October 14, 2005

Ross is officially and oh so wonderfully unemployed. His last day at the old job was yesterday and we are doing a non-stop happy dance.

To celebrate, we went to the art museum today. I wrote a long, detailed entry about it and then somehow deleted it. One moment the entry was on my desktop, the next it was gone, never to be found again. I'm not sure what happened, but I do know that I'm too tired and lazy to totally rewrite it. Forming too many coherent sentences in one day could damage my brain, and what would I do if I lost one of my two brain cells?

I will say that the museum really should limit how many people they let in at one time. Allowing 8 billion people (only a slight exageration) in at once makes for a somewhat less fun experience, especially in a place that could double as a torture device for people with claustrophobia. Tight quarters and too many bodies can make people cranky. Or, in my case, causes you to impersonate a homicidal tasmanian devil with terrets syndrom

Despite the crowds and claustrophobia, the museum was worth it. There was a lot of great art, my favorite of which was "Exquisite Pain," by French artist Sophie Calle. The piece was just too extensive (took up an entire room) and complex (visual imagery and written word) for me to describe, at least in a way that's coherent or does it justice, so I'll quote someone else - "brings together a touching collection of human sadness and provides the viewer with a literal documentation of the process of working through grief" - and link to their description. Although their's doesn't do it justice, either. It's one of those things that you just have to see.

Suffice it to say that "Exquisite Pain" really knocked my socks off, but I'm not sure what you'd call that kind of art. It's not painting, not sculpture, not just photography. It combined many elements - colour, photography, symbolism, written word, etc. It was as much philosophy as it was art, which is part of why I loved it. It wasn't just another pretty face, it actually made you think, not to mention feel. I wish more art was like that.

So that's a brief recap of the mysteriously deleted entry. And before I forget or somehow delete it, "Christ In New York" (use the arrows at the top of the page to navigate through the six photos) was another favorite from the museum today. The web version isn't nearly as good, but it's still worth checking out.

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