filled with people. As I looked for Michelangelo’s First Painting, I noticed a lot of people were going in the same direction. I kept walking as I passed a group of people crowding around one area. I did not realize it until I asked someone that the painting I was looking for was the one everyone was looking at. I realized that many people had come here just to see this special exhibition on the last day it was on display here. Many were curious as to what Michelangelo painted his first painting of. Others were attracted to the name of Michelangelo as I heard a couple discussing his big name and his masterpiece, the Sistine Chapel. Continue Reading »

As I looked through the Looking at Music exhibition in the MOMA, what struck me the most was the large sign that listed out a lot of phrases in alphabetical order. I thought this was very interesting to read all of them. Even though I’m not sure what the significance  of it was in the exhibition, I thought the phrases were very strong. I was also watching The Game, At first it seemed to never end and that I didn’ t know what the purpose of the game was or what kind of game it was. By the end of the video, I realized that they were trying to get two stones on each side of the board in the middle. However, I think they were making a rhythm throughout the video with the pebbles as each of the players seemed to move in a pattern. However, there were hesitations here and there, I guess to for the player to think about the which pieces to move to “win” the game. that threw off the rhythm.