Thursday, July 12, 2012
Gaining Perspective Behind the Scenes
Today's blog post is by our summer intern, Mary Quinn, who shares what she learned working "behind the scenes" at the Museum.
Not many of
us realize how hard it is to give someone a tour of anything, let alone an art
museum. Do you know how many questions someone can ask? Of course, you can read
the descriptions on the wall and watch the videos, but frankly, so can the
people taking the tour. When I first started interning with the PR &
Marketing Manager at the Polk Museum of Art, I greatly appreciated the tour she
gave me. Having been there less than two years, she had extensive knowledge of
the Museum’s permanent collections and why you should not touch or photograph
art. It’s always interesting to gain inside information. I have been fortunate to
have access to the Museum’s greatest resources for information -- its staff -- but
I wasn’t fully prepared when my dad came to visit one day and asked me to take
him on a tour of the Museum. How hard could it be, right?
I gave him a tour of the Museum, and its
exhibits at the time included Albert Paley’s exhibit Sketches & Steel. I tried to recall my first tour and all the
information Sandy pumped out. In Gallery II, where all of the sculptures were
white, I asked him to stand at a particular spot.
“Notice how
as you look past each piece you can see the drawing just beyond it showing the
same angle. When hanging this exhibit, they placed these pieces purposefully so
you could see how much the sculptures look like the sketches.”
“Looks like
the Beatles’ White Album,” he observed.
Of course it
does, Dad.
Overall the experience was quite astounding, and I came away
with a much greater appreciation for the time and energy it takes to understand
an exhibit and a museum’s collections. I learned that I knew a lot more than I
realized, although my tour obviously was far from perfect. However, I was able
to share some of the knowledge that had been passed along to me. It felt good,
if not nerve wracking, to realize how much I’d learned, and the next time I
take a tour I’ll appreciate those extra tidbits of information that I might
never know otherwise.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Invisible Elephant
 |
| (Everyone was thinking it.) |
Polk Museum of Art is thrilled to present our newest exhibition, Invisible Elephant, beginning Saturday, July 7th. The show is based on an ancient Buddhist parable of a raja (or teacher) who presents an elephant to six blind men. Each man is given a different part of the animal to feel. The raja then asks them to describe the elephant. The man who touches the elephant's head says it feels like a giant pot. The man who feels the elephant's leg thinks it is like a pillar. The man who is given its ear thinks the elephant is like a fan or a woven basket. The remaining three men touch other parts of the elephant and have very different responses. The six men soon find themselves in a debate,which quickly escalates into a quarrel. As each man refuses to question his own understanding of the elephant, they begin fighting.
The message here is that different perspectives result in different interpretations, and that alternate opinions should not be immediately dismissed, but rather analyzed and discussed. The parable can be applied to many controversial topics, including politics, religion, and racial and cultural differences. Artists Kirk Ke Wang and Theo Wujcik use Invisible Elephant to explore how this principle relates to the relationship between the East and the West (or more specifically, China and the U.S.).
Kirk Ke Wang, a Chinese-American artist, describes himself as both lucky and unlucky to live in two worlds, Eastern and Western. Seeing from both sides has enabled him to find commonality between the cultures, but he has struggled to balance his own identity. His art is about searching for various lenses to capture his understanding of the world.
In this show, Ke Wang enters a dialogue with his former professor, Theo Wujcik, who has become fascinated by Chinese culture, particularly their jade culture, and how it can be associated with contemporary American society.
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| Theo Wujcik, Imperial Jade Quarter Pounder with Cheese, 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 56" x 56" |
Nope, it's not a moldy cheeseburger. It's a jade cheeseburger. The above artwork is Theo Wujcik's Imperial Jade Quarter Pounder with Cheese, which will be included in the Invisible Elephant exhibition.
- Why do you think Wujcik has associated jade with a cheeseburger?
- What role does jade play in Chinese culture?
- How do you think this painting relates to the theme of the exhibition?
Write me back. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
To see a video of our curator, Adam Justice, discussing Invisible Elephant, you can follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrCbIucl6xA
Enjoy!
~ Loren from Curatorial
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