Of Sights and Lights

Over the last weeks I got to experience a couple of very different visual mediums. Both have left a very different impression on me, so we will start with the oldest, kind of..... (The rest will follow shortly)

Though I just saw it barely a week before it closes - The Ansel Adams Exhibit at the Corcoran Museum was breathtaking! And this is despite the Annie Liebowitz exhibit being closed already. I was pretty much exhausted with just one gallery as it was. Seeing this exhibit was rejuvenating. Adams was one of my inspirations for photography, and although I have never seen much of the scenery that he is famous for photographing, I have fallen in love with it dearly.



What I had forgotten (and my friend reminded me of the term), is Adam's use of negative space. So many shadows and intricacies in what initially looks just like black areas. It truly gives his work depth.

The Corcoran had a few other neat surprises one of which was a interactive photography display. Basically there was a rotating projection on the wall that would display the photos taken barely a minute before by a camera set up in the room. What you get is almost a photo booth style display on the wall - with all types of people doing everything from funny to serious to normal. In someways it reminds me of (though not as deep as) the WDYDWYD project that I gave thought to this summer (and still do). Perhaps its the spontaneity of the installation that I like - I was goofy at first - but then somehow I got a neat inspiration, and got a "RAD" picture. Almost a series if you would say.

Finally I found one of my favorite pieces of classical American sculpture as part of the permanent exhibit: Hiram Powers, The Greek Slave. The Greek Slave is a piece that attempt to use classical lines to evoke in inner strenght of will. Even though this has been translated in many different ways, including for the abolitionist movement in the 1850's, I still think that this statue is pretty powerful.

This of course despite the obviousness of what very few sculptors have been able to do ever since the golden age of Greece. Most people don't notice it off hand but notice how most marble statues have some type of pedestal that the figures lean on? Even Augustus Caesar's Statue needed a little cherub for support (below, Right). The Greeks didn't do that (though most Greek statues that have survived are really Roman replicas) for example Hiram Powers - despite being acclaimed as one of the best in his age - still used that trick. My favorite sculpture work in the WORLD happens to be one that seems to defy that gravity. Just one look (for me) of the Winged Victory (also known as the Nike; below, left) of Samothrace and I was in deep love.




























She stands against the wind - defiant pose (her head is missing), and you can - almost feel the wind against her. Unfortunately she sits in the Louvre in Paris, and I still remember when I first came upon her: Up high on a dias at the top of a grand staircase, as if she was back on that prow of the ship she was meant to be upon; the shadows on her clothing, the wind whipping at her.... A sight that no picture can do justice. I would give my right arm or leg to own her.


It will be a while before I see her again.