normally when i go away anywhere i spend hours inside a museum. not sure why as usually i end up being pretty bored, but its something i guess i just do. when i was away a few weeks ago in nyc i never got around to seeing the new moma space or any other museums (apart from the shop of the guggenheim). i did however get to see two pretty big exhibitions, the first one has been photographed to death: the now ended “the gates” in central park, the second one was the “ashes and snow” show that was held in the nomadic museum space on pier 54 (13th and westside highway).

even a few weeks after i saw it, i still dont know what to make of it all. the colour used was a strange choice, but worked well as a strong contrast with the snow covered park. as we walked around we kept asking ourselves, “its great and impressive … but …”. it just seemed as if something was missing.

the other show we saw was the complete opposite of “the gates”. it was internal, in a constructed space, dark, beautifully lit and surrounding us. the space was amazing and gave the whole proceedings a strong definition. whereas in “the gates” we always got distracted, queuing for food, walking down a path, seeing the skyline around etc, in the “ashes and snow” show, it was more like “tunnel vision” as we were only taking in the photos and the video that was the focus of it all.

the space was designed by japanese architect shigeru ban and the images/video was by artist gregory colbert.

as we walked down the 200metres or so of the space, we were looking at all these amazing photographs from different parts of the world. showing mans interaction with various animals. we kept talking about how amazing the photos were and how “one off” they looked (as in they looked “staged” to a certain extent. not in the fake sense of the word though). we could see at the end of the 200m there was a video playing. when we got to it it was very surprising to see that all the photos we had seen were merely “screenshots” of the video. it was some of the most amazing footage i have seen in ages, so simple and pure and delightful. i hope that they eventually release the video used as it was something i would love to see again. anyway we sat there entranced for about 40minutes before the cold early march air pushed us away. we were sitting towards the front of the area and as we walked back it took a little while to make our way through the people watching the screen. it was a strange and oddly nice sensation to see everyone staring intensely at the screen.

its there until june 6th. go see it!

extra links: a review
three short movies from the exhibition: one : two : three [all quicktime format and about 1,5mb]