As we exited security at PDX this afternoon, my eyes beheld a huge aquarium full of jellyfish next to the window.
Is it real? I asked Jeff excitedly.
You have to know that jellyfish are one of my all-time favourite things in the whole world.
As we drew closer, it became obvious that it was a piece of art. Nevertheless, it was beautiful, as you can see.
Gathered netting and lengths of gauzy cotton and felted wool are combined to make the seascape.
A fan is blowing, creating the illusion of jellyfish floating in the motion of the tides.
Fantastical coral and abalone.
Big old barnacles of felted wool. As I walked along the long faux-aquarium, I marveled at the imagination and skill of the artist. I am skilled at copy-catting just about anything, but no one has ever accused me of owning a wild imagination.
And then, at the far end, I came upon the artist's explanation, and all was in ruins.
It is difficult to read because of the back-lighting, but it blathers on about displacement of jellyfish in an aquarium and context and interactions between the jellyfish and the observers and blah-blah-blah.
She had me at the first diaphanous jellyfish.
She should have left it at that!
It's an amazing piece of art. However - why do they have to make art politically correct? We have an event called Artprize here every year. You may remember me posting about it. There is some incredible art, but there's also a lot of political pieces, that don't appear to be art at all!
ReplyDeleteSee, that's what I don't like about artists. They think they know how jellyfish feel. Probably peanut butter fish too.
ReplyDelete