Sadly, my most memorable experience of art is a negative one, but only because it happened recently and I haven't seen enough art in between to erase the negative parts of it.
At the Walker right now there is an exhibit called Brave New Worlds. The exhibit itself is great, and is really politically and socially charged material that evokes a lot of emotions. One exhibit, however, was entitled "Partial Eclipse" and had a light projector on three legs faced toward a plain white screen, showing a perfect circle of bright light. There were no barriers around the exhibit and the title confused me, so I searched around the projector for clues to help me understand the art. I noticed that on the projector there were four slides that you could push or pull to manipulate the light so that it
actually looked like an eclipse. When I was pushing in one of the slides, one of the gallery supervisors asked me not touch it.
Perhaps I should have known. Don't touch anything. But one part of me got so frustrated about art that appears to be interactive and isn't, or art that doesn't tell me anything. What can that tell me but a lie? It was not a partial eclipse. Perhaps I didn't read enough into it, but how can one begin to understand the meaning if absolutely no background is provided. Maybe this class will help me answer that, or at least come to terms with
it.
Of course I have uncountable amazing experiences with art. These are
unforgettable and always renewing themselves.
