Art, Food and Beds
The Chamber Art Museum was, in my opinion, an interesting and completely different but welcomed way to enjoy contemporary art. I've never seen anything like it except for special on the travel channel about a hotel where all the rooms are designed by an artist using lights and colors to accentuate and portray emotion.
My favorite piece, and I believe of many others, was the smoking video by Sam Taylor Wood. It really was a new and original way to invoke a sense of time and really get someone to think about time and its value in society. Honestly, when I first saw that screen coming in, I passed it off as some still image. Only until the curator took us to really look at the piece did I notice the smoking cigarette. So, the spectator passing the piece is just one indication of the go-go-go pace of society. On another level there's the actual people just frozen and all that moves is the burning cigarette. It's so still and even serene in a way. Amazing.
Other interesting pieces were those by Subdoh Gupta. I like how he takes everyday objects as a representation of the lower caste and elevates them by making them art a representation of the higher castes. I also liked Hong Kyoung Tack's piece with the pens and pencils. I espcially liked the perspective element to the piece and the vivid colors. Finally, the reasoning behind Gavin Turk's bronze cast trash bags was an interesting experiment on what art is. It's so weird that one minute people think its just trash and ask to get rid of it only to learn it's an art piece and then start to appreciate it as art.
Final note: I thought the design of the building was done in a way to accentuate the artwork and I enjoyed the idea of having it so accessible.