Penguin June 9th, 2008

This weekend, we went to the Met to see its latest exhibits. Although I enjoyed Koons on the roof (when I first heard of it, I was thought “raccoons”), there weren’t as many pieces as I would have liked. The balloon dog is as cool as it looks (if you go to the back, it looks like the dog has an anus).

As I walked through the superheroes exhibit, I thought to myself, is this art? I loved Iron Man, and Batman is one of my favourite superheroes. Granted, comics has influenced mainstream pop culture tremendously in the last few years. Just because it’s influential and it’s put in a gallery doesn’t necessarily make it art.

When we went to the Guggenheim, Ninja and I talked about Art and Commercialization. I posed the question: Is it art if it’s commercial? I cited the example of movies and commercials. This is not to say these endeavors have artistic qualities, but the fact that it’s mass produced no longer makes it unique.

I hugged a $25 mil piece of art. If the “flower” wasn’t a one of, and instead mass produced for the gift shop, it would probably go for $25 instead. Because it is no longer unique, it is no longer worth as much.

As a filmmaker, I struggle with this idea of making art in a medium that wants to be commercial. I’ve watched great movies come out of the studio system. I’ve watched great movies come out of the indie system. Some of it is art, some of it isn’t. And I find that the two are inversely proportional to each other. The more commercial something is, the less it is about art, and vice-versa. Where do I strike the balance?

I don’t think I have any good answers.

-Penguin

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Tags: Art, Comics, Filmmaking, Guggenheim, Jeff Koons, Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Ninja June 9th, 2008

There are 3 great exhibitions currently showing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Jeff Koons on the Roof, Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium since 1960, and Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy.

It was a bright, sunny, 95 degree Saturday at the MET, but the Jeff Koons rooftop exhibit was well-worth the wait (long line to the elevator) and the heat. The rooftop garden was quite crowded, but I managed to snap a shot of the balloon dog statue without anyone else in the frame (you can see some of the crowd in the reflection though).

Jeff Koons on the Roof

Exhibit runs until October 26, 2008 (rooftop access ends at 5 PM)
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden (weather permitting)

+ View images from the MET for this exhibition

+ Jeff Koons
+ Balloon Dog (Yellow), 1994–2000
+ High chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating
+ 121 x 143 x 45 in. (307.3 x 363.2 x 114.3 cm)

It’s about celebration and childhood and color and simplicity—but it’s also a Trojan horse. It’s a Trojan horse to the whole body of artwork.
– Jeff Koons, on his Balloon Dog

Photography on Photography

Exhibit runs until October 19, 2008
Joyce and Robert Menschel Hall for Modern Photography, 2nd floor

+ View images from the MET for this exhibition

+ Hiroshi Sugimoto
+ Fidel Castro (Wax Figure, Madame Tussaud’s Museum, London), 2001
+ Gelatin silver print
+ 58 3/4 x 47 in. (149.2 x 119.4 cm)

Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy

Exhibit runs until September 1, 2008
Special Exhibition Galleries, 1st floor

Inspired by Superman’s costume, Rossella Jardini, the creative director of Moschino, substituted Superman’s iconic letter “S” with the letter “M,” for Moschino. For the men’s version, she placed the “M” into a heart-shaped field, a symbol used in Moschino’s branding.

Meet William, the MET hippo

Photo of William from the MET website

+ Statuette of a Hippopotamus, ca. 1981-1885 B.C.E.; Dynasty 12; Middle Kingdom
+ Egyptian; Middle Egypt, Meir
+ Faience
+ H. 4 3/8 in. (11.2 cm), L. 7 7/8 in. (20 cm)

If you have some spare time, you should also visit William, the MET museum’s mascot. You can find William in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Egyptian galleries. He is made of faience and is covered with lotus blossoms, which represent the hippopotamus’s creative forces in nature.

An Englishman, Captain H. M. Raleigh, and his family owned a picture of the hippopotamus, which they named William. In 1931 the captain wrote an article for the magazine Punch about his picture of William. The name caught on, and since that time the little blue hippo has been known as William to almost everyone.

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Tags: Balloon Dog (Yellow), Exhibits, Fashion, Fidel Castro, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Jeff Koons, Jeff Koons on the Roof, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Moschino, Photography on Photography, Rossella Jardini, Superheroes

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Ninja June 9th, 2008

I think that ordinariness is the very thing that can save us today. Ordinariness is one of the most important resources we have at our disposal. It is a great seducer, as it works on our feelings subliminally. That is the degrading thing—because we are not threatened by it.
– Jeff Koons

Jeff Koons’s Balloon Flower (Red) in front of 7 World Trade Center, PATH station exit at Vesey Street.

Here Penguin is hugging an estimated $23.5 million worth of art.

Peace,

Ninja

• What’s going on at the MET? (4)
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Tags: Balloon Flower (Red), Jeff Koons

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